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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.

For Ho, her character in “Endlings” felt identifiable…“I’m Chinese and they’re Korean, but we share quite a lot of common ground,” Ho said. “The sense of humor, their work ethic, a lot of it are quite similar.”

“My play has been a journey to not apologize for how complicated and idiosyncratic my identity is as an immigrant.”

“The character, as written, is very much pure Celine, but since there is this Venn diagram of our experiences as Korean-born playwrights working in America, we share a lot.”

Celine Song had nothing to lose…But at 28, she was done with theater. Her plays, she says, were “too weird for Midtown and not weird enough for Downtown…“I thought it was the last play I was ever going to write, so I wrote a crazy play,” she says. “I wrote it for my spirit.”

Song wanted to write a play in which the Asian women reclaim their versions of the story—in a production that refuses whitewashing and acknowledges the politics around who gets to tell this story.

“A lot of the play centers on what it means that this culture is going extinct, but it’s also surprisingly comedic,” [director Sammi] Cannold said. “[Playwright Celine] Song is deeply funny and writes boldly. The play makes you think hard, surprises you, and alarms you.”