Che'Li kneeling in the foreground with a seed in their hands; three dancers spin in the background, arms outstretched. — photo by Rich Ryan ft. Che’Li* (foreground) and (L to R) Alyssa Taiber, Elaina Durnbaugh, & Taylor West

Thank you for seeing the world premiere of Fifty Boxes of Earth, a world premiere by Ankita Raturi, directed by kt shorb, and choreographed by Ananya Chatterjea. Click here for a PDF version of the playbill.

Feel free to scroll down, or click the following to jump straight to:

Cast

Q Che’Li*

Jon Harker Alex Galick*

(Mina) Harker Mina Moua

Ensemble Eliana Durnbaugh, Kiko Laureano*, Mars Niemi, Alyssa Taiber, Taylor West

Q (understudy) Taj Ruler

Jon Harker (understudy) Zakary Thomas Morton

(Mina) Harker (understudy) Mars Niemi

LEAD CREATIVE & PRODUCTION

Choreographer Ananya Chatterjea

Puppet Co-Designers & Builders Oanh Vu & Andrew Young

Choreographic & Rehearsal Asst. Kealoha Ferreira

Stage Manager Keara J. Lavandowska*

Assistant Stage Manager Q’ori Goerdt

Production Manager Rachael Rhoades

Scenic Designer Mina Kinukawa

Sound Designer & Composer Katharine Horowitz

Costume Designer Khamphian Vang

Lighting Designer Karin Olson

Properties Designer Rebecca Jo Malmström

Technical Co-Directors Erin C. Gustafson & Austin Stiers

Assistant Director/Directing Fellow Michelle De Joya

Sound Design Fellow Mari Bogucki

Intimacy Director Alli St. John

Head Electrician Kurt Jung

House Manager Dylan Nicole Martin

Box Office Manager Iris Shaker-Check

Company

Puppetry Fabrication Alo Osberg

Sound Board Operator Miles Latham

Carpenters Kristin Bryan, Jenna Lory, Tyler Norberg, Emerson Stenbeck

Electricians Samantha Brown, Kevin Champion, Nicole Fierce, Bev Harvey, Cullom Mccormick, Kevin Schaefer, Nick Walberg

Scenic Painter/Scenic Charge Jeni Raddatz Tolifson

Supertitle Operator Olivia Nyman

Asl Interpreters Jenae Farnham, Alyssa Hill

Audio Describer Laurie Pape Hadley

* appearing through an agreement between Theater Mu and Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional

Show Information

Run time: 115 minutes with a 15-minute intermission.

Content warning: Depictions of xenophobia, transphobia, blood, and intentional self injury.

Need a moment? If you need to exit the production at any point, you can access the lobby from either side of the auditorium. There, you can find a seat, get water, or relate your needs to the front-of-house staff. If desired, you can keep up with the play via a monitor, as well.

Accessibility: Sensory kits, assistive listening devices, and large-print playbills are available at all performances; please check in with the box office. They can also assist you if you need specific seats. Open captions will run during the evening shows Mar 8 & 15; ASL interpretation and audio description will accompany the Mar 9 show. All Sunday performances will require audience members to be masked, preferably with KN95s or N95s.

SPECIAL THANKS

Blue Ribbon Cleaning & Maintenance, China Brickey, Stephen DiMenna, Johnson Janitorial, Jennifer Lavandowska, Debbe Scherbert, and the Walker Art Center

Venturous Theater Fund, Minnesota Humanities Center, & National Endowment for the Arts grant

Fifty Boxes of Earth was developed with the support of the Playwrights’ Center.

LAND ACKNOWLEDGMENT

The earth we are standing on, Mni Sota MaKoce, is the ancestral and contemporary homelands of the Dakota people whose creation story began at the confluence of the Wakpá Tháŋka and the Mnísota Wakpá, also known as the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. As Asian Americans, our history in this land has, at times, walked in solidarity with Native peoples. We have also benefited from their displacement. Because of this, in addition to a land acknowledgment, Theater Mu is working to honor the Indigenous community through these practices:

Starting in 2025, we provide free mainstage tickets for Native/Indigenous community members.
We intentionally invite Native and Indigenous artists to join our training and mentorship opportunities to share knowledge, deepen relationships, and support Native theater artists.
We amplify Native arts and cultural events in our newsletters and social media.
We commit to continuing our education on the history of this land and our responsibilities to it.
We continuously examine further ways we can support, engage, and amplify the Native community.

