Khmer Konnection

It's been a long time since I've written on this blog. Mostly, it's because I have been on break and yes, I agree it has been quite long. In our daily grind to live as artists we've had to buckle down and confront the economic difficulties but we've managed to keep going, re-focus and find abundance in activity. I've been teaching acting classes and TeAda is preparing for the next season. Refugee Nation went on break for a while and we are gearing up again to make it better and tour more cities. San Diego was quite a treat...both in experiencing the struggles and also the impactful return from the Lao community. Now, we look at the present moment and plan forward.

I must remind myself how important our work is...AGAIN. I keep saying that because there are moments when Leilani and I ask ourselves "WHY?" Why do we do this? Pay is horrible. Touring is disorienting. Creating is painful. The answer comes down to our love for performance, our need to share our stories, our value to educate others through theater.

I was just at a birthday party in Upland, CA. A friend of mine by the name of David Prak. He just turned mid-forties, small in stature, passionately loyal and has an amazing spirit. He's also got a great laugh. I met him on Pirates of the Caribbean. Well, Prak is a Cambodian American actor who just recently returned to Cambodia and built a house for his parents. Now, I've never had a chance to sit and discuss with him about his experience from Cambodia to the United States...but I would guess it probably would be intriguing. Nonetheless, my Lao buddy Litdet and I are driving all the way from West Los Angeles to Upland to show up for Prak's birthday party. We roll up and the party is a good mix of folks but made up primarily of Khmer. Sitting at the dining table as we enter his suburban 4 bedroom home in Upland next to Rancho Cucamonga, are lovely ladies hanging. So Litdet and I join the table with food on our plates and we start to meet and greet. Come to find out this ladies are dancers with the Khmer Arts Academy in Long Beach. In our conversation I realized how we knew little of each other but because of our experiences as refugee-Americans we bonded in no time. One thing I discovered was how even Khmer folks didn't know much about Laos and I guess vice-versa. Yet, we experienced the same experience. I was blown away that one party-goer said that there wasn't a war in Laos!? Are you kidding me?! So I had to edu-ma-cate him with a little knowledge from our show Refugee Nation about how Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, France and US were connected in that War. It was just amazing to be able to educate. Deepen each other through important discussions about our histories, our experiences and our connections. What a small world it was to be in a room with the managing director, Serey Tep, of Khmer Arts Academy...who of course knew Prum Ok, an incredible Khmer young dancer an acquaintance of ours, currently attending UCLA World Arts and Culture. But the connections. The importance of our stories. The importance to speak about our experiences. We were all high on great conversation about Southeast Asia. Khmer, Lao, Lao, Khmer. Seeking pride in ourselves and wanting better for our communities and wondering what happened? What happened to our people? We even jokingly went through a little recap of the history of the Southeast Asia about French colonialism, Indo-Chine, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and we all agreed that it's time for payback. Let's kick Frenchies ass for making a hell-hole in Southeast Asia. At that moment, Quang, a Vietnamese friend of Prak walks in and lo and behold our triangle is complete. We had the Khmer, Lao, Vietnamese brotherhood gathered together in one place in Upland, USA. All victims of French colonial stupidity. And who of course should Quang bring with him...a Frenchie by the name of Stephano! History repeats itself?! NO. Not that night. We had a blast just enjoying our conversation and ignored the Frenchie! Humph...take that you disgusting bastards.

LAO'd and Proud! Not just for the Lao New Year!

Sunday, day 2 of the Lao New Year Festival Nicole is one of the lucky people to have bought our first LAO'd & Proud t-shirts! We sold out on Friday night even before the festival began!

Here's Ova getting the crowd to chant "I'm Lao and I'm proud, even if you're not Lao say it with me, I'm Lao and I'm proud!"

If you want to be LAO'd & Proud all year long you can get one th ese shirts and www.blacklava.com and support Refugee Nation as we get back to work planning and organizing our shows for the Fall.

We need your support so we can keep performing this show and bring it to a theater near you!

A Day of Festivities and Refugee Nation for families!

After a few hours at the booth and enjoying the festival, it's back to the theater to perform Refugee Nation, the family friendly festival version just 30-45 minutes. The LA Lao'd & proud crew drove down! thanks for the support Bangbay, Chay, Brian & Nakhone! And Jim and Chiaw came the night before - you guys rock! After the show it's back to the booth. Pida greets us outside his booth dressed like the King of Laos! As the days festivities wind down, it's back to the theater for us for another evening show for families who came from as far away as Riverside and Oklahoma and as near as two blocks away.

Setting up for the Saturday Festival and Performances

After a long Friday of performances and events, we all got up early to set up for the opening of the festival. Ova and Litdet hang the Refugee Nation banner outside the theater. While Marie-reine and Leilani set up the booth to sell t-shirts and tell folks about our shows.

From the booth we see the Legacies ladies arrive on the scene. Once everyone is set up the Festival begins with a parade across the bridge from the theater to the festival grounds.

Hard work pays off!

You may think all artists have to do is show up and like magic, there's a show. But there is a LOT of preparation weeks prior. And for this show there were a lot of challenges. But in the end it all paid off as one of our most successful events to date where over 1000 people mostly Laotians attended our shows and programs. A quick recap of the last week:

Wednesday, April 1 - Ova and Leilani drive down to San Diego to lead a workshop with SDAYO - San Diego Asian youth Organization at the San Diego Police Department Multicultural storefront. Officer Somsack Thongchanh introduces us and we get started.

Thursday, April 2 - First day in the space, we have been told that we are the first theater company to be in the space. SURPRISE - they have no lights! So we had to rent light and load them in ourselves. Luckily Litdet had a truck to haul it all in. But then, turns out the electrical in the "state of the art" facility can't handle the lights. So when the electricity goes out on the outlets, we wait for the electrician toshow up and help. Ova and Litdet start working on some new performance ideas...

Hey, where did Ova go?
Oh, Ova's under the stage looking for alternative outlets for the lights. This takes "find your light" to a whole new level for this actor!

Marie-Reine ignores it all... "must find people to come to the show, must tell people about the show, must get people to the show..." she types away getting the word out to the press and theater community about tomorrow night's performances.

Friday, April 3 - Opening Night!
More tech rehearsal. Lights to hang, Ed our sound guy comes in. We're ready for Dress Rehearsal, and pow. lights go out again! Ed to teh resuce with the proper connectors that the "state of the art facility" does not have and the "light kit" does not provide. Whew! Crisis averted, 1 hour before the doors open! Yikes, put on the costumes, get backstage.... And....WOW! People start arriving. 300 chairs have been set up. but now they are full! Roque and the Jacob's center staff scrmble to pull out more chairs! 400? 500? people? All Laotians of all ages! It's are larges audience ever and the most Laotians to see the show at once. LEgacies of War makes their presentation and people view the exhibit. Then our show goes up (the half hour family friendly version). Laughter and applause in places there never had been before. When the Elder (Ova) tell the Youth (Leilani) in Lao that she should speak Lao ther eis thundersous applause and it takes a good minute for themt os top before Leilani can say her next line. The show ends with Ova chanting "I'm Lao and I'm proud" to audience debuting our new "LAO'd & Proud" shirts and the audience joins in! Success! And a whole bunch fo new fans...




















Couldn't have done it without this crew! Sakuna, Somsack and Channapha and Islanda (not in pic)!