Managing Director

Schedule: Flexible, primarily daytime, with some evenings and weekends required

Compensation: $82,000 to $102,000 annually, depending on experience.

Benefits: Includes health, dental, and retirement benefits, as well as PTO.

Final date to receive applications: Nov 6, 2026

Anticipated start date: early 2027

Working in partnership with the artistic director and board of directors, the managing director will be responsible for administrative operations and financial sustainability, oversee fundraising/grants and marketing, and provide organizational leadership as Theater Mu moves forward into its 2026–2029 strategic cycle. Supervisory duties will be determined in partnership with the artistic director. Currently the staff consists of a team of four, including the artistic director.

In the 34 years since Theater Mu was founded by Dong-il Lee, Rick Shiomi, Martha

B. Johnson, and Diane Espaldon, Mu has grown to be one of the largest Asian American theater companies in the United States and the largest in the Midwest. Known for artistic excellence and innovative community engagement, Mu provides an unparalleled resource for Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) artists, advances AAPI stories, and gives AAPI communities a platform to see and be seen.

Mu has become a leader in the local and national development of Asian American theater. Mu has helped to develop and support the work of local and national playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and musical artists by premiering and commissioning new works, fostering a new generation of AAPI artists, and bringing AAPI voices to Twin Cities audiences. Through educational, community, and corporate outreach programs, Mu provides access to the culture and arts of the AAPI diaspora for underserved communities throughout the upper Midwest.

MISSION: Theater Mu produces great performances born of arts, equity, and justice from the heart of the Asian American experience.

VISION: Theater Mu celebrates and empowers Asian Americans through theater.

• 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.

Mu’s productions embody the heart of its mission. Thoughtfully selected and carefully created to engage, educate, and challenge, our shows range from commissioned works and world premieres to classic plays and musical, regularly in partnership with other organizations in the Twin Cities and nationally. Each production includes talkbacks to deepen the audience’s understanding of the work.

Theater Mu has presented more than 60 world premieres and more than 30 commissions over its 34-year history. Mainstage shows consistently land on critics' "Best Of" lists; commissioned and/or developed playwrights have gone on to productions around the country; and Mu actors consistently work with major local and regional companies.

Mu provides a growing roster of talented AAPI artists with opportunities to develop their work—playwrights, actors, directors, designers, and musical artists have trained in Mu’s programs. Mu’s paid fellowship program, Emerging Playwrights’ Circle, Mu Tang Clan playwright incubator, and Mu Training Institute give unique, culturally specific, in-depth training for AAPI Artists.

Mu’s Community Engagement includes…