We invite you to join us in reflecting on your own relationship to Indigenous sovereignty. Find resources and learn more about Mu’s living action plan by visiting our website. Thank you to the Native Governance Center for their guidance in assembling these resources.

Che'Li staring at the camera with two dancers moving in a blur behind them.

Letter from the Interim Artistic Director

I read Dracula when I was 14 years old. I remember being captivated by the elegant, flowery usage of words and the lengthy narratives of the journal entries, letters, and newspaper articles that made up each chapter, so much so that I even tried to fashion my own diary entries into chronicles that Bram Stoker himself would’ve been proud of. I was drawn to the gothic vampire fantasy, but it wasn’t until I read Ankita Raturi’s Fifty Boxes of Earth that I began to view the classic horror story in a different light.

In her play, Raturi pulls characteristics from the 19th century novel and holds them under a modern day microscope. She strips away the fantastical vampire monster and focuses on the character Q, a being who hopes to set up their home in a community garden. They long for happiness, but their differences are mistaken as dangerous—and so in a place that’s meant to cultivate new life and friendship, they are met with distrust and the feeling of otherness. The question I ask myself is: What happens when a society becomes the monster they accuse someone else of being?

Fifty Boxes of Earth examines the complicated relationship between an outsider who immigrates to a new community and those who have resided in that community for some time. Each character is trying to survive and flourish in their own way. One group just happened to arrive earlier than the other.

At a time when differences are disparaged and not celebrated, and where suspicion and fear tactics are on the rise, Fifty Boxes of Earth gives us the opportunity to reflect upon our own actions and empathy toward others, and invites us to question what the “good” is, especially as the boundaries between the “innocent” and the “monster” become blurred.

KATIE BRADLEY, Mu interim artistic director

From the Playwright Ankita Raturi's Journal

1 Feb. Rehearsal Hall

We’ve been in rehearsal only a few days, and the room is bursting with creation. I mean that quite literally. I took a video standing in the middle of the room circling around myself, and no one was disturbed by my conspicuous positioning, so consumed were they in their various rehearsal tasks.

Here, Oanh and Andrew prep a new puppet to show Ananya, Kea, and the dancers. Here, Kea teaches Che’Li choreography that will inform their movement vocabulary in Q’s first entrance. Here, kt, Ananya, Mina (scenic Mina not actor Mina), Keara, and Q’ori troubleshoot the geography of the upstage bridge, optimizing for dancers to move safely in and around it while manipulating a giant puppet. Just past the door behind them, Michelle works with Alex and Mina (actor Mina not scenic Mina) on the text of an intimate father-daughter scene.

Here now, Ananya is on to a new task, trying on the new puppet, working through how it moves with her body so she can choreograph accordingly. Here now, Che’Li practices the choreography they just learned on their own, oblivious to the cacophony surrounding them. Kea has moved on to supporting the dance ensemble in their self-review of a sequence they learned yesterday. Here now, Oanh, Andrew, scenic Mina, and kt arrange Q’s queer plants in their plot, keeping in mind that Q must lie down too, that dancers must be able to safely and sequentially manipulate the puppets to these positions on the set’s upper level, that it should look beautiful as it is happens and beautiful when it is done.

This feels like a devising room, and I love that. kt often says it’s a well-made play inside an impossible play and I love that, too.

moments from the first rehearsal on Jan 29, four days prior

Here we are devising from a text, my text, and everyone’s creative muscles are warm and active, and we are inventing our way through the impossible parts. It is a gift to witness so many artists pouring their craft into bringing this impossible text of mine to fruition. This is what I keep saying I want to do, and here we are doing it—fully integrated performance-based storytelling, total theatre if you will. Something a western dramaturgy might call interdisciplinary, but which I know in my bones and in my roots is ancient. kt and Ananya know this too. I think perhaps we all do. And that’s why it’s working.

7 Feb. Rehearsal Hall

Something clicked into a higher gear today in the way everyone is collaborating in the room, navigating each other between staging and choreography. We are drafting concurrently, using the same space for distinct purposes. Then coming together, dancers fitting in to the time of the actors and actors fitting in to the breath of the dancers. On a break, kt asks Ananya some question about her dance practice. I miss the question, but I hear Ananya describe her aesthetic as maximalist. I say, so is this play. She agrees excitedly, and I know that we understand each other. The culture we both come from and hold dear is a maximalist culture, after all.

