Rena M. Heinrich is an assistant professor of theatre practice in critical studies at the USC School of Dramatic Arts. Her teaching and areas of expertise include interculturalism; race, representation, and gender in performance; postcolonial theater; Asian and Asian American drama; acting; ethnography; and performance studies.
As an artist, her theatrical work has been produced in Los Angeles by the John Anson Ford Theatre, The Latino Theater Company, East West Players, Company of Angels, Playwrights’ Arena, TeAda Productions, Artists at Play, Casa 0101, and Highways Performance Space among others. She directed the nationally-touring production of Refugee Nation at Intermedia Arts/Pangea World Theater in Minneapolis and co-directed its critically acclaimed production at the Los Angeles Theatre Center. Her directorial work on So the Arrow Flies was presented internationally at the Arts Council Korea’s Performing Arts Series in Seoul, and her original production of Kokoro (True Heart) is featured in the Dramatist Play Service published version. As an actor, she has appeared on daytime and prime time television with CBS, USA, NBC and FOX.
Her current book project, Race and Role: The Mixed-race Asian Experience in American Drama explores the shifting identities of multiracial Asian figures in theatre from the late-19th Century to the present day.