Seeking Volunteers to Serve on Mu's Board of Directors
Taylor West, Mars Niemi, Alyssa Taiber, Kiko Laureano, & Eliana Durnbaugh in Ankita Raturi’s Fifty Boxes of Earth (2025). Photo by Rich Ryan.
Theater Mu is the largest Asian American theater company in the Midwest and has received national recognition for its artistic excellence and community engagement. Founded in 1992, its mission is to produce great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience.
Each year, the board of directors evaluates its own composition and identifies priority areas of recruitment. All interested individuals are encouraged to apply. Note that, during the 2025/26 season, Theater Mu is seeking to add 3-6 new members for 2- or 3-year terms which can be renewed for up to 6 years. The board is particularly excited about recruiting people with these demographic identities, experiences, and/or expertise:
Member of, connected to, or has lived experience within the Southeast Asian diaspora.
Expertise in nonprofit financial management, technology/data security, human services, and/or employment law.
Proven ability to take initiative in fundraising efforts, including making new donor introductions and supporting development strategies.
Leadership experience in theater arts and/or nonprofit management.
In addition, all members of the board must:
Demonstrate a passion for theater arts.
Be willing and able to commit time, treasure, and/or talent into their volunteer board service.
Commit to further individual and organizational anti-racism work rooted in Theater Mu’s values.
How to apply:
Priority deadline to apply is Mar 31, although Mu recruits board members on a rolling basis throughout the year. Candidates are asked to fill out a short interest form, and if appropriate, they may be invited to meet with the artistic director, managing director, and at least two current board members. If you have any questions about the role or the process, please contact board@theatermu.org.
PURPOSE OF THE BOARD & INDIVIDUAL DUTIES
To satisfy its governance and fiduciary duties, the board of directors is responsible for:
Reviewing the mission of the organization and refining it when appropriate.
Hiring, supporting, and evaluating the performance of the artistic director and managing director.
Supporting strategic and organizational planning in partnership with staff leadership.
Ensuring strong fiduciary oversight and financial management.
Supporting fund, resource, and/or network development.
Serving as an advocate and ambassador for Theater Mu.
Reviewing and updating organizational bylaws.
Assessing its own performance as the governing body of the organization.
Ensuring legal and ethical integrity by:
Upholding the legal duties and laws regarding nonprofit governance.
Dutifully following the organization’s bylaws, policies, and board resolutions.
Signing an annual conflict-of-interest disclosure and updating it as necessary during the year, as well as disclosing potential conflicts before meetings and actual conflicts during meetings.
Maintaining confidentiality about all internal matters of the organization.
Each individual board member is expected to:
Understand and be able to articulate the organization’s mission, policies, and programs as relevant.
Prepare for and actively participate in board meetings, attending at least 80% of scheduled meetings per year.
Read and understand the organization’s financial statements and board materials in advance of meetings.
Leverage own connections, networks, and resources to develop collective action to achieve the organization’s mission.
Meaningfully give donation of time, treasure, and/or talent.
Participate in committees or taskforces as needed.
Actively live the organizational values through meeting participation.
Be cognizant of the governance role and not overstep into directing the management of staff activities.
Be willing to step into a leadership role at some point during their terms of service. Leadership can look like serving on the executive committee, chairing a committee, leading a taskforce, and/or representing Mu in public-facing engagements.
Represent Mu as a board member at performances, events, and other external-facing engagements.
Time commitment:
Plan to devote about 3-5 hours per month, depending on the current needs of the organization. This time includes:
In-person board meetings every two months, hybrid option may be available depending on location (~2 hours).
Committee meetings, monthly (1-2 hours).
Presence as a board member at Mu’s events, meetings, and performances as requested.
Regular one-on-one meetings with executive leadership, as needed.
Benefits of joining the board:
Becoming a part of and growing the legacy of Theater Mu, a nationally recognized Asian American theater company.
Joining the community of passionate people, artists, and supporters of the Twin Cities theater arts scene.
Shifting the narrative of Asian American art and artists by supporting Mu's outreach, educational, and artistic programming, and by expanding our communities through connections and networking.
THEATER MU HISTORY
Theater Mu was founded in 1992 and is the largest Asian American theater company in the Midwest. The company name, 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.
Since its inception, Theater Mu has received national recognition for its artistic excellence and community engagement. Mu's productions include world premieres by Lauren Yee, Leah Nanako Winkler, and local playwright May Lee-Yang; re-imagined productions of Shakespeare and Sondheim musicals, and collaborations with other theaters such as Mixed Blood Theatre Company, Jungle Theater, Penumbra, Park Square Theatre, and the Guthrie Theater to bring plays by award-winning playwrights such as David Henry Hwang, Carla Ching, and Lloyd Suh. All performances are Pay As You Are when possible, a practice established in 2017 to further remove access barriers for the communities Mu represents.
Theater Mu's educational and outreach programs include Mu Stories school residencies, Mu Explorations youth summer camp, and community partner events such as storytelling workshops and film screenings. To shepherd emerging artists and new voices into Asian American theater, Mu has continued its play-reading festival, New Eyes, first established in 1992 as New Voices, and has formalized its classes and on-the-job learning fellowships with the Mu Training Institute (MTI).
Theater Mu is a founding member of the Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists and is a member of the Minnesota Theater Alliance, Americans for the Arts, National New Play Network, 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, Teatro Del Pueblo, Ikidowin, and New Arab American Theatre Works.
Primary Artistic Values
To give voice and cultural profile to the Asian American community.
To offer opportunities for mainstream audiences to gain insight into and empathy for Asian American culture and heritage.
To provide professional development opportunities for emerging Asian American artists.
To promote awareness of and progressive action on issues of social justice and gender equality in society.
To move, provoke, and challenge our audiences to understand, embrace, and celebrate diversity.