This is a maximalist play. This is a maximalist dance performance. This is a maximalist puppet show. I would even say this is a maximalist poem.

We must approach the stage therefore from a collectivist mindset, and not a scarcity mindset.

Its real estate, both physical and emotional, must be shared between creative abundances. Let us approach our lives this way, too. Let us model collectivism with our work.

My deep hope for this play is that it can be done a hundred different ways in a hundred different places, informed by the time and the place and the community where the play finds itself. This hope has been my main guidepost in the writing (and wrighting as kt reminds me) of the text—to orient my creative decisions as the playwright toward making possible a multiplicity of creative decisions for the breakdown of the casting, the form of the dance, the style and scale of the puppetry, and so on. So that every room where this play is made bursts with the histories and the crafts of the artists who fill it.

ANKITA RATURI, playwright

Che'Li kneeling on the ground with their seed, with the three dancers moving toward and away from them in a blur.

LETTER FROM THE DIRECTOR

When I was first asked to direct this play, I was drawn to the layers Ankita Raturi wove through the script. It responds to a well-known text. The main character is a nonbinary immigrant. The story builds on a history of colonialism and plunder. Perhaps most importantly, it follows an intergenerational friendship cemented by a love of the earth. With the additional need for detailed choreography and puppet-driven theatre magic moments, I felt my years of devising, interdisciplinary art-making, and teaching uniquely prepared me for this immense challenge.

And then, the political climate congealed into an unending onslaught. What felt like a personally exciting theatrical challenge distilled into an urgent need to protect the people and communities dear to me.

It has become a cliché to say we live in unprecedented times. In fact, the astounding and horrific events of the last five years have all had precedent. What may feel unprecedented is finding ourselves the ones called to resist our times. However, as Gandalf uttered to a reluctant Frodo, “So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.” For the team of Fifty Boxes of Earth, we decided to make theatre.

Theatre companies, productions, and rehearsal rooms are microcosms of society. For this play, we have needed to tap into our training and craft while also learning new ways of relating to one another. What has given me the most hope is witnessing the deep care the entire team has shown to one another. We have adjusted our usual habits to make room for unaccustomed elements. With Mu as a consent- and care-forward producer, we have given ourselves and each other permission to arrive as whole humans, to use the need for virtuosity and rigor to serve the catastrophic political climate we are in. We are the society I hold onto as hope for our future.

To make art is a gift, and it is also a container for care. Please watch this as medicine. Medicine to offer succor and relief from what ails us outside the theatre. And medicine that surfs the profound discomfort necessary to act and heal together.

kt shorb, director

CAST BIOS

CHE’LI* (Q) (they/them), aka alyxåndra ciale CHarfauros, is a Trans Indigenous CHamoru yan Pinoy cultural worker ritualizing consciousness and shaping change at the intersections of beauty, absurdity, and sensuality. In 2024, they created Theater Workers for a Ceasefire after speaking out in solidarity for Palestine while playing Afong Moy in The Chinese Lady at American Stage. Their original work includes Unknowable Thing, a choreopoetic re-telling of Princess Mononoke; What Was + May Be, a cyber-biomythography documenting long-distance heartache; and Doo Indáyz, a clown piece about “two girls” #HOT4GOD. Che’Li is based in Brooklyn, New York, where they work as a freelance artist and educator, somatic facilitator, and teaching artist with companies including AntiCapitalism for Artists and Ping Chong + Company. They are a part of the Economics Art Transformation’s inaugural cohort and were a Queer|Art mentorship finalist in 2024. | cialikethey.com/free, @cialikethey on IG

ALEX GALICK* (JON HARKER) (he/him) is excited to be back at Theater Mu for the world premiere of Fifty Boxes of Earth! Previous Mu productions include Purple Cloud, A Little Night Music, Yellow Fever, Into the Woods, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, and Bahala Na. He’s also worked locally with Guthrie Theater, Ten Thousand Things, Dark & Stormy Prod., Frosted Glass Creative, Yellow Tree Theatre, History Theatre, Gray Mallard Theater Co., TigerLion Arts, Park Square Theatre; regionally with Swine Palace in Louisiana, Door Shakespeare in Wisconsin, Illinois Shakespeare Festival, Utah Shakespeare Festival; and on camera in feature films V/H/S/85 and Scare Package 2. He’s a graduate of Macalester College, and Louisiana State University’s MFA in acting program.

