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Sara Porkalob has been listening to her family share stories about their history all her life. The tales — by turns outrageous, harrowing, heartbreaking, and hilarious…served as the inspiration for Porkalob’s visionary “Dragon Cycle,” planned as an ambitious trilogy of plays with music, created and performed by Porkalob herself and honoring the three generations of Filipino-American women in her family.

On Thursday afternoon, Harvard University announced that it received a $100 million gift to “envision a future home” for the American Repertory Theater in Allston. The gift is the beginning of the university’s efforts to raise money for a research and performance center in the neighborhood.

With a new $100 million donation, Harvard University said Thursday that it is embarking on plans to reshape and expand its arts campus, a sweeping effort that will include a performance and research center in Allston to serve as the home of the American Repertory Theater, one of the most prominent regional theaters in the country.

The donation from David E. ’93 and Stacey L. Goel will enable Harvard to imagine a 21st-century research and performance center on Allston campus.

“Every casting director would tell you — even the amazing ones who are very good at casting people of color — that it’d be a difficult group to cast,” Song said.

The key to writing what Song considers her “impossible” play was finding her own multifaceted voice…while striving to excel in a form defined largely by European-American men.