TeAda’s First National Community-Based Theater Project
REFUGEE NATION
Written and performed by Leilani Chan and Ova Saopeng
Based on the stories of Laotian Refugees and their descendents
A mother lives in the darkness of a South Los Angeles apartment. An Army General struggles to forget a lost war. A son battles in the streets of urban America. Refugee Nation is about a young generation struggling to understand their history and the silence of an elder generation still healing from the traumas of the U.S. waged Secret War in Laos during the Vietnam War era.
More than just a telling of Laotian American history, the two-person performance eloquently touches upon issues relating to the refugee experience, assimilation, generation gap, and mental health using drama, film, music, and audience interaction, and personalizes these issues through a genuine Laotian American perspective. The result is a product that not only brings to light the hidden stories of Laotian Americans around the U.S., but one that is able to unite people from all types of backgrounds, ethnicities, and histories by relaying the ideas of change, loss, struggle, healing, and the unrelenting strength of the human spirit.
The Refugee Nation continues to grow. With the certainty of new refugee arrivals coming from the Middle East, what can we learn from the wounds of a war 30 years ago that are still yet to be healed?
Weds, August 18, 2010
11am-1pm Workshop
7:30pm Performance
REFUGEE NATION at the 2010 API Youth Summit
Viking Theater @ Grand View University
1200 Grand View Avenue
Des Moines, Iowa 50316
http://www.muawi.org
Past REFUGEE NATION Touring Dates:
April 10, 2010 REFUGEE NATION in San Francisco, CA As part of the International Lao New Year Festival
April 3-4, 2010 REFUGEE NATION in San Diego, CA As part of the Lao New Year Festival
February 1, 2010 REFUGEE NATION at UCLA
Ackerman Grand Ballroom
REFUGEE NATION in San Diego, CA as part of the Lao New Year Festival
April 3-5, 2009
Celebration Hall
Joe & Vi Jacobs Center
REFUGEE NATION in Knoxville, TN
Oct 10-11, 2008
Carpet Bag Theater Inc.
Knoxville, TN
REFUGEE NATION in Berkeley
April 25, 2008 at 8pm
April 26, 2008 at 3pm and 8pm
La Pena Cultural Center
www.lapena.org
November 2007 REFUGEE NATION Residency & Performances
OUT NORTH, Anchorage Alaska
www.outnorth.org
REFUGEE NATION PROJECT LAUNCH
October 12 & 13, 2007
Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center
www.cmacusa.org
REFUGEE NATION in New York City Preview performance as part of the
First Ever National Asian American Theater Festival
June 22-24, 2007
Abingdon Theater
www.naatf.org
Refugee Nation is being developed in collaboration with Legacies of War, a national organization dedicated to raise awareness about the history of the Vietnam War-era bombing in Laos. For more information on how to support this education & advocacy effort go to www.legaciesofwar.org
This project is supported in part by: the Rockefeller Foundation’s MAP Fund, SPARC,
UCLA’s World Arts And Culture’s 2006 HOTHOUSE, Center Theater Group/TCG-
Roger Gueneveur Smith Writer’s Workshop, CSU Dominguez Hills’ Pat Eliet Lecture Series and:
TEADAWORKS was funded in part by cultural grants from the City of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs. TeAda Productions is in residence at Highways Performance Space and Gallery.
Special thanks to 2100 Square Feet.
