In CTC’s ‘Drawing Lessons,’ an adolescent expresses herself in graphic images

It’s one thing to set a big creative challenge for yourself, like putting what may be the first graphic novel onstage as a play in America. But what if the wiring of your brain does not lend itself naturally to such a creative process?

For playwright Michi Barall, that’s no big deal. It just means she has to work twice as hard and rely on collaborators.

Barall wrote “Drawing Lessons,” a coming-of-age play about a Korean American adolescent who is into graphic novels. The play premieres Saturday at the Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis, where, through the use of technology and theatrical invention, it unfolds like a Korean comic book.

For Barall, a brilliant actor turned professor and playwright, imagining how the scenes will work onstage has been a serious challenge for one simple reason. She cannot visualize things or run them like a movie in her head.

“I have what’s called aphantasia. So, if you tell me to see an apple in my mind’s eye, I just don’t see it,” Barall said. “When I think about this play in its visual dimension, I do it abstractly, beat by beat.”

That would seem like a grim barrier for someone whose primary medium is creating evocative stage scenes. Luckily, Barall has a creative and design team that she can lean on to give concrete form to her groundbreaking idea.

And what an idea it is. In “Lessons,” Kate is a teenage introvert who’s dream-deep into manhwa, Korean comics and graphic stories. Her imagination flows not in words but in images that she draws on the page that are then projected on a screen.

That she does not talk much is quite a departure in a discipline where spoken language often is paramount.

“Drama is a very verbal form and so we tend to see people who talk and talk a lot onstage,” Barall said. “I wanted to center someone whose primary way of interacting with the world is through visual-spatial cues and processing rather than language.”

Barall likens “Lessons,” which she developed based on a concept suggested by director Jack Tamburri, to an experiment. And she has been working on the play with a heady set of questions. Can audiences watch a main character not speak for three or four scenes, especially when we’re used to plays in which we quickly are told what someone is thinking or feeling?

Kate acts out of personal imperative, but “Lessons” also is investigating larger cultural questions. Like what does it mean to look and act American? People abroad often can spot Americans coming from a mile down the road. Our movements tend to be big and confident. We sometimes are loud. And we’re not shy about taking up space.

Sometimes, we harbor negative stereotypes about those who have the opposite qualities, especially those who are quieter. In “Lessons,” Kate wrestles with the standard issues of adolescence, including what it means to be a friend. But she also struggles to find a balance of how her Korean heritage fits in America.

“In many parts of Asia, it’s good to be quiet, thoughtful and observant,” Barall said. “I wanted to explore that tension, particularly for first- and second-generation characters. What does it mean to look and behave American, quote, unquote.”

“Lessons” was co-commissioned by New York’s Ma-Yi Theater Company. It is the first of 16 shows contracted through a project called Generation Now, which was funded by a $1.5 million grant from the Mellon Foundation. Working through a consortium of five companies, including Penumbra Theatre in St. Paul, the project seeks to seed the theatrical canon with diverse works.

Barall took the commission as an opportunity to challenge herself. “Lessons” is her foray into works for a multigenerational audience. As a veteran of works by celebrated playwrights such as John Guare, Naomi Iizuka and Anna Deavere Smith, Barall also wanted to ensure that her actors have a stake in the show.

Kate’s father is named Matt for the actor playing him, Matt Park.

Born in Toronto of Japanese ancestry, Barall completed her education at Stanford and Columbia, where she earned a doctorate. Now a New Yorker, she has also acted in the works of Julia Cho, Sarah Schulman and Lloyd Suh.

And she has written for the screen as well, co-writing two short films — “Sophocles in Staten Island” and “Odets in Staten Island.”

“Lessons” was partly inspired by Barall’s own adolescent daughter.

“She was bringing home all these middle grade graphic memoirs that she loved and they had so many different kinds of stories about girls navigating their particular histories and worlds, I went like wow,” Barall said. “Even though we live in a moment now of strong Asian American representation onstage, it was shocking and exhilarating by comparison to see the breadth and range of these graphic memoirs, many written by women.”

Barall wondered how the young women who dominate that publishing segment grew up to become comic artists. Did they talk to mentors and just start drawing? And how did they know that it could be a career?

“There was a moment in the ‘90s when these incredible women comic artists were creating all this great comic work,” Barall said. “I wanted to track the emergence of that and celebrate it.”

When: 7 p.m. Tue.-Sat., 2 p.m. & 5 p.m. Sun. Ends Nov. 10.

Where: Children’s Theatre Company, 2400 3rd Av. S., Mpls.

Tickets: $15-$58. 612-874-0400 or childrenstheatre.org.