Showcasing the work of Asian-American theatre artists through performance, outreach and educational programming
About Us > Board of Advisors
BOB AVIAN
Mr. Avian has received Tony, Drama Desk, and Olivier Awards for his work. He spent his early career dividing his time between dancing in such Broadway shows as West Side Story, Funny Girl, and Henry, Sweet Henry and working as a production assistant on projects like I Do! I Do! and Twigs. He first met Michael Bennett when they both appeared in Nowhere to Go But Up and for two decades collaborated on Promises, Promises, Coco, Company, Follies, Seesaw, God's Favorite, A Chorus Line, Ballroom, and Dreamgirls, Avian's first credit as a solo producer. Additional Broadway credits include Putting It Together and the 2006 revival of A Chorus Line, which he directed. In London's West End, Avian choreographed Follies, Martin Guerre, The Witches of Eastwick, Miss Saigon, and Sunset Boulevard, repeating the assignment for the Broadway productions of the latter two. He also staged Hey, Mr. Producer!, the Cameron Mackintosh tribute.
JOHN BREGLIO
Mr. Breglio’s Vienna Waits Productions produced the 2006 Broadway production of A Chorus Line. As a partner in the international law firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP, where he practiced entertainment law for more than 30 years, Mr. Breglio represented clients in the theatre like Stephen Sondheim, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Patti LuPone, the Public Theater and the August Wilson estate, as well as the film, music and book publishing industries. Mr. Breglio is the former chair of the Theatre Development Fund and serves on the boards of several not-for-profit corporations including the American Foundation for AIDS Research, the Alliance for the Arts and The John Golden Fund. He has also lectured frequently for the National Law Journal Seminars, the Practising Law Institute and at Yale University. Mr. Breglio is an adjunct professor at Columbia University where he has taught a course on Theater and the Law. Mr. Breglio is widely known for his experience in advising cultural not-for-profit organizations such as The New York Shakespeare Festival, The Actors Fund of America, The Manhattan Theatre Club, Second Stage, Playwrights Horizons, The Roundabout Theatre Company and the Goodman Theater of Chicago.
CHRIS CHOI
GRACIELA DANIELE
Ms. Daniele has directed on Broadway, at Lincoln Center and the Public Theater and at regional theatres and has earned ten Tony Award nominations and six Drama Desk nominations. Her Broadway director/choreographic credits include Chita Rivera: The Dancer's Life, Annie Get Your Gun, Marie Christine, Once on This Island, Chronicle of a Death Foretold and Dangerous Game. She musical staged/choreographed Ragtime(Astaire, L.A. Ovation, NAACP and Callaway Awards), The Goodbye Girl, Zorba with Anthony Quinn, The Rink starring Liza Minnelli and Chita Rivera and The Mystery of Edwin Drood. She choreographed the NYSF production of The Pirates of Penzance on Broadway, Los Angeles, and London; the motion picture of Pirates; and three Woody Allen films, including Mighty Aphrodite (winner 1996 Fosse Award) and Everyone Says I Love You (winner 1997 Fosse Award). Ms. Daniele directed and choreographed A New Brain, which enjoyed an extended run in the summer of 1998 at Lincoln Center Theater. She is the recipient of the 1998 Mr. Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement by a Director/Choreographer. Most recently, Ms. Daniele directed and choreographed the Second Stage production of Michael John LaChiusa’s Little Fish and the Lincoln Center Theater production of William Finn's Elegies: A Song Cycle.
LARRY FULLER
Mr. Fuller is a choreographer, director, dancer, and actor. He began his career as a dancer/actor, appearing on Broadway in Carousel, The Music Man, Kean, Bravo Giovanni, and Funny Girl. When Barbra Streisand headed to London for the West End production of the latter, Fuller was tapped to choreograph it, then repeated the task for the American tour. Additional touring productions Fuller has directed and choreographed include I Do! I Do!, Kismet, and On a Clear Day You Can See Forever. In Europe, Fuller has directed and choreographed productions of West Side Story in Vienna and Nuremberg, created Jazz and the Dancing Americans for the Opera House Ballet in Graz, and directed the European premieres of Leonard Bernstein's Candide and On the Town and George Gershwin's Girl Crazy. He also directed and choreographed the mid-1980s hit Dave Clark multi-media musical Time in London. In 1997 he directed and choreographed JFK: A Musical Drama in Dublin, Ireland. Television audiences have seen Fuller's choreography on the Ed Sullivan Show, and he has staged and choreographed both the Tony and Emmy Awards telecasts twice. Fuller's Broadway credits as a choreographer include On the Twentieth Century, Merrily We Roll Along, and A Doll's Life. He has been nominated for the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Choreography twice, for his work in Sweeney Todd and Evita, which also garnered him a Tony nod. He choreographed the original West End production of the latter and directed and choreographed the 2004 US national tour as well.
