directors. Since its inception, Ma-Yi has benefited from the involvement of Filipino theatre artists based in New York, including production designer and director Loy Arcenas, composer Fabian Obispo, veteran actors Ching Valdez-Aran and Mia Katigbak, and novelist and playwright Jessica Hagedorn. Other Filipino artists and writers have also been involved with Ma-Yi, such as director Behn Cervantes; playwright and actor Rody Vera; playwright Marina Feleo-Gonzalez; National Artist of the Philippines for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera and Virgilio Almario; scholars Preachy Legasto, Nicanor Tiongson, and Roland Tolentino; and choreographer-dancer Potri Rangkamanis. In 2003, while in the United States as a Visiting Assistant Professor at the University of California Irvine, Joi Barrios joined the group as its Literary Manager. In 1998, Ma-Yi Theater expanded its mission to include works by other, non-Filipino, Asian American writers. This move was largely prodded by the company's recognition of the need for more developmental venues for new Asian American plays. Some of Ma-Yi Theater's recent productions include Sides: The Fear is Real, The Romance of Magno Rubio (Obie Award), No Foreigners Beyond This Point (Drama Desk nomination), and Trial By Water. The Ma-Yi Writers Lab was founded in 2004 by Sung Rno in connection with the TCG/NEA Playwright's Residence Program, and is currently led by Co-Directors Michael Lew and Rehana Lew Mirza. The Lab is Ma-Yi's resident company of emerging professional writers, and represents the largest group of professional Asian American playwrights ever assembled. In 2005, the Ma-Yi Theater was among 406 New York City arts and social service institutions to receive part of a $20 million grant from the Carnegie Corporation, which was made possible through a donation by New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg. In November 2015, Ma-Yi Theater Group member and playwright Lloyd Suh asked that a student production of his play Jesus in India be shut down at Pennsylvania's Clarion University because the school ignored the play's requirement of using South Asian actors. It was later found that Clarion University had never secured the playwright's permission to use his play, much less adapt it into a musical, although it had been cleared by the author's agent. Absent a signed contract, Clarion University proceeded to change the material and schedule a public performance that the author only found out about through social media. Awards 1997 Obie Award, Performance, Ching Valdes Aran for Ralph Peña's Flipzoids 2002 Obie Award Grant 2003 Obie Award for Loy