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Rick Shiomi

Birth Place: Toronto

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Rick Shiomi BIO

As a playwright and director, Rick Shiomi (R.A. Shiomi) has been one of the leading figures of the Asian American theater movement since the early 1980s. Relocating to Minnesota in the 1990s, he was one of the founders of Theater Mu and is presently the Artistic Director of Mu Performing Arts. 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. 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. He is the 2007 recipient of the Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision and a 2012 recipient of the Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement. Shiomi is a 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. 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.

Rick Shiomi News


Interview: Martha Johnson of ANTIGONICK at Full Circle Theater Company


ANTIGONE is an ancient Greek play by Sophokles that depicts Antigone's heroic public defiance of King Kreon's tyrannical rule. This ever relevant play explores themes of love, family, loyalty, and civil disobedience.

Interview: Rick Shomi of ANTIGONICK at Full Circle Theater Company


ANTIGONE is an ancient Greek play by Sophokles that depicts Antigone's heroic public defiance of King Kreon's tyrannical rule. This ever relevant play explores themes of love, family, loyalty, and civil disobedience.

Theater Mu Will Host AAPI Generations Conference


To celebrate AAPI Heritage Month, Theater Mu's 30th anniversary season, and Asian American theater as a whole, we're bringing some of the field's luminaries to the Twin Cities in a weekend of artist talks, exhibits, our annual New Eyes play-reading festival, and more. Each event will be centered on at least one of Theater Mu’s tenets of Asian American stories, art, and social justice.

Pan Asian Repertory Theatre to Conclude 46th Season With YELLOW FEVER Reading & New Play Festival


To commemorate Asian Heritage Month in May, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre will wrap up its 46th milestone season with two noteworthy events.

Review: THE SONG POET at Minnesota Opera


What did our critic think of THE SONG POET at Minnesota Opera? The first Hmong story adapted for the operatic stage, St. Paul writer Kao Kalia Yang's memoir The Song Poet comes to life in this world premiere. It tells the story of Yang's family and her song poet father as war drives them from the mountains of Laos into a Thai refugee camp and ultimately on to the challenging world of life as a refugee. With his poetry, Kalia's father inspires hope in his family, polishing their reality so that they might shine.

Interview: Kao Kalia Yang, Jocelyn Hagen, Rick Shiomi,Tiffany Chang of THE SONG POET at Minnesota Opera


The first Hmong story adapted for the operatic stage, St. Paul writer Kao Kalia Yang's memoir The Song Poet comes to life in this world premiere. It tells the story of Yang's family and her song poet father as war drives them from the mountains of Laos into a Thai refugee camp and ultimately on to the challenging world of life as a refugee. With his poetry, Kalia's father inspires hope in his family, polishing their reality so that they might shine.

The National Theatre Conference Announces 2022 Award Recipients


The National Theatre Conference is honoring new and long-time organizations and individuals who affect and inspire the field, and has named the recipients of its 2022 awards.

Theater Mu Announces 2022/23 Season Featuring Four World Premieres


To celebrate 30 years of Theater Mu, its 2022/23 season—dubbed the Pearl Anniversary season—will feature four world premieres and a conference honoring Asian American theater luminaries. 

Centerstage Theatre to Present YELLOW FEVER


Centerstage is pleased to present Yellow Fever by Rick Shiomi, a noir-genre detective thriller set in the Pacific Northwest, and told through the lens of the Japanese and Chinese immigrant communities in the 1970s. The shadows of the internment camps linger over a vibrant community as it fights to establish itself just a few decades after losing so much. In the midst of it all is detective Sam Shikaze, a nisei private eye...and he’s got a story to tell.

Firehall Arts Centre Presents YELLOW FEVER, May 28- June 12


The Firehall Arts Centre closes its 2021-2022 Reunion Season with the presentation of its production, Yellow Fever, from Saturday, May 28 to Sunday, June 12.

BWW Interview: Lara Trujillo of ATACAMA at Full Circle Theater Company


​​​​​​​Amidst the extraordinary landscape of Chile's Atacama desert, two strangers search for the long-lost remains of their children, 'disappeared' victims of the brutal Pinochet regime. In their quest for closure, they traverse Chile's history to examine the opposing views and actions that tore families and countries apart. Their mythic journey explores the transformative possibilities that can lead from transgression to remorse, reparation, forgiveness, and redemption.

BWW Review: MAN OF GOD at Theater Mu


Theater Mu is the second-largest Asian American Theatre in the nation. Mu (pronounced MOO) is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character for the shaman/artist/warrior who connects the heavens and the earth through the tree of life.

NEW EYES FESTIVAL 2021: UN(SCENE) to be Presented by Theater Mu


To mark Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this May, Theater Mu announced NEW EYES FESTIVAL: UN(SCENE) as part of the current 2020-2021 season. Theater Mu's longest-running tradition, the New Eyes Festival, has become a much-anticipated annual series of staged readings of new works from Asian American playwrights.

BWW Interview: Playwright Susan Soon He Stanton Commemorating Her BIRTHDAY & Episodic Works


Minnesota’s Theater Mu's first mainstage production since the pandemic lockdown - playwright Susan Soon He Stanton's TODAY IS MY BIRTHDAY  - will be live broadcasted February 5 through February 14, 2021, with video-on-demand available February 15 through February 21, 2021. In support of Theatre Mu, East West Players is including BIRTHDAY in its 55th anniversary season as a part of an East West Passport membership.

Theater Mu Gathers 30 Artists From Across The Country For TWENTYPHO HOUR PLAYFEST


Theater M­u presents the TwentyPho Hour PlayFest, its first ever play festival featuring thirty theater artists creating brand new plays in under 24 hours.

HOLD YOUR HAND TWIN CITIES by James A. Rocco


Minneapolis and Saint Paul theatre artists joined James A. Rocco to create HOLD YOUR HAND TWIN CITIES, proving #NothingCanStopLiveTheatre

Anna May Wong Bioplay By Core Writer John Olive Next Up At The Playwrights' Center


Actress Anna May Wong (1905-1961) was incredibly prolific, appearing in silent movies, 'talkies,' television, plays and vaudeville. She was also stifled by a close-minded industry which largely limited the Chinese American actress to stereotyped roles, and the Hays code which kept her out of romantic leads.

Anna May Wong Bioplay By Core Writer John Olive Next Up At The Playwrights' Center


Actress Anna May Wong (1905-1961) was incredibly prolific, appearing in silent movies, 'talkies,' television, plays and vaudeville. She was also stifled by a close-minded industry which largely limited the Chinese American actress to stereotyped roles, and the Hays code which kept her out of romantic leads.

North Korean Refugee Story to Make Philadelphia Premiere at InterAct Theatre Company


Why would you run from the "greatest country in the world"? InterAct Theatre Company presents Mia Chung's expressionistic and intensely relevant story of two sisters' perilous journey as they flee oppression in North Korea. You for Me for You is a harrowing, poetic, and satirical tale that creates metaphorical context for larger questions of immigration, assimilation, and human connection, casting a light on the culture clash between American values and North Korea's notoriously inscrutable regime. 

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