Written & Directed by: Tony Le-Nguyen

The 1998 Sydney production of Chay Vong Vong was a new work, which grew out of Chay Vong Vong, a play of the same name that I wrote and directed with the Vietnamese Community in Melbourne in 1995 and 1996.

Living and working in Sydney for four months was the most challenging thing I’ve done for a long time. Apart from being in a new community, I had to attend two funerals, one of which was my mother. The other challenge was to compete with the Commonwealth Games, Bill Clinton’s sex life and Pauline Hanson during a federal election for media attention.

Despite two unfortunate incidents during the time of the project, the outcome was quite outstanding. The project allowed 20 young Vietnamese-Australians and myself to work learn and share ideas with professional artists like John Baylis, and Tori De Mestre. It also allowed me to employ a young emerging musician/composer Jenny Ly. This was a great opportunity for both of us to explore and experiment with different working methods and different forms of musical expression.

As a show, Chay Vong Vong was not afraid to address many issues such as domestic violence and generation conflict, which is very much taboo within the Vietnamese community. It has generated discussions and debate within the Vietnamese community, especially in the Vietnamese Media.

Chay Vong Vong was performed over 8 nights to over 600 audience members. The majority of the audience is from the local Vietnamese community. For many people, this was their first contemporary theatrical experience.

Two organisations that gave me the most support for this project, were Urban Theatre Projects and the Vietnamese Community Association in NSW. Without their support, this project would not be possible.

An assessment of the project’s successes and failures.

A meeting to evaluate the Chay Vong Vong project was held Wednesday 7 October at the Vietnamese Community in Australia Association office in Bankstown. In attendance were: Harley Stumm (chair), Tony Le Nguyen (director), John Baylis (associate director), Jenny Ly (music director), Michael Tabrett (musician), Sean O’Brien (observer), and the following participants: Jessica Tran, Anique Vo, Khoa Do, Hong Nguyen, Thuy Trang Tran, Rosie Chan, Do Trong Tien, Le Chau Quy, Bao Khanh, Thi Lan Nguyen, Emily Nguyen Thao Tran and Catherine Le.

Participants absent were: Le Phu Cuong, Sarah Vongmany, Duc Dep Trai, Quoc Vinh Le, Sally Hoang, Bich Tran, Phuong Tran and Trang Thi Tran. Musicians absent: Soai Nguyen and Hao Duong. Tori de Mestre was overseas.

The meeting was loosely structured around the following topics.

Reason for involvement/expectations

Participants had a range of expectations:

• to get more experience
• to see how directors work
• to try something different
• to explore Vietnamese issues
• to work in both English and Vietnamese languages

The workshop process

Strengths

• Much of the script came from improvisation and so allowed participation in its creation.
• The equal participation of young and older people.
• The chance for the young people to speak with their voices.
• The chance for older performers with various degrees of professional experiences from Vietnam to experience different ways of making theatre, in particular the strong emphasis on improvisation.
• Communication between the artist and participants was good.

Weaknesses

• The emphasis on improvisation meant that performers did not know precisely what their role was until very late in the process.
• Not enough time was allowed for rehearsal: four months (rather than the actual three) was mentioned as the ideal period.
• The long process and especially the early emphasis on ensemble-forming games meant that some participants lost sight of the ultimate purpose of the process halfway through.
• There should have been more consultation before decisions were made.

The show itself

There were a number of views about the final result, some the opinions of the participants, some reflecting audience reaction.

Strengths

• Many audience members stayed behind to talk, which is unusual.
• A different theatrical experience to what they were used to.
• Many scenes created a great deal of discussion for and against (eg the girl’s takeover of the stage).
• Many scenes were very close to the audience’s experiences (eg the nuns’ scene).
• The overall style was too comic and arty, not tough enough.

Weaknesses

• Did not deal enough with contemporary issues like drugs and homelessness.
• Some audience members could not follow the time shifts in the play.
• The lighting design was not adequate to assist the audience to understand where the main focus was at any given time.
• The set design was too simple.

What did participants get out of Chay Vong Vong?

