Cambodia, for starters.
29 Oct 2008 Leave a Comment
in Cambodia
TuK-tuk by the Tonle Sap
I’ve been a week now in Phnom Penh and finally starting this blog. Finally! I decided quite a while ago I wanted to write about the things I’ve seen and experienced in my happily extensive travels. I want to eventually backtrack and include entries and pictures from other adventures in Europe and Asia, but I’ll start from where I am currently. I feel blessed and humbled to have the opportunity to experience other worlds that humble me even further… as an American, I have to admit I think there is a tendency to get a bit ethnocentric. I think it happens to many landlocked folk who just haven’t had the opportunity to see otherwise.
Even though I’m a week in, I’d like to start at the beginning. Many of my friends and family have asked me what exactly is this show that has brought me to Cambodia. Truthfully, I’ve had a hard time explaining, for A) It’s something very new that isn’t comparable to other musicals and shows I’ve done, and B) I’ve failed to find any summary that does this work justice. So I’m going to attempt to talk about it here in addition to cataloging my unique experience traveling in Cambodia. I also like to direct people to the website for the show: www.whereelephantsweep.net which describes this significant work much more eloquently than I could. The gist, however clipped and clumsy: Where Elephants Weep is a modern (and first ever) Cambodian-American rock opera commissioned by Cambodian Living Arts, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) here in Phnom Penh, aimed at refurbishing the arts and culture in Cambodia that was practically annihilated by the Khmer Rouge not 3 decades ago.
As we delved into week one of rehearsals last week in New York, a lot of stuff came up for me. We spent a bit of time watching documentaries and sitting in round-table discussions with the director and writer to begin to create the world and lives of these characters we are to inhabit. It was quite an intense realization for me as we embarked on that process, that we are literally telling a story that present-day Cambodians have lived. It’s a bit daunting to take on: The lives I am to reflect are ones that have included witnessing atrocities that I am quite reticent to mentally go through. It’s been estimated that 2 million people were slaughtered under Pol Pot’s regime. That’s 1 in every 4 people, no family had been untouched. I struggled to fathom what that would feel like, translated into my world. Needless to say, I spent the week pretty emotional. On another level, I was surprised to see how similar Bopha (the name of my character) and I are. As I spent the week tracking her emotional crossroads, I found they were many of the same inquiries I had personally. Though I really have to say it’s not that surprising: Every show and role I’ve worked on has come into my life almost as an answer to the question of some emotional crossroad I had at that juncture. The Universe never ceases to amaze me.
Despite my fears and slight anxiety about doing this character justice, I feel extremely safe in the hands of our director, producer and creative team. These people have shown me another level of what being an artist can entail and I am humbled and excited by the prospects and process ahead of me. Stay tuned for more…
