Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA)

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Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA)

Keep your eyes peeled for regional CAATA activity. And be ready for CAATA's 20th Anniversary in 2026!

The Consortium of Asian American Theaters & Artists (CAATA) envisions a strong and sustainable Asian American Theater community that is an integral presence in national culture—evocative of our past, declarative of our present, and innovative towards our future.

08/25/2026

📣 SAVE THE DATE: MENATMA 2026 FALL CONVENING

Come together to network, strategize, celebrate, and build community as we reconnect with old friends and welcome new folks into the fold on October 23–25, 2026, in San Francisco, CA!

The convening is produced by MENA Theater Makers Alliance, Art2Action, Inc., and Golden Thread Productions as part of the multiyear partnership Protecting Dissent, and presented alongside ReOrient 2026 Festival of Short Plays.

🎭 October 23–25, 2026
📍 San Francisco, CA
🎟️ Ticketing details coming soon!

Save the date and spread the word. We’ll see you in San Francisco!

08/24/2026

Our members gathered in New York last year!

Artists. Leaders. Advocates. Sitting together in the city that holds so much of our theatre history. Connecting. Building. Remembering why we do this work.
These gatherings matter. When CAATA members come together across regions, across disciplines, across experiences, we strengthen something essential. We remind each other that we're not alone. That we're part of a national movement rooted in shared values and fierce commitment.

Thank you to everyone who showed up. Who traveled. Who made space for this moment of connection.

This is the work. This is us, building together.

Join us in Sept for another NYC Gathering! Link is in our Bio!

08/23/2026

A few of our board members and founders gathered in the Twin Cities!

Leaders showing up. Sitting together. Holding the work of CAATA with intention and care!

This is what it looks like behind the scenes. When board members travel, when they sit around a table, when they make decisions rooted in our shared values of social justice, cultural equity, artistic diversity, and inclusion. When leadership is about service, not titles.

Thank you to our board. For your commitment. For your vision. For the work you're doing to strengthen Asian American theatre across this country.

We're building something real here. And it happens because of all of you!

08/22/2026

CAATA and HEART DMV AAPI Theatre Alliance gathered in Washington, DC. A room full of artists, leaders, and community builders committed to centering Asian American voices in theatre. To building infrastructure regionally. To ensuring that AAPI artists have spaces to connect, grow, and thrive.

Every face in this photo represents a commitment. To each other. To the field. To the future we're building together.

When CAATA moves into regions and we sit down with local alliances, with community-based organizations doing visionary work, this is what happens.

Thank you to HEART DMV for the invitation. For the leadership you're bringing to DC. For showing us what it looks like to center AAPI theatre in your region. And thank you to everyone who showed up, who held space, who said: I'm here. We're in this together.

This is the movement. This is us!

08/21/2026

We were invited to share space. To sit with the Asian community at Kia Mau Festival. To speak about the work we're doing at CAATA. To listen. To build relationship!

Leslie Ishii, CAATA Board President, and Kayla, CAATA Executive Director, had the privilege of being in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, held by Hone Kouka, Mīria George, and the Kia Mau community. To witness the brilliance of Tāngata Whenua, Tāngata Moana, and Indigenous artists. To understand more deeply what it means to center Indigenous leadership and create infrastructure that sustains artists.

But most importantly: to be welcomed into a space that is fundamentally about Indigenous sovereignty and say We see you. We're learning from you. We're building alongside you.

We were invited to share space. To sit with the Asian community at Kia Mau Festival. To speak about the work we're doing at CAATA. To listen. To build relationships! us what's possible when we refuse to operate in silos and instead build in relationship across difference.relationships

08/20/2026

Kia Mau Festival won the New Zealand Event Award for 2026 Arts, Cultural or Heritage Event of the Year!

This is what happens when you center Indigenous voices at every level. When you build infrastructure that supports artists throughout creation, development, and staging. When you refuse to be just a platform and instead become a whare, a gathering place for kōrero and whanaungatanga.

Hone Kouka and Mīria George have created something unprecedented. A festival that doesn't extract from artists but nourishes them. That doesn't just present work but builds artists' capabilities and reshapes the contemporary arts landscape. That brings together Tāngata Whenua, Tāngata Moana, and Indigenous artists from local to international stages in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, in Aotearoa, and beyond.

