Jorge Ortoll
JORGE Z. ORTOLL
Executive Director
Ma-Yi Theater Company
Born and raised in Manila, Jorge is the fourth of five children of Jose Antonio Ortoll of Barcelona and Concepcion Zaragoza of Manila. He went to San Beda College from Grade I up thru High School.
He holds a B.A. degree in Economics and Accounting from Holy Cross College (Worcester, Massachusetts) and an M.B.A. degree from Columbia University. While a junior executive at Citibank in Manila, he was bitten by the theatre bug and has not looked back.
As an actor, director and stage manager, he has worked with National Asian American Theatre Company, La Mama ETC, Public Theater, Manila Theatre Guild, Tanghalang Pilipino, Repertory Philippines, and Terre de Scene in Liguge, France, among others.
Jorge assumed the position of Executive Director for Ma-Yi in 1991, and up through 2004, produced all of its productions and oversaw its steady growth and respect in the industry and in the communities it serves. He believes that the bedrocks of longevity for an arts organization, besides artistic excellence, are fiscal responsibility and responsiveness to the communities that it is important to.
Among works produced for Ma-Yi: WAVE by Sung Rno (2004), LAST OF THE SUNS by Alice Tuan (2003), THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO, by Lonnie Carter (2002), THE SQUARE (2001), WATCHER and MIDDLE FINGER by Han Ong (2000-2001 Season), L’IL BROWN BROTHERS by Chris Millado (2000), Brecht’s MOTHER COURAGE AND HER CHILDREN, adapted by Rody Vera (1999), PEREGRINASYON by Chris Millado and THEORY OF EVERYTHING by Prince Gomolvilas (1998), A PORTRAIT OF THE ARTIST AS FILIPINO by Nick Joaquin (1997), FLIPZOIDS by Ralph Pena (1996), and PINAYTOK by Chris Millado (1993).
He has served as panelist for the Nancy Quinn Fund of the Alliance of Resident Theatres in New York, and has represented the United States in the bi-annual conventions of ITI (International Theater Institute of UNESCO) in Athens (2002), Tampico, Mexico (2004) Manila (2006), and Madrid (2008). He was the sole invited representative of the U.S. at the Committee of Cultural Development Conference for Latin America held in Santa Marta, Colombia in September 2007. He was part of the steering committee of the First National Asian American Theater Conference in Los Angeles in June 2006, and one of three members of the executive committee that organized the highly successful First National Asian American Theater Festival held in New York City from June 11 to 24, 2007.
Ma-Yi Theater Company has been honored with the 2010 Drama Desk Special Citation Award for “over two decades of Excellence and for nurturing Asian American voices in stylistically varied and engaging theater”. To date Ma-Yi Theater Company is the recipient of nine Obie awards (given for outstanding work by off-Broadway theater companies), and has received funding thru the years from the Rockefeller Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, Time Warner and many other foundations and corporations, as well as support from the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs.
Ma-Yi’s main mission is to heighten national and international awareness of the excellence of Asian American theater artists, be they actors, playwrights, directors, choreographers, composers, musicians, designers, or stage managers. From its inception in 1989 to 1999, Ma-Yi focused on Filipino American works, and after one decade its mission expanded to include Asian American artists. It is today considered the premier Asian American theater company in the world. It has toured twice to the Philippines, and has also been invited to perform its signature piece, THE ROMANCE OF MAGNO RUBIO, in Bucharest and Sibiu, Romania in 2008.
In 2006, Ma-Yi published its first anthology of plays commissioned, developed and premiered by the company. SAVAGE STAGE, edited by Ma-Yi’s Literary Manager Joi Barrios-LeBlanc, PhD, is now being studied in many universities here and in the Philippines.
Theater is teamwork, and countless credit goes to Artistic Director Ralph B. Pena, Associate Director Suzette Porte and the Board members, whose tireless generous work has kept Ma-Yi in its unique place in contemporary theater.
Filipino Image Magazine: Twenty Outstanding Filipinos Abroad
PDF 
2008 Outstanding Filipinos Abroad - Elvira Phelps - Reno, Nevada
Ligligan Parul Festival – The Giant lanterns of Pampanga
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