MINA MOUA ([MINA] HARKER) (she/her) is 14 years old and was born in Saint Paul, MN. She performed in elementary school musical choir and participated in school band from third grade into high school. Mina enjoys learning how to play the piano and guitar. She also likes to listen to music. Mina participated in the Theater Mu Explorations summer camp program in 2022 and 2023, where she took an interest in acting. In March of 2023, Mina made her onstage debut in the world premiere of The Song Poet as Young Kalia Yang. Mina is excited to continue her acting journey in the world premiere of Fifty Boxes of Earth in the role of Mina Harker.

KIKO LAUREANO* (ENSEMBLE) (she/her) is a local actress and teaching artist based in the Twin Cities. She holds a BFA in musical theatre from Indiana University. Regional theatre includes Little Shop of Horrors (Guthrie); The Sound of Music (Artistry); I Am Betty, Runestone! A Rock Musical (History Theatre); An American Tail (Children’s Theatre Company); Beautiful: The Carole King Musical (Theatre LeHomme Dieu); Evita, Something Rotten, The Revolutionists (Lyric Arts of Anoka); Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (Minnetonka Theatre).

MARS NIEMI (ENSEMBLE, HARKER U/S) (he/they) is grateful to make his debut as a second generation performer at Theater Mu! This opportunity has given him the chance to rediscover himself as a dancer, as an openly queer person. They have previously performed in the world premiere of Drawing Lessons at CTC, and SPCPA’s production of Tommy. He has performed with numerous organizations including Mixed Precipitation, Children’s Theatre Company, and Stages Theatre Company.

ELIANA DURNBAUGH (ENSEMBLE) (she/her) is a Minneapolis based performer, educator, and arts administrator. She is grateful to belong to the Graham Modern and Bharatanatyam dance lineages under Lisa Thurell and Guru Meenakshi Ganesan. Her most recent credits include dance and puppeteer work with the Fox and Beggar Theater and as a collaborator in DOIKAYT: avelt mit veltlekh with Or Levinson as part of Red Eye Theater’s New Works 4 Weeks festival. Eliana teaches youth creative movement and modern dance at Zenon Dance School and Young Dance. She is interested in the way engagement with traditional cultural practices can build grassroots solidarity, and explores this through organizing Klezmer music programming and leading Yiddish dance with the music project Folk Will Save Us.

ALYSSA TAIBER (ENSEMBLE) (she/her) is a multi-disciplinary movement artist (specializing in dance, yoga and martial arts) based in Greenville, SC, but who called the Twin Cities home for the last four years. Alyssa had the opportunity to work with Theater Mu for the very first time in 2023 for The Kung Fu Zombies Saga, directed by Lily Tung Crystal and written by Saymoukda “Mooks” Duangphouxay Vongsay. She is beyond excited to return to the Twin Cities to take part in this project as well as return to her artistic community here.

TAYLOR WEST (ENSEMBLE) (she/her) is a Black dancer, choreographer, and teacher originally from Chitinacha (New Orleans). She holds a BFA in dance from Florida State University and has performed works by Millicent Johnnie, Christopher Huggins, and Jawole Willa Jo Zollar. Taylor’s own work is rooted in explorations of identities and embodied histories, with Blackness at the core. She has presented her work at the Center for Performance Research in Brooklyn, New York, and at MODArts Dance Collective’s Collective Thread Festival. She was a dancer with Ananya Dance Theatre for two seasons. Taylor is excited to perform with Theater Mu for the first time.

ZAKARY THOMAS MORTON (JON HARKER U/S) (they/he) is thrilled to be making their Theater Mu debut! A native of Iowa, they studied musical theatre in New York and Stevens Point, WI, before teaching in NE China for two years, then moving to the Twin Cities (for the first time). More recently, they returned to the Twin Cities in ‘23 after performing with Silversea Cruises. Since moving back, Zakary has worked with Paul Bunyan Playhouse (Charlie-The Foreigner, Major General-Pirates of Penzance), originated the role of Whiskey in the original rock opera The Elephant, and rocked out with Hell on Wheels for the return of ValleyScare! Up next, you can find them onstage in the premiere of Spellbound with Threshold Theatre.