This award is recognition of that visionary work. Of a decade of commitment to emerging voices. Of the medicine they've chosen to offer the world in these urgent times.

Congrats, Kia Mau! We celebrate you. We're honored to be in relationship with you as CAATA continues building alongside you!

08/19/2026

This is what solidarity across oceans looks like!

Kayla, Executive Director of CAATA, alongside Hone Kouka (Ngāti Porou, Ngāti Kahungunu, Ngāti Raukawa, Kai Tahu), CAATA Board Member and Artistic Director of Kia Mau Festival, and Mīria George (Ngāti Kearoa, Ngāti Tuara, Ngāti Awa, Ngāti Kūki 'Āirani), Executive Director of Kia Mau.

Kia Mau Festival is at the forefront of contemporary Tāngata Whenua, Tāngata Moana, and Indigenous art in Aotearoa and beyond. Celebrating 10 years in 2025, the festival brings together local, national, and international artists in Te Whanganui-a-Tara finding the intersection where our stories intertwine.

From May 30 – June 14, 2025, Kia Mau creates a welcoming space where everyone is seen, felt, and heard. Where emerging voices, new art, and Indigenous joy are celebrated. Where artists are supported throughout creation, development, and staging of their work.

This is the work we're all doing. Across continents. Across oceans. Different forms, same values: centering Indigenous and artists of color. Building infrastructure. Creating belonging.

We see you, Kia Mau. We're honored to be in relationship with you.

Experience Kia Mau next year: https://kiamaufestival.org/

08/18/2026

Nothing Micro About Micronesia is what happens when a community shows up for itself.

Created by TeAda Productions with members of the Micronesian community in Honolulu, this is not a show made about Micronesians. It's a show made with them. Built from their stories. Rooted in their lives.

It began with Masters of the Currents, TeAda's touring show created by Leilani Chan & Ova Saopeng, with Cultural Navigator Innocenta Sound-Kikku and contributions from multi-generational Micronesian community members. After successful international tours and community engagement, Micronesian leaders requested something more. A new work that centers their continued discrimination and resilience.

Nothing Micro came into being!

A coming of age story about two Micronesian boys navigating between the directions of elders and the impact of government systems. Stories of island life, rising tides of transition, complicated family matters, uncertain futures. All of it devised together. All of it built with the community that holds these truths.

This is what relational art-making looks like. When theatre makers listen. When communities are invited not just to witness but to create. When story collection becomes a practice of social justice. When the stage becomes sacred ground for our own people to see themselves reflected, held, and celebrated.

Thank you, TeAda. Thank you, Micronesian community. This is legacy. This is resistance. This is belonging!

08/17/2026

This is what community looks like!

All these faces. All these people who showed up for Nothing Micro About Micronesia. Who came to witness. Who came to hold space. Who came to say: We see you. Your story matters.

When a community gathers like this in a room together, breathing together, witnessing each other's truths, something shifts. Something heals. This is what TeAda and the Micronesian community created together.

Thank you to everyone who came. Who showed up. Who understood that presence is a form of love, and that our job as a community is to witness each other's stories and celebrate each other's resistance.

This is the work. This is the gathering. This is us, together!

08/16/2026

After six years of separation, CAATA's 7th National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival brought us home to the islands in 2024. The first in-person gathering since 2018.

A moment of change. A moment to gather. A moment to learn. A moment to act.
ConFest 2024 centered the voices and visions of Kānaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian), Pacific Islander, and local Asian American theater practitioners. We came together as a community to witness the work grown on the islands. To learn from artists rooted in place. To be shaped by that sacred gathering.

In partnership with Hana Keaka - The Hawaiian Theatre Program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa, ʻAhahui Noiʻi Noʻeau ʻŌiwi (ANNO) - Research Institute of Indigenous Performance, and TeaDa Productions, we built something that will carry us forward.

That moment in Hawaii strengthened us. Connected us. Reminded us why we do this work—why we gather, why we listen, why we stand together.

As we celebrate CAATA's 20th anniversary, we're still holding that energy. Still building from what the islands taught us.

Thank you, Hawaii. Thank you to the artists who held us in sacred space.

Address

New York, NY

Telephone

+13473096575

Website

http://caata.net/

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