Lia Chang: Mu Performing Arts’ Artistic Director Rick Shiomi takes home Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement

Kudos to Rick Shiomi, an award-winning Japanese Canadian playwright, director and the Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts, for receiving the 2012 Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement, at the 8th annual Ivey Awards, which were held at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. on Monday, September 24, 2012.

Mu Performing Arts’ Artistic director Rick Shiomi, the 2012 Ivey Award recipient for Lifetime Achievement at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. on Monday, September 24, 2012. Photo by Kurt Moses

“This award is truly a recognition of the talented performers, writers and directors that have gathered at Mu. It’s only through many wonderful Mu productions such as Into The Woods, Little Shop of Horrors, Yellow Face, Asiamnesia and Flower Drum Song that a company such as Mu Performing Arts can have the impact warranting such recognition,” said Shiomi.

Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Rick Shiomi shares his 2012 Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement with his Mu Performing Arts family backstage at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. on September 24, 2012. Photo by Kurt Moses

There are no set categories for the Iveys, the Twin Cities’ annual celebration which honors and showcases the work of professional theater companies and artists over the past year. The Lifetime Achievement Award for Shiomi and the Emerging Artist Award, which was presented to Isabel Nelson, a performer, director, and theatre creator, are the only predetermined awards.

Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Rick Shiomi, the 2012 Ivey Award recipient for Lifetime Achievement, gets a congratulatory hug from Don Eitel, his managing director of Mu, backstage at the State Theatre in Minneapolis, MN. on September 24, 2012. Photo by Kurt Moses

The four productions and six individuals who were also recognized with 2012 Iveys were chosen based on evaluations completed by the more than 150 volunteer theater evaluators who saw more than 1,000 performances in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metropolitan area from September 2011 through August 2012.

Productions
The Compleat Female Stage Beauty, Walking Shadow Theatre Company: Overall Excellence
Spring Awakening, Theatre Latte Da: Overall Excellence
Ballad of the Pale Fisherman, Illusion Theater: Emotional Impact
Julius Caesar, Theatre Unbound: Inventive Reinterpretation

Individual Recognition
Tracie Bennett, Acting, End of the Rainbow (Guthrie Theater)
Hugh Kennedy, Acting, Buzzer (Pillsbury House Theatre)
Jody Briskey, Acting, Beyond the Rainbow: Garland at Carnegie Hall (History Theatre)
Barry Browning, Lighting Design, Dial M for Murder (Jungle Theater)
Miriam Monasch, Directing, Our Class (Minnesota Jewish Theatre Company)
Joe Vass, Musical Direction, The Soul of Gershwin: The Musical Journey of an American Klezmer (Park Square Theatre)

RICK SHIOMI (LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD)

Playwrights David Henry Hwang and Rick Shiomi in front of the Longacre Theatre in New York after a performance of Hwang’s latest Broadway comedy Chinglish on January 28, 2012. Photo by Lia Chang

Since the early 1980s, Rick Shiomi has been one of the leading figures of the Asian American theater movement as a playwright and director.
Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts

A native of Toronto, Shiomi moved to Minnesota in the 1990s and co-founded Theater Mu in 1992. He is presently the Artistic Director of St. Paul-based Mu Performing Arts, one of the largest Asian-American theater companies in the U.S. and is a leader in the local and national development of Asian American theater and taiko. Mu Performing Arts is composed of Theater Mu, which offers stage performances, and Mu Daiko, a taiko drumming ensemble. Through Shiomi’s leadership, Mu has helped to develop and support the work of local and national playwrights, actors, directors, and musicians by premiering many new works, fostering a new generation of Asian American artists, and bringing Asian American voices to Twin Cities audiences.

In a video tribute which played at the Iveys, Tony award-winning playwright David Henry Hwang, a friend and colleague since 1979, shared his perspective of Shiomi’s impact and legacy on the Asian American Theater movement.

“Rick deserves to win this award because he does something that I can’t think of any other artist I know, who is able to both be really a wonderful artist, do great work of his own which has a huge impact on the field, but is also selfless enough and understands people enough, and is encouraging enough to create a whole movement. You think of Rick going to Minneapolis at a time when most of the rest of us would have thought the notion of starting an Asian American theater company in the Twin Cities, well good luck, nice if you want to do it, but it’s not actually going to make any sense. Rick had the foresight to realize that the was a fertile place to do it because the community was growing, and I think more importantly, he’s the type of person who has always been able to organize people, encourage people, to find talent and nurture that. The rest of us, who also do good work, we tend to be a little more selfish, and we’re not as good at doing that. So Rick is really unique in that way and therefore, totally deserves this award,” said Hwang.

R.A. Shiomi’s award-winning play Yellow Fever.

Shiomi’s plays include the award winning Yellow Fever, Rosie’s Cafe, Uncle Tadao, Play Ball, Mask Dance, The Tale of the Dancing Crane, and Song of the Pipa. He also co-authored the book for Walleye Kid: The Musical. Yellow Fever has been produced off-Broadway, in Japanese in Tokyo and at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival.

Mu Performing Arts will close out its 21st season with Yellow Fever in the Dowling Studio at the Guthrie Theater, from March 9-24, 2013. Helmed by Shiomi, the cast will feature Mu regulars Kurt Kwan as Sam Shikaze, Sara Ochs, and Eric Sharp, as well as Wade Vaughn and others.
Mu’s landmark 21st Season features a brand new Taiko Concert, Lauren Yee’s The Tiger Among Us, and Rick Shiomi’s Award-Winning comedy Yellow Fever

Rick Shiomi (Photo by Lia Chang)

