Listen to costume designer Beaver Bauer, playwright and performer Brenda Wong Aoki and choreographer Kimi Okada for a behind-the-scenes look at the making of MU, an ambitious dance drama inspired by a San Francisco fable of interconnection and environmental responsibility. Moderated by exhibition co-curator Trisha Lagaso Goldberg, the conversation explores the creative exchanges, artistic decisions and collaborative processes that transform an idea into a fully realized theatrical experience.
Beaver Bauer is a San Francisco-based artist and costume designer whose career spans more than five decades. She began as a performer, writer and designer with the groundbreaking Angels of Light Free Theater in the 1970s. Her imaginative, often extravagant creations have appeared on stages across the country, from American Conservatory Theater to Teatro ZinZanni, where she served as resident designer. Her work is the subject of From Street to Stage with Beaver Bauer at the San Francisco Public Library.
Brenda Wong Aoki is an acclaimed playwright, performer and founder of First Voice, a San Francisco-based theater company dedicated to exploring identity, ancestry and cultural memory through performance. Her work combines storytelling, music, movement and theatrical traditions. With her late husband, composer Mark Izu, she created MU, a dance drama featuring live jazz, an underwater odyssey and a San Francisco teenager's journey toward understanding the interconnectedness of all life. The production was commissioned by the National Endowment for the Arts and Gerbode Foundation.
Kimi Okada is a founding member of ODC and an acclaimed choreographer whose work spans dance, theater, opera and circus. She has created more than 30 works for ODC/Dance and collaborated with artists including Bill Irwin, Julie Taymor and Robin Williams. She received a Tony Award nomination for Largely New York and an Isadora Duncan Award for Two If by Sea. Since 1996, she has directed the ODC School, advancing dance education for youth and adults.
Trisha Lagaso Goldberg is an educator and independent curator whose practice extends from Hawaiʻi and the San Francisco Bay Area to an international stage. She is Director of Programming & Engagement at the Anderson Collection at Stanford University. Her exhibitions include Carlos Villa: Worlds in Collision, Lands End and Remittance. Current projects include Fault Lines: Reshaping Bay Area Figuration, Noguchi x Hawaiʻi and From the Street to the Stage with Beaver Bauer, which she co-curated for the San Francisco Public Library.