RAY GIN
As production stage manager, Mr. Gin recently completed work with the national tours of Dreamgirls and A Chorus Line. He previously helmed Phantom: The Las Vegas Spectacular at the Venetian, the record-breaking runs of Phantom in Los Angeles with Michael Crawford and in San Francisco. Other credits include The Ten Commandments w/ Val Kilmer, The Lion King, Mamma Mia!, Martin Guerre, Chicago, Les Misérables, Cats, A Little Night Music, and many others. He is most proud of his volunteer work for AIDS charities and is a long-standing member of Actor’s Equity Association.
DAVID HENRY HWANG
Mr. Hwang is the author of M. Butterfly (1988 Tony, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Awards, Pulitzer finalist), Golden Child (1998 Tony nomination, 1997 OBIE Award), FOB (1981 OBIE Award), The Dance and the Railroad (Drama Desk nomination), Family Devotions (Drama Desk Nomination), Sound and Beauty, and Bondage. His newest play, Yellow Face, which premiered at Los Angeles' Mark Taper Forum and New York's Public Theatre, won a 2008 OBIE Award and was a Finalist for the 2008 Pulitzer Prize. He wrote the scripts for the Broadway musicals Elton John & Tim Rice's Aida (co-author), Rodgers & Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song (2002 revival, 2003 Tony nomination), and Disney's Tarzan. His opera libretti include three works for composer Philip Glass, 1000 Airplanes on the Roof, The Voyage (Metropolitan Opera), and The Sound of a Voice; as well as Bright Sheng's The Silver River, Osvaldo Golijov's Ainadamar (two 2007 Grammy Awards) and Unsuk Chin's Alice In Wonderland (Opernwelt's 2007 World Premiere of the Year). Hwang penned the feature films M. Butterfly, Golden Gate, and Possession (co-writer), and also co-wrote the song Solo with Prince. A native of Los Angeles, Hwang serves on the Council of the Dramatists Guild. He attended Stanford University and Yale Drama School, and was appointed by President Clinton to the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.
JACQUELYN JOHNSTON
NINA ZOIE LAM
Ms. Lam has had an extensive career in the New York theatre scene as an actor/dancer on Broadway as well as in the regions. In addition, she is a director and acting coach, having worked with many accomplished performers in many different mediums.
DONNA MCKECHNIE
Ms. McKechnie, Tony Award winner for A Chorus Line, is regarded internationally as one of Broadway's foremost dancing and singing stars. Her cabaret show, My Musical Comedy Life, which received unanimous raves from New York theater critics, won a MAC Award Nomination for Best Female Singer and the Backstage Bistro Award for Outstanding Major Engagement. Her full-length auto-biographical theatrical show, Inside The Music (with text by Christopher Durang) captives audiences wherever it is performed. Donna enjoyed one of her greatest triumphs as Sally in the acclaimed revival of Follies in the spring of 1998. Some Broadway credits include: How To Succeed In Business Without Really Trying; A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Forum (national tour); The Education Of Hyman Kaplan; Sondheim - A Musical Tribute (which she also choreographed); On The Town; Promises, Promises; Company and State Fair, for which she received the Fred Astaire Award for Best Female Dancer for the 1995-1996 season. Ms. McKechnie played the lead in Bob Fosse's last production, a national tour of Sweet Charity, for which she was nominated for a Helen Hayes Award. She has performed extensively on the concert stage, in cabaret and with symphony orchestras. She made her opera debut in December 1996, guest starring in the San Francisco Opera's production of Die Fledermaus. She has appeared as a guest star in numerous television musical specials and dramatic series including Fame, Cheers, Family Ties, Twirl and Dark Shadows. Donna portrayed The Rose in the film, The Little Prince.
PETER PILESKI
Mr. Pileski is the associate director on the London production of A CHORUS LINE and was assistant director on the Broadway revival and first national tour. He assisted director/choreographer Bob Avian on Miss Saigon, Sunset Boulevard and Follies (London). Off-Broadway credits include An Evening In Bloomsbury, Romeo And Juliet and HMS Pinafore. Regional credits include Kiss Me Kate, Promises Promises, Patience and The Cave Dwellers. For TV, he produced and directed USA Network’s Calliope and SyFy Channel’s Inside Space.
STEFANIE POWERS
Ms. Powers began her career at age 15, dancing briefly for famed choreographer Jerome Robbins. While under contract to Columbia Pictures for 5 years, she appeared in 15 motion pictures, among them Experiment in Terror, The Interns, McLintock!, and Love Has Many Faces, before MGM bought her from Columbia for their series, landing her first television series, The Girl from U.N.C.L.E. More motion pictures followed, plus dozens of TV guest appearances, over 20 mini-series including Mistral’s Daughter, At Mother’s Request and Beryl Markham: A Shadow on the Sun. Throughout her career she appeared in theatrical productions such as Under the Yum Yum Tree, How the Other Half Loves, Sabrina, A View From the Bridge, Oliver! and Annie Get Your Gun. She toured extensively with Hart to Hart co-star Robert Wagner in Love Letters, including the play’s London West End debut. After completing eight two-hour television movie versions of Hart to Hart, she returned to the musical theatre in the first revival of Applause. She appeared Off-Broadway in The Vagina Monologues before returning to England to star in the debut of the American play, The Adjustment. She starred in the elaborate UK production of The King and I and a year later in the US tour. Soon thereafter she starred in the Reprise! production of On Your Toes. She released her debut CD, On the Same Page, and followed by the debut of her one-woman show, One From the Hart. As much a part of her life as her career is, her devotion to animal preservation and protection often seems more of a vocation than an avocation. She is co-founder and president of the William Holden Wildlife Foundation, established in 1982 as a public charity to continue the late actor’s conservation work in Africa. Powers resides part time in Kenya, serves on the advisory board of three major zoos, is a Fellow of the Los Angeles Zoo, the Royal Geographic Society and the Explorers Club of America, and she created the Jaguar Conservation Trust for Jaguar Cars North America, all as part of her lifetime commitment to conservation. Stefanie’s long awaited memoir, One From the Hart, became available in the Fall of 2010.
