magazine

Alumni Spotlight
Mimi Katano ’93MS:
A Wheelock Family
Theatre “Homecoming”
22
Mimi Katano ’93MS calls
what will be her return to
Wheelock Family Theatre
(WFT) to direct A Year
with Frog and Toad from April 15 to May 15
a “homecoming.” Mimi, who is now the
artistic director at Youth Theatre Northwest
(YTN) in Seattle, planted roots with
WFT 29 years ago during her freshman
year at Emerson College in Boston, where
she earned a degree in General Performing
Arts. She played Eliza in The King and
I, and two years later — as a junior — she
played Josie Pye in Anne of Green Gables.
And this was just the beginning.
While a graduate student at Wheelock,
where Mimi earned a master’s degree in
Child Development, she continued to be
a WFT actor and also took on the roles
of dance teacher, choreographer, and
education coordinator until she moved to
Seattle in 1999. Her most notable of the 16
roles she played as an actor were Tiger Lily
in Peter Pan, Zaneeta Shinn in The Music
Man, Genie of the Lamp in Aladdin, Margalo
in Stuart Little, Gollum in The Hobbit,
and Trinculo in The Tempest.
When Mimi first arrived in Seattle,
she was a freelance teacher artist for
companies including the Seattle Children’s
Theatre and the Seattle Repertory
Theatre. At YTN, where the mission is
to nurture “the intellectual, artistic, and
personal development of children and
youth through drama education, performing
opportunities, and live theatre
experiences,” Mimi works with children
ages 3 to 18, producing 12 productions per
year of all youth cast. (To be on stage, the
child must be at least in first grade.) They
have 12 productions per year, she says, to
try to appeal to different-aged and -skilled
actors as well as different audiences.
Mimi, who hopes to have the opportunity
to “give back” to WFT during her
venture in Boston, will leave Seattle for
just under four weeks to direct A Year with
Frog and Toad. WFT gives this description
of the production: “Waking from
hibernation in the early spring, the perky
Frog and the worrywart Toad celebrate …
the differences that make them unique.
… These two best-friends plant gardens,
swim underwater, rake leaves, go sledding,
bake cookies, and learn to appreciate each
other’s distinct qualities. Part vaudeville,
part make-believe, all charm, A Year with
Frog and Toad tells the whimsical story of a
friendship that blossoms … through all the
seasons. A delightful story based on the
picture books by Arnold Lobel, this musical
adaptation is a treat for children and
the child within.”
Mimi is happy to report that three
Mimi Katano ’93MS, resting her chin on the foot
of an alligator costume
of the people she helped cast in A Year
with Frog and Toad were colleagues and
friends during her time in Boston: Larry
Cohen, who will play Toad; Merle Perkins,
who will play Ladybird and Mother
Frog; and Gary Ng, who will play the Snail
and the Mole.
Along with making various Equity
theater appearances, Mimi was a member
“I like to joke that I
use both of my degrees
every day in my job.”
of the award-winning Beau Jest Moving
Theatre in Boston, where she performed
at a number of theater festivals including
South Carolina’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival.
Aside from her work for YTN, she was a
member of Living Voices. A Japanese national,
Mimi has done a variety of cultural
work for organizations such as Seattle
Children’s Museum and Book-It Repertory
Theatre, and she co-wrote the play
Justice at War about Japanese-American
internment during World War II, which
was published in the book And Justice for
Some in 2005.
WINTER 2016