Mu Performing Arts

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Theater Mu, located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, is the leading Asian American arts organization in the Midwest, the second largest in the country.

Theater Mu was founded in 1992 by playwright, director,^{[clarification needed]} and taiko artist Rick Shiomi, along with Dong-il Lee, Diane Espaldon, and Martha Johnson. Six years later, the organization changed its name to Mu Performing Arts after starting a professional taiko drumming program known as Mu Daiko.

After serving as Artistic Director for 21 years, Shiomi stepped down in 2013. Organizational changes occurred in 2017 as Mu Daiko transitioned to become a separate non-profit arts organization, TaikoArts Midwest, and Mu reverted to its original name of Theater Mu. Reyes stepped down as Artistic Director in 2018.

Since its inception in 1993, Theater Mu's New Eyes Festival is an annual tradition featuring staged readings of new works, and the festival continues to be its longest running program. Mu's productions have been as varied in content and form as their performers and audiences including world premieres of new works by Leah Nanako Winkler and local playwright May Lee-Yang, re-imagined productions of Shakespeare and Sondheim,^{[clarification needed]} and collaborations with other theaters such as Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Jungle Theater, Penumbra Theatre Company, Park Square Theatre and Guthrie Theater to bring plays by award-winning playwrights such as David Henry Hwang, Carla Ching, and Lauren Yee.

Theater Mu is a member of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists, Minnesota Theater Alliance, Americans for the Arts, and Theatre Communications Group. Mu is also a member of the Twin Cities Theatres of Color Coalition standing alongside New Native Theatre, Pangea World Theater, Penumbra Theatre, and Teatro Del Pueblo.

"Mu is the Korean pronunciation of the Chinese character Mu for the shaman-artist-warrior who connects the heavens and the earth through the tree of life."^{[citation needed]}