Alumni Spotlight: Mei Ann Teo ‘14
The Alumni Spotlight is a place to hear from the School of the Arts alumni community about their journeys as artists and creators.
Mei Ann Teo (she/they) Theatre Direction ‘14, is a theatre/film maker who works at the intersection of artistic/civic/contemplative practice to shift culture towards justice and compassion. As a director/devisor/dramaturg, she collaborates across genres, including multi-form performance, music theatre, and intermedial participatory work. She was featured at MIT’s symposium, Next Wave: The Future of Asian American Theatre. She is a National Directing Fellow and was profiled in the American Theatre feature "Role Call: Theatre Workers to Watch." Teo’s work has toured the U.S. and at international festivals including Belgium's Festival de Liege (Lyrics From Lockdown); Edinburgh (MiddleFlight), M1 Singapore (The Shape of a Bird), and Beijing (Labyrinth). She has developed new work across the country, including the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (Phil Killian Fellow), Goodman Theatre, and Berkeley Rep. Recent and current work includes: the world premiere and 25 city tour in China of Dim Sum Warriors by Colin Goh and Yen Yen Woo (composed by Pulitzer Prize winner Du Yun); Diana Oh’s Clairvoyance at ART Oberon; Jillian Walker ’17’s Songs of Speculation at JACK and SKiNFoLK: An American Show at SPARK festival and MTF; Nia Witherspoon’s Dark Girl Chronicles at BAX, JACK, and Playwrights Realm, to premiere at The Shed; Double Yolk Moon with Bex Kwan and Sophia Mak at BricLab and the Highline; and Madeleine Sayer’s Where We Belong at the Globe in London. Her short film, Let Me Kill My Mother First, was an official selection of the 2018 Singapore International Film Festival. Mei Ann is the Producing Artistic Director of Musical Theatre Factory, a Resident Company of Playwrights Horizons.
Was there a specific faculty member or peer who especially inspired you while at the School of the Arts? If so, who and how?
I feel very fortunate to have been taught by Anne Bogart, Robert Woodruff, Brian Kulick, Gideon Lester , and many other stellar faculty during my time at Columbia. I'd love to express deep gratitude, respect, and admiration for Anne Bogart. I call her Mama Anne - not that she ever infantilized us - quite the opposite. She created a culture of peer support and feedback, while supporting each director in their unique path without toxic comparison. She was able, like the clearest seer, to perceive deep patterns in our work and disrupt our defaults, encouraging us to grow beyond our limited understandings. She is profoundly generous and humble, and her drive for continued learning (especially of languages) is inspiring. I hear her words even now when I'm in rehearsal, like a guardian angel on my shoulder.
What was your favorite of most memorable class at the School of the Arts?
On Tuesday mornings in Visiting Directors Anne would interview incredible people. These multiple perspectives were always enlightening. I can still remember the sage advice that came from Kate Whoriskey, "Don't compare your insides to someone else's outsides." Meeting Judith Malina of the Living Theatre before she passed. While hearing people talk about process and how they grapple with situations was immensely helpful, these conversations would often turn philosophical and existential. This allowed us to gather not just as theatre directors in a room, but people seeking meaning together through a shared art form. One of my mantras that Anne spoke in that class: "You are in the perfect place at the perfect time, and everything is exactly how it should be."