Shiomi has had his plays produced by: Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco, Pan Asian Repertory in New York, and East West Players in Los Angeles. Yellow Fever has also been published in the U.S. and Canada, and Mask Dance appears in Bold Words: A Century of Asian American Writing, published by Rutgers University in 2001. He has written screenplays for film and television including the Canadian award winning dramatic series ENG. Shiomi’s directing credits include Theater Mu’s first full-length production, Mask Dance, Into The Woods, The Walleye Kid, Yellow Face, Song of the Pipa, Maui and The Soul of the Sun, and Flower Drum Song. He has also directed at the Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco and at Interact Theater in Philadelphia. Shiomi has been recognized with a 2002 Asian-Pacific Leadership Award for Excellence & Innovation in the Arts from the State of Minnesota Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans and is the recipient of the 2007 Sally Award for Vision. In 2011, the Library of Congress created a collection in Shiomi’s name in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection, which will also serve as a repository for the archives of Mu Performing Arts. He is the co-editor of the anthology Asian American Plays for a New Generation published by Temple University Press in 2011, and a founding member of the national network CAATA, the Consortium for Asian American Theaters and Artists.
Photos: Rick Shiomi Checks out Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection of Library of Congress; Attends “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” Book Signing in NY on 7/29

Shiomi leaves his position as the Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts on August 31st, 2013 and plans to go back to the freelance life. So if you hear from him, he may be looking for a gig.

ISABEL NELSON (Emerging Artist Award) recently co-created and appeared in the 2012 Minnesota Fringe Festival hit show Ash Land, produced by Transatlantic Love Affair, of which she is co-artistic director. With Transatlantic she also conceived and directed two previous Fringe hits, Red Resurrected and The Ballad of the Pale Fisherman, which was subsequently expanded and presented in Illusion Theater’s Lights Up series. As a performer, she has worked with Live Action Set, Jon Ferguson Theatre, and Four Humors, among others. Nelson’s directing credits include work with Black Dirt Theater and Macalester College. She graduated from Minneapolis South High, received her B.A. from Macalester College in Theatre and Religious Studies, and a certificate in Creating Theatre at the Lecoq-based London International School for Performing Arts.

Other Ivey Awards Articles:
Theatermania.com: Tracie Bennett, Rick Shiomi Among Winners of 2012 Ivey Awards
Startribune.com: Rick Shiomi gets Lifetime Achievement award at Iveys
twincities.com: Ivey Awards: Mu’s Rick Shiomi receives lifetime honor
Broadwayworld.com: 2012 Ivey Awards Recognize Rick Shiomi for Lifetime Achievement and Isabel Nelson for Emerging Artist
Bizjournals.com: Mu Performing Arts founder Shiomi honored at Ivey Awards

Other articles on Mu Performing Arts:
Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts
Photos: Yellow Fever Playwright Rick Shiomi Explores New Territory with An All-Female Cast
Mu’s landmark 21st Season features a brand new Taiko Concert, Lauren Yee’s The Tiger Among Us, and Rick Shiomi’s Award-Winning comedy Yellow Fever
Rick Shiomi helms Mu Performing Arts’ Asian American Cast of Stephen Sondheim’s Into the Woods at Park Square Theatre in St. Paul, July 17-August 5, 2012
Randy Reyes Embraces his Passion for Storytelling as an Actor, Director and Theater Educator
Randy Reyes directs Mu Performing Arts’ production of EDITH CAN SHOOT THINGS AND HIT THEM by A. Rey Pamatmat at Mixed Blood Theatre, March 13-April 1, 2012
Mu Performing Arts’ Little Shop of Horrors on 2 ‘Best of’ Lists; Women in Arts Panel on 1/29, in Conjunction with Mu Daiko’s 15th Anniversary Concert and Tour
Mu Daiko 15th Anniversary Concert and Minnesota Tour, February 9-19, 2012
Photos: Opening Night of Mu Performing Arts’ Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies
Photos: Backstage at Mu Performing Arts’ Four Destinies by Katie Hae Leo
Photos: On the town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in D.C. & NY
Temple Press: Rick Shiomi recounts his tour for “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”
Mu Blog: Rick Shiomi’s Book Tour Logbook
knightarts.org: Reading on the road inside the book tour
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
“Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk
Click here for more articles on Rick Shiomi.

Other articles by Lia Chang:
Marvels and Monsters: Unmasking Asian Images in U.S. Comics, 1942 -1986 and Alt.Comics: Asian American Artists Reinvent the Comic Book on View at MOCA, September 27 – February 24, 2013
Greg Watanabe, Julyana Soelistyo and Jennifer Lim Lead the Cast of Signature Theatre’s Production of David Henry Hwang’s Golden Child, October 23-December 2, 2012
Berkeley Rep’s Production Photos of David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, Starring Michelle Krusiec and Alex Moggridge, Extends through October 21, 2012
Signature Theatre’s World Premiere of Sam Shepard’s Heartless Starring Lois Smith, Gary Cole, Jenny Bacon, Betty Gilpin, and Julianne Nicholson Extends through September 30, 2012
MTC’s An Enemy of The People Starring Boyd Gaines and Richard Thomas Begin Previews at Samuel J. Friedman Theatre
Video: Academy Award Winner Chris Tashima Talks About His Roles in Lily Mariye’s Model Minority and Lil Tokyo Reporter
Photos: 4 Wedding Planners’ Illeana Douglas, Kimberly-Rose Wolter and Michael Kang at Screen Actors Guild Foundation Conversations Series in NY
Multimedia: Screen Actors Guild Foundation’s Conversations with Derek Ting, Linus Roache and Michael Park of $upercapitalist
Three Year Swim Club, Encounter, TEA, Christmas in Hanoi and Chess set for East West Players 47th Anniversary Season
André De Shields Returns to The Laurie Beechman Theatre with I Put A Spell on You, October 5 and 12
Photos: Tonya Pinkins, André De Shields, S. Epatha Merkerson, Billy Porter and George C. Wolfe at 54 Below
Sean Dugan Set for West Coast Premiere of George C. Wolfe’s Tony Award-Winning Production of The Normal Heart at A.C.T., September 13 – October 7, 2012
Raul Aranas, Kate Baldwin, Brian d’Arcy James, P.J. Griffith, Bobby Steggert and Michele Pawk Set for New York Premiere of GIANT at The Public Theater, October 26-December 2, 2012
Photos: All-Access Pass to Disney’s Aladdin at The Muny with Thom Sesma, Francis Jue, Robin De Jesus, John Tartaglia, Jason Graae, Curtis Holbrook, Eddie Korbich, Samantha Massell and Ken Page
Performing Arts Images from the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection on Display at the Library of Congress to Celebrate APA Heritage Month
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang

