Reed Theatre Professor Stars in the Moving and Harrowing "The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up"
Featuring Professor Barbie Wu, with work behind the scenes from more Reedies, Carla Ching’s play illuminates a unique and poignant friendship.
“The truth!” Max (Mac Schonher) proclaims to his longtime friend Di, played by Professor Barbie Wu [theatre], in Theatre Diaspora’s production of Carla Ching’s The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up. “Even if it’s hard! That was the deal. That was us.”
At once combustible and tender, the bond between Max and Di is the molten core of Two Kids, which plays through July 5 at Artists Repertory Theatre. It’s a blazingly emotional production that features the work of both Reed students and faculty.
That includes the Reed professors who are part of Theatre Diaspora's leadership team—Catherine Ming T'ien Duffly [theatre] and Justine Nakase [theatre]—but also sound designer Max Costigan '25 and stage managers Maya Galvin '25 and Wren Harms '29.
Founded in 2014, Theatre Diaspora is the sole professional Asian American/Pacific Islander (AAPI) theatre company in Oregon. It was originally part of Dmae Lo Roberts’ nonprofit production organization MediaRites, but has been reborn as its own entity, taking a communal approach to the art of making theatre.
“Rather than following along more traditional lines of artistic director and executive director, we’re sharing those administrative responsibilities on more of a project-by-project basis,” Nakase last year.
In Two Kids (which was directed by Lava Alapai), Max and Di become lifelong friends and stepsiblings (through the marriage of his mother and her father). It’s a compellingly specific story—Korean-American boy and Chinese-American girl meet, aging from nine to 38 together—about characters infuriated and beguiled by the brutal honesty they both bring to the friendship.
“So often, particularly in minority communities, folks respond to the idea of the new voice, but then the new voice gets dropped away and the idea of restaging or revisiting those works doesn’t happen,” Nakase said. By centering Two Kids, Nakase and the other Reed community members involved with the play are helping to keep the voices of its characters and its creator alive.
SEE IT: The Two Kids That Blow Shit Up plays at Artists Repertory Theatre, 1515 SW Morrison St., 7:30 p.m. Friday–Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday, through July 5. Tickets at .