MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL: Theater Mu announced today that Fran de Leon will be its next artistic director as of June 2, with a full transition into the role by the end of 2025. De Leon will succeed Lily Tung Crystal to become the fifth artistic director in the theatre’s 33-year history. In a continuation of Mu’s co-leadership model, de Leon will lead as co-executive leader alongside managing director Anh Thu T. Pham, who has been with the company since 2020.
In a statement, de Leon said she approaches her work with a mind toward social change. “At a time when the arts are in a most precarious position, I’m ready to roll up my sleeves and work even harder to ensure we retain the essential experience of humanity and community that theatre provides,” de Leon said in the statement. “I was schooled by the rebel nuns of Vatican II. Art and activism are in my DNA. My purpose in the theatre world is to engage, enlighten, disrupt, and sometimes enrage—I’m okay with that too.”
As artistic director, de Leon will produce Theater Mu’s mainstage productions and oversee artistic programming, including play reading festivals, playwright cohorts, and the Mu Training Institute courses designed for Black, Native, Asian, and Latine artists. She was previously the co-artistic director of the touring theatre organization Will & Company, director of new talent for Playfair, an ensemble member of Critical Mass Performance Group, and an adjunct faculty at the University of Southern California’s School for Dramatic Arts.
De Leon started producing at the age of 19. She has worked at East West Players, Geffen Playhouse, South Coast Rep, PlayMakers’ Rep, Artists at Play, Playwrights’ Arena, the Garry Marshall Theater, and Pasadena Playhouse, where she directed a 2023 production of Into the Woods. Additional credits include commissioned work for Segerstrom Center’s Arts Teach, TreePeople, and Twelfth Night Rep, as well as short play and short documentary commissions by Center Theatre Group. TV credits include recurring roles on For All Mankind and For the People, as well as guest star roles on Criminal Minds, Speechless, and the Michelle Yeoh-led Netflix series The Brothers Sun. Recently, she was named a 2025-2026 Drama League FutureNow directing fellow and a finalist for the Barbara Whitman Award from Stage Directors and Choreographers Foundation. While de Leon has been based in Los Angeles for most of her life, she has toured her one-person show, Faces of America, to more 500 venues across 49 states, including keynote performances for the United Nations Associations, California, and New York.
“In my conversations with Fran, I was struck by our shared value of wanting to highlight the complexity of the Asian American experience,” Mu managing director Anh Thu T. Pham said in a statement. “Our own experiences are not only in the Filipino or Vietnamese communities, so why can’t our art contain the multitudes of all our communities? I’m excited for Mu to continue widening circles in the stories that are told. In a country that feels very divided politically, theatre can be a space of healing and a reflection of the world we want to build.”
The national leadership search began in 2024 and was led by Evolution Management Consultants (EMC), with EMC co-founder and partner Al Heartley at the helm. Longtime Mu artist Katie Bradley came on as interim artistic director to co-lead with Pham from September 2024 through March 2025, which included programming the 2025-26 season, “Hand in Hand, Step by Step.” Bradley will continue to produce this summer’s Stop Kiss by Diana Son and this fall’s world premiere of Maybe You Could Love Me by Samah Meghjee (which Bradley is directing), as de Leon moves to Minnesota and transitions to the artistic director role.
Theater Mu is the largest Asian American theatre company in the Midwest and has received national attention for its artistic excellence and community engagement. Founded in 1992, Mu sits at the intersection of arts, equity, and justice, and it aims to tell stories from the heart of the Asian American experience. As of 2023, its budget was around $1.4 million.