Lia Chang is an actor, a performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multi-platform journalist.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2012 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com

Lia Chang Photos: Playwright Lonnie Carter Talks TRIM, The Tiger Woods What If Story, The Romance of Magno Rubio and The Lost Boys of Sudan

A critically acclaimed production of Lonnie Carter’s OBIE award-winning The Romance of Magno Rubio is currently playing through December 11, 2011 at [Inside] the Ford in Hollywood, in rep with the world premiere of Ang Romansa ni Magno Rubio, a new translation in Tagalog, with five performances each week, three in English and two in Tagalog. The productions of The Romance of Magno Rubio / Ang Romansa ni Magno are directed and translated by Bernardo Bernardo who appeared in Ma-Yi’s Off-Broadway production of The Romance of Magno Rubio in New York, and are presented by PAE Live! in association with Good Shepherd Ambulance Company.

(l-r) Paolo Montalban, director Loy Arcenas, playwright Lonnie Carter, Ramon de Ocampo, JoJo Gonzalez , Arthur Acuna and Bernardo Bernardo at the May 27, 2007 opening night party of The Romance of Magno Rubio at Cendrillion in New York. Photo by Lia Chang

A high-energy stage adaptation of Carlos Bulosan’s seminal short story about a love struck Filipino migrant worker in 1930s California, The Romance of Magno Rubio uses clever word play, rhymes, rhythms and Philippine love songs (“kundimans”) to reveal the lives of migrant workers, their struggles and dreams, and their longings for home and a better life.

Jon Jon Briones (Magno Rubio), Antoine Diel (Prudencio), Elizabeth Rainey (Clarabelle), and Muni Zano (narrator) each appear in both the English (E) and Tagalog (T) casts, while Giovanni Ortega (E) and Frederick Edwards (T) share the role of Nick; Erick Esteban (E) and Gelo Francisco (T) are Claro; and Eymard Cabling (E) and Jet Montelibano (T) double as Atoy.

The Romance of Magno Rubio premiered off Broadway in 2002 at New York’s Ma-Yi Theatre Company where it received rave reviews and eight OBIE citations. That production subsequently traveled to the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Manila, then received its West Coast premiere at the Laguna Playhouse. Other notable productions include the Midwest debut at Victory Gardens in Chicago and the Los Angeles premiere at LATC.

The Romance of Magno Rubio / Ang Romansa ni Magno runs through December 11. Performances in English are on Thursdays and Fridays @ 8pm and Sundays @ 3 pm. Performances in Tagalog are on Saturdays @ 3 pm and 8 pm. The performance on Sunday, Dec. 4 (in English) will be signed for the hearing impaired. Tickets are $25. Full-time students with ID are $12.

[Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free. For reservations and information, call the Ford Theatres Box Office at 323.461.3673 (323.GO1.FORD) or go to www.FordTheatres.org.

I first met Carter in 1993, when I portrayed Princess Noel opposite André De Shields in Gulliver, the first in his trilogy of The Gulliver Plays, at La MaMa in New York.

André De Shields and Lia Chang in a scene from Lonnie Carter's Gulliver at La MaMa in New York, September 1993.

Playwright Lonnie Carter Photo by Lia Chang

Carter’s plays have been produced by The Yale Repertory Theater, the American Place Theater, Victory Gardens Theater, the Long Wharf Theater and at the first Asian-American Theater Festival in New York City (2007), the Los Angeles Theater Center’s Latino Theater Festival (also 2007) and festivals abroad (the Philippines and Romania). His plays include China Calls, The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy, The Gulliver Plays (Lemuel, Gulliver, and Gulliver Redux, published by Broadway Play Publishing), Baby Glo, Wheatley (the Colonial HippeHoppe story of Phillis Wheatley), Concerto Chicago, and most recently The Lost Boys of Sudan, produced by the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis (Tony Winner for Best Regional Theatre 2003). The Lost Boys (and Girl) of Sudan was produced by Victory Gardens in 2010.

(L-R) André De Shields, Roenia Thompson, Gillian Glasco, Sean Phillips, Lonnie Carter, Forrest McClendon and Alexander Elisa Photo by Lia Chang

The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy, perhaps Carter’s signature play was given a staged reading last Valentine’s Day by the Negro Ensemble Company (the NEC), which starred and was directed by André De Shields. The response was so overwhelming that a full production is being planned within the next year. Boogedy was first done at Victory Gardens Theater and then Woodie King’s New Federal Theatre and then again at Victory Gardens and keeps being re-written to reflect the changing times.

Carter is a charter member of the Victory Gardens Playwrights’ Ensemble. (Victory Gardens was the Tony Winner for Best Regional Theatre 2001). He is an Alumnus of New Dramatists in New York and the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. He is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama and Marquette University, a Guggenheim Fellow and twice a Fellow of the National Endowment of the Arts and the Connecticut Commission on the Arts. He is an Associate Teacher at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts in the Dramatic Writing Program.

Danyon Davis, Jose Joaquin Perez, Nambi E. Kelley, Forrest McClendon, Lia Chang, Lonnie Carter, LeeAnne Hutchison and Mac A. Davis

Playwright Lonnie Carter Photo by Lia Chang

I caught up with the award-winning playwright when I worked on a staged reading of TRIM, The Tiger Woods What If Story, his brand new Tiger Woods play, co-written with Mac A. Davis, at New Dramatists in New York on October 19, 2011, alongside Danyon Davis, Forrest McClendon, Nambi E. Kelley, LeeAnne Hutchison, Mac A. Davis and Jose Joaquin Perez.

