The Asian American Collective of Theatermakers started as a centralized space for Asian American theatermakers at Yale to find each other. Here is a note from our founder, Sam Ahn ‘24+1!:

“AACT was born out of an attempt in Spring 2022 to cast in my head a fully Asian production at Yale. Then, I realized that I didn’t know who all the Asians in theatre, despite our scarcity, even were. I thought to myself that it would be a lot easier to put on all-Asian productions at Yale were there a centralized space on campus for Asian theatermakers, a space they could turn to when they need collaborators. I also thought, “Wow, there have to be kids who would do theater but who don’t because they don’t see other Asians doing it.”

And so AACT is putting on a show! And we are so grateful that you are here to witness it. Mounting this Asian-led production in the largest theater on Yale’s campus has been an incredibly fulfilling process. We want to express our utmost gratitude to all the Asian theatremakers who helped make this show possible. Ultimately, we hope that the community and visibility that we have cultivated for Asian theatremakers at Yale will expand beyond our short run in the UT and into every theatrical and artistic space on this campus.

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delicacy of a puffin heart switches between the intertwined stories of Meryl and Ana Sofia and their daughter Robyn and her roommate Hadley. In placing Robyn and Hadley’s friendship in the same apartment as Meryl and Ana Sofia’s relationship, puffin explores the liminality of trauma—the ways in which it moves through space and time and reproduces itself. The play also reckons with the mutability of both memory and identity as we navigate relationships over time. puffin asks questions of citizenship, memory, disease, staying, and leaving—what is the limit to what we can, or should, endure for those we love? What does it look like to feel loved, to be seen by another, and to let those you love into your pain? How do you learn to let someone go while holding space for them in your memories? We hope you keep these themes in mind as you watch these complex, feminized relationships take center stage. Since our first reading of puffin, we have been struck by its emotional resonance, not only representing Asian lived experiences but also larger human struggles with the incorporeity of memory and the necessary work of loving and being loved—and we hope you will be too.

“It is sheer good fortune to miss somebody long before they leave you.” - Toni Morrison, Sula

Warmly, Alastair and Alicia