TOMMY TUNE
Mr. Tune began his career as a dancer in the Broadway shows, Baker Street, A Joyful Noise, and How Now Dow Jones. He would soon step out of the chorus and into a principal role in the Broadway musical Seesaw, which garnered him his first Tony Award for Best Featured Actor in a Musical. Less than a decade later, he won a Tony Award for Best Actor in a Musical for his performance in My One and Only. However, Mr. Tune's talents were not limited to his onstage performances. Throughout his career, he would go on to win an additional seven Tony Awards, four for Best Choreography (A Day in Hollywood/A Night in the Ukraine, Grand Hotel, My One and Only, The Will Rogers Follies) and three for Best Direction of a Musical (Nine, Grand Hotel, The Will Rogers Follies), bringing his total to an unprecedented nine Tony Awards. In addition, his talents have been recognized by receiving eight Drama Desk Awards, three Astaire Awards, and the Society of Directors and Choreographers George Abbott Award for Lifetime Achievement. He is also the recipient of the The National Medal of Arts, the country's highest honor for artistic achievement. His film credits include Hello Dolly, The Boyfriend, Mimi Bluette, Fiore Del Mio Giardino, and Hollywood Blvd. He has also been honored with a star on the legendary Hollywood Walk of Fame. Throughout his career he has toured extensively in productions of Irma La Douce, Seesaw, Tommy Tune Tonight, My One and Only, Bye, Bye, Birdie, and his act with The Manhattan Rhythm Kings. Most recently, Mr. Tune directed the new musical, Turn of the Century, at the esteemed Goodman Theatre in Chicago. Mr. Tune has marked his 50th year in show business with his latest tour, Steps in Time, A Broadway Biography in Song and Dance.
ROBERT VIAGAS
Mr. Viagas is the founding editor of Playbill.com and host of Playbill Radio as well as one of the best-known theater writers in New York and the author/coauthor of many books on theater, including At This Theater, I'm the Greatest Star, On the Line: The Story of a Chorus Line, and The Playbill Broadway Yearbook.
TOM VIOLA
Mr. Viola is the Executive Director of Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS (BC/EFA), the nation's leading industry-based not-for-profit AIDS fundraising and grant-making organization. Since its founding in 1987, BC/EFA has raised over $130 million for critically needed services for people living with HIV/AIDS and their families nationwide. BC/EFA presents six major annual events each year, including The Broadway Flea Market, The Gypsy Of The Year Competition, The Broadway Bears Auction, Nothing Like a Dame, The Easter Bonnet Competition and Broadway Bares in addition to other on-going efforts and scores of other one-time fundraising events. BC/EFA supports six programs at The Actors' Fund of America: The AIDS Initiative; The Phyllis Newman Women's Health Initiative; The Hirschfeld Free Health Clinic at The Aurora; two supportive housing residences and The Actors' Work Program. In addition, BC/EFA awards grants to over 450 AIDS and family service organizations in 47 states, Washington DC and Puerto Rico. Viola was the founding administrative director of Equity Fights AIDS in 1988, saw through its merger with Broadway Cares in 1992, and has been Executive Director of BC/EFA since 1997. From 1996-2000 he wrote Broadway On Broadway, a live outdoor concert in Times Square for The League of American Theatres and Producers, which was televised by WNBC for the first time in September 2000. He wrote the script for Carnegie Hall's Lerner And Loewe, and A Tribute to Alan Jay Lerner (June, 2000), as well as A Celebration Of The Hollywood Musical (January, 2000) for the Pasadena Civic Auditorium and Carnegie Hall's A Tribute To Comden And Green (September 1999). He co-wrote with Ms. Dewhurst and completed Colleen Dewhurst: Her Autobiography published by Scribner (1996) and is the co-author of Broadway: Day & Night, published by Pocket Books (1992).
PANNEY WEI
Panney Wei is honored to serve as a NAAP Senior Advisor to the National Asian Artist project to support and grow Asian American artists in the performing arts. NAAP is one the best performing arts organizations in the country and she is honored to serve as part of its growth. She is passionate about growing the Asian American diaspora, arts and leadership community, and offers her support and philanthropic efforts to those organizations like NAAP that are making a difference in our communities.