Fifty Boxes of Earth at Theater Mu was a maximalist play that combined Western and South Asian theatrical styles, choreography, and puppetry. Lianna Matt McLernon and playwright Ankita Raturi talk about the show’s collective approach and how it was created to be reproduced for any specific community.
Shebana Coelho reconnects with G. Venu, Sanskrit theatre practitioner and teacher of the Navarasa Sadhana workshop that changed her life. The two talk about this ancient theatrical practice, how it has manifested in both of their lives, and Venu’s journey to teaching this practice.
A Conversation About Southeast Asian Stories on the American Stage
Thursday 13 March 2025
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Lan Dinh, Chaiya Vong, and Catzie Vilayphonh join Chaz T. Martin (dramaturg) and Saymoukda in a conversation about the significance of their collaboration, what it’s aiming to foster, and the lasting impact they anticipate for Philadelphia’s Southeast Asian communities.
Dramaturg Yejia Sun discusses the process of When I Look at Myself, a multimedia performance workshop documenting Chinese women’s relationships with their bodies. She shares how the experience provided a container for healing and a space for empowerment via exploring feminist narratives in China.
Lao, Hmong, and Ojibwe Playwrights on Centering Their Communities
Tuesday 18 February 2025
Saint Paul, Minnesota
In this livestream, playwrights May Lee-Yang (Hmong), Marty Strenczewilk (Ojibwe/White), and Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay (Laotian) chat about how heritage shapes their playwriting, combating stereotypes and shifting narratives, being their communities' pride (or shame), and much more!
Alexandria Ramos shares about her experience of Rasgos Asiaticos, a site-specific performance installation. The performance installation shines a light on entangled histories of migration, colonialism, and displacement, and it highlights the forging of a Chinese Mexican identity in the United States-Mexico borderlands.
Amanda L. Andrei uses an understanding of hapa identity to explore the liminal and voluminous identities at play in David Johann Kim’s Pang Spa—both onstage and off.
Asif Majid introduces the Transatlantic Muslim Voices series with an essay that traces histories of oral performance and migration away from oppression that continue to inform experiences of Muslimness in today’s world and theatre landscape.
National Asian American Theater Conference & Festival 2024
Friday 24 May - Sunday 26 May 2024
Honolulu, HI
ConFest 2024 focuses on celebrating new works by Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), Pacific Islander, and local Asian American theatre practitioners. We want to invite you to come celebrate with us, to come together as a community, and to witness and learn from the work grown on the islands.
Independent Theatre Hungary, Eötvös Loránd University, and Színház Magazine invite you to join a roundtable discussion with the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC).
Thursday 30 November 2023
Budapest, Hungary
Independent Theatre Hungary, Eötvös Loránd University, and Színház Magazine held a roundtable discussion with the Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC) who shared their experiences related to ethnic minority representation in the American theatre scene and presented the findings of their Visibility Reports: Racial Representation on New York City Stages.
Theater Mu managing director Anh Thu T. Pham and development director Wesley Mouri discuss the ideology behind the theater’s Pay As You Are program, how it works, and what impact it’s having on the theatre six years after its implementation.
A Presentation of Excerpts from Chinese Theatre Works (New York) and US Karagöz Theatre Company (Washington)
Monday 30 October 2023
New York City
An evening celebrating the work of New York based international puppet theatre company Chinese Theatre Works and Washington's US Karagöz Theatre Company. Ayhan Hulagu (KTC), Kuang-Yu Fong, Stephen Kaplin (CTW) presented excerpts from their repertoires and demonstrated the puppets. The panel was joined by Prof. Marvin Carlson, editor of one of the latest Segal Center Publications: Turkish Traditional Theatre: Karagöz Puppet Plays.
Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay convenes a roundtable discussion among actors, directors, producers, and playwrights from the Laotian diaspora who work in theatre in the United States. As former refugees and/or the refugees, these theatremakers navigate their places as arrivers in the settler-colonial structure of the United States.
Hari Somaskantha and Gitanjali exchange letters discussing their work with Teardrop Collective, a Toronto-based group that centers stories of queer, trans, Deaf, and hearing people of Tamil, Sri Lankan, and South Asian descent.
Julia Hune-Brown and Keira Loughran discuss crafting Then Is Now, a concept album/video playlist they created through conversations with Chinese Canadian women who grew up in Toronto’s Chinatown during the era of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
Theatremaker Mica Rose joins Yura Sapi this week and shares about co-creating Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston. Topics for this episode include moving from morning routine to waking ritual, the power of circles and cycles, and a grounding meditation.
Writer and translator Livian Yeh examines the complexities of Asian identity within American theatre and gives her take on what it means to be a “third-culture” theatremaker.
Danielle Iwata sits down with Amy Zhang to discuss the creation and significance of her show Ascend!, which featured a cast and crew entirely made up of Asian women.
The National Institute for Directing and Ensemble Creation (NIDEC) invited you to join us for our annual virtual convening. This program is produced by Art2Action and Pangea World Theater. Based on the in-person institute in Minneapolis, we are offering virtual masterclasses, panels and plenary sessions in 2021 to a wider audience during the pandemic. Livestreaming on the global, commons-based peer-produced HowlRound TV network Friday 3 December to Sunday 5 December 2021.
Theater Mu presented a conversation: Mu Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing to F### With livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Monday 30 August 2021.
LA Writers Center presented a performance of Them's Ponies! by Rebekah Chang as a part of Home: Asian Voices Reading Series on Saturday 7 August 2021 at 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Yura Sapi sits down with Kyoung H. Park of Kyoung’s Pacific Beat, a peacemaking theatre collective dedicated to working with artists, non-artists, and local communities to transform experiences of oppression into peace messages through public performance.
LA Writers Center presented a performance of YLO by Dru Park as a part of Home: Asian Voices Reading Series on Saturday 10 July 2021 at 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 2 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
Healing Over Hate Episode Three: Featuring new works by Philip Kan Gotanda & Shinji Eshima, Mashuq Mushtaq Deen, Ren Dara Santiago, Jade Wu and Max Yu
Monday 28 June 2021
United States
Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists (CAATA) presented Inflections, the third episode of its ongoing monthly ConFest Virtual Series, Healing Over Hate on Monday 28 June at 1 p.m. HST (Honolulu, UTC -10), 3 p.m. AKDT (Juneau, UTC -8), 4 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7), 5 p.m. MDT (Denver, UTC -6), 6 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5), 7 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).
