NEW EYES FESTIVAL

NEW EYES FESTIVAL

script coordination by JANE PEÑA
Jan 23 - 25, 2026
Playwrights’ Center

art inspired by Aleksandra Gurneau/KNOCK, inc.

MU’S LONGEST RUNNING TRADITION

Theater Mu's longstanding New Eyes Festival is an incubator for new Asian American voices, and its 2026 iteration features nationally selected, 10-minute plays that respond to the question, "What does freedom mean to you?"

Over the weekend, you’ll hear five different reflections: COUCH LOCKED by Kyle Camay; RONA FORTUNAE, an excerpt by Rammel Chan; THE FRAILEST LEAVES by Nicholas Pilapil; IN BETWEEN THE WORDS UNSPOKEN by Dexieng Yang; and AMMO by Brandon Zang. Their scripts will join Saymouka Duangphouxay Vongsay’s excerpt from KUNG FU ZOMBIES VS. SOUTHEAST ASIAN GIRL SCOUTS and a full, in-progress reading of Katie Ka Vang’s HMONG FUTURES, which were both pre-selected.

The New Eyes Festival is free to attend, and audiences can expect a staged reading of each play. A reading is a form of theater without sets or full costumes, and actors read from scripts and incorporate minimal stage movement.

GENERAL INFORMATION

DATES

10-Minute Play Festival: Friday & Saturday, Jan 23 & 24, at 7:30 pm CT

Hmong Futures: Sunday, Jan 25 at 2 pm CT

PRICE

This event is free and open to the public. Seating is limited (general admission), so RSVP today!

VENUE INFO

The New Eyes Festival will take place at the Playwrights’ Center, located at 710 Raymond Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55114. For directions or parking information, visit the Playwrights’ Center website.

ABOUT THE PLAYS

“In this piece, freedom means letting go of expectation and choosing joy on your own terms. The friends skip the formal Thanksgiving dinner, defy cultural pressures, and instead embrace the comfort of pizza, junk food, and laughter. Their version of freedom is the ability to define the holiday by what feels true to them, not by what family, tradition, or society dictates.” —Kyle Camay
“This Faustian satire explores many themes in a world where capitalism and religion are the same. The play explores the different ways humans who live in a system like this seek freedom: by climbing up and satisfying their betters or by communing together.” —Rammel Chan
“When I think of freedom, I don’t think only of America’s myth of possibility. Freedom is more complicated than that. It’s not just what we’re promised—it’s what we wrestle with inside ourselves. … The Frailest Leaves was born from this tension. It asks: what does it mean to risk connection when freedom itself feels uncertain? To me, that’s where freedom lives, in the intimacy of being seen and accepted—even if only for a moment.” —Nicholas Pilapil
“Many of us grew up in relationships where love was always there, but understanding felt just out of reach. This play grew from that space—where love and longing live side by side, and where the words left unspoken carry both beauty and hurt.

“Freedom was when I told my mother how she hurt me.

“Freedom was when I understood she didn't mean to.” —Dexieng Yang
“[In Ammo,] One believes freedom is earned through rebellion, and the other sees unprecedented freedom all around her. Through these contrasting views, my play digs into the complex mechanisms of resistance, and the difficulty of unity against a common enemy among the diaspora community.” —Brandon Zang
““As a first-generation Hmong American, my worldview was largely shaped by my refugee parents' lived experiences related to political persecution, traumatic experiences, displacement, and poverty, and I hope my work is a vessel for myself and my community to co-create ideas that point toward liberation and transformation.” —Katie Ka Vang
“KFZ v Southeast Asian Girl Scouts is about a community of survivors (from the wars in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Laos and now the apocalypse in Minnesota) who band together to keep their home/community safe. Because they have had to be self-reliant since resettling in Minnesota, there is a deep sense of autonomy and operating outside of government systems. They make their own rules when it comes to their cultural practices, economy, food ways, etc.” —Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay

PRESS

American Theatre Magazine: Minnesota theater’s respond to ICE presence

Sahan Journal: Playwrights Katie Ka Vang (Hmong Futures) and Brandon Zang (Ammo) talk about the inspiration behind their scripts.

MPR: New Eyes makes the MN Shortlist

WCCO: Get the festival scoop from Mu literary manager Jane Peña and New Eyes playwright Dexieng Yang!

FILIPINO-AMERICAN NATIONAL NEWS: Fran de Leon talks with host Alan Bungue about the New Eyes Festival, her time as artistic director thus far, and the beauty of theater and Asian American stories.

Q&A with Minnesota Playlist: Fran de Leon talks about what audiences should expect and how theater sparks change.

Meet the Playwrights

KYLE CAMAY (he/him) is a Filipino American artist. His mom comes from Cebu, Philippines, and his curly hair comes from his German Irish father. Kyle has worked throughout the Twin Cities and hopes to continue breaking into the scene. He’s previously been in productions with Theater Mu, the History Theatre, Open Window Theatre, Minneapolis Musical Theatre, Theatre Elision, and was part of the most recent cohort of Greenroom at the Ordway. With his first venture into playwriting, Kyle brings his love of comedy and cultural storytelling. His work explores breaking the mold, belonging, and the joyful absurdity of being human—especially when food, family, and friendship collide.

