This interview explores the human tendency to understand identity through past experiences, the diverse attitudes of Americans and immigrants, and the role of hope in the American Dream.

SENG’S HAIR SALON

by Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay

April 17 - May 10

World Premiere, commissioned as part of the Philly Cycle!

When a mysterious and fatal epidemic starts to haunt their shop, three generations of a Lao family in South Philly clash over what’s best for the well-being of their matriarch. This modern American family includes Lao, Vietnamese and Cambodian characters, who must navigate a dramatically shifting local and national cultural political scene while advocating for greater political representation.

Set inside a family-owned Philadelphia salon that has served as a community cornerstone for decades, this play centers Lao, Vietnamese, and Cambodian characters navigating a health crisis and rapidly shifting cultural and political landscape. As national rhetoric intensifies and local stakes rise, the family wrestles with questions of visibility, advocacy, and generational responsibility.

Developed in partnership with Laos in the House, VietLead and the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia.

Lydia Gaston (Seng) Broadway credits: Jerome Robbins’ Broadway, Miss Saigon, The King and I (1996, 2015), Shogun, The Red Shoes. Off-Bway productions with: Ma-Yi Theatre Group, National Asian-American Theatre (NAATCO), Pan Asian Rep, and The Public Theatre. TV credits: Law and Order, Hightown (Season 3), The Path, The Blacklist, Zero Day (Netflix), Late Night With Seth Meyers; Film: Easter Sunday (Universal Pictures) as “Tita Susan.” MA in Applied Theatre, CUNY Graduate Center, New York.

Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay HEAR IT (Playwright) is a Lao American poet, essayist, and playwright. Her work focuses on creating tools and spaces for the amplification of refugee voices through poetry, theater, and experimental cultural production. The Smithsonian APAC, Theater Mu, Theater Unbound, and Mixed Blood Theater have presented her plays. She’s received fellowships from the Bush Foundation (2021), McKnight Foundation (2021), Playwrights’ Center (2018), Loft Literary Center for poetry (2018) and children's literature (2019), Twin Cities Media Alliance for public art (2018), and is an Aspen Ideas Bush Foundation fellow (2018). She's received grants from the Knight Foundation, Forecast Public Art, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Center for Cultural Power, MAP Fund, Andy Warhol Foundation, and 30+ more. She's currently the Mellon Foundation playwright in residence at Theater Mu, a Core Writer at the Playwrights' Center, a Jerome Foundation AIR at Camargo Cassis, France, and a MN State Arts Board grantee.

FOR MORE INFORMATION: https://www.interacttheatre.org/season-38

ABOUT THE PHILLY CYCLE: https://www.interacttheatre.org/philly-cycle

ABOUT LYDIA GASTON: https://www.lydiagaston.com/

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