Jonathan Castanien
(he/him/his) is a stage manager, producer, and co-founder of The Sống Collective. He has stage managed at companies including The Atlantic Theater Company, Manhattan Theatre Club, BAM, Artists at Play, and the Latino Theater Company.
He has line produced developmental readings for playwrights including Leah Nanako Winkler, Victor Maog, Preston Choi, and Vichet Chum. As Co-Producing Artistic Leader of The Sống Collective, he has produced events and cultivated opportunities for artists of color; uplifting work that pushes against preconceptions of Asian Americans and reclaims the Vietnamese American narrative.
He is a 2018 alumnus of artEquity’s National Facilitator Training, he was featured in American Theatre Magazine’s “Role Call: People to Watch” December 2018 list, and he organizes the NYC Stage Managers of Color affinity group. He has been a guest speaker at the Yale School of Drama, Fordham University, and the University of Arizona. He has consulted with organizations and facilitated multiple conversations around equity, inclusion, and justice. Jonathan holds a BA in Theatre, Technical Design and Production, from California State University, Fullerton.
Interviews, Discussions, and Media:
- Artists at Play Podcast: “Why (still) theatre?”
- HowlRound: Building Our Own Tables Podcast, Ep. 3
- Making Theatre With: Stage Managers Panel, The Playwrights Realm
- “Where the Year Went: A Look Back, and Forward,” American Theatre Magazine
- “Role Call: People to Watch,” American Theatre Magazine
- LaMaMa LiveTalks: Take 4 – a panel discussion on the creative forms of resilience that have emerged as a response to the growing discrimination threatening Asian communities
- “Raya and the Last Dragon Introduces Disney’s First Southeast Asian Princess. Advocates Say Hollywood Representation Shouldn’t Stop There,” TIME Magazine
- Hapa Magazine Podcast Interview
- “Co-workers Keep Mixing up People of Color in Offices, it’s More than Mistake,” Washington Post
Jonathan Castanien 