TAJ RULER (Q U/S) (she/they) is an actor, improviser, and voice over artist in the Twin Cities. Some of her stage experience includes Children’s Theatre Company, Mixed Blood Theatre, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Girl Friday Productions, and the Brave New Workshop. When she is not onstage, she is most likely laughing uncontrollably with her wife, hanging out with friends, and/or listening to an audiobook while putting together a puzzle.

COMPANY BIOS

ANKITA RATURI (PLAYWRIGHT) (she/her) is currently a 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: Playwrights’ Center, 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. 2024 LANPP Award winner, 2022 Ollie Award winner. BFA in drama: NYU/Tisch. MFA in playwriting: UC San Diego. Second-year Kathak student. Special thanks to the team of artists who helped me develop this play at UCSD, especially Cambria Herrera, Michelle Huynh, Raphael Mishler, and Ellen Nikbakht. And thank you always to my family.

KT SHORB (DIRECTOR) (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 HowlRound. They were Theater Mu’s Arts Research with Communities of Color fellow for 2023-24, which was managed by the Social Science Research Council and funded by the Wallace Foundation. kt is currently the vice president for the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists.

ANANYA CHATTERJEA (CHOREOGRAPHER) (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.

OANH VU (PUPPET CO-DESIGNER & BUILDER) (she/her) is a puppeteer, educator, and community organizer. As a second generation Vietnamese American, she uses humor and the playfulness of puppetry to tell stories of healing and social change for her communities. She is a recipient of 2023 and 2024 Jim Henson Foundation grants. She got her start in puppetry through Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop and is now the Puppet Lab co-artistic director at Open Eye Theatre. Her artwork has been shared at theatres, museums, and community spaces all across Twin Cities including the In the Heart of the Beast Theatre, the Mia, the MN Opera, Open Eye Theatre, Theater Mu, Twin Cities Public Television, and the Walker Art Center.

ANDREW YOUNG (PUPPET CO-DESIGNER & BUILDER) (he/they) is a Taiwanese Indonesian American visual/performance artist and educator. Andrew’s work navigates the pull between different cultural worlds to ask questions of place, identity, and finding the way those things intersect. He has trained and performed with Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop, was a cohort member of Puppet Lab, served as staff for the May Day Parade produced by Heart of the Beast Theater, was a resident artist at the Landmark Center, and has worked as assistant artist and stage manager with the Full Moon Puppet Show.

KEALOHA FERREIRA (CHOREOGRAPHIC & REHEARSAL ASST.) (she/her) is a Kanaka Maoli, Filipino, Chinese dance artist from Nu‘uanu, O‘ahu, now residing in Mni Sóta Makoce on the unceded lands of the Dakhóta Oyáte. She is the artistic associate of Ananya Dance Theatre and a co-leader of the Shawngrām Institute for Performance & Social Justice. A practitioner of Yorchhā and an emerging student of Oli and Hula, Kealoha’s leadership and artistry activates at the intersection of these transnational feminist and aloha ‘āina embodied practices. She is a McKnight dancer fellow (2024) and a proud participant of Chawrchā NextGen ChoreoLab (2023), BIPOC leadership circle (2022), Hālau ‘Ōhi‘a (2021), and Red Eye Theater’s Works in Progress (2020). Kealoha also teaches yoga at the University of Minnesota in the theater arts and dance department.

KEARA J. LAVANDOWSKA* (STAGE MANAGER) (she/they) has worked with theaters in Minnesota and Maine, and they are excited to be back with Theater Mu! They have worked with theaters such as Trademark Theater (The Reunion); Theater Mu (Hells Canyon); Guthrie Theater (Little Shop of Horrors, Murder on the Orient Express, Shane, A Christmas Carol); Gremlin Theatre (The Boy’s Room); Park Square Theatre (Airness, Holmes and Watson, The Humans); Theatre at Monmouth (Murder For Two, The Merry Wives of Windsor, Ken Ludwig’s Baskerville); Renegade Theatre Company (Bright Star); the Children’s Theatre Company (Matilda the Musical); and Duluth Playhouse (Sweet Charity, The Music Man).

