HOME / 2022-23 SEASON / Again

A MUSICAL ABOUT WHAT TO DO WHEN SH*T GETS REAL

Hmong memoirist and cancer survivor Mai See meets a young filmmaker named Quest, who is inspired to document Mai See’s story despite suffering from chronic cancer herself. When Mai See relapses, their unlikely friendship helps her understand the things in life that are worth keeping and the things worth letting go.

Scroll down or click the following links for event information; press news & reviews; the cast, creative, and production team; and ways to explore more. For a digital version of the playbill, open the PDF here.

DATES

Mar 31 - Apr 16, 2023 (previews Mar 29 & 30)

• Wednesday-Saturday evening shows at 7:30 p.m.

• Saturday & Sunday matinees at 2 p.m.

Special performances include:

• ASL interpretation (Apr 1)

• Audio described (Apr 16)

• Captioned performances (Saturday evenings on Apr 1, 8, & 15)

• Masks-required performances (Sundays on Apr 2, 9, & 16)

• Thursday actor talkbacks (Apr 6 & 13)

• AAPI Affinity Night with pre-show reception (Apr 14)—email wesley@theatermu.org for more information and tickets

This show is recommended for ages 16+ due to strong language. The run time is an hour and 45 minutse minutes with no intermission.

PRICE

We strive to voice the stories of the Asian American community, and in order to bring performances to those communities whose stories they tell, we are committed to making them as accessible as possible. PAY AS YOU ARE pricing asks those who routinely pay $45 for theater tickets to choose to pay that amount; it is the actual fair market value of the ticket. If an audience member needs to pay less, they can choose to pay less—as little as $10 per ticket.

Seating is general admission.

Theater Mu is also thrilled to partner with Pathways Minneapolis, a nonprofit that Again co-creator Katie Ka Vang and her support team have engaged with in the past. Pathways provides resources and services for people with life-threatening or chronic physical illness, as well as their caregivers, so that they may experience complementary healing approaches across eight categories, such as mind-body-spirit healing; art, music, and creativity; and health, wellness, and nutrition. Please consider donating 10% of your ticket order by checking the appropriate box on the Contact page during your checkout process. Theater Mu and Pathways Minneapolis thank you for your support!

COVID-19 POLICY

 Masks, preferably KN95s or N95s, are required at all Sunday performances (Apr 2, 9, 16). Mu recommends guests wear masks while attending any show, however, and the staff encourages those who feel unwell to stay at home. (Guests can reschedule their tickets within 48 hours of the performance.) 

If a performance does have to be canceled, due to COVID-19 or otherwise, Theater Mu will notify you via email and follow up with an option to reschedule your performance, receive a full refund, or donate your ticket.

VENUE INFO

Again will take place at Mixed Blood Theatre, located at 1501 S Fourth St., Minneapolis, MN 55454.

For directions or parking information, visit Mixed Blood Theatre’s website. Although there is a small lot across the street, parking can be scarce as other performing venues are in the area, so arrive 30 minutes early if possible.

Find out how lighting designer Erik Paulson approached Again’s forays into the past, present, and the in between with colors, gobos, and more. Read more.

See the early set model and find out Alice Endo’s scenic design inspiration with a Q&A by Isabel Lee Roden. Read more.

To further celebrate Hmong American artistry, from opening night (Mar 31) and beyond, we’ll have a local Hmong American maker tabling in the lobby. Meet the artists.

Come back on Apr 15 for a free partial screening of the in-progress documentary Spirited, where filmmaker Joua Lee Grande navigates news that she may be a spiritual shaman. After the screening will be a post-show Q&A with Grande and shaman Billy Lor, moderated by May Lee-Yang. Learn more.

Stop by Magers & Quinn to get Staring Down the Tiger, an anthology of prose and poetry featuring the true stories of more than 20 local Hmong American writers including Kao Kalia Yang, Gaosong V. Heu, and Npaus Baim Her. Learn more.

Take home a part of Again with our musical-inspired merch designed by Connie Xiong at KNOCK, inc. Shop now.

Check out a digital copy of our resource guide for Again. Open the PDF.

If you or a loved one is dealing with a serious chronic illness such as cancer, consider checking out the complimentary services that local organizations Pathways Minneapolis and Gilda's Club Twin Cities provide. If you need access to breast or cervical cancer screenings, see if you fit the criteria for SAGE's free screenings.

Photos

Photos by Rich Ryan

Understudies: Havy Nguyen (Mai See/Quest), Matt Swanson (Doc/Broc), and Michelle Vang (Shia)

Meet the Creators

KATIE KA VANG (she/her) is a Hmong American playwright and theater artist. Her work explores the complexity of cultures/ communities, dis-ease, and diaspora. Her work includes WTF, Hmong Bollywood, 5:1 Meaning of Freedom; 6:2 Use of Sharpening, Fast FWD Motions, In Quarantine, Final Round, and Spirit Trust. Her work has been developed and presented at Pangea World Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre, Theater Mu, Leviathan Lab, Bushwick Starr, Brown University, the Royal Court Theatre (London), the Walker Art Center, Out North Art House, and more. She has received support from the Jerome Foundation, NET, Knight Foundation, NPN, MRAC, MSAB, and Coalition of Asian American Leaders. She was selected to be a member of East West Players 2021/22 playwright's group in Los Angeles, California. She is the 2022/23 McKnight fellow at the Playwrights Center and was a 2020/21 Many Voices fellow at the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. She's currently working on a new community-based play commissioned by Civic Ensemble. She holds an MFA in playwriting from Brown University.

