Mu Performing Arts is the 3rd largest pan-Asian performing arts organization in the U.S., and is home to Theater Mu, an Asian American theater company, and Mu Daiko, a Japanese taiko drumming group. Founded as Theater Mu in 1992, Mu has come to be known for it unique blending of Asian and Western artistic forms in the expression of Asian and Asian American stories and music.

Mu Performing Arts presents four shows annually – three mainstage Theater Mu productions combining traditional Asian and Western theater forms and utilizing both new works and recognized pieces from the standard canon of Asian theater – and one mainstage Mu Daiko concert. Artist Development Festivals, including Next Wave, New Eyes, and Passing the Beat, give experience to emerging directors, playwrights, and taiko students respectively; and our taiko classes held in our studio serve approximately 200 students between the ages of 8-65 annually. Finally, Mu's outreach programs and performances bring theater and taiko performances and residencies to schools, colleges, community organizations, and corporations throughout the upper Midwest.

Advisory Board
Board of Directors
Core Artistic Group
Mu Daiko
Staff

Mission
Mu produces great performances born of arts, equality, and justice from the heart of the Asian American Experience.

Primary Artistic Values
We give theatrical voice and vision to the stories of our Asian American community and culture.

We create and interpret works born of the union of Asian and American cultures.

We envision theater as a total sensory experience, merging ancient forms, traditions and stories with contemporary ones.

We are committed to the development of new artists.

We create works that move, provoke and challenge our audiences to
understand, embrace and celebrate cultural diversity.

Our Mu (pronounced MOO) is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character for the shaman/ artist/ warrior who connects the heavens and the earth through the tree of life.

• Mu Performing Arts is largest Asian American Theater in the Midwest and the the 3rd largest in the United States
• Mu is among 20 national organizations to participate in the Capacity Building Program for Culturally Specific Performing Arts Organizations, led by Michael Kaiser, the President of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C.
• Artistic Director Rick Shiomi received the Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision in 2008
• Mu Performing Arts co-hosted the 2nd National Asian American Theater Conference in June 2008 at the Guthrie Theater
• Mu Performing Arts' work has been recognized in awards from the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans for Excellence and Innovation in the Arts
• Young Audiences of Minnesota for 2002 Artist of the Year