From Myth to Memory: ROŪGE Collects Stories from the Hampton Roads Filipino Community
NORFOLK, VA (August 28, 2025) - ROŪGE Theater, through the generous support of Virginia Humanities and The Virginia Commission for the Arts, has begun the collection and development of its Filipino-American Story Archive Project in association with The Great Filipino American Aswang Pageant, a co-production with ODU Theater. Through this grant, artists and creatives of ROŨGE seek to engage in meaningful dialogue with Filipino-Americans in Hampton Roads, to understand and celebrate their stories of heritage, the power of myths and traditions being passed down through word, and immortalize them in a digital archive to be preserved on this website.
About the Story Collection Team
Maya Pagtakhan (Lead Story Collector) is a local artist and creative, has been a long time supporter of the arts in Norfolk. Supporting creatively and logistically with organizations such as ROŪGE and The Little Theatre of Norfolk; she has boldly been leading the charge in mobilizing artists, creating spaces to welcome Filipino-American community members, and curating their stories with respect, appreciation, and love.
Marianne Chan (Associate Story Collector) is a local poet and scholar, teaching poetry and nonfiction writing at Old Dominion University. She became connected to the production through the ODU Literary Festival’s partnership with ROŪGE and has been excited to grow and provide guidance for the management and curation of this story archive.
After she earned her B.A. in English from Michigan State University, she went on to study poetry at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where she earned her MFA. She earned her Ph.D. in Creative Writing & Literature from the University of Cincinnati in 2023.