Lia: What do you attribute the success of The Romance of Magno Rubio to?
Lonnie: Magno Rubio is successful because of the huge talents of Loy Arcenas and Jorge Ortoll and Ralph Pena and every brilliant Pinoy (Filipino and Filipina), now too numerous to mention, who had the faith that we could bring Carlos Bulosan’s story of a small brown man with a huge heart and bottomless courage to every person of every stripe in every part of the world.

LeeAnn Hutchison and Danyon Davis Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What is TRIM about?
Lonnie: TRIM is a What-If Tiger Woods play. What if Eldrick Woods never came back to play golf after his accident? What if he spent his years trying to understand how he got to the point of disaster? His reputation ruined, his family, his children snatched away from him, and all because of his recklessness. Famous people alive and dead come to convince him to do what they want him to do. Jack Nicklaus, Althea Gibson, Oprah Winfrey, Marilyn Chambers, Elin Nordegren, Billy Cracker/Gantry and finally the biggest Daddy of them all, his father’s ghost, Earl Woods. The play is framed by the shock jocks extraordinaire who may just remind you of Howard Stern and Robin Quivers on steroids. The denouement shows little Tiger, aged 2, on the Mike Douglas talk show with Bob Hope and Jimmy Stewart. Little Tiger, at the urging of Earl, shows his golfing promise at that tender age and shows us his future. And he cracks up Bob Hope as well. At play’s end grown-up Tiger may have found some redemption, but we won’t tell you here and now. But no more golf. Nevermore, quoth the Cablinasian, as he so famously dubbed himself on Oprah. TRIM, the What-If Tiger Woods play.

Co-playwrights and childhood friends Mac A. Davis and Lonnie Carter Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What is your history with Mac?
Lonnie: Mac and I went to high school, college and graduate school together (Marquette University). Sometime in senior year college we starred in my first play, on the radio, lo these decades ago. And we’ve been compatriots ever since. Mac wrote TRIM in a burst of five days. He came to me and asked if I would write a climactic speech for Tiger. I was intrigued, but didn’t get around to it. About a year or so later, he said, “Why don’t we split the play 50/50 and you re-write however you like.” That really intrigued me. So, I went to work. I kept the 12 scene structure which I think is just right and quite brilliant of Mac. Some scenes I removed the innards and put in transplanted new ones. Some I left pretty much in tact. And there you have it – Lightning in a Bottle, or so we think in our modest way.

Lonnie Carter, Danyon Davis and Mac A. Davis Photo by Lia Chang

Walter A. (Mac) Davis is the author of a number of books of psychoanalytic cultural criticism. Among them: Inwardness and Existence; Get the Guests; Death’s Dream Kingdom. [For descriptions and selections see www.walteradavis.com] While teaching (25 years at The Ohio State University) he also pursued a second career as an actor and playwright. Roles played include: Hamlet, King Lear and Oscar Madison. Plays written include: An Evening with Jonbenet Ramsey; The San Quentin Monologue. He is currently working on an interminable novel ironically titled The Last Catholic.

Nambi E. Kelley and Danyon Davis Photo by Lia Chang

Lia: What inspired you to tell the story of The Lost Boys of Sudan?
Lonnie: The Lost Boys of Sudan, through the vision of Peter Brosius and Elissa Adams of the Childrens’ Theatre Company, came to production after a long slog of workshops in New York, DC (at Howard University) and Minneapolis. There was a meeting of minds among Peter, Elissa and me that this story had to be told. It was told again in a revised version – The Lost Boys (and Girl) of Sudan at Dennis Zacek’s Victory Gardens Theater in 2010, directed by the incomparable Jim Corti, and will be told again and revised for its 2013 production in Fargo, North Dakota (no kidding!, it’s where the Sudanese live and have lived for a decade and more). The Fargo farrago will be produced by Dayna DelVal, Director of The Arts Partnership (TAP). wttw.com Hedy Weiss Review

Lost Boys of Sudan at Victory Gardens Theater. Photo by Liz Lauren

Lia: What’s next on your plate?
Lonnie: What’s next? Getting TRIM done. The questions that the work raises don’t have to do with Tiger Woods ever winning again. At this writing, maybe he already has or is about to and that’s completely irrelevant. What matters are questions of fame, race, betrayal, paternity, PAPAhood. Big ones. We don’t answer those questions, but we ask and try to get to their meaning. We hope, with humor, insight and compassion.

Also in the works, either a big piece – Douglas MacArthur in the Philippines with Fabian Obispo doing the music – or a small personal piece. Or both.

Playwright Lonnie Carter Photo by Lia Chang

The Romance of Magno Rubio / Ang Romansa ni Magno runs through December 11. Performances in English are on Thursdays and Fridays @ 8pm and Sundays @ 3 pm. Performances in Tagalog are on Saturdays @ 3 pm and 8 pm. The performance on Sunday, Dec. 4 (in English) will be signed for the hearing impaired. Tickets are $25. Full-time students with ID are $12.

[Inside] the Ford is located in the Ford Theatres complex at 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. East, Hollywood, CA 90068, just off the 101 Hollywood Freeway across from the Hollywood Bowl and south of Universal Studios. On-site, non-stacked parking is free. For reservations and information, call the Ford Theatres Box Office at 323.461.3673 (323.GO1.FORD) or go to www.FordTheatres.org.

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LeeAnn Hutchison and playwright Lonnie Carter Photo by Lia Chang

Forrest McClendon, Lia Chang and Danyon Davis

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Lia currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”. She has appeared in Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and “New York Undercover”.

Selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are now in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PHOTOGRAPHY PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, thelmagazine.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.