RAMMEL CHAN (he/him) is an actor and writer based in Chicago. He has performed at Lookingglass Theatre, Writers Theatre, Goodman Theatre, Steppenwolf Theatre Company, and the late Victory Gardens, among others. Rammel was a 2023/24 New Stages resident playwright at the Goodman Theatre, writing The Leftover Men with Matthew C. Yee. He is a recipient of a Kundiman fellowship, and his speculative fiction has appeared in Asimov’s Science Fiction, Riksha, and the Tiger Moth Review. Through APIDA Arts, his family dramedy Tomato Tattoo received a development grant from Chicago DCASE as part of its inaugural studio residency program. In 2025, he was the recipient of a 3Arts Award in Theater. He is a proud member of SAG-AFTRA and Actors' Equity.

NICHOLAS PILAPIL (he/him) is a Filipino American playwright. His plays include God Will Do The Rest (world premiere with Artists at Play & Latino Theater Company), The Bottoming Process (world premiere with IAMA Theatre Company, Victory Gardens Ignition Festival of New Plays), and if all that You take from this is courage, then I've no regrets (winner of the Samuel French Off Off Broadway Festival). His work has also been developed with Geffen Playhouse, Playwrights Foundation, Boston Court Pasadena, Ensemble Studio Theatre/LA, Theatre Rhinoceros, Playwrights' Arena, and the Workshop Theater, among others. Nicholas is currently under commission with Playwrights’ Arena and is an alum of the Writers’ Room at the Geffen Playhouse, IAMA Theatre Company’s emerging playwrights lab, and artEquity.

KATIE KA VANG (she/they) is a Hmong American playwright and storyteller who explores the complexity of cultures & communities, diaspora, dis-ease, and transformation. Her work includes Six Pack, Again the musical, Fertile Grounds, WTF, and Hmong Bollywood, and it has been developed and presented at East West Players, Mixed Blood Theatre, Red Eye Theater, Pangea World Theater, Pillsbury House Theatre, Theater Mu, the Jungle Theater, Leviathan Lab, Bushwick Starr, Brown University, the Royal Court Theatre, the Walker Art Center, Civic Ensemble, Out North Art House, and more. She has received accolades and support from the Center for Cultural Power working with Indigenous Roots, the McKnight Foundation, the Playwrights' Center, the Jerome Foundation, NET, Knight Foundation, NPN, MRAC, MSAB, Coalition of Asian American Leaders, and others. Katie was also a member of East West Players' 21-23 playwrights group. MFA in playwriting: Brown University.

SAYMOUKDA DUANGPHOUXAY VONGSAY (she/her) is a Lao American playwright. CNN’s United Shades of America host W. Kamau Bell called her work “revolutionary.” Minnesota Governor Mark Dayton recognized her and others with a Lao Artists Heritage Month Proclamation. She received an Ordway Center for Performing Arts Sally Award for Initiative for “strategic leadership undertaken by an individual ... that will have a significant impact on strengthening Minnesota’s artistic/cultural community.” Her work has been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Theater Mu, Theater Unbound, and elsewhere. Saymoukda is currently a Bush Foundation leadership fellow, a Mellon Foundation playwright-in-residence, a Jerome Foundation fellow in playwriting, a Center for Cultural Power fellow, and a recent writer-in-residence at Hedgebrook.

DEXIENG "DAE" YANG (she/her) is an emerging Hmong American playwright, actor, and teaching artist located in the Twin Cities. Primarily as an actor, she has worked with Theater Mu in The Korean Drama Addict’s Guide To Losing Your Virginity, The Last Firefly, Man Of God, and Again. Her other works include Neighbors at History Theatre, Shul at Six Points, Mercutio Loves Romeo Loves Juliet Loves at the William Inge Festival, Sounds Inside at Red Eye Theater, The Humans at Park Square Theatre, Sixpack at Jungle Theater, and Lalo’s Lunchbox, a touring show at the Ordway.

BRANDON ZANG (he/him) is a science fiction and fantasy playwright based in Boston and New York City. Through worldbuilding, Brandon reimagines questions of diaspora and belonging, grounding immigrant narratives in genres ranging from time travel to solarpunk. His plays include Nüwa in Fairyland (CHUANG Stage, Lifeline Theatre, the Road Theatre Company), Three Wise Monkeys (East 15 Acting School, Boston Theater Company), and The Recursion of a Moth (Boston Playwrights’ Theatre). His play Ah Wing and Automaton Eagle was the 2023 winner of the Voaden Prize. Born in Tianjin, China, Brandon writes in both English and Chinese, and works as a translator between the two languages. MFA: Boston University.

MEET THE SCRIPT COORDINATOR

JANE PEÑA (she/her) has used her background in dramaturgy, arts administration, and most recently her graduate degree in library science to serve as Theater Mu’s office and literary manager since 2020. As a dramaturg, reader, script supervisor, and artistic apprentice, Jane has experience with: Theater Mu, Yale Cabaret, the Playwrights’ Center, the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Goodman Theatre, the Playwrights’ Realm, and others.