Theater Mu's Team Grows for the 2023/24 Season
Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay and kt shorb
Season 2022/23 was big for Theater Mu, with a national AAPI Generations Conference, our first Lunar New Year Cabaret, and multiple world premieres. But we’re always asking what’s next, which is why we’ve stacked the season 2023/24 mainstage line-up with something for families, musical lovers, and thrill seekers across three world premieres and an Obie Award-winner. It’s also why we’re thrilled to announce that not only is Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay renewing her Mellon Foundation playwright in residence term for three more years, but kt shorb is joining the Mu team as the Arts Research with Communities of Color (ARCC) fellow. The fellowship program, managed by the Social Science Research Council (SSRC), is funded by the Wallace Foundation.
“We at Mu are thrilled to have both Saymoukda and kt as part of our team this season and beyond,” says Mu artistic director Lily Tung Crystal. “They are both tremendous and generous artists, and have so much to contribute to our work telling Asian American stories and reaching Asian American communities. We’re grateful to both the Wallace and Mellon foundations for this unique multi-year support, which allows us to not only build Mu but also put resources directly in the hands of our artists.”
Duangphouxay Vongsay has been a longtime Theater Mu artist, and in the spring of 2020, she and Mu were one of 13 playwright/theater pairs across the nation to receive the Mellon Foundation award for a playwright residence. Since then, she has been a part of Mu events and readings, led a national playwrights’ cohort, and—of course—worked with Mu to bring the world premiere of The Kung Fu Zombies Saga: Shaman War & Cannibals to life to end our 2022/23 season. We can’t wait to see what happens over her next residency term. It may even include a little play called Kung Fu Zombies vs. Southeast Asian Girl Scouts…
“Being awarded a second term is life changing and provides profound stability financially and artistically,” Duangphouxay Vongsay says. “I’ll continue to focus on creating unapologetic stories that center refugee experiences. American theater will be more rich and compelling for it.”
As for shorb, Mu family may recognize their face as they’ve been a director during the 2023 New Eyes Festival and an associate director for The Kung Fu Zombies Saga: Shaman Warrior & Cannibals. Now, as the SSRC ARCC fellow, they will be creating an ethnography to answer the question, “What is home?” for Theater Mu.
“We’re so excited to be working with kt on this Wallace initiative,” says Mu managing director Anh Thu T. Pham. “As an Asian American performing arts company based in Minnesota, our community has a large immigrant and refugee population. The question of what and where is Mu’s artistic home when we don’t have a physical space is so important at this time when theater companies are shuttering and the physical spaces that artists have access to is shrinking. We hope that kt’s work will help us give context to the last three decades of Mu’s history as we look to create a company that will last beyond the next three.”
shorb adds, “I have long admired Mu’s work from afar. I think the creative work happening in the Midwest generally, and Minnesota, specifically is under-researched. It is a great honor to work with Mu in this capacity and to be part of bringing more attention to Asian American theater in the Midwest, as well as to work by organizations of color in the Twin Cities.”
We can’t wait to continue working with these amazing artists!