Theater Mitu presents a production in collaboration with The Juilliard School of The Odyssey. Written, Adapted and Directed by Rubén Polendo. Working in conjunction with a Pre-Helenic archaeologist, the company studied the source materials of Homer’s epic poem. The resultant adaptation stylistically manifests the style and atmosphere of a Pre-Helenic world allowing it to transcend the bounds of Homer’s vision.

Theater Mitu presents Dhammashok (a production later retitled Ahraihsak). With an original score by Todd Almond and text written by Rubén Polendo, this epic myth, rooted in a story from ancient India has over 40 characters played by a cast of 10 actors. Dhammashok follows a regal prince’s transformation from a ruthless warrior striving to unite his country to devout Buddhist committed to a life of non-violence.

Theater Mitu presents a production of The Ramayana. Written, Adapted and Directed by Rubén Polendo. Using shadow puppetry, masks, ritualized music and multi-ethnic drumming, this staging of the Hindu Sacred epic transcends race and religion to delve into the core of what it means to be human.

Theater Mitu presents a production in collaboration with NYU Graduate Acting Program of The Serpent Woman. Written and Directed by Rubén Polendo. Inspired by Carlo Gozzi’s The Serpent Woman and the traditional Japanese myth of The White Snake. Melding traditional Commedia with Japanese folk lore, this piece functions as a meditation on the attempt to find the spiritual within the comic.  

Theater Mitu presents Four Saints in /Mexico. Adapted (in collaboration with Theater Mitu member and Dramaturg Chris Mills), and Directed by Rubén Polendo. The production inspired by Gertrude Stein’s play Mexico and the text from Stein’s opera Four Saints in Three Acts attempts to manifest a cubist aesthetic and narrative in a meditation on memory as a sacred idea.

Using Shakespeare’s language, this non-narrative piece explores the mysterious joint suicides of a monarch and her female lover. Extrapolating Buddhist mysticism, Okinawan step work and Mudric stylization, the piece explores jealousy, power and gender.

Theater Mitu remounts The Tutor in collaboration with The Juilliard School. Music by Rubén Polendo and Mark Schultz. Written and Directed by Rubén Polendo. Inspired by the writings of Brecht, Lenz and Büchner. Centering around a poor tutor who comes to stay with a wealthy provincial family, this play exposes the hypocrisy of religion and class discrimination and how the two can drive an individual to radical destructive action.

Centering around a poor tutor who comes to stay with a wealthy provincial family, this play exposes the hypocrisy of religion and class discrimination and how the convergence of these two things can drive an individual to radical and destructive action.

Inspired by the writings of Brecht, Lenz and Büchner.

Theater Mitu present a production in collaboration with NYU/Tisch of Hamletmachine. Adapted and Directed by Rubén Polendo. Based on a text by Heiner Müller. The play, traditionally viewed as an overwhelmingly political piece became an exploration of social and spiritual nature by delving more deeply into icons of gender and gendered behavior.

In an attempt to transliterate this epic poem for a contemporary world audience, Theater Mitu adapts this Hindu Holy Scripture as a treatise on nonviolence in a world with an inherent need for war.