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Katie Ka Fang was in remission from non-Hodgkin lymphoma in 2017 when she decided she wanted to write about her experience, but she didn’t really know how.
Fang has written about her health journey previously, as in her work The Final Tour, which performed at Dreamland Arts in 2016. An artist and playwright, she holds an MFA from Brown University and has been celebrated for Her writings draw on personal experience as well as work based on the Hmong experience.
But in 2017, she felt stuck.
“I wasn’t ready to write about it,” she says. But as a writer, I didn’t know that. And I kept trying to do that, so I got really frustrated with myself.”
On One More Time, Fang’s musical debut, she teams up with composer Melissa Lee to create a story about an American Hmong memoirist and cancer survivor named Mai Si, who works in an eccentric bookstore. She is approached by a Hmong American filmmaker named Quest, who also suffers from terminal cancer, and would like to interview her for a documentary. What happens is an unlikely friendship as two people learn what they need to move forward in life despite their cancer diagnosis.
“It sounds very cool, but it’s really about what we need to feel good,” Li Fang said in an interview.
During her time feeling stuck, she met a friend from New York, who was in town working at the Composer-Librettist Studio, a program produced by the Nautilus Music Theater for writers and musicians to develop work in the theatrical music industry. The program seemed interesting, so Fang went to the workshop presentation.
“I was like, holy shit,” says Fang. “I think maybe this thing is not in the script and the dialogue, but maybe it’s meant to be told through the music. It really intrigued me.”
Fang was raised in Hmong churches. “Praising and worshiping and singing in choir and all of that is really part of my wheelhouse,” she recalls thinking. “I was like, ‘Oh, I wonder if this could actually be a thing.'” I can bring music back into my life again, in a way that feels right and right. “
Photo by Rich Ryan From left to right: Pagnia Xiong as Shia, Melody Her as Quest, and Dexieng Yang as Mai Trey in a scene from “Again.”
Vang got involved with Composer-Librettist Studio in 2018. “Oh my God, it was challenging like f—and exhilarating and motivating,” says Vang. “This was probably the most intense two weeks of my life and completely changed my life.”
Next, she pitched her book on the Moe Theatre. That’s when she reached out to Lee, and Fang shared drafts of scenes and monologues with Lee in what she calls “brain dumps.” From there, the two artists would discuss structures and Lee would come up with parts of the text that could be a song.
“From the beginning, I knew I wanted pop songs,” says Fang. “I wanted this to be a musical. And I wanted it to be pop. This really informs the lyrics and the way it’s arranged.”
Since it was her first musical, Vang had a learning curve in the process, about things like expansion and rhyme schemes. “It really is an art form. She also really taught me how to write lyrics.”
Vang is not one to shy away from things, especially taboo subjects. After she was diagnosed with cancer in 2012, she addressed her health struggles in several projects. “I’m not very precious about language,” she says. “I just write it the way I speak, and it’s unfiltered and kind of raw and gruff.”
Fang also said that she feels supported in Mu, mainly working with the Hmong team. “A lot of what they bring into the room tells the piece,” says Fang. “And they can act as playwrights, too. It’s very helpful.”
Also collaborating on the project is Thai-American director Nana Dakin. “I was instrumental in this,” says Fang. “She understands the nuances of our society and culture that a lot of directors don’t. That saved me a lot of time.”
One More Time has previews this week Wednesday March 29th and Thursday March 30th at 7:30pm Shows are Friday March 30th and Saturday April 1st at 7:30pm Sunday April 2nd and 2pm through April 16 ($45, if anyone needs If audience members need to pay less, they can choose to pay less – less than $10 per ticket.) More information here.