Other Articles by Lia Chang:
Photos: De Shields, McClendon, Elisa, Glasco, Phillips, Thompson in The Sovereign State of Boogedy Boogedy

Photos: Yellow Fever Playwright Rick Shiomi Explores New Territory with An All-Female Cast
Party 3.0, Scenes from Version 3.0, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays, Edited by Chay Yew at Zacek McVay Theater on 12/4
Photos: Kathie Lee Gifford at the 2011 Lord & Taylor Fifth Avenue Christmas Windows Unveiling in New York
Photos: David Henry Hwang, Jennifer Lim, Leigh Silverman, Samuel L. Jackson, Kenny Leon, David Ives, Douglas Carter Beane and More at The Drama Desk & Fordham University Theatre Program’s “Anatomy of a Breakout” Panel
David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish Takes Home 2 Jeff Awards
Cathy Foy-Mahi Plays Bloody Mary in 2011-2012 National Tour of South Pacific
Photos: Backstage with the Cast of Chinglish and David Henry Hwang at the Longacre Theatre
Lia Chang Photos: Opening Night of Mu Performing Arts’ Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies
Lia Chang Photos: Backstage at Mu Performing Arts’ Four Destinies by Katie Hae Leo
Art by Nicholas Galanin Featured in Kindred Spirits, Native American Influences on 20th Century Art, at Peter Blum Soho in NY, 10/29/11-1/14/12
Photos: Crossroads’ Ain’t Misbehavin’
Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright and Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
Photos: David Duchovny, John Earl Jelks, Amanda Peet, Tracee Chimo at Opening Night Party of Neil LaBute’s Break of Noon
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.
All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Lia Chang Photos: Opening Night of Mu Performing Arts’ Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies

Playwright Katie Hae Leo on the set of her new play, Four Destinies, at Mixed Blood Theatre on October 15, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

It is the opening night of performance of Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies, helmed by Suzy Messerole and presented by Mu Performing Arts, the second largest Asian American Theater Company in the U.S, and the lobby of Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis is abuzz with excitement.

Mu Performing Arts Artistic Director Rick Shiomi and Reme Grefalda, curator of the Asian Pacific Islander Collection at the Library of Congress. Photo by Lia Chang

Reme Grefalda, curator of the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection located in the Asian Division of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. and I flew in to photograph the cast in rehearsal for my Library of Congress collection, the Lia Chang Theater Photography Portfolio/AAPI Collection in the Asian Division at the Library of Congress, and to celebrate opening night.

Four Destinies director Suzy Messerole and playwright Katie Hae Leo Photo by Lia Chang

With Four Destinies, local playwright Katie Hae Leo has fashioned a satirical exploration of adoption through the eyes of Destiny Jones, a single character represented from four different ethnic backgrounds, as she/he grows up in a Minnesota family. Leo, a playwright, poet, essayist and performer, and who is also a Korean adoptee, presents herself as a character determined to embody the overarching adoptee experience, both in youth and adulthood.

(L-R First Row) Katie Bradley, LaDawn James, Nora Montanez, Sara Ochs; (L-R Second Row) Shanan Custer, playwright Katie Hae Leo, Don Eitel, Neil Schneider, director Suzy Messerole, Maria Kelly and Nicholas Freeman on the set of Four Destinies at Mixed Blood Theatre after the opening night performance on October 15, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

The cast features Katie Bradley, LaDawn James, Nora Montanez, Sara Ochs, Neil Schneider, Shanan Custer, Don Eitel, Maria Kelly and Nicholas Freeman. The full house was in a raucous mood and showed their appreciation for the cast at curtain call with a standing ovation. Katie Hae Leo’s Four Destinies has only ten more performances through October 30, catch it while you can. Click here for tickets.

Four Destinies
by Katie Hae Leo
directed by Suzy Messerole
October 15 – 30, 2011
Mixed Blood Theatre
1501 S. 4th St
Minneapolis, MN
The Mu Performing Arts 2011-2012 season is sponsored by General Mills.
Mu Performing Arts Website

(L-R First Row) Don Eitel, Neil Schneider, Suzy Messerole, Katie Hae Leo, Katie Bradley (L-R Second Row) Maria Kelly, Nicholas Freeman, Nora Montanez, Sara Ochs, LaDawn James, Shanan Custer. Photo by Lia Chang

Other Articles on Mu Performing Arts, “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” & “In Rehearsal”
knightsarts.org: Inside the Four Destinies World Premiere
Lia Chang Photos: Backstage at Mu Performing Arts’ Four Destinies by Katie Hae Leo,10/15-10/30
Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts
Photos: On the town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in D.C. & NY
Temple Press: Rick Shiomi recounts his tour for “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”
Mu Blog: Rick Shiomi’s Book Tour Logbook
knightarts.org: Reading on the road inside the book tour
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
Photos: Rick Shiomi Checks out Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection of Library of Congress; Attends “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” Book Signing in NY on 7/29 “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk
broadwayworld.com: Chinglish in Rehearsal
asiancemagazine.com: New Anthology of Asian American Plays Book Talk
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Photographer Lia Chang, Reme Grefalda, Curator of AAPI Collection, Library of Congress, Playwright Katie Hae Leo, Director Suzy Messerole

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Lia currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”. She has appeared in Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and “New York Undercover”.

Selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are now in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, thelmagazine.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Lia Chang Photos: Backstage at Mu Performing Arts’ Four Destinies by Katie Hae Leo,10/15-10/30

Sara Ochs, LaDawn James, Katie Bradley, Nora Montanez and Neil Schneider Photo by Lia Chang

The 2011 – 2012 Mu Performing Arts 20th Anniversary mainstage season lineup kicks off on October 15 at Mixed Blood Theatre with the world premiere of Four Destinies, directed by Suzy Messerole. The play by local playwright Katie Hae Leo is a satirical exploration of adoption through the eyes of Destiny Jones, a single character represented from four different ethnic backgrounds, as she/he grows up in a Minnesota family. Leo, herself a Korean adoptee, presents herself as a character determined to embody the overarching adoptee experience, both in youth and adulthood. Four Destinies has been in development for the past two years through Mu’s Jerome New Performance Program, a platform for emerging Asian American theater voices to create and present edgy new work.

Nora Montanez, Katie Bradley, Sara Ochs, LaDawn James, Maria Kelly, Shanan Custer Photo by Lia Chang

Mu Performing Arts Artistic director Rick Shiomi invited me to Minneapolis, providing me with an all-access pass to the production during rehearsals.

