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Designed and facilitated by Mellon playwright-in-residence Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay, the Mu Tang Clan Vol. 2 program invited Asian and Pacific Islander American* playwrights from all levels of experience who identify as being a refugee, former refugee, and/or a descendant of refugees to apply to the 10-week program, which meets in person in the Twin Cities from mid-December 2023 through mid-February 2024.

Duangphouay Vongsay and selected playwrights Cindy Koy, Mai Moua Thao, Sunny Thao, and Ehkhudah Zar will be in a peer-to-peer learning model as they write, share, and discuss topics related to playwriting and the influences that impact their work. Established award-winning playwrights Liqing Xu (inaugural Mu Tang Clan member) and May Lee-Yang will also provide mentorship throughout the program. Additionally, through a partnership with the Playwrights’ Center, the Guthrie Theater, History Theatre, and Theatre Elision for their partnership, the playwrights will receive a yearlong Playwrights’ Center membership and complimentary tickets to upcoming productions. 

The Mu Tang Clan incubator program was conceived and led by Duangphouxay Vongsay in 2021, and the inaugural cohort was composed of playwrights Marlina Gonzalez, Kathy Haddad, Alexandra Holden Lin, Liqing Xu, and Keiko Green. Learn more about the 2021/22 cohort.

CINDY KOY (she/her) writes to give structure to the static in her head and weaves it into a tapestry that pleases her need for sense-making. She hails from a chaotic Khmer family that made the Eastside of Saint Paul home after the Khmer Rouge systematically hunted the intellectuals down. She’s always felt like an oddball, from being the only person of color in many of her English major classes at the University of Minnesota to being the girl on a date who couldn’t refrain from bringing a notebook to take notes. Cindy spent most of her high school years performing on stage and looks forward to approaching playwriting with those experiences in mind.

MAI MOUA THAO (she/her) is currently exploring all the different mediums of storytelling, in her journey to becoming a screenwriter-director. She dabbles in theater/dance, photography, and literature. She is a first generation graduate of Macalester College ‘22 with a BA in media & cultural studies and theater & dance. Mai is also a JGS: Imagining America fellowship alum. She has worked with community-centered organizations such as Asian Media Access, Saint Paul Neighborhood Network, and more. Her most recent work includes Modern Shaman (producer), a series pilot funded by the MN State Arts Board, and Decision to Love (director), an official selection for Filmscore Fest 2023. Please look forward to upcoming work including Mi Tub and Reasons for Moving by connecting via Instagram @inmaidreams.

SUNNY THAO (she/her) is an emerging Hmong American theatermaker and proud youth worker. She’s excited to join Mu Tang Clan Vol. 2 and grow her writing and voice alongside other amazing playwrights and mentors. She was an inaugural member of Theater Mu’s Emerging Playwright Circle and assistant director to Mu’s production, Again. Her most recent work was seen with Running Errands curated by Kurt Engh and SEA Echoes Through Rivers, a Southeast Asian street theater project led by local SEA artists and co-founded by Kaysone Syonesa and herself. Her work explores female friendships, the life of elders as youths, and the aftereffects of diasporas within the SEA collective. She holds a BA in playwriting, directing, and dramaturgy from Augsburg University.

EHKHUDAH ZAR (she/her) is a performance artist and the first ever Karen American playwright based in Saint Paul. She recently produced her first full-length play Muyehpen through Exposed Brick Theatre. Ehkhudah was born in Burma and identifies as Karen. She migrated to the US due to persecution in Burma. With her background story and creativity, she uses theatre to create unknown, untold, and unvoiced stories. She started acting at Bethel University, where she performed in plays including Taming of the Shrew and I Hate Hamlet. She was an assistant stage manager for Theater Mu’s The Korean Drama Addict’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity; later, she collaborated with Exposed Brick Theatre in a traveling social justice play for predominantly White institution (PWI) staff. She joined the Omissions playwriting program, which culminated in a staged reading. She has also been commissioned by the Through Our Eyes 20/20 Project and the Remembrance Project.

SAYMOUKDA DUANGPHOUXAY VONGSAY (she/her) is a Lao American playwright and the facilitator of the Mu Tang Clan playwrights’ incubator. 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. | @refugenius  

MAY LEE-YANG (she/her) is a Hmong playwright, poet, prose writer, and performance artist, as well as one of the mentors of the Mu Tang Clan Vol. 2. Her theater-based works have been presented at Theater Mu, the Center for Hmong Arts and Talent (CHAT), Illusion Theater, Intermedia Arts, Out North Theater, the National Asian American Theater Festival, the MN Fringe Festival, and others. Her works include The Korean Drama Addict’s Guide to Losing Your Virginity, Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman, and Ten Reasons Why I’d Be a Bad Porn Star. She has received grants from the Playwrights' Center McKnight Fellowship in Playwriting, the Bush Leadership Fellowship, the Minnesota State Arts Board, the National Performance Network, the Midwestern Voices and Visions Residency Award, the Loft Literary Center, and the Ordway Sally Award for Arts Access. She holds an MFA in creative writing from the University of Minnesota.

LIQING XU (they/she) is a playwright and screenwriter, as well as one of the mentors of the Mu Tang Clan Vol. 2. Their work has been developed/presented/supported by Theater Mu, Second Stage, the María Irene Fornés Institute Writers Workshop, the Orchard Project, the Sewanee Writers' Conference (as a Walter E. Dakin fellow), Breaking the Binary Festival, CHUANG Stage, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, among others. They are a proud inaugural member of the Mu Tang Clan and are thrilled to join the Ma-Yi Lab (2.0). In their former life as a creative executive, Liqing developed DreamWorks movies Abominable and Over the Moon. Currently, she is a returning 2023-2025 Many Voices Fellow at the Playwrights' Center, and previously was a 2022/23 Many Voices fellow. BFA: NYU, film and television. MFA: Hunter College, playwriting. Born and raised in Northern California, they are often between LA and New York.

Thanks to our partners

The Mu Tang Clan Vol. 2 is made possible with funding by the Jerome Foundation. We would also like to thank the Playwrights’ Center, Guthrie Theater, History Theatre, and Theatre Elision for their generous in-kind donations.

*Note: The Mu Tang Clan Vol. 2 uses the term “Asian and Pacific Islander American” to include, for example, people of Asian, Asian American, or Pacific Islander ancestry who trace their origins and identities to the countries, states, or jurisdictions and/or the diasporic communities of the following geographic regions:

1. Central Asia: Afghani, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgians, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Mongolian, Tajik, Turkmen, Uzbek

2.  East Asia: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Okinawan, Taiwanese, Tibetan

3. Hawai’i and Pacific Islands: Carolinian, Chamorro, Chuukese, Fijian, Guamanian, Hawaiian, Kosraean, Marshallese, Native Hawaiian, Niuean, Palauan, Papua New Guinean, Pohnpeian, Samoan, Tokelauan, Tongan, Yapese

4. Southeast Asia: Bruneian, Burmese, Cambodian, Filipino, Hmong, Indonesian, Laotian, Malaysian, Mien, Singaporean, Timorese, Thai, Vietnamese

5. South Asia: Bangladeshi, Bhutanese, Indian, Maldivians, Nepali, Pakistani, Sri Lankan

6. West Asia is typically referred to as the Middle East. Geographically, it includes the countries of Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey (straddles Europe and Asia), United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

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