Oanh Nguyen is a 2008/2009 Ovation Award Nominee for Director of a Musical for HAIR: THE AMERICAN TRIBAL LOVE-ROCK MUSICAL at the Chance Theatre, where he is also the Artistic Director.
If you’d like to add a congratulatory message for Oanh (or any other Nominee or Nominated Company), to the Ovation Awards commemorative poster (distributed to all nominees and all attendees at the Ceremony), click here!
As an Ovation Award Nominee, LA Stage asked Oanh the following questions:
What was the moment that first inspired you to pursue working in the theatre?
I was maybe nine years old and on-the-run during one of my many “escapes” from home. This was one of the more successful attempts. I was far, far on the other side of our block hiding out at the local high school campus. It was around 8pm, very late. It was dark. I was hungry. I spotted a giant man-sized chicken walking around the campus. I followed it. This decision landed me sitting crossed-legged on the floor in the aisle of a large theater full of people. I remember feeling oddly at peace as I sat there with the audience and watched this man in a chicken suit on stage. That was the last time I ran away from home. I still don’t know what the play was.
What do you feel made the production you were nominated for particularly successful, either overall or for you specifically?
The Vietnam War has always been a very personal and conflicted subject for me. At the time I was also working on a play at a different theater about a Vietnam refugee, so these projects became somewhat cathartic for me. and of course, we had an amazing creative team and a cast that was not afraid of exploring the material.
What project or projects are you currently working on?
I’m in tech for the west coast premiere of Kenneth Lin’s PO BOY TANGO at East West Players, I’m working with the international best-selling author, Adaline Yen Mah, on her stage adaptation of FALLING LEAVES that will have a public reading in November at South Coast Repertory, and beginning my 12th season at the Chance Theater which includes the west coast premiere of Julie Marie Myatt’s WELCOME HOME, JENNY SUTTER.
What do you love most about theatre in Los Angeles?
The sheer magnitude of talent, dreams, diversity and productions.
What’s your dream project?
My dream project has been for the past 12 years and still is the ongoing growth and success of the Chance Theater and it’s artists.
Biography: OANH NGUYEN co-founded the Chance Theater in 1999, where he is Artistic Director. He was awarded the Outstanding Artist Award by Arts Orange County and is a recipient of the TCG Nathan Cummings Young Leaders of Color fellowship. Oanh is on the board of Network of Ensemble Theaters and a proud member of SDC, SAG and AFTRA. Nguyen was recently the associate director of the world premiere of The Happy Ones by Julie Marie Myatt at South Coast Repertory. Other directing credits include: west coast premiere of Po Boy Tango at East West Players, world premiere of The Girl, The Grouch, The Goat by Tony Award-winner Mark Hollmann, Three Days of Rain (O.C. Register’s Top Ten of 2002 and Best Directors of 2002), Bash, Lee Miller: The Angel and The Fiend (commissioned by the Getty Museum), Goodnight Children Everywhere, Tape, Closer Than Ever (L.A. Times Critic’s Choice), Porcelain (2006 GLAAD Media Award Nomination, Back Stage Critic’s Pick, O.C. Register’s Top Ten of 2005), Cabaret (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), Into The Woods (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), The Laramie Project, Jesus Hates Me, Inventing Van Gogh, Frozen, The Last Five Years, Sunday in the Park with George, Assassins, Rabbit Hole (Back Stage Critic’s Pick), and Hair (LA Weekly’s Go).
For a full list of Ovation nominees, or for information about the Ovation Awards Ceremony on January 11th, click here!