Don Eitel, Nicholas Freeman and Neil Schneider Photo by Lia Chang

Shanan Custer and LaDawn James Photo by Lia Chang

Nora Montanez Photo by Lia Chang

Sara Ochs Photo by Lia Chang

Don Eitel, Sara Ochs, Shanan Custer, Maria Kelly and Katie Bradley Photo by Lia Chang

Don Eitel, Shanan Custer and LaDawn James Photo by Lia Chang

Nicholas Freeman, Maria Kelly, Neil Schneider, Don Eitel, Shanan Custer, Katie Bradley Photo by Lia Chang

Nora Montanez Photo by Lia Chang

Nora Montanez, Katie Bradley and Sara Ochs Photo by Lia Chang

Four Destinies
by Katie Hae Leo
directed by Suzy Messerole
October 15 – 30, 2011
Mixed Blood Theatre
1501 S. 4th St
Minneapolis
Click here for tickets.

The Mu Performing Arts 2011-2012 season is sponsored by General Mills.
Mu Performing Arts Website

Chil Kong, Lia Chang, Rick Shiomi, Reme Grefalda and David Mura at Wasabi Restaurant before the opening night curtain of Mu Performing Arts'Four Destinies in Minneapolis, MN on October 15, 2011. Photo by Sun Mee Chomet

Other Articles on “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” & “In Rehearsal”
knightsarts.org: Inside the Four Destinies World Premiere
Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts
Photos: On the town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in D.C. & NY
Temple Press: Rick Shiomi recounts his tour for “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”
Mu Blog: Rick Shiomi’s Book Tour Logbook
knightarts.org: Reading on the road inside the book tour
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
Photos: Rick Shiomi Checks out Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection of Library of Congress; Attends “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” Book Signing in NY on 7/29 “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk
broadwayworld.com: Chinglish in Rehearsal
asiancemagazine.com: New Anthology of Asian American Plays Book Talk
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang and the cast of Mu Performing Arts' Four Destinies at Mixed Blood Theatre in Minneapolis, MN on October 15, 2011. Photo by Reme Grefalda

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Lia currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”. She has appeared in Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and “New York Undercover”.

Selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are now in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, thelmagazine.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.

Lia Chang: Up Close and Personal with Rick Shiomi, Award-winning Playwright & Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts

Rick Shiomi at a book party in New York for Asian American Plays for a New Generation on July 29, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

For nearly 30 years, groundbreaking Asian-North American playwright Rick Shiomi has worked as a successful theater and taiko artist, a theater director, and a composer. The Toronto native is the author of more than twenty plays, including my favorite, the award-winning Yellow Fever, which garnered Shiomi a 1982 Bay Area Theater Circle Critics Award, a 1982 “Bernie” for new play from the San Francisco Chronicle , and a 1984 Ontario Multicultural Theater Award.

Mask Dance, written and directed by Shiomi. Photo credit: Charissa Uemura Photography

Shiomi resides in Minneapolis, MN, where he has served as the artistic director of Mu Performing Arts, a pan-Asian performing arts organization he helped to co-found, for 19 years.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream, directed by Rick Shiomi. Photo credit: Charissa Uemura Photography

Lauded as a visionary force who has paved the way and provided opportunities for a generation of Asian American theater artists in the Midwest,Shiomi has been recognized with a 1990 Ruby Schaar Yoshino Playwriting Award for Uncle Tadao, a 2000 Minnesota State Arts Board Cultural Collaborations Award with Cha Yang and SteppingStone Theatre for Tiger Tales: Hmong Folktales, 2002 Asian-Pacific Leadership Award for Excellence & Innovation in the Arts from the State of Minnesota Council of Asian Pacific Minnesotans , a 2006 Award from the Powell Street Festival on the 30th anniversary of the Festival, and a 2007 Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision.

As the founder and artistic director of Mu Daiko, Mu Performing Arts’ taiko division, Shiomi was honored with a 1998 MN State Arts Board Cultural Collaborations Award for taiko drumming, a collaboration with Ragamala Music and Dance Theater, a 2002 Paddle and Drum Composition Award for Chrysanthemum Dawn and a 2004 Paddle and Drum Composition Award for Kiyomizu Cascade. He recently retired as the taiko leader with Iris Shiraishi taking over the leadership of Mu Daiko.

Rogers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song, with a new book by David Henry Hwang, directed by Rick Shiomi. Photo by Michal Daniel

This summer, Shiomi was on a week long book tour for Mu Performing Arts in Philadelphia, in Washington D.C. at the Library of Congress, and in New York, promoting “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” (Temple University Press, June 2011), which he co-edited with Josephine Lee and Don Eitel. Click here to read more about “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, available online at Amazon.com. http://www.amazon.com/Asian-American-Plays-New-Generation/dp/1439905169

Mu Performing Arts kicks off their 20th Anniversary with Four Destinies. Photo by Stephen Geffre

He is in pre-production as Mu Performing Arts’ kicks off their new season with the world premiere of Katie Hae Leo’s satirical exploration of adoption Four Destinies, directed by Suzy Messerole, on October 15 at Mixed Blood Theatre.

Playwrights David Henry Hwang, Philip Kan Gotanda and Rick Shiomi in San Francisco in 1988. A version of this photo appeared in a feature article in the Feb.- Mar. 1989 edition of Mother Jones. Photo by Cynthia Wallace

Shiomi is clad in a striped black shirt and black slacks when he slides into the banquette at Cinema Brasserie for our lunch during his short visit to New York. While noshing on fried calamari and a roasted turkey club, he reminisced about the good old days with fellow pioneering theater artists Philip Kan Gotanda, Marc Hayashi, David Henry Hwang and Lane Nishikawa, how he became a playwright, his path to success, the genesis of Mu Performing Arts, the Library of Congress, projects in the works and what’s in store as the company celebrates its 20th anniversary.

LC: How did you get into playwriting?
RS: For as long as I can remember, perhaps even into childhood, I felt this urge to write stories. Unfortunately, it took me a long time to firstly find something of my own to say and secondly, the medium of writing to express it. For example, I dreamed of writing the valedictorian speech for my high school graduation, but when I sat down to write nothing came out. So I put that dream away.