MELISSA LI (she/her) is a composer, lyricist, performer, and writer based in NYC and Montreal. She is a recipient of the 2023 ASCAP Harold Adamson lyric award, 2021 Kleban prize, Jonathan Larson award, a Dramatists Guild Foundation fellow, a Lincoln Center Theater writer-in-residence, a 2019 Musical Theatre Factory MAKER, a MacDowell fellow, a Company One Pao arts fellow, and a former Queer|Art|Mentorship Fellow. Selected works include Interstate (NAMT, NYMF winner for outstanding lyrics), MISS STEP (5th Avenue Theatre commission), Cancelled (Keen Company), May Day (NewYorkRep), and Surviving the Nian (the Theater Offensive, IRNE award winner for best new play in 2007). Her works have received support from 5th Avenue Theatre, the Village Theater, Playwrights Horizons, MCC, Musical Theater Factory, Keen Company, OSF, Weston Playhouse, CompanyOne Theatre, among others. In addition to working in theater and film, Melissa has released music solo and collaboratively, including 2 Seconds Away, Drive Away Home (as Good Asian Drivers), and The Beginning (as Melissa Li & The Barely Theirs).

MEET THE DIRECTOR

NANA DAKIN (she/her) is a queer Thai American director of new work, classics, and devised performance based in New York City. Her work pursues social equity by examining the way culture is constructed and unsettling dormant biases. She is a core member of B-Floor Theatre, Thailand’s most highly awarded theatre company, and of Superhero Clubhouse, a company that creates theater to enact climate and environmental justice. Recent: Mammelephant (Superhero Clubhouse/122CC), Lost Coast (the Playwrights Realm INK’D Festival), Passage (University of North Carolina School of the Arts), Sorry/Not Sorry (Ars Nova Digital ANT Fest), Sunwatcher (Rattlestick Playwrights Theater Global Forms Festival, Ancram Opera House Play Lab, Civilians FINDINGS Series), Love Letter to a Seed (Clubbed Thumb Winterworks), White Pearl (Royal Court Theatre), and an all-woman and nonbinary production of Shakespeare’s Richard III (Lenfest Center for the Arts). She has developed new work at Atlantic Theater Company, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Theater Mu, New York Theatre Workshop, the Song Collective, the Tank, and more. Nana is also the board president of the Thai Theatre Foundation. MFA theatre directing: Columbia University. | nanadakin.com

MUSICIANS

Creative TeaM

Star Tribune - “The world premiere is a musical, which is notoriously tricky to get right. It's largely about cancer, which does not scream ‘laugh riot.’ It's partially in Hmong, which I haven't seen in musical theater (although, as one character points out, it is an oral tradition). Despite or because of those things, Again is terrifically entertaining.”

The Stages of MN - “[Katie Ka] Vang’s gift is in creating characters [who], despite having to deal with difficult things, also find the humor in life. ... Melissa Li proves once again that she is one of the best songwriters working in contemporary musical theater.”

Twin Cities Agenda - “Dexieng ‘Dae’ Yang as Mai See and Melody Her as Quest create an endearing older/younger sister dynamic in their interactions. … Pagnia Xiong is incomparable as Mai See’s ‘Type A’ older sister Shia—her voice and presence in both speech and song command every scene she is in. Aaron Komo steals the show in various roles.”

Cherry & Spoon - “[Again] is about being human—relationships, career crises, disease, grief—from the specific [Hmong American] background of the artists. Despite the heaviness of the theme, I found the musical to be much lighter than I expected, really more about friendship, community, and perseverance than loss and dying.”

PREVIEWS & FEATURES

WCCO-TV | CBS - Pagnia Xiong talks about Again, her mainstage debut, and the Hmong community in Minnesota.

Hmong Times - Katie Ka Vang talks about how Again came to be, working with Melissa Li, and what makes the show so honest.

The Narrative on KRSM Radio - Katie Ka Vang talks about Again’s creation, its Hmonglish, and how her artistic mentors encouraged her to stay true to herself.

AsAm News - Katie Ka Vang, Dexieng Yang, Melody Her, and Pagnia Xiong each have a mini Q&A in this feature.

Mpls.St.Paul Magazine - Katie Ka Vang and Melissa reflect on Again’s evolution, turning real-life inspiration into theater, and more.

Fox 9 Good Day - Katie Ka Vang and Melody Her talk about what it was like bringing Again to life from the first draft to opening night.

Star Tribune - Katie Ka Vang talks about the personal and the fictional in her and Melissa Li’s musical.

MinnPost - Katie Ka Vang talks about what it was like making her first musical with Melissa Li.

MPR News - Katie Ka Vang and artistic director Lily Tung Crystal talk about Again’s personal aspects and the importance of Asian American representation in theater.

BroadwayWorld - Melody Her dishes on Again’s message, her favorite song of the show, and her local restaurant recommendation.

Artfully Engaging - Dexieng Yang talks about relishing moments of happiness, the truth about adulthood in Again, and an exciting personal announcement.

KSTP 5 Eyewitness News - Mu staff Lianna McLernon talks about what audiences can expect from Again.

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