Lauren Yee's intimate rock epic, seen around the country and now premiering in New York, is directed by Chay Yew.
We met the film's director and two key players from the vibrant rock scene that flourished in Cambodia before the Khmer Rouge took power.
Review by JK Clarke. Powerful, provocative and yet delightfully entertaining, "Cambodian Rock Band" is one of the best productions of the season.
The regime the Khmer Rouge oversaw a cultural genocide which saw many 1960s rock and pop stars murdered, Cambodian Space Project aim to keep those voices alive.
Just take one look at Andrew Hem's introspective, otherworldly paintings and you'll be able tell that they have a deeper meaning. Hem was born during his
A collection of Khmer Rouge images and photos found across social media and the internet. Mostly propaganda and personal images, not of the horrors faced
A father and a daughter grapple with the atrocities of the Khmer Rouge in the playwright Lauren Yee’s latest, the first work in her Signature Theatre residency.
A story about survivors and the power of music. November 12 – December 15 at La Jolla Playhouse. By Lauren Yee, Featuring songs by Dengue Fever, Directed by Chay Yew.
Before the Khmer Rouge regime, a thriving pop and rock scene adapted Western music heard on U.S. military radio stations. The documentary Don't Think I've Forgotten took 10 years to make.
This darkly funny, electric new play with music tells the story of a Khmer Rouge survivor returning to Cambodia for the first time in thirty years, as his daughter prepares to prosecute one of Cambodia's most infamous war criminals. Backed by a live band playing contemporary Dengue Fever hits and classic Cambodian oldies, this thrilling story toggles back and forth in time as father and daughter face the music of the past.
Before the Khmer Rouge regime, a thriving pop and rock scene adapted Western music heard on U.S. military radio stations. The documentary Don't Think I've Forgotten took 10 years to make.
Cambodian New Year 2024 or Khmer New Year is a three-day festival in April that marks the end of the harvest season and is a time for family celebrations, and religious rituals.
A man who survived the murderous Khmer Rouge returns to Cambodia after 30 years away, surprising his American-born daughter, who has already traveled there to prosecute a case against one of its most noted war criminals. In Cambodian Rock Band, a mystery/thriller is propelled along by Cambodian music featuring songs...
Lauren Yee's play uncovers the country's surf-rock scene of the 1960s and '70s and includes songs by L.A. band Dengue Fever.
A collection of Khmer Rouge images and photos found across social media and the internet. Mostly propaganda and personal images, not of the horrors faced
About the Book Part comedy, part mystery, part rock concert, this thrilling new play toggles back and forth in time as a father and daughter face the music of the past. Book Synopsis Cambodian Rock Band is an epic play/rock concert that thrusts us into the life of a young woman trying to piece together her family history thirty years after her father fled Cambodia. Featuring actor/musicians who perform a mix of contemporary Dengue Fever hits and classic Cambodian oldies live, Lauren Yee brings to vivid life the Cambodian rock scene of the '60s and '70s, a movement cut short by the Khmer Rouge's brutal attempt to erase the music (and musicians) once and for all. A story about survivors, the resilient bond of family, and the enduring power of music. Review Quotes "A haunting, wise, political and personally searing show."-- "Chicago Tribune""A kinetic testament about art as activism and music as morality."-- "Stage and Cinema""A riveting play that's part mystery, part history lesson, and part unabashed jukebox musical concert."-- "BroadwayWorld""Fierce, gorgeous, heartwarming."-- "L.A. Times""One of the best plays of the year."-- "Chicago Reader" About the Author Lauren Yee is a playwright born and raised in San Francisco. She currently lives in New York City. Her play Cambodian Rock Band, with music by Dengue Fever, premiered at South Coast Rep and is at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival this season, followed by La Jolla Playhouse and Victory Gardens. Her play The Great Leap has been produced at the Denver Center, Seattle Repertory, Atlantic Theatre, and the Guthrie, with future productions at Arts Club and InterAct Theatre. Also upcoming: The Song of Summer at Trinity Rep. Yee's play King of the Yees premiered at The Goodman Theatre and Center Theatre Group, followed by productions at ACT Theatre, Canada's National Arts Centre, and Baltimore Center Stage. Other plays include Ching Chong Chinaman (Pan Asian, Mu Performing Arts), The Hatmaker's Wife (Playwrights Realm, Moxie, PlayPenn), Hookman (Encore, Company One), In a Word (SF Playhouse, Cleveland Public, Strawdog), Samsara (Victory Gardens, O'Neill Conference, Bay Area Playwrights Festival), and The Tiger Among Us (MAP Fund, Mu). She was a Dramatists Guild fellow, a MacDowell fellow, a MAP Fund grantee, a member of The Public Theater's Emerging Writers Group, a Time Warner Fellow at the Women's Project Playwrights Lab, the Shank playwright-in-residence at Second Stage Theatre, a Playwrights' Center Core Writer, and the Page One resident playwright at Playwrights Realm. She is the winner of the Horton Foote Prize, the Kesselring Prize, and the Francesca Primus Prize. She has been a finalist for the Edward M. Kennedy Prize, the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize, the ATCA/Steinberg Award, the Jerome Fellowship, the PONY Fellowship, the Princess Grace Award, the Sundance Theatre Lab, the Wasserstein Prize. Her play The Hatmaker's Wife was an Outer Critics Circle nominee for the John Gassner Award for best play by a new American playwright. Her plays were the #1 and #2 plays on the 2017 Kilroys List. Yee is a member of the Ma-Yi Theatre Writers Lab, a 2018/2019 Hodder fellow at Princeton University's Lewis Center for the Arts, and a New Dramatists playwright (class of 2025). She is currently under commission from the Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Lincoln Center Theatre/LCT3, Mixed Blood Theatre, Portland Center Stage, Second Stage Theatre, South Coast Rep, and Trinity Rep. She has written for MIXTAPE (Netflix). BA: Yale. MFA: UCSD.
It’s been almost a year since I’ve posted an update on the CSP “Ship’s Log” and I’m well overdue in sharing news or writing more towards my own commitment of writing 100 days of posts in memoriam of Kak Channthy. As CSP friends and fans will already know, the band lost Channthy in a tragic […]