Drumming Up Success

Mu is best known for making theater that blends Asian and Western artistic forms. It finds new ways to tell Asian folktales that connect immigrants to their native cultures and produces new work that speaks to and reflects third- and fourth-generation Pan-Asians, many of whom don’t feel a connection to traditional ethnic activities. By opening up that dialogue, Mu gives all Twin Citians something rarely seen on American stages: stories about Asian Americans told from their own point of view.

Shiomi is one of those offspring who wasn’t feeling the connection. He was looking for people who had ties to their native heritage, but who weren’t interested in Japanese classical dance, bonsai cultivation, or other traditional activities. In other words, he was searching for people like himself. In his late twenties, he saw a daiko group perform. Soon after, he joined groups in Vancouver and then in San Francisco, and became ensconced in the growing Pan-Asian theater community.

While working in Vancouver in 1980, Shiomi showed fellow playwrights Hwang and Gotanda one of his short stories. Gotanda encouraged Shiomi to flesh out the piece, and it eventually morphed into Shiomi’s first play. The 1983 Off–Broadway run of Shiomi’s Yellow Fever was produced by New York’s Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, and subsequently by theaters in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minneapolis, and Tokyo. It is Shiomi’s most widely produced play.

Yellow Fever is an old-fashioned detective story that was important, says Hwang, because it “introduced an Asian-Canadian sensibility to North America.” The success of Yellow Fever cemented Shiomi’s reputation as a formidable artist in the Asian-American theater community, and he began forging ahead with what would become his life’s work. Says Hwang, “Rick has found his ideal home at Mu. He is not only a great artist, but also a great supporter and inspirer of other artists. He has in some sense a social vision, which brings together individuals to create new worlds.”

Thanks to Shiomi’s dedication to his company, in 2006 the New York City–based nonprofit organization Theatre Communications Group awarded Mu a New Generations career development grant. The purpose of the grant, says TCG artistic programs director Emilya Cachapero, is to retain younger artists in the theater as they face increasing financial instability and to ensure that there are properly prepared up-and-coming theater artists “who will be able to hold key positions of leadership in the field,” such as artistic directorships.

Courtesy of the TCG grant, for the next two years local actor and director Randy Reyes will learn the ins and outs of Mu Performing Arts and, one hopes, apply those skills later in his career. For Reyes, thirty-four, his position as artistic and producing associate means he has more on his plate than acting. He will run Mu’s annual play-development program New Eyes Festival and direct some of Mu’s main-stage productions.

“I’ve been artistic director for almost thirteen years,” says Shiomi. “I’m not looking at doing another twenty here, but I want the opportunity to share all of my experience. It’s not necessarily that Randy will take over.” Jack Reuler of Mixed Blood, Lou Bellamy of Penumbra, and the artistic directors of other leading theater companies won’t be around forever, Shiomi warns, and the Twin Cities theater community will need people to take their place. To that end, the TCG grant provides Reyes with a salary and pays off some of his student-loan debt, to give Reyes—and Mu—time to grow without financial pressure.

Reyes, a Filipino American whose first language is Tagalog, also runs acting workshops at Mu. “It’s very interesting to work with these young Asian-American actors,” says Reyes, his English perfect. “For a lot of them, English is a second language. In [mainstream] acting classes, the language barrier is not dealt with. I didn’t realize it was such a burden for Asian-American actors—things like syntax and where to put emphasis. It creates insecurity. Having an Asian-American instructor enables this conversation to happen.”