Play means to help people of mixed race find sense of belonging |
Play means to help people of mixed race find sense of belonging
MPR News
Minnesota Public Radio
2015-12-15
Marianne Combs, Arts and Culture Reporter
 “Purple Cloud,” written by Jessica Huang and directed by Randy Reyes, looks at three generations of hapa, or mixed race, Chinese immigrants as they search to find a place where they belong. Courtesy Keri Pickett | Mu Performing Arts |
“What are you?” It’s a question that people of mixed race get all the time.
“Purple Cloud,” a new play produced by Mu Performing Arts, explores what it means to be of mixed race. It’s inspired by playwright Jessica Huang’s own experiences growing up mixed race, and it tells the story of one family’s journey of self-discovery.
“For most of my life I had been struggling with feeling outside, because I’m not white and I’m not Chinese, and I didn’t really know where I belonged,” she explained. “But there was a theater director in town … and she saw me across the room and she pointed at me and said, ‘You — you’re hapa.’
“And I had no idea what that word meant.”…
Read or listen to the story here.
Tags: Jessica Huang, Marianne Combs, MPR News, Mu Performing Arts, Randy Reyes