Q’ORI GOERDT (ASST. STAGE MANAGER) (they/he) has worked in theater in various capacities across Minnesota, and they are excited for their Theater Mu debut. Past work includes Normandale Community College’s Colossal; Mill City Summer Opera’s Così fan tutte; Lyric Center for the Arts’ A Christmas Story: The Musical; Duluth Playhouse’s A Grand Night For Singing, The Music Man, Beauty and the Beast; Prime Productions’ Ann; and History Theatre’s The Defeat of Jesse James.

RACHAEL RHOADES (PRODUCTION MANAGER) (she/her) is a Saint Paul based stage manager, production manager, and event planner. Rachael holds a BA in theatre arts from the University of Iowa. Rachael has worked with Illusion Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Theater Latté Da, Frank Theatre, Park Square Theatre, the History Theatre, Minnesota Dance Theatre, Minnesota Orchestra, Minnesota Opera, TEDx Minneapolis, Collide Theatrical Dance Company, Guthrie Theater, the Ordway, Theater Mu, and others. Rachael is the production and project manager for Pillsbury House + Theatre, and also currently serves as the production stage manager for Brownbody, a figure skating + dance + theatre company, recently presented as an artist in residence by the Yard on Martha’s Vineyard. Rachael lives on her houseboat on the Mississippi River with her three kitty cats, and enjoys immersing herself in nature whenever possible.

MARI BOGUCKI (SOUND DESIGN FELLOW) (they/them) is a sound designer and technician. This is their first show with Mu. Previous sound tech credits include The Day You Begin and The Name Jar at Stages Theatre Company, and 9 to 5 and Peter and the Starcatcher at Lyric Arts. They are grateful for this opportunity to help tell an authentic, original story, written and produced by members of the community. They sincerely hope you enjoy the show!

MICHELLE DE JOYA (ASST. DIRECTOR/DIR. FELLOW) (she/they) is a Twin Cities based multidisciplinary theatre and movement artist known for her recent acting roles in Rent, The Hatmaker’s Wife, and The Kung Fu Zombies Saga, and for receiving the 23/24 Many Voices mentorship at the Playwrights’ Center. They directed Einstein’s Brains at Westwood Middle School, movement directed The Wolves at Perpich Center for Arts Education, and choreographed Moana Jr. through Free Arts & Big Brothers Big Sisters. She is honored to be making her assistant directing debut with Theater Mu. Her certifications include unarmed stage combat (SAFD Recommended), and she has completed level 2 of Foundations of Intimacy with IDC (Intimacy Directors and Coordinators). | facebook.com/dejoya.michelle

ERIN C. GUSTAFSON (TECHNICAL CO-DIRECTOR) (they/she) is excited to be back with Theater Mu as a technical co-director. They have previously worked with Theater Mu as a carpenter, and they were one of the technical co-directors for Hells Canyon last winter. Erin is the scene shop supervisor at Park Square Theatre and the season stage manager at Youth Performance Company.

KATHARINE HOROWITZ (SOUND DESIGNER & COMPOSER) (she/her) is a theatrical sound designer and composer in Minneapolis, MN. Previous Mu designs include Hells Canyon, Man of God, Hot Asian Doctor Husband, and Purple Cloud. She has designed critically acclaimed and award-winning shows for the Guthrie Theater, Children’s Theatre Company, Theater Latté Da, Artistry, the Jungle Theater, History Theatre, Gremlin Theatre, Mixed Blood Theatre, Pillsbury House + Theatre, Park Square Theatre, Great River Shakespeare Festival, Second City Theatricals, Wellfleet Harbor Actors Theatre, Creed Repertory Theatre, and many others. Katharine is a professional member of the Theatrical Sound Designers and Composers Association, and a 2017 McKnight theatre artist fellow at the Playwrights’ Center. | katsound.com

MINA KINUKAWA (SCENIC DESIGNER) (she/her) has designed for Minnesota theaters including: Penumbra, MN Opera, Theater Mu, Theater Latté Da, Jungle Theater, Full Circle Theater, New Native Theatre, and Pillsbury House + Theatre. She has also worked on film & TV productions in Los Angeles and designed scenery for regional theaters such as East West Players, Echo Theater Company, Lodestone Theatre Company, Company of Angels, Milagro Theater, Profile Theatre, and Northwest Children’s Theatre Company. Most recently, she designed scenery for Antaranga (Ananya Dance Theatre); Scotland, PA (Theater Latté Da); Unbroken Blossoms (East West Players); Blended 和 (Harmony) (Theater Mu and History Theatre); and The Song Poet (MN Opera with Theater Mu). She is an assistant professor in the theater and dance department at Macalester College in Saint Paul, MN. Mina is a member of the United Scenic Artists Local 829.

