After a five-month national search, Theater Mu has selected Lily Tung Crystal as its new artistic director. Crystal is a well-traveled Renaissance woman who most recently worked as a director, actor and theater founder in the Bay Area. She begins her new role with the 27-year-old company in September.
Crystal "brings both artistic and organizational expertise to our team that will enhance our mission and values for years to come," said board chair Reginaldo Reyes in a statement.
A Los Angeles native with an English degree from Cornell University, Crystal spent the 1990s working as a freelance journalist in Shanghai. She covered arts and culture for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, NBC News and Public Radio International's "The World," among others. She also launched Shanghai Talk, a publication she called the city's first English language magazine. Meanwhile, Crystal also acted on stages in China, most notably as Amanda in Noël Coward's "Private Lives."
Crystal worked in media on her return to the U.S., all the while keeping a sideline in theater and earning certification as a leadership coach from California's Hudson Institute. She also worked as a writer and producer for the 2015 film "Steve Jobs."
In 2010, she co-founded Ferocious Lotus Theatre Company, built to nurture and expand Asian-American stage talent in the Bay Area.
"Theater is the hobby that became a job," she said during a recent visit to the Twin Cities to look for housing.
Crystal succeeds Randy Reyes, who was fired by the Theater Mu board in December due to unspecified misconduct (no relation to board chair Reginaldo Reyes). We caught up with the incoming artistic director in between appointments. The conversation was lightly edited.
Q: You have been around the world. Have you been to Minnesota before now?
