ABOUT KEN
Ken Savage is a first-generation, queer, Asian American producer, director, events curator, fundraiser, and teacher born in San Francisco and now living in Napa. He currently is the Director of Events for Festival Napa Valley, a classical music organization that produces top-notch music, food, and wine events all throughout Napa Valley and the Bay Area.
Previously, was the Associate Producer of Innovation & Strategy at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, where he produced mainstage plays, the filming and livestreaming of mainstage shows nationally, and the inaugural Quills Fest– a XR/VR storytelling festival. He also was the Associate Producer at American Conservatory Theater (A.C.T.) where he has produced over 50 shows for the mainstage, MFA program, and Young Conservatory ranging from classics to new plays to musicals and A.C.T.’s annual New Strands Festival. Ken was also an adjunct in A.C.T.'s Master in Fine Arts Acting Program and a musical theater faculty member in the Young Conservatory. He produced multiple galas and has led various marketing and engagement initiatives to build demand for new audiences, including the A.C.T. Asian stARTup Council whose goal is to bridge the Asian American artist and tech communities in the Bay Area.
From 2012-2014 he served as the Artistic Director of Stanford Asian American Theater Project (AATP) founded in 1978 by playwright David Henry Hwang. In 2014 he produced and directed an Asian re-imagination of the classic Broadway musical My Fair Lady, which was the inaugural musical in Stanford’s Bing Concert Hall. Ken was awarded with the Robert M. Golden Medal for Excellence in the Humanities and Creative Arts, the Stanford Asian American Special Achievement Award, and the Lloyd W. Dinkelspiel Award for Distinctive Contributions to Undergraduate Education-- the highest honor given to two graduating seniors. In 2015 Ken received the Silicon Valley Creates Artist Laureate Emerging Artist Award.
As a director he has developed new work with A.C.T., Playwrights Foundation, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, Crowded Fire Theater, Z Space, Custom Made Theatre, and SFBATCO. He is the co-creator of Gravity, a New(tonian) Musical, which was honored as a finalist for the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's National Music Theater Conference (2017) and was presented in TheatreWorks Silicon Valley's New Works Festival (2016).
Ken is a graduate of Stanford University– M.A. in Communication and B.A. in Theater and Performance Studies with Honors.
Director's Statement
"I am passionate about creating brave spaces for new artists of all backgrounds to challenge and expand the landscape of the American theatre. As a freelance director I am excited about re-imaginations of classic narratives and developing new plays and musicals that center BIPOC, queer, women, and gender non-binary relationships. I am drawn to plays with muscular text, messy relationships, and opportunities that showcase the physical, emotional, and musical virtuosity of actors. I love working with actors. I love mining intentional choices and actions from the text. And I love finding new relevance to stories with a diverse team of wicked smart and open-hearted collaborators that want to create more radical, surprising, and entertaining experiences for audiences to practice empathy."
