MUSE • Musicians United for Social Equity

Biography

Cas Li is an Asian-American lyricist-librettist-composer, director, and writer based in the Greater Boston area. Currently historian and vice-president emeritus of Harvard’s nationally-recognized Asian Student Arts Project (ASAP), Cas is a junior at Harvard College studying a double major in Computer Science and Theatre, Dance & Media, concurrent masters’ in Computer Science, and a minor in English.

Selected on the basis of unusual accomplishments and/or evidence of significant artistic promise, Cas is a 2023 Harvard Artist Development Fellow, having been awarded a grant from Harvard’s Office For the Arts for a two-week independent study to engage and investigate the New York City theater community as curated by singer-songwriter and playwright Stew Stewart.

For their senior thesis, Cas is working on the book, lyrics, and music for while True, an original musical that centers authenticity in a bid to understand what it means to be human in the face of world-changing artificial intelligence technologies, with a staged reading planned for spring 2025.

This past fall, Cas directed a pan-Asian and Latine production of Footloose jointly sponsored by ASAP and sister organization TEATRO! this fall at the Agassiz Theater, interrogating Ren’s diasporic journey and themes of intergenerational trauma present in Bomont’s tight-knit, familial community.

Previously, Cas directed ISCARIOT: THE MUSICAL, a queer and Asian adaptation of the biblical tale of Judas and Jesus, which received regional and national recognition. In spring 2022, Cas also wrote and directed 52!: A Statistics Cabaret, a jukebox musical following the life of a queer statistician from industry to academia, inspired by their own experiences as a femme-presenting person in STEM. As an actor, they performed in ASAP’s all-Asian production of Legally Blonde: The Musical, which received national recognition in fall 2021. In spring 2022, they performed in the Harvard-Radcliffe Gilbert and Sullivan Players’ The Milk Made; or, The Friend of Anarchy, a groundbreaking Asian-American rewrite of G&S’s culturally insensitive The Mikado, receiving international recognition. While their directing pursuits have kept them busy, Cas also not-so-secretly aspires to moonlight as a music director, and has assistant music directed Atalanta and music assisted for OUT this past year.

As a theatremaker and writer, Cas is particularly interested in exploring the in-betweens, especially the intersections of politicized identities. They also enjoy creating art that makes audience members question their stake in the consumption of their work, spurring action in pursuit of a more equitable and just world.