From left, Rick Shiomi, artistic director, Mu Performing Arts, with performers, Katie Bradley and Sun Mee Chomet, discussing the life experience of Korean adoptees in America and how it inspired their theater writing and acting as adults. The two performed as part of the Week of Mu, an open-house series Friday at the Lowry Lab Theater in St. Paul. (AAP Staff photo by Tom LaVenture)

ST. PAUL, Minn. (August 25, 2010) – A week of free performances offered a glimpse of the wealth of talent at Mu Performing Arts, and will likely encourage many to look into the upcoming Mu season of full taiko and theater productions. This past Friday, two Mu actresses performed brief one-act solo performances called “My Story: All American Girl,” on stage in the Lowery Theater – the same building where the new Mu Performing Arts offices are located in downtown St. Paul. The two then joined Mu Artistic Director Rick Shiomi for a post-performance dialogue.

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The Unit Collective, an independent group of emerging playwrights of color and theater artists – has several productions involved with the Minneapolis Fringxe Festival this month.

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St. Paul-based playwright and performance artist May Lee-Yang is at it again. This time, she is presenting Confessions of a Lazy Hmong Woman at the Minnesota Fringe Festival with performances taking place at the University of Minnesota west bank in the Xperimental Theater on 330 – 21st Avenue S., Minneapolis.

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The Unit Collective, an independent group of emerging playwrights of color and theater artists – has several productions involved with the Minneapolis Fringe Festival this month. Split between two bills, the Unit Collective presents a collection of 10-minute plays by nine local EWOCs (Emerging Writers of Color) from is monthly series, Minneapolis Madness. These works take theatrical risks like few others as they explore politics, relationships, personal enlightenment and, of course, porn star fantasies.

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Saymoukda Vongsay

Minnesota writer Saymoukda Vongsay is organizing Operation Gynocracy: A 1 Night Stand With 12 Women on July 28, 7:00 p.m. at the Black Dog Cafe on 308 Prince Street in Lowertown Saint Paul. Curated with Hmong American writer May Lee-Yang and featuring DJ Kool Akiem on the 1s and 2s, “Nothing is sacred, politically correct, or too sensitive to touch as twelve women will let the kitty out of the bag through poetry, prose, song, and laughter,” according to Vongsay.

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Minneapolis (July 14, 2010) – The Playwrights’ Center has named Lisa Brimmer, Reginald Edmund, Kathryn Haddad, Shira Naharit, and Eric “Pogi” Sumangil as the 2010-11 Jerome Many Voices Fellows.

Underwritten by a grant from the Jerome Foundation, the Many Voices Fellowship program enriches the American theater by offering playwriting fellowships to Minnesota artists of color. Many Voices is designed to increase cultural diversity in the contemporary theater, both locally and nationally, through cash grants, education, and opportunities to develop new work with theater professionals.

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By Bryan Thao Worra

AAP staff writer

From the Monkey King to a Pirate of the Caribbean and Lao refugees, Ova Saopeng has played many roles in his career.

A Lao American actor and writer, he has been in the Pirates of the Caribbean films and both the Monkey King AND the Dragon King in the Minnesota production of Laurence Yep’s Dragonwings. He also performs in Refugee Nation and his one-man play, LSL: Lao As A Second Language and many others. A key member of Theater TeAda, he has lived in Hawaii and currently resides in Los Angeles.

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Pangea World Theater will produce the world premiere play Ady July 9-25, 2010, Thursday – Sunday, 7:30 p.m. at the Playwrights’ Center, 2301 East Franklin Avenue, Minneapolis. Written by Rhiana Yazzie and directed by Hayley Finn, Ady is a thought provoking story of Adrienne Fidelin (Ady), a dancer from the island of Guadeloupe. The play combines dance and image, history and imagination to bring her story to life.

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Deconstructing boundaries between artists and audiences during the artistic development process, the Alternate Visions Festival presents readings, works in progress and a world premiere. Join Pangea World Theater for an aesthetically diverse array of new voices whose work demonstrates the transformations of our culture through a series of events.

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By TOM LAVENTURE

AAP staff writer

Actress Katie Bradley jumped at the chance to portray a character that offered her pride and empowerment as a teenager. Bradley portrays Mulan, Jr., the legendary teen princess and Chinese hero in the Children’s Theatre Company musical that runs through June 13, 2010.

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