Endorsed Global Talent by Arts Council England. Theatre director creating ambitious, text-driven work. His practice centers on psychologically rigorous storytelling and bold reinterpretations of classical and contemporary texts, engaging urgent social themes through a fusion of realism, epic theatre, and postdramatic form. His productions have been presented at leading venues in New York, London, and Manila.
Grounded in classical text and the Stanislavski/Uta Hagen and Meisner traditions, he brings a rigorous, actor-centered methodology to the development of new work and the reimagining of classical repertory.
Victor Lirio is an internationally recognized theatre director—recently awarded the Global Talent Endorsement by Arts Council England—whose critically acclaimed work spans New York, London, and Manila. He has helmed international productions of Tony and Olivier Award-winning plays including Yasmina Reza's Art—The Daily Tribune's Best Theater Production of 2025—and Harold Pinter's Betrayal for Repertory Philippines, the latter earning the Gawad Buhay Award for Outstanding Stage Production of the Year (2024). He was Resident Director on Dr Semmelweis at the Harold Pinter Theatre in London's West End starring Oscar winner Mark Rylance, directed by Tom Morris (Sonia Friedman Productions, Bristol Old Vic, and National Theatre).
Victor directed the London premiere of Adam Rapp's Red Light Winter at The Turbine Theatre and, more recently, introduced a bold new interpretation of Lanford Wilson's Burn This at The Place Studios featuring original music by Fabian Obispo and choreography by Antonia Franceschi.
New Work Development & Socially Urgent Theatre
In New York, Victor directed the world premiere of Warren Bodow's Race Music (New York Times Critic's Choice) and Cassandra Medley's award-winning Noon Day Sun (Time Out New York Critic's Choice) starring Emmy Award winner Ron Cephas Jones (This Is Us), Gin Hammond, Michael McGlone, and Melanie Nicholls-King (The Wire). Noon Day Sun earned multiple Audelco Award nominations including Best Play and Best Dramatic Production of the Year.
He also directed Medley's Coming Up for Air, a full-length play about climate change, for Ensemble Studio Theatre's First Light Festival starring Tony Award winner Tonya Pinkins, as well as Cell, a play about African American women working in an immigrant detention center in Michigan, featuring Condola Rashad (Billions, A Doll's House, Part 2).
Victor is currently developing Long Season, a new musical about the Filipino Alaskeros featuring music by Fabian Obispo and book and lyrics by Chay Yew, set for an R&D workshop at the Maybank Theater later this year.
Additional directing credits include Yussef El Guindi's Pilgrims Musa & Sheri in the New World (DCT Green Room Series), Sarah Ruhl's The Oldest Boy (Miami Theater Center), Neil LaBute's The Mercy Seat (The SandBox Theatre, Miami), and Richard Greenberg's Three Days of Rain (BGC Arts Center, Manila) as part of The Play Project 2023.
Artistic Leadership
Victor served as Producing Artistic Director of Diverse City Theatre (DCT) in New York (2003-2012). He launched the Green Room Series, an incubator program that developed more than 35 original plays. He produced 18 of these new works across ten productions at Theatre Row, including three festivals: The Equality Plays Festival (gender identity), Snapshots (plays about mature women; New York Times Critic's Choice), and The Pearl Project (Filipino-American diaspora).
Performance Roots & Rigorous Training
Victor trained as a classical actor at the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Art (LAMDA) and holds a Master of Arts in Drama Directing from the world-renowned Bristol Old Vic Theatre School (Doris Dibden Prize for exceptional achievement). During the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, he produced and directed full production live-broadcasts of Edward Allan Baker's North of Providence and Dolores on the Bristol Arts Channel in the UK.
As an actor, Victor appeared in the First National Tour of the 1997 Broadway revival of The King & I starring Hayley Mills (Kennedy Center). In New York, he earned critical acclaim as reporter Walker Harris in Lee Blessing's political drama Two Rooms (directed by Jamie Richards, Theatre Row) and as Man in Tennessee Williams's two-character play I Can't Imagine Tomorrow (directed by Gregory Simmons, Ensemble Studio Theatre).
He originated leading roles in new works by acclaimed Filipino-American playwrights, performing alongside Obie Award winner Ching Valdes-Aran: Eduardo in Resurrection by Eric Gamalinda (directed by Michael Sexton) and Anghel in The Female Heart by Linda Faigao-Hall (directed by Jamie Richards).
Concert Direction & Special Events
Victor has also collaborated extensively with Tony and Olivier Award winner Lea Salonga, writing and directing her award-winning and critically acclaimed solo concerts. Highlights include performances at the PICC in Manila (Aliw Award for Best Major Concert of the Year), the Nourse Auditorium in San Francisco, and New York's legendary venues: Kaleidoscope at The Town Hall, the New York Times-praised Back to Before at Café Carlyle, and Lincoln Center's American Songbook Series at Jazz at Lincoln Center.
He conceived and directed Suites by Sondheim, a star-studded concert at Lincoln Center's Alice Tully Hall. He also produced Ms. Salonga's sold-out Carnegie Hall debut at Isaac Stern Auditorium.