Ehkhudah Zar is the one skilled theater artist within the state from the Karen ethnic group — maybe even the world — and her debut play based on a cultural folktale is premiering this month in St. Paul.
The Karen persons are a minority of their native Myanmar and have long faced persecution and violence from Burmese authorities, so many — Zar included — became refugees. With a Karen population within the ballpark of 10,000, St. Paul is one of the vital cities within the U.S. Karen diaspora.
Zar’s play tells the legend of Muyehpen, an ethereally beautiful Karen woman who, way back, was captured by a Thai king and sacrificed. In Karen history, Muyehpen (pronounced “mou-yeh-peh”) is a robust symbol of resilience.
Exposed Brick Theater is presenting Zar’s adaptation of “Muyehpen” from May 19 to 27 on the Historic Mounds Theater (1029 Hudson Rd.). Tickets are pay-what-you-can, from $7 to $22, and a select variety of free tickets can be found for every show as well. Some showtimes are already sold out. Tickets could be purchased online; the theater has created a shortened link at https://bit.ly/MuyehpenPlay, and yow will discover available showtimes within the drop-down menu under “Date and Time.”
Zar first began working with Exposed Brick Theatre about five years ago when she was a student at Bethel College, initially as an actor. But eventually, co-artistic directors Aamera Siddiqui and Suzy Messerole encouraged Zar to affix the organization’s playwriting program — well outside her comfort zone, she said.
“They don’t just push you off the cliff; they guide you with it and hold your hand,” she said. “Aamera and Suzy are only very intentional with what they’re doing.”
As a playwright, she found her footing exploring themes from the Karen culture she grew up in.
And after a visit to her grandmother in Chiang Mai, Thailand, after her college graduation, she knew she had to write down the story of Muyehpen. Zar grew up hearing the story. But as her grandmother recounted her own version, Zar recalls being struck by just how different the story had turn into over a pair generations, a language translation or two, and hundreds of miles.
It’s vital that Karen people be those to inform their very own stories, Zar said, especially when adapting tales like “Muyehpen” in English. The story is passed down orally and has only rarely been written down, she said, so details can easily fall off or be tacked on.
“The more we filter it, the more we lose the worth of the story,” Zar said. “It’s the concept of constant the story and passing it all the way down to the subsequent generation so that they don’t forget how precious we’re — how precious our stories, our identities, our cultures are.”
Different versions contain details that conflict with each other, so Zar conducted historical research and interviews with elders to work out easy methods to take creative license. One challenge, she said, was adapting the central sacrifice scene in a stage-friendly way. A preferred YouTube adaptation features a crazed character who foretells certain events, Zar said, but she omitted him, as she views the character as somewhat redundant and fewer traditional.
Versions of “Muyehpen” are told by more culturally powerful groups in Myanmar and Thailand too, Zar said. But when Karen people don’t write their very own narratives to pass down, other cultures’ interpretations could redefine what’s ultimately a Karen tale.
“Although there are different versions, I feel we shouldn’t devalue our stories and our culture simply because we’re minorities,” she said.
Eliza Rasheed, a theater educator and associate artist at Exposed Brick, directed an early stage reading of “Muyehpen” and can be directing the complete production. Rasheed, who is just not Karen but spent a part of her childhood in Southeast Asia, also recognizes the necessity to uplift Karen storytellers like Zar.
The play’s solid is all Asian, Rasheed said, and a few even heard versions of “Muyehpen” growing up. But none are Karen, so the 2 women have worked with the solid to assist them connect with the story specifically from a Karen perspective.
For Rasheed, guiding actors to portray a story from a culture that is just not their very own, or through a cultural lens they’re unfamiliar with, should actually be a deeply personal and introspective process. Rasheed, who’s also a drama teacher at Global Arts Plus’ Upper Campus, said that self-reflection is a very important step each for community actors and, for instance, her younger students.
“When you want children to do Shakespeare, you ask them to get into the ideas and thoughts and historicity of all that,” Rasheed said. “But how do children do this after they don’t work out what are their very own ideas, what are their very own histories, what are their very own legacies, what are their very own traditions and cultures — who they’re! — before they study any person else?”
At a recent public reading of the Zar’s script for “Muyehpen,” a Karen woman was within the audience. Back in Thailand, she told Zar and Rasheed, they couldn’t share the story out of fear that authorities would overhear.
Zar recounted what the audience member said after the reading:
“She said, ‘Our kids now are strong, they usually are standing up for what’s right, and now we’re capable of tell this story. It is a dream come true for our ancestors and elders wishing for us to not silence ourselves.’”