Rick Shiomi Photo by Lia Chang

During my university days I thought of writing but felt too inadequate to study English so I studied history and then political science. I graduated and left Toronto and moved to Vancouver, where I got my teaching diploma in 1972 and promptly left to travel the world. That trip around the world took two years but even then, when I tried to write some short stories in Hong Kong, nothing came out.

I returned to Vancouver in 1974 and gradually became involved in an Asian Canadian activist group that included a lot of artists, including many poets. I knew early on that I was a poor poet, and struggled mightily with my prose writing. I did get one story published in Time Capsule, a New York magazine but the primary discovery for me was that of Japanese Canadian history and the internment camps. I felt I had found my own motherlode of artistic treasure and now only needed to find the way to express it. The first incarnation was a Woody Allenesque short story detective comedy, with the main character inspired by a Nisei man who reminded me of the tv detective, Columbo. I wrote a hundred pages almost overnight.

Philip Kan Gotanda, Rick Shiomi and David Henry Hwang photos by Lia Chang

I had had the good fortune to get to know Philip Gotanda through his music but I knew he was also an emerging playwright at the time. And I asked him to read my detective comedy. After a few days, I asked Philip what he thought of my story and he pulled out one page and said he liked that one. He said he liked the dialogue, because it was tight and seemed to flow easily. He asked me if I had ever thought of turning it into a play and I said I hadn’t because there was no such thing as Asian Canadian theater at the time (circa 1979). So he suggested I submit the story to the Asian American Workshop in San Francisco, the company he had worked with on his plays. And that started me on a two year journey to adapt the short story into a play.

R.A. Shiomi's award-winning play Yellow Fever. Photo by John To

LC: What was the process of writing your first play like?
RS: I had to learn about playwriting from the ground up, with many laughable moments along the way. When the company asked me to submit an outline for the play, I put together an eight act, fifty scene outline. They eventually asked me to write a first draft of a the first act and I did so. On the basis of that, they took on my project with Marc Hayashi as my dramaturg. Marc worked with me for about a year, in which he guided me to my own writing, even to the extent of telling me to concentrate on the conflicts I had created in the first act. When I did, the lighbulb in my head began to turn on.

As fate would have it, Marc was cast in a show in New York and Lane Nishikawa was assigned to be my director for the actual production. As we worked through rehearsal and I rewrote virtually every scene, I felt like this was a time of grace for me because playwriting could not be this easy. I was right (fortunately and unfortunately) and as the play came together, I discovered my own particular style. The play, Yellow Fever, was produced in March 1982 and was a big hit for the company. It won both the Bay Area Theater Circle Critics Award and a “Bernie” for new play.

LC: What happened with you and Yellow Fever after that initial production?
RS: I sent it to Pan Asian Repertory Theater in New York and they produced it in December of that same year and it received rave reviews by Mel Gussow in the New York Times and Edith Oliver in the New Yorker Magazine. And suddenly I was a playwright, as if overnight, but in fact after fifteen years of searching for my own story and voice.

Tisa Chang, Artistic Producing Director of Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Carla Ching, Artistic Director of Second Generation, Rick Shiomi, Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts, Jorge Ortoll, Executive Director of Ma-Yi Theater Photo by Lia Chang

I would never have the same level of success again, having written over twenty plays over the past thirty years, but I am still a playwright and feel blessed for having that. My writing career of course never went as smoothly as that first play. I wrote such plays as Rosie’s Café, Uncle Tadao and Play Ball in the latter 1980’s into the 1990’s but though they got a number of productions, I never had the same success. Of course, Yellow Fever itself went on to be produced across the country over the next several years and cyclically gets revival productions as part of the classic canon of Asian American theater. By the early 1990’s I felt that I had somehow written the plays I had wanted to.

The Magic Bus to Asian Folktales by R.A. Shiomi, Cha Yang and Jaz Canlas. Photo courtesy of Mu Performing Arts

LC: What was the genesis of Mu Performing Arts?
RS: It began with Dong-il Lee, a U of M graduate student asking me to help him start an Asian American company in 1992. We involved theater professor Martha Johnson of Augsburg College, Diane Espaldon as the managing director and young artist Andrew Kim. Dong-il was the initial artistic director but left Minnesota after the first year and I took over. It took at least ten years to develop the core of our company but we are now riding a wave of talented young (under forty year olds) theater artists.

Walleye Kid: The Musical! by R.A. Shiomi and Sundraya Kase; Music by Kurt Miyashiro. Photo by John Autey

LC: What makes Mu Performing Arts unique?
RS: Mu has been in the forefront of not only developing new plays like Ching Chong Chinaman by Lauren Yee, Cowboy Versus Samurai by Michael Golamco and Asiamnesia by Sun Mee Chomet, but also combining traditional Asian art forms with contemporary Asian American stories, as in Walleye Kid, The Musical, and Filipino Hearts.

Filipino Hearts by R. A. Shiomi and Allen Malicsi, Music and Lyrics by Kurt Miyashiro. Photo courtesy of MU Performing Arts

LC: The Library of Congress just celebrated the launch of “Asian American Plays for A New Generation,” an anthology co-edited by you, Josephine Lee and Don Eitel, of a number of plays that were developed at Mu. In addition, LOC just created a collection in your name in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection, and will also be a repository for the archives of Mu Performing Arts. What does this mean to you?
RS: It means a tremendous step forward for our company. The anthology by Temple University Press gives a national recognition to our work this past ten years and ensures our company will be studied by the next generation of students at the university level. And a hundred years from now Mu Performing Arts may not exist, but our place in Asian American theater history will be secure in the Library of Congress.

Rick Shiomi in the Asian Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington D.C. on July 27, 2011. Photo by Lia Chang

LC: Do you have any writing projects in the works?
RS: I am in the process of talking to several prose writers about possible adaptations of their work for the stage, plus I have a few musical theater projects in the works. And as I myself am in the process of submitting my own personal files to the Library of Congress, I have come across several plays that have sparked my interest again.

