Victoria Linchong () is an American screenwriter, producer, actress and director working in both theater and film.

Early life

Victoria Linchong was born in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and lived in

Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...

for two years at a young age. She attended

Hunter College High School Hunter College High School is a secondary school located in the Carnegie Hill neighborhood on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. It is administered by Hunter College of the City University of New York (CUNY). Hunter is publicly funded, and there i ...

and began working at Theater for the New City as an actress in their summer street theater when she was fourteen. Rebelling against her traditional Taiwanese family, she left home at the age of sixteen and lived in the basement of the theater, where she became acquainted with many pioneers of Off-Off Broadway, including several writers who were part of the

Caffe Cino Caffe Cino was an Off-Off-Broadway theater founded in 1958 by Joe Cino. The West Village coffeehouse, located at 31 Cornelia Street, was initially conceived as a venue for poetry, folk music, and visual art exhibitions. The plays produced at th ...

Career

Theater

Linchong is primarily known for her work with the writer

James Purdy James Otis Purdy (July 17, 1914 March 13, 2009) was an American novelist, short-story writer, poet, and playwright who, from his debut in 1956, published over a dozen novels, and many collections of poetry, short stories, and plays. His work ha ...

, which began at the age of seventeen when she met actor/director

John Uecker John Uecker (8 June 1946 - 24 April 2022) was an American actor and theatre director, who is best known for his work with the writers James Purdy and Tennessee Williams. Early career Uecker studied with Sanford Meisner, Mira Rostova, and Kim St ...

. Although she had some success as a teenage actress, most notably appearing in the

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

-winning play ''Hot Keys'' by Jeff Weiss, she was frustrated with the roles then available to

Asian-American Asian Americans are Americans of Asian ancestry (including naturalized Americans who are immigrants from specific regions in Asia and descendants of such immigrants). Although this term had historically been used for all the indigenous people ...

actresses and teamed up with Uecker to produce Purdy's ''Sun of the Sleepless'', which featured Laurence Fishburne. Linchong and Uecker went on to produce two other

productions at Theater for the New City, ''Til the Eagle Hollers'' with Jane Smith and ''The Rivalry of Dolls'', before forming Running Sun Theater Company, dedicated to producing Purdy's work. The company's inaugural production was ''Williams' Guignol'', the world premiere of two short plays by

Tennessee Williams Thomas Lanier Williams III (March 26, 1911 – February 25, 1983), known by his pen name Tennessee Williams, was an American playwright and screenwriter. Along with contemporaries Eugene O'Neill and Arthur Miller, he is considered among the thre ...

- ''Traveling Companion'' and ''Chalky White Substance'' - which featured

Bill Rice Wilburn Steven Rice (born April 19, 1939 in Datto, Arkansas) is an American country music singer and songwriter. Rice charted six singles between 1971 and 1978, including the Top 40 hit "Travelin' Minstrel Man", but is better known for his songw ...

and Sam Trammell,. The production was instrumental in inspiring other companies to produce Williams's later works. She produced one last play for Running Sun Theater Company, ''Foment'' by

, featuring David Zayas who was then beginning his career, before the company disbanded. Linchong's other notable credit during this time includes Production Coordinator for ''Stop the War: A Festival for Peace in the Middle East'', a 12-hour artistic protest against the

Gulf War The Gulf War was a 1990–1991 armed campaign waged by a 35-country military coalition in response to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Spearheaded by the United States, the coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: ...

that won an

. More recently, Linchong founded the theater and film company Direct Arts. In 2010, she produced, directed and acted in ''Paper Angels'' by

Genny Lim Genny (Genevieve) Lim was born on 15 December 1946, in San Francisco, California. She is an American poet, playwright, and performer. She served as the Chair of Community Arts and Education Committee, and as Chair of the Advisory Board for the San ...

. The play was performed outdoors in San Francisco's Chinatown and won Best Site Specific Show in the

San Francisco Fringe Festival The San Francisco Fringe Festival, or SF Fringe, is a fringe theater festival produced by the EXIT Theatre in San Francisco. It is one of the oldest fringe festivals in the United States. It takes place over the course of two weeks every Septembe ...

Film

Linchong's first short film, ''Double Dealing'', which she wrote, directed and acted in, was a finalist for Asian Cinevision's 2nd Annual 72 Hour Film Shootout in 2005. She began working on the documentary ''Almost Home: Taiwan'' in 2008.

Other work

Linchong was one of the founding members of the James Purdy Society. She was the betelnut beauty for an art installation by Annamarie Ho, which recreated a betelnut kiosk on a

street corner in 2008."Nuts for Sexy Art", ''NY Post'' September 29, 2008
/ref> She is also a freelance writer and theater reviewer whose work has been published in NY Theatre Review,

New York Magazine ''New York'' is an American biweekly magazine concerned with life, culture, politics, and style generally, and with a particular emphasis on New York City. Founded by Milton Glaser and Clay Felker in 1968 as a competitor to ''The New Yorker'', ...

, Salem Press and several online publications, including nytheatre.com.

References

External links

*
"100 Passionate People – Victoria Linchong, Theater Artist and Filmmaker"
www.taiwaneseamerican.org
“The Locals Guide to the East Village”
‘’’Time Out, NY’’’
“Direct Arts” website

Victoria Linchong on FanAccess
{{DEFAULTSORT:Linchong, Victoria Living people Actresses from New York City American documentary filmmakers American dramatists and playwrights American film actresses American actresses of Taiwanese descent American stage actresses Film directors from New York City Hunter College High School alumni Screenwriters from New York City American women dramatists and playwrights American women documentary filmmakers Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women