REBECCA JO MALMSTRÖM (PROPERTIES DESIGNER) (she/her) is thrilled to be working with Theater Mu again after jumping into its collaboration with History Theatre, Blended 和 (Harmony): The Kim Loo Sisters, last season. She’s the full time props buyer at the Guthrie Theater but also works on film projects, is the artist behind Duckie Uglings, does wedding flowers, gardens, and is cat mom to Kirk and Spock.

KARIN OLSON (LIGHTING DESIGNER) (she/her) has designed over 20 Mu productions including recent productions of The Song Poet (w/ MN Opera), Hells Canyon, peerless, Hot Asian Doctor Husband, and both incarnations of Kung Fu Zombies. Some other recent designs include MN Opera’s The Snowy Day at the Ordway, I am Betty at the History Theatre, Johnny Skeeky at Theater Latté Da, and Into The Burrow: A Peter Rabbit Story at the Alliance Theatre in Atlanta—which won a Suzi Bass Award for oustanding design. Karin is a 23/24 McKnight theater artist fellow. Upcoming: Twin Cities Ballet’s Romeo and Juliet, the Ballet—set to the music of Queen at the Fitzgerald. | karinolsonlighting.com

ALLI ST. JOHN (INTIMACY DIRECTOR) (she/her) is a Twin Cities based director, educator, and intimacy director. Recent intimacy direction includes Witch (upcoming), Walking Shadow Theatre Co; Fun Home (upcoming), The Color Purple, Theater Latté Da; A Christmas Carol, The Importance of Being Earnest, Guthrie Theater; Anna in the Tropics, UMN; Eurydice, Macalester College. Training: Theatrical Intimacy Education (TIE), MFA in Theater for Youth and Community.

AUSTIN STIERS (TECHNICAL CO-DIRECTOR) (he/him) is a theatre artist and technician originally from Cedar Falls, Iowa, where he also attended college at the University of Northern Iowa. This is Austin’s third production with Theater Mu, and he is so excited to be working alongside such a great team! While his primary emphasis is scenery and properties, he can be found working in all facets of theatre design.

KHAMPHIAN VANG (COSTUME DESIGNER) (she/nws) is a Twin Cities based freelance designer. Fifty Boxes of Earth is her fifth show with Theater Mu. Previous credits with Theater Mu are peerless, Man of God, Cambodian Rock Band (with Jungle Theater), and Again. She has collaborated with several theater companies within the Twin Cities area including Jungle Theater, Walking Shadow Theatre Co., Full Circle Theater, New Native Theatre, Artistry, and Minnesota Opera. Khamphian is grateful to work on Fify Boxes of Earth with this creative and production team on storytelling through visual arts and performance.

ABOUT THEATER MU

Theater Mu (pronounced MOO) is the largest Asian American theater company in the Midwest and has received national attention for its artistic excellence and community engagement. Founded in 1992, Mu sits at the intersection of arts, equity, and justice, and it tells stories from the heart of the Asian American experience. Theater Mu’s continuing goal to celebrate and empower the Asian American community through theater is achieved through mainstage productions, emerging artist support, and educational outreach programs. Theater Mu is a member of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists as well as a member of the Twin Cities Theatres of Color Coalition, proudly standing alongside New Native Theatre, Pangea World Theater, Penumbra Theatre, and Teatro Del Pueblo. | theatermu.org

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MU CHAMPIONS CIRCLE

SEA TURTLE ($1,000-$2,499)

Cynthia & Larry Lee, Eleanor Savage, Gail & Richard Bohr, Jacey Choy & Richard Brown, John & Sue Stillman, Kris Burhardt & April L. Spas, Nonoko Sato & Ted Johnson, Rachel Brown, Rich & Keely Remedios, Ruby Pediangco & Matt Shumway, Ruthie Johnson, Stephan Kieu & Julie Timm, and Team Her

FIFTY BOXES OF EARTH digital playbill