HOME / 21-22 SEASON / Scenes from the Mu Tang Clan

SIX SCENES FROM SIX PLAYS

Our playwrights' incubator, the Mu Tang Clan, has been meeting monthly since July, and now they're ready to share snippets of what they've been working on. Expect vigilante Hmong vampires, Nazi huntin', a taxi demon, snake sex, and more, streamed to you free and live for one night only.

After the readings, enjoy a post-show Mu-tini Hour featuring the playwrights, hosted by Artistic Director Lily Tung Crystal.

This event is a fundraiser for our playwright and mentorship programs, so while it is free to attend, please consider supporting programs like the Mu Tang Clan by going to theatermu.org/donate. The Mu Tang Clan cohort was made possible in the first place through a generous grant from the Science Museum of Minnesota’s 2021 Race Exhibition Mini Grants, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, and a partnership with the Playwrights’ Center.

GENERAL INFORMATION

DATES

Jan 14, 2022, at 7 p.m. CST on Facebook Live. The recording will be available through Jan 18 at 7 p.m. CST.

The live readings and post-show Mu-tini Hour are both free to attend. You do not need a Facebook account to attend.

View the digital program to find out who makes up the 28 participating artists.

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHTS

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay (she/her) is an award-winning Lao American poet, playwright, public artist, and cultural producer. She’s a recipient of a Sally Award for Initiative from the Ordway Center for Performing Arts which “recognizes bold new steps and strategic leadership undertaken by an individual … in creating projects or artistic programs never before seen in Minnesota that will have a significant impact on strengthening Minnesota’s artistic/cultural community.” She’s the author of the children’s book When Everything Was Everything and is best known for her award-winning play Kung Fu Zombies vs. Cannibals. She's currently the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Playwright-in-Residence at Theater Mu, a McKnight Foundation Fellow in Community Engaged Practice Art, a Jerome Hill Artist Fellow in Playwriting, a Minnesota State Arts Board and Forecast Public Art grantee, and serves as a member at large on the City of Saint Paul Cultural STAR Board. @refugenius

Marlina Gonzalez (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary artist, theater and media curator, writer, and producer who has created numerous international film festivals, multidisciplinary art exhibits, and performances for the Walker Art Center, the former Intermedia Arts, Pangea World Theater, Twin Cities Media Alliance, and the University of Minnesota Katherine E. Nash Gallery, to name a few. She is a recipient of Springboard for the Arts 2021 Creative Economy Fellowship. In 2012, through the Joyce Foundation Award in Theater, Marlina wrote Isla Tuliro, an allegorical play commissioned by Pangea World Theater and Teatro Del Pueblo. In 2018, she conceived a multi-media performance entitled Stop. Look. Listen. for Pangea’s Lake Street Story Circles in partnership with Latinx spoken word artist Trey Porter, Hmong American playwright Sunny Thao, and Japanese American SAORI weaver Chiaki O’Brien. With grant support from Coalition of Asian American Leaders SPARK Leadership Grant and Filipinx for Immigrant Rights and Racial Justice in MN, Marlina is producing Kuwentuhan, a bilingual storytelling podcast with former KFAI radio producer Ramon Hough. Marlina teaches Introduction to Pan Asian Theater at Augsburg University and will be teaching a new course on Black and Asian solidarity with the University of Minnesota’s Asian American Studies.

Keiko Green (she/her) is an award-winning playwright, screenwriter, and performer, originally from Marietta, Georgia. Her plays have been developed and/or produced by the O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, the Playwrights Realm, the New Harmony Project, ACT Theatre, the Kennedy Center, National New Play Network, and the Seattle Repertory Theatre, among others. She is a Core Company member at ACT Theatre in Seattle, as well as a member of Theater Mu’s inaugural Mu Tang Clan new play incubator. Honors include: the Gregory Award for Outstanding New Play; finalist status for the Neukom Literary Arts Playwriting Award, the Blue Ink Playwriting Award, the Leah Ryan Fund, and the Seven Devils Playwrights Festival. She is currently under commission from ACT Theatre (Seattle) and the Old Globe Theater (San Diego). As an actor, Keiko has worked at the Denver Center for Performing Arts, ACT Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company, and Seattle Repertory Theatre, among others. She received her BFA from New York University’s Experimental Theatre Wing and is currently in her third and final year at UC San Diego’s MFA Playwriting Program. She is represented by the Gersh Agency and Anonymous Content. keikogreen.com

Kathryn Haddad (she/her) is a writer, teacher, speaker, and community organizer whose work explores contemporary Southwest Asian/North African (SWANA) experiences. Kathryn is a 2004-05 recipient of the Archibald Bush Leadership Fellowship. She has received three Playwrights’ Center Many Voices Fellowships as well as several artist awards from the Minnesota State Arts Board. She was the 2018 Kay Sexton Award honoree for her work with the SWANA Community, and received a 2019-20 Jerome Fellowship in playwriting. Her plays and creative nonfiction have appeared in throughout the United States, with her last full production being Zafira and the Resistance at the Guthrie’s Dowling Studio in 2019. Her play Zafira the Olive Oil Warrior appears in the anthology Contemporary Plays by Women of Color, edited by Roberta Uno, in 2018, and her work has been mentioned in several compilations of important contributions to the SWANA community. Kathryn has worked extensively with Pangea World Theater as a founder, artist, commissioned playwright, and collaborator. She cofounded Mizna where she served as artistic and executive director for 12 years. She is the current artistic and executive director of New Arab American Theater Works where several of her plays have been produced over the last 10 years.

Alex Lin (she/her) is just a girl from Jersey. As an ex-STEM kid, her work is powered by a drive to bridge the gap between the science and entertainment industries. Her plays have been developed with Women’s Theatre Festival, the Rude Mechanicals, Central Square Theatre, Actors Theatre of Louisville, University of Idaho, Magic Theatre, Spooky Action, the COOP, Alleyway Theatre, and Pace University. As a head writer for A24 Film/GrandArmy’s frontline space media agency, Supercluster, she has had the privilege of collaborating with NASA, SpaceX, Boeing, Netflix, Apple TV, and other entities to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and the popular culture that it influences. She’s also a producer for the Supercluster series, REAL ASTRONAUT / PLAY ASTRONAUT, bringing real life and silver screen space explorers together in conversation. Honors: Ashland New Plays Festival Pass the Pen Nominee (2020 & 2021), Lanford Wilson American New Play Festival Semifinalist (2021), Screencraft Semifinalist (2020), Elizabeth George Commission Recipient at South Coast Rep (2022). Rep: Sam Barickman at ICM Partners.

Liqing Xu (they/she) is a playwright and filmmaker from Davis, California, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York. Liqing is passionate about uncovering the intersection of power and identity. Their Yellow Trilogy includes Yellow Fever (premiered internationally in Shanghai, China to sold-out audiences), Yellow Dream$ (Zarkower Award for Playwriting, PWC Core Apprentice Finalist), and Yellow Mirrors. In their former life, they were a creative executive for DreamWorks China, where they developed the animated movies Abominable and Over the Moon. Other honors include the Kyoto Filmmakers Lab and the Adrienne Shelly Foundation Scholarship for female directors. They received their BFA in Film and Television from NYU Tisch, and are a graduate of Hunter College’s MFA playwriting program. Instagram @soozxu | New Play Exchange. Rep: Scott Halle at Gramercy Park Entertainment.

Find out who else is involved by viewing the digital program. New faces, old favorites, and people near and far make up the event’s total 28 participating artists.

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