HOME / 2024-25 SEASON / FIFTY BOXES OF EARTH

Art by aleksandra Gurneau / KNOCK, inc.

WHAT STORIES DO YOU KEEP WITH YOU?

In this world premiere, Q just moved to the neighborhood, but instead of a bed, they brought fifty boxes of earth for the community garden. When Q starts cultivating fantastical, improbable plants, one man's distrust grows even as his young daughter reaches out in friendship. A creative response to Bram Stoker's Dracula, Fifty Boxes of Earth weaves in choreography and puppetry to consider the heavy costs of leaving a home and putting down new roots.

Single tickets go on sale about one month before opening night, but subscribers can get theirs now—and at a discount off the market value! Learn more.

GENERAL INFORMATION

DATES

Feb 27 - Mar 16, 2025, at Park Square Theatre in Saint Paul.

Special/accessible performances:

Check back for updates on actor talkbacks and performances with captioning, ASL, audio description, and more.

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 market value 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.

VENUE INFO

Fifty Boxes of Earth will take place at Park Square Theatre, located at 408 Saint Peter Street, Saint Paul. Ramp and street parking are available nearby, and public transportation stops are nearby from both the Metro Green Line (Central Station, 2.5 blocks away) and Metro Transit buses (routes 21, 51, 63, 65, 69, 70, 94, 191, 265, 275, 294, 353, 361, 364, and 54D). More information can be found on Park Square’s Getting Here page.

MEET THE PLAYWRIGHT

ANKITA RATURI (she/her) is a currently Queens-based writer and teaching artist who grew up in capital cities, pediatric gastroenterology offices, and the bisexual closet. She writes hyper-theatrical works in Hindi/Urdu, English, and sometimes Bahasa Indonesia about living between cultural identities and contending with the ongoing legacies of colonization. New play development: Theater Mu, New York Theatre Workshop, Roundabout, Ma-Yi Theater Company, South Coast Repertory, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Playwrights Realm, Berkshire Theatre Group, Cygnet Theatre, Artists at Play, the COOP, Atlantic Pacific Theatre, Theater Masters, Fresh Ground Pepper, Hypokrit Theatre Company, New York Shakespeare Exchange, Pete’s Candy Store, Natyabharati, Wesleyan University. 2022 Ollie Award Winner. BFA in drama: NYU/Tisch. MFA in playwriting: UC San Diego. Second-year Kathak student.

MEET THE DIRECTOR

KT SHORB (they/them) is a director, actor, and scholar. They are an assistant professor in the theater and dance department at Macalester College. Directorial credits include: Ottone in Villa, Lucretia, L’incoronazione di Poppea, She Kills Monsters, black girl love: an adaptation project, The Women of __, Carmen, 893 | Ya-ku-za, Scheherazade, and The Mikado: Reclaimed. They have writing published in the Journal of American Drama and Theatre, American Theatre, and (upcoming) Howlround. kt is currently the vice president for the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists, and through 2024, they are Theater Mu’s Arts Research with Communities of Color fellow, which is managed by the Social Science Research Council and funded by the Wallace Foundation.

MEET THE CHOREOGRAPHER

ANANYA CHATTERJEA (she/her) brings together contemporary dance, social justice choreography, and a commitment to healing justice. She is the creator of Yorchhā, Ananya Dance Theatre’s signature movement vocabulary, and she is the primary architect of Shawngrām, the company’s justice- and community-oriented choreographic methodology. Her dance works have toured nationally and internationally, and she has received awards and fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (2011), McKnight Foundation (2012, 2021), the UBW Choreographic Center (2018), and Dance/USA (2019). She is also a recipient of the Joyce Foundation (2016) and the A.P. Andersen (2021) awards. Ananya is a professor of dance at the University of Minnesota.

OUR Sponsors

This production was made possible with the generous support of the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation and the Minnesota Humanities Center.

Theater Mu season sponsors:

MORE TO KNOW