CREATIVE TEAM

Rick Shiomi (Writer) has been involved in Asian American theater for over forty years, as a playwright, director and artistic director.  He received the McKnight Foundation Distinguished Artist Award in 2015, the Ivey Award for Lifetime Achievement in 2012 and the Sally Ordway Irvine Award for Vision in 2007. He has written over twenty plays, including the award-winning Yellow Fever, Rosie’s Café and Uncle Tadao. His most recent plays are Fire In The New World produced by Full Circle Theater in 2022 and Secret Warriors produced in 2025 by the History Theatre in St. Paul, Minnesota. He was a co-founder of Theater Mu and the artistic director from 1993 to 2013. He has directed for Theater Mu, InterAct Theatre in Philadelphia, Theatre Esprit Asia in Denver and the Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco. For Mu, he directed Into The Woods set in Asia, The Mikado set in Edwardian England and Yellow Face at the Dowling Studio of the Guthrie Theater. For Interact Theatre he directed the world premiere of Caught by Christopher Chen in 2014 for which he received a Barrymore Award nomination for Outstanding Direction. He played taiko for thirty years and was the founder in 1997 and the leader of Mu Daiko until 2010.  He received a Doris Duke Charitable Foundation grant to develop Asian American theater in Philadelphia in 2015-2020 and he is currently the co-artistic director of Full Circle Theater in Minnesota.

Ron Nakahara (Director) is an actor/director based in New York City.  He has acted in Theater, Film and TV in the United States and London. He is a Senior Artist with New York’s Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. His production at Fulton Opera House (Lancaster, PA) of MISS EVER’S BOYS won him a best director award.  He has served on several NEA panels and was one of the first recipients of an NEA/TCG Directing Fellowship.  He is a member of SDC, SAG-AFTRA, and AEA.  Ron attended the University of Hawaii where he studied with acting teachers Glenn Cannon from NY and Terry Knapp from The Royal Shakespeare Co., as well as with Kikunobu Onoe (Kabuki acting and dance) and National Treasure of Japan in Kyogen, Nomura Mansaku.  In Hawaii he also trained with noted voice teacher Kristen Linklater, and in NY with Sandra Antognazzi in Tango. Website: www.ronnakahara.com Performing Arts Legacy Project: performingartslegacy.org/nakahararon