Theatre Diaspora and Breaking Glass

Portland is a popular theatre city. I’ve even had the pleasure of interviewing some folks at the Artists Repertory Theater for their innovative productions. However, Portland’s demographic makeup is not well-represented in the various theatre companies around town. So it’s incredible to feature the first-ever Asian American Pacific Islander theatre company: Theatre Diaspora! This is a project of MediaRites Productions, and headed up by my mentor, Dmae Roberts.

As we kicked off Asian Pacific American heritage month, I sat down with folks from Theatre Diaspora to learn about its beginnings, its motivations and intentions and the exciting projects ahead. Included is Dmae’s play, Breaking Glass, which has stage readings for May 9th (Artists Rep) and May 17th (Portland Center Stage). Breaking Glass is a story based on her family’s experiences as the only mixed race family in their town outside of Eugene, OR.

I met with Wynee Hu, Larry Toda and Samson Syharath at our KBOO studio, live, for KBOO’s arts program, Stage & Studio. Dmae Roberts joined us by phone. Check out the podcast!

Air date: 5/5/2015