HOME / MTI / MU EMERGING PLAYWRIGHTS’ CIRCLE

MU Emerging Playwrights’ circle

The Mu Emerging Playwrights’ Circle is an eight-week development cohort for aspiring Asian American playwrights in Minnesota. Through weekly virtual meetings facilitated by Mu’s literary and artistic associates, Jane Peña and Annie Jin Wang, participants will write and present works in progress while reading and sharing feedback on others’ pieces. Meetings may also include writing time, group discussions, and guest artists from across Mu's network to learn more about the theater industry.

Theater Mu decided to launch the Mu Emerging Playwrights’ Circle in order to:

• support burgeoning Asian American voices in the Twin Cities.

• improve members’ playwriting skills through collaborative feedback and discussions.

• give insight on industry practices, opportunities, and perspectives to help launch members’ careers.

• provide artist access to Twin Cities theater makers.

This program is offered at no cost to participants. Theater Mu will provide a small stipend to help cohort members access local Twin Cities theater productions, playwriting resources, and scripts. In addition, Artistry, Chanhassen Dinner Theatres, Guthrie Theater, Hennepin Theatre Trust, History Theatre, Lyric Arts, Minnesota Fringe Festival, and Park Square Theatre have partnered with us to provide comped tickets to some of their summer productions. Theater Mu is also grateful to the Playwrights’ Center for providing our facilitators and cohort a free membership for the year.

MEET THE COHORT

PHILIP DE SA E SILVA (he/him) had a love for theater that started early. He wrote his first play for his second grade class when he was seven. By the time he was in college, he had many school productions under his belt and had started performing stand-up comedy. It wasn’t until he was working on his master’s degree in English literature that he took his first playwriting class. As he says, his only regret is not taking a playwriting class sooner! Currently, Philip has just completed his first year of law school. Prior to that, he taught high school English for eight years.

Application snippet: “I believe everyone has a valuable story and perspective to share, and I want to become more confident in sharing mine and helping others share theirs.”

EMMA Y. LAI (she/her) is a freelance theatre director and producer. She attended the University of Minnesota Twin Cities for BAs in theatre arts: performance creation and mathematics. Since graduating, she has founded a nonprofit theatre company, Picnic Basket Theatre, which focuses on telling new stories by marginalized communities and supporting early-career artists. As a director, she loves working on new plays, satire, musical theatre, stories about family, and joyful BIPOC shows. Upcoming projects include associate directing the world premiere of Cowboy Bob at Alley Theatre in Houston. | emmaylai.com

Application snippet: “I want theatre audiences to see a variety of Asian representation onstage to help them overcome internalized stereotypes and understand that we are not a monolith.”

KATIE REIN (she/her) is an emerging playwright and screenwriter. While she has always loved theater and film, when she was in high school, she and the other few BIPOC students were discouraged from trying out for parts that were not “meant” for them. As she reflects in her application, this experience stopped her from fully embracing her theatrical interests, even as she continued to write scripts. It wasn’t until Theater Mu’s Charles Francis Chan Jr.’s Oriental Murder Mystery (2016)—her first time seeing so many Asian Americans on stage—Crazy Rich Asians (2018), and Minari (2020) that she saw the triumphant place for Asian Americans in storytelling.

Application snippet: “Even though we were bearing witness to cruel acts of violence against our community as COVID raged on, the world was and is still transforming for the better in other heartening ways. … Now that I call Minneapolis my home, I want to be a part of that community and that movement.”

SUNNY THAO (she/her) graduated with a BA in playwriting, directing, and dramaturgy from Augsburg University in 2019. After apprenticing at the Playwrights’ Center, she has become a freelance stage manager for local theaters (Mu: Man of God assistant stage manager). Sunny has also written and performed for Pangea World Theater’s Lake Story Circles and East Side Freedom Library, and she recently co-produced SEA Echoes through Rivers, a street theater project amplifying Southeast Asian voices with Kaysone Syonesa and the City of Brooklyn Park. They will be launching their second iteration of the project this summer.

Application snippet: “I hope by joining Mu’s Emerging Playwrights’ Circle, I am challenged and encouraged in building a play for grad school submissions. I also hope to explore different writing styles and find one that fits my voice.”

Meet the Facilitators

JANE PEÑA (she/her) wears many hats as Theater Mu’s office manager and literary associate. She comes from a background in literary management and dramaturgy, having completed a string of literary internships and freelance script supervisory jobs with the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, the Playwrights’ Center, Goodman Theater, Cedar Summerstock Theater, and more. You can find Jane in most Mu production lobbies and live chats as the house manager, helping you with your tickets as the box office representative, and as the friendly voice on the other end of the Mu front desk phone line. She is also thrilled to be on the literary committee along with Artistic Director Lily Tung Crystal and Artistic Associate Annie Jin Wang. In that capacity, Jane takes great pride in nurturing and expanding Mu’s community of writers.

ANNIE JIN WANG (she/her) is a first-generation Chinese American dramaturg based in Brooklyn. In addition to serving as the production dramaturg on Mu’s Today Is My Birthday and peerless, her work has recently been seen at the Civilians, Fault Line Theater, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, Shotgun Players, Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, and the Croatian National Theatre. Her writing has been incubated with Fresh Ground Pepper, and she is a member of the inaugural PlayGround-NY Writers’ Pool. Annie is the associate director for programming and communications at PlayCo and the artistic associate at Theater Mu. MFA: Columbia University. BAs: Wellesley College. | wang-annie.com

Special thanks

MORE TO KNOW