Jeannie Barroga

Jeannie Barroga (born 1949) is a Filipino American playwright. Early life and education Barroga was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1949. When she was a child, she and her family were the only people of color who lived in their neighborhood, and she has described this early experience of cultural difference as an inspiration for much of her later writing. She attended the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee and graduated in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in Fine Arts. She moved to California after college and remains a resident of the Bay Area. Career Barroga began writing plays in 1979, after her father's death. Her body of work includes more than 50 plays which have been produced for the stage, for radio and for television. Barroga's writing is concerned with the Filipino American diaspora, as well as intergenerational relationships within immigrant families. Her career extends beyond playwriting to include work as a theater producer and director. She was literary manager for the Oakland Ensemble Theater, and has served as an artistic director for the Asian American Theater Company and Teatro ng Tanan in San Francisco. In 1983, she founded the Playwright Forum in Palo Alto to support new works by California writers. The organization would later become the Discovery Project after merging with TheatreWorks, where Barroga has also been a literary manager. Barroga has taught playwriting at California State University, Monterey Bay and Colorado College as well as in Bay Area high schools.