Why Cambodia?

I am honored to be the recipient of an Ann Shaw Fellowship, from Theatre for Young Audiences USA -- TYA/USA. This fellowship is sending me to Cambodia to apprentice with the Sovanna Phum Arts Association. I visited the theatre when I was in Cambodia last November. Above are pictures from the production I saw, and below is a brief video clip. Here is an excerpt from my application for the fellowship, which will tell you more about why I'm going:

My first day in Phnom Penh [during my brief visit to Cambodia last year], the capitol city, I happened upon the Sovanna Phum Art Association. Here, I saw a traditional performance, Preah Kho Botr, incorporating shadow puppets, Apsara dance, and live Khmer music in the telling of a Khmer folk tale pre-dating the Ramayana. What first told me that this production would be different from others I had seen was the mix of locals and tourists in the audience. While the tourist market helps to financially sustain the theatre, the locals in the audience told me this theatre is committed to keeping the arts and traditions alive. And it sure was; the production was magical! I am a tech-theatre junkie, yet I was completely captivated and catapulted into another world in a theatre with just 12 lights, puppets, and a cyc. Both children and adults, both Cambodians and foreigners, were spellbound.

I hope to return to Phnom Penh next year to apprentice with Sovanna Phum (Golden Era) and learn about their traditional art forms – Khmer puppetry, music, and dance. I look forward to incorporating my new skills into both drama education and TYA in a myriad of ways: teaching body control and movement, part of a devising process and product, use in performances, etc. While many American children have not been exposed to shadow puppetry, they are certainly captivated by creating their own hand shadows with an unattended projector; shadow puppets take that natural curiosity to the next level. In Singapore [on my Fulbright Fellowship last year], I assistant directed a play incorporating human shadows, which students loved both performing and watching. My experience with Sovanna Phum will also inform a TYA play I intend to write – what could be better prep than learning about traditional art forms and stories from a traditional company!

11 days!