A range of answers:

• Learned what a professional theatre process was like.
• Acting is hard work, though it looks so easy.
• Gained confidence.
• Helped to decide on career options.
• Made friends.
• Learned unconventional ways of making theatre.
• Learned courage.
• Enjoyed being part of something fun but was also intense when it needed to be.

Like all the community theatre projects that I have been involved in, finding the right balance or combination that will satisfy the needs of the community and artists is always challenging. It is even harder if you are working with two different cultures.

However, I believe that this has been one of my most successful projects so far, from a community cultural development point of view. My aim in this project was to try and find the right balance. If we take a look at the participant’s expectations of the project at the beginning and what they gained at the end, they are very similar.
The overall feeling towards the project was positive, and all of the participants had a strong desire to do more work together. They in fact have come together again to work as a discreet group in Urban Theatre Project’s next project Speed Street.

Details of all artists participating in the project.

Tony Le Nguyen (director & writer) was born in Sa Dec, Vietnam in 1968 and migrated to Australia in 1978. He is currently the Artistic Director of Australian Vietnamese Youth Media. He wrote and directed Chay Vong Vong with the Vietnamese young people at Footscray Community Arts Centre in September 1995. He later directed a fully professional production of Chay Vong Vong at Napier St Theatre in September 1996. Recent projects include co-directing Worlds Apart with Gary McKechnie, a television drama about the communication gap between older and younger generations of the Vietnamese community, broadcast on SBS-TV in 1997. He is well known in both the Vietnamese community and the wider community for his pivotal role as Tiger in Geoffrey Wright’s film Romper Stomper. Other professional work includes Titus (Theatreworks), Madame Butterfly (Victorian State Opera), A Change of Face (Handspan theatre) and many television productions (GP, Embassy, The Damnation of Harvey McHugh, Fast Forward, All Together Now, Secrets, Boys from the Bush, Paradise Beach).

Jenny My Ngoc Ly (musical director) is a composer and musician, who has performed her work at the Opera House and Sydney Town Hall. She plays dan tranh (Vietnamese zither) and piano and is a member of the University of Sydney Gamelan Ensemble. She is a registered practising music teacher, and teacher of English as a second language, and is currently studying music at Sydney University.

John Baylis (associate director) is the Artistic Director of Urban Theatre Projects. His background is primarily in contemporary performance, as a creator and as a performer – notably as co-founder of the Sydney Front (1986-1993). He has also worked as a freelance creator/dramaturg with companies such as Sidetrack, Entr’act, and Calculated Risks Opera. He had a long association with The Performance Space, as a founding artistic coordinator in the early eighties, and its chair in the early nineties. He was a senior theatre program officer at the Australia Council’s Theatre Fund from 1994 until 1997.

Tori de Mestre (designer) is a visual artist with 15 years of experience working on community arts projects. She has collaborated on many projects involving dance and performance. Her work, predominantly textile-based, has been exhibited widely in Australia and overseas. Recent work includes a textile installation at the Kiama Seaside Festival (1992), murals for Kiama Infants School and Minnamurra Primary School (1993), a CEAD project at Albion Park in collaboration with architect/planner Iain Pratt and Crossroads group (1995), a mural and textile project with Liverpool Hospital (1996), design for Death Defying Theatre’s Going Home performance project with the Polynesian and Maori community.

COMMENTS ON ASSESSMENT OF THIS PROJECT

John Baylis (associate director)

Tori de Mestre (designer)

Jenny My Ngoc Ly (musical director)

David Everist (Footscray Community Arts Centre)

Statement on the value and effectiveness of the grant.

The grant given by the Australia Council, Community Cultural Development Fund has enabled professional artists like myself to work together with other Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese artists and the Vietnamese community in Sydney. The grant gave the Vietnamese community a chance to discuss, work, learn and address many issues such as identity, social, cultural and generational conflicts, which are rarely mentioned in the mainstream arts scene.

A community cultural development process provides an important experience for the Vietnamese community. The process allows participants to tell their stories in their own languages to their community as well as to the wider Australian community. This is very new for the Vietnamese Community. Without this grant, a project like this is not possible.