Photos: First Look at the Cast of FIFTY BOXES OF EARTH at Theater Mu

Theater Mu is producing the world premiere of Ankita Raturi’s Fifty Boxes of Earth at Park Square Theatre from Mar 1-16. Conceived as a creative response to Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the play follows the multidisciplinary tradition of South Asian performing arts by weaving in choreography by Ananya Chatterjea and puppet design by Oanh Vu and Andrew Young.  Directing the production is kt shorb, who also served as its dramaturg during this past November’s developmental workshop and reading in partnership with the Playwrights’ Center. Check out photos of the cast below!

In Raturi’s play, Q has just moved to the neighborhood, but instead of a bed, they brought fifty boxes of earth for the community garden. When Q starts cultivating fantastical, improbable plants, one man’s distrust grows even as his young daughter reaches out in friendship.

While the skeletal structure of Dracula is embedded into the script, Raturi has created a unique world and story that stands completely on its own. “The dance and the puppetry can take any form to bring the story into specific cultural contexts as well as ground us in this magical non-place that is everywhere and nowhere at once,” she adds.

After all, an immigrant wanting a better life for their family is a universal truth. Even at the New Eyes play reading in November, audience members naturally compared the history of the play’s world to their own experiences and other cultural histories.

Bringing the world premiere to life is Che’Li as Q; Alex Galick (Purple Cloud , Twelfth Night , A Little Night Music) as Jon Harker, the community garden manager; and Mina Moua as Mina Harker (The Song Poet in a collaboration led by Minnesota Opera); as well as a movement ensemble composed of Eliana Durnbaugh, Kiko Laureano, Mars Niemi, Alyssa Taiber (The Kung Fu Zombies Saga: Shaman Warrior Cannibals), and Taylor West.

Fifty Boxes of Earth kicks off Theater Mu’s 2024/25 mainstage season, the Depths of Us, which focuses largely on South Asian and queer stories. The world premiere has received support from the Venturous Theater Fund of the Tides Foundation and the Minnesota Humanities Center.

Photo Credit: Rich Ryan

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