Theater Mu meets the political moment with a world premiere play
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Though playwright Ankita Raturi began writing “Fifty Boxes of Earth” in 2021, its themes of xenophobia, colonialism and transphobia remain relevant.
“We have a lot of folks working on this project who are, I would say, kind of directly threatened by the xenophobic and transphobic policies that we’re seeing come out,” Raturi said about executive orders from the Trump Administration targeting diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives and the trans community.
“We did the workshop in November of 2024 post election, and we started rehearsals in January of 2025, post inauguration,” Raturi said.
The world premiere is being produced by Theater Mu in St. Paul. It began, however, as a grad school assignment Raturi had where she was tasked with adapting a work.
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She chose Bram Stoker’s “Dracula,” but instead of an Eastern European vampire, Raturi created “Q,” a nonbinary immigrant — flipping the narrative of a scary foreigner on its head.
“I think it stands very much on its own, but I’ve taken, definitely, names from the text and kind of redefined the relationships a little bit,” Raturi said.
The show utilizes puppetry and South Asian dance in its storytelling. Katie Bradley, Theater Mu’s interim artistic director, described the production as epic in nature, but simple.
“It’s incredibly important, like an important story, and it is executed in a really beautiful way.”
The play’s name references a detail from Stoker’s novel. Dracula brings Transylvanian dirt with him for his coffin, while Q takes soil from their homeland to plant a garden, saying in the play: “This is the earth that knows my roots.”
This passage in the book got Raturi to see Dracula as an immigrant.
“Dracula needs the earth that he comes from in order to live,” Raturi said, relating to the metaphor as a South Asian American.
“You need things from your past, from your lineage, in order to truly hold on or pass anything on.”
In the play, Q is met with resistance from Jon Harker, a community garden manager who is wary of Q’s gardening methods. He is also concerned about Q’s friendship with his daughter — a theme that dramatizes a stigma queer people face when working with children.
“Intergenerational friendships are quite normal,” said director kt shorb. As a nonbinary educator and theater artist, shorb relates to Q’s ostracization, saying that the fear is somehow queerness is something you can “catch.”
“I think right now in this political climate, being able to really look at how trans, nonbinary, queer people are villainized, kind of for no reason, except for the strange imaginations of everybody else, is really important to me,” theysaid.
Shows like “Fifty Boxes of Earth” are under heightened scrutiny from the Trump administration, as is Theater Mu’s general mission. The theater is known for producing and platforming Asian and Asian American art. A $20,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Arts is now in jeopardy.
Recently, changes in federal policy under the Trump Administration have made it harder to receive funding, as efforts to eliminate DEI programs and restrict support for the trans community have taken effect.
A recent court ruling has challenged several executive orders on DEI, creating further uncertainty. Theater Mu is assuming the grant intended to help fund the show will no longer be available.
“We’ve already had people reach out and say, can we support you somehow?” said Anh-Thu T. Pham, the company’s managing director. Mu recognizes that finding new funding won’t be easy but remains committed to its mission.
“Our work is about social justice rooted in our Asian American community, and we hope that we should do that through high-quality arts as a performing arts theater company,” she said. “Those things are all true, and none of that will change, no matter who is the president and no matter what is happening.”
As the show opens, playwright Ankita Raturi reflects on the experience of creating it during uncertain times.
“It’s a really joyful, beautiful, beautiful, magical space that we get to create in and have community in and tell this story that challenges those fears in the present, Raturi said.
“Fifty Boxes of Earth” plays through March 16.