LC: Is there a common theme in your plays?
RS: I am an Asian American playwright without doubt and so that’s my territory, but over the years I have become aware of how increasingly complex that territory is, and how much more fun and sophisticated we can all be as artists and activists.

LC: Where do you see yourself in three years?
RS: In three years I will be retired from Mu Performing Arts, leaving it with a bright future, I hope. I will, of course, continue as a consulting artist to Mu, but there are so many new and exciting ideas and talented Asian American artists that I feel free to take up any challenge or project and go with it.

LC: What inspires you?
RS: Talented people and challenging situations/issues. When I encounter someone with talent I am excited to work with them and give them whatever support I can. When I encounter difficult situations, like the issue of Korean adoption and the Hmong immigration, I want to bring more attention to it through our art.

LC: What are you most passionate about?
RS: I am most passionate about the next generation of Asian American theater artists and how they will find their place in the world, not just the American, theater landscape.

Stephen Sondheim's Into The Woods, reimagined and directed by Rick Shiomi. Photo by Stephen Geffre

LC: What’s on tap for the 2011-2012 Mu Performing Arts season, as the company celebrates its 20th year?
RS: We have new plays dealing with adoption (Four Destinies) and LGBTQI issues (Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them) and an Asian American re-imagining of the classic musical Into The Woods by Stephen Sondheim, which I will direct. We are always looking forward and yet respecting and interpreting the past. Click here to read more about Mu Performing Arts 2011-2012 20th Anniversary Season.
Mu Performing Arts Website

Other Articles by Lia Chang
Mu Performing Arts 2011-2012 20th Anniversary Season: Four Destinies, Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them, Into the Woods, & Mu Daiko 15th Anniversary Concert
Photos: On the town with Rick Shiomi, Co-Editor of “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, in D.C. & NY
Temple Press: Rick Shiomi recounts his tour for “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”
Mu Blog: Rick Shiomi’s Book Tour Logbook
knightarts.org: Reading on the road inside the book tour
Extended through 8/23- “In Rehearsal” Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Featuring Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, Thom Sesma as Scar in The Lion King Las Vegas
Broadwayworld.com Photo Flash: Library of Congress’ IN REHEARSAL Exhibit
Lia Chang Theater Portfolio at Library of Congress Features Photos of Thom Sesma’s Makeup Transformation as Scar in Disney’s The Lion King Las Vegas, Robert Lee and Leon Ko’s Heading East Starring BD Wong, David Henry Hwang’s Chinglish, and Samrat Chakrabarti and Sanjiv Jhaveri’s Bakwas Bumbug! on View Through August 2
Photos: Rick Shiomi Checks out Performing Arts Playwrights Series in the Asian American Pacific Islander Collection of Library of Congress; Attends “Asian American Plays for a New Generation” Book Signing in NY on 7/29 “Asian American Plays for a New Generation”, A New Anthology of Asian American Plays Is Subject of Book Talk
broadwayworld.com: Chinglish in Rehearsal
asiancemagazine.com: New Anthology of Asian American Plays Book Talk
Portraits of New York Chinatown After 9/11 Featured in “Post 9/11”: Commemorative Display at Library of Congress Asian Reading Room, 8/30-9/15
Photos: Christine Toy Johnson, Angela Lin, Louis Ozawa Changchien, Jake Manabat, David Shih in Jen Silverman’s Crane Story at The Cherry Lane
Goodman Theatre World Premiere of David Henry Hwang’s Broadway Bound “Chinglish” Scores 5 Jeff Award Nods
H I R O S H I M A in Benefit Concert for Japan on 9/21 at B.B. King Blues Club & Grill in NY
Tony Award Winner Lea Salonga Leads Stellar Cast in First All-Filipino Concert for Philippine Development Foundation, “PhilDev Celebrates Broadway: Suites by Sondheim” at Alice Tully Hall on 11/7
OCA Awards Gala Photos: David Henry Hwang, Tamlyn Tomita, BD Wong, Dr. Bobby Fong & Tammy Duckworth
Click here for the Lia Chang Articles Archive and here for the Lia Chang Photography Website.

Lia Chang Photo by Brianne Michelle Photography

Lia Chang is an actor, performance and fine art botanical photographer, and an award-winning multimedia journalist.

As a photographer and videographer, Lia collaborates with artists, organizations and companies in establishing their documentary photo archive and social media presence. She has been documenting her colleagues and contemporaries in the arts, fashion and journalism since making her stage debut as Liat in the National Tour of South Pacific, with Robert Goulet and Barbara Eden. Lia currently plays Nurse Lia on “One Life to Live”. She has appeared in Wolf, New Jack City, A Kiss Before Dying, King of New York, Big Trouble in Little China, The Last Dragon, Taxman and “New York Undercover”.

Selections of Lia’s archive of Asian Pacific Americans in the arts, fashion, journalism, politics and space are now in the newly created LIA CHANG THEATER PORTFOLIO in the ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN PERFORMING ARTS COLLECTION housed in the Library of Congress Asian Division’s Asian American Pacific Islander Collection.

Lia’s portraits and performance photos have appeared in Vanity Fair, Gourmet, German Elle, Women’s Wear Daily, The Paris Review, TV Guide, Daily Variety, Interior Design, American Theatre, Broadwayworld.com, Life & Style, OUT, New York Magazine, InStyle, Timeout.com, Villagevoice.com, Playbill.com, Theatermania.com, thelmagazine.com, The Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, USA Today, The Boston Globe, New York Times and Washington Post. A former syndicated arts and entertainment columnist for KYODO News, Lia is the New York Bureau Chief for AsianConnections.com. She writes about culture, style and Asian American issues for a variety of publications and this Backstage Pass with Lia Chang blog.

All text, graphics, articles & photographs: © 2000-2011 Lia Chang Multimedia. All rights reserved. All materials contained on this site are protected by United States copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Lia Chang. You may not alter or remove any trademark, copyright or other notice from copies of the content. For permission, please contact Lia at liachangpr@gmail.com.