Minneapolis, Minnesota & New York, New York
Music Performance, Multimedia Performance

Tida is an interdisciplinary performance about intergenerational and cross-cultural identity explored through a Thai-American woman’s maternal lineage. Integrating music, movement, film and word, Mary Prescott investigates her mother’s undocumented Thai ancestry, her experience as an immigrant raising biracial children in the midwest, and the resulting impacts on three generations of women. Prescott learns about her ancestral identity for the first time through interviews with family elders, and about her mother’s sacrifices of assimilation, loss of identity, invisibility, and isolation. She processes these oral histories through the lens of a second generation, biracial Thai-American woman, intertwining Thai and Western influences to reflect a simultaneous untangling and crossing of cultures, and the resonances and dissonances that occur as a result. Tida gives voice and visibility to a marginalized community of Asian women, values the Asian female immigrant experience and legacy, and takes steps to protect an important history and cultural identity.

Mary Prescott is a Thai-American interdisciplinary artist, composer, and pianist who explores the foundations and facets of identity and social conditions through experiential performance. The Washington Post describes her work as “a bright light cast forward,” “uncompromising,” and “masterfully envisioned.” Prescott is an awardee of the National Performance Network, New Music USA, American Composers Forum, The American Opera Project, and Opera America; commissioned by Roulette, Living Arts, Public Functionary, White Snake Projects, Shepherdess Duo, Piano Teachers Congress, and Duo Harmonia. She has held residencies with Roulette, Lanesboro Arts, Avaloch Farm, and Arts Letters and Numbers.