Happy Closing at Berkeley Rep to 'Cambodian Rock Band!'
As Lauren Yee's 'Cambodian Rock Band' closes at Berkeley Rep, I kick off my substack
The ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ national tour closes today at Berkeley Rep, the second stop of five on our national tour.
My substack will discuss freelance directing life here in NYC. For today, however, I’ll share notes from a speech I delivered at the Alley Theater, when I stood in for our director, Chay Yew, and delivered remarks at a fancy dinner for Alley Theater board members and donors on opening night back in Houston. This came off well (standing ‘O’ from the crowd of about a hundred) and captures my beliefs about CRB’s power, resonance, and immediacy. I love this show and am honored to serve as Associate Director on the tour. Have a great day and stay tuned….
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Bear with me, please, as I attempt to step into the giant shoes of our leader and director, Chay Yew, who has been an inspiration for me for many years.
First, I’d like to say on behalf of Chay, Thank you, Rob, your staff, and all who’ve gathered here for bringing Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band to Houston. Working at the Alley is special for me because I grew up in the suburbs of north Houston. It’s a deep honor to support Chay and the artistic team, and to work for the first time at my hometown theater.
Soon we’ll all experience Cambodian Rock Band and while I won’t offer any spoilers, I’m certain this electrifying dark comedy will make you laugh, weep, and many of you will even dance in the aisles as the play transforms into a full-on rock concert. It is a tremendous story about family, history, and the power of art.
As you watch, bear in mind that this is a distinctly American story. In this nation with so many immigrants, the tale of a daughter determined to understand her parents’ journey to these shores, resonates powerfully. In the play, Neary’s life hinges on a secret she couldn’t possibly imagine, and the only way to uncover it is to return to the place her family used to call home.
What she finds is a story of violent authoritarian forces who divide, erase, and grind to dust anyone who doesn’t look, think, or act like them. The Khmer Rouge, responsible for one of the most violent genocides the world’s ever seen, murdered two million people—almost a quarter of Cambodia’s population. And they started with artists, because artists are close to the people. Artists say the unsayable thing, they provoke, disrupt, ask hard questions.
The question at the heart of Cambodian Rock Band is What would you do to survive? Every character answers in different ways. The determination to live drives them all, and brings them to the moral limits of the human experience. This is what theater does best, this is what Cambodian Rock Band is all about.
This production is special for people of Asian and especially Cambodian descent. AAPI communities have made titanic contributions to American society, but in this moment, we’re seeing Anti-Asian violence intensify. Sadly, it’s woven into the fabric of American history. Asian stories are suppressed, Asian lives have been erased. So when you see Cambodian Rock Band, a gripping family drama, explode into a swaggering rock concert, with a stage featuring some of the best artists in the world, I also want you to know that this is a celebration of all it means to be Asian, and American. Some of them say, it’s an Honor Just to Be Asian. For me, it’s an Honor Just to Rock Out together.
As I mentioned, I’m from Houston. The tale of how I went from drum major of a high school marching band in the Houston suburbs, to Associate Director of Cambodian Rock Band, is too long to tell. But I will share that last Sunday my mom attended the show and brought fourteen church friends from up in spring. I saw their eyes post-show, shaken and electrified by what they’d witnessed, and inspired by the artistry on display. It reminds me of the curiosity and warmth I find all over this city.
Thank you for joining us for Cambodian Rock Band.