CREATIVE TEAM

Directed by KATIE BRADLEY

Virtual Production by KEVIN DUONG

Accompaniment by ISABELLA DAWIS

Videography by MATT AYERS and DENA DENNY

Sound Design by JASON FAYE

HOSTS

LILY TUNG CRYSTAL

Lily is an actor, director, and artistic director of Theater Mu. She is also the founding artistic director emeritus of Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company in the San Francisco Bay Area. Her directing credits include David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish and Flower Drum Song at Palo Alto Players, and the San Francisco leg of the simultaneous world premiere of Leah Nanako Winkler’s Two Mile Hollow at Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company. For all three shows, she was named a Theatre Bay Area Award finalist for Outstanding Direction. Tung Crystal also directed the Bay Area premiere of the musical Allegiance at Contra Costa Civic Theatre. As an actor, Lily has worked with theaters across the country, including Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor, Cal Shakes, Crowded Fire, Magic Theatre, Mountain Play, New World Stages, Portland Center Stage, SF Playhouse, and Syracuse Stage. She is a 2016 YBCA 100 honoree, named by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts as a “creative pioneer making the provocations that will shape the future of culture.” 

SAYMOUKDA DUANGPHOUXAY VONGSAY

Saymoukda is a Lao American poet, author, playwright, and installation artist. She was born in a refugee camp in Nongkhai, Thailand and immigrated to Minnesota in 1985. Because of her unique background, her work is focused on creating tools and spaces for the amplification of Lao and Southeast Asian refugee voices through poetry, theater, and experimental cultural production. Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Theater Mu, Consortium of Asian American Theaters and Artists, Lazy Hmong Woman Productions, and Theater Unbound. Her plays include Kung Fu Zombies Vs Cannibals, Hmong Lao Friendship Play, Title IX, and Kung Fu Zombies Vs Shaman Warrior. She's developing the musical In the Camps: A Refugee Musical. You can learn more about her work at saymoukdatherefugenius.com or follow her on Instagram and Twitter @refugenius.

PERFORMERS

ISABELLA DAWIS

Theater Mu: peerless (with sister Francesca), The Mikado, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, Filipino Hearts, The Walleye Kid. Upcoming: Broadway Buskers, Lotte Lenya Competition Songbook. Recent: Sweat (Center for Contemporary Opera), The Magic Flute (Boston Youth Symphony Orchestra), Icons/Idols (54 Below), NY Philharmonic (soloist), American Theatre Wing’s SpringboardNYC. As bookwriter/lyricist, Isabella recently received the Weston-Ghostlight New Musical Award with composer Tidtaya Sinutoke for Half the Sky, first presented at Mu’s New Eyes Festival. Half the Sky, the story of an Asian American woman climbing Mount Everest, is a 5th Avenue Theatre First Draft Commission — with support from Theater Latté Da, Musical Theatre Factory, Rhinebeck Writers Retreat, the O'Neill Center, and New York Theatre Barn. More at halftheskymusical.com and on Broadway on Demand. B.M. summa cum laude, piano performance, University of Minnesota; Classical Voice, New England Conservatory; Rockwell Scholarship, Primary Stages ESPA. isabelladawis.com

SUZIE JUUL

Theater Mu: The Sex Show, A Little Night Music; Into the Woods; Little Shop of Horrors. Theater: The Sound of Music, Pirates of Penzance, A Christmas Story( Ordway Center for the Performing Arts); Grease (Chanhassen Dinner Theatre); Candide, Mary Poppins (Artistry Theater); The Last Five Years (Really Spicy Opera Co); Yalonde De Polignac (Walking Shadow); Threepenny Opera (Frank Theatre); Disenchanted (Casting Spells Productions); Titanic the Musical (Second Fiddle Productions). TV/Film: Whirl with Sparkhouse. Training:  B.A. in Theatre, Augsburg University.

BRIAN KIM

Brian is a MN native who's working coast to coast to boost Asian and Korean Adoptee representation. Theater Mu: Fast Company, The Korean Drama Addict's Guide to Losing Your Virginity. Twin Cities: Interstate (Mixed Blood), Caught (Full Circle), Les Miserables, The Producers, 42nd Street, Joseph... Dreamcoat (Chanhassen Dinner Theater), Mulan Jr. (Children's Theater Company), Charlotte's Web (Old Log), Joseph... Dreamcoat (Ordway); Regional: Carousel, Gold Mountain (National Asian Artists Project), The Emperor's Nightingale (Pan Asian Rep), Dinner with Georgette (NYTW), Aubergine (San Diego Rep), Labour of Love (Olney) TV/Film: Pokemon: Sun and Moon, Naughty Nuts, Mazinger Z: Infinity, EDF: Iron Rain, Modern Combat Versus, The Beach House, The Struggle; Awards: 2018 Best Actor/Director Asian American Film Lab

Currently living in the woods making art.

WESLEY MOURI

Theater Mu: A Little Night Music, Flower Drum Song; Theater: The Music Man, The Cocoanuts, South Pacific (Guthrie Theater); Jesus Christ Superstar, Broadway Songbook: Rebels on Broadway, Broadway Songbook: Musicals of the 1950's (The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts); Hamlet (Park Square Theater); Cinderella (Children's Theater Company); Bye Bye Birdie, Joseph...Dreamcoat, The Little Mermaid, Hello Dolly (Chanhassen Dinner Theaters). Production Vocalist on Silversea Cruises. Current Development Director for Theater Mu. Graduated with a B.A. in Theater Arts, Bethel University.

HOPE NORDQUIST

Hope Nordquist is a multidisciplinary performer in the Twin Cities. She has most recently been seen at Park Square Theater as Magenta in The Rocky Horror Show and has most recently been seen at Theater Mu in The Princess’ Nightingale. She studied musical theater at The Stella Adler Studio and vocal music at St. Paul Conservatory for Performing Artists. 

SPONSORS

Greg & Penny Anderson

Robert Englund

Adele Lennig & Chris Sullivan

Dorothy Mollien

Les & Karen Suzukamo

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We wish to express our gratitude to the Performers’ Unions: Actors’ Equity Association, American Guild of Musical Artists, American Guild of Musical Artists, American Guild of Variety Artists, and SAF-AFTRA through Theatre Authority, Inc. for their cooperation in permitting the Artists to appear on this program.