Cambodian Rock Band
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Cambodian Rock Band

By Lauren Yee Featuring songs by Dengue Fever Directed by Chay Yew
March 6 – October 27, 2019 Thomas Theatre
Multimedia The Buzz Suitability and Accessibility The Artists The Venue
Multimedia The Buzz Suitability and Accessibility The Artists The Venue

A journey of music and legacy 30 years in the making

This award-winning play—equal parts comedy, history, mystery and rock concert—about the resilient bond of family and the enduring power of music thrusts us into the life of a young woman trying to take down a Khmer Rouge war criminal thirty years after her father fled Cambodia. Six actor/musicians make up the cast and perform a mix of contemporary Dengue Fever hits and classic Cambodian oldies.

Playwright Lauren Yee—who has earned awards and accolades for Cambodian Rock Band, including the 2019 Harold and Mimi Steinberg/American Theatre Critics Association New Play Award, the 2019 Whiting Award for emerging writers, the 2018 Horton Foote Prize for Outstanding New American Play, and one of ten finalists for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize for female playwrights—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. Directed by Chay Yew (Hannah and the Dread Gazebo).

Length: Approximately 2 hours, 26 minutes, including one intermission

#CambodianRockBandOSF

Sponsors

  • PARTNERS
  • Brad and Louise Edgerton
  • Sandy Farewell
  • The Goatie Foundation
  • Henderson-Sonna Family
  • Michael and Lori Milken Family Foundation

Music Video: Cambodian Rock Band

Cambodian Rock Band

The Buzz

“A straight-up masterpiece… Easily one of the best plays I have seen at OSF, or for that matter, anywhere else.”
Siskiyou Daily News
“Gorgeous, horrifying, hilarious and humane, sometimes all at once. I’ve honestly never seen anything quite like Cambodian Rock Band.”
North Bay Stage and Screen
Lauren Yee’s ‘Cambodian Rock Band’ Take Steinberg-ATCA Award
American Theatre
Suitability Suggestions

The play contains onstage violence and death, with scenes from the play taking place in a Cambodian torture center. There is also profanity. Mature middle and high school students who can handle these elements will enjoy the concert-like musical quality of the play, and will relate to the father-daughter relationship at the play’s core.

Accessibility

The Thomas Theatre is outfitted with an elevator to the theatre level.

The Oregon Shakespeare Festival is committed to accessibility. We recognize the needs of persons with disabilities and strive to make our facilities and productions accessible to all. OSF offers a variety of accommodations, outlined here.

 

Creative Team

Will Detlefsen
FAIR Assistant Director

* Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)

Cast

Ensemble: Brooke Ishibashi*, Abraham Kim**, Jane Lui*, Joe Ngo*, Daisuke Tsuji*, Moses Villarama*

* Member of Actors' Equity Association (AEA)
** AEA Professional Theatre Intern

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Thomas Theatre

As a result of the generous donation of $4.5 million from a group of donors, comprising of The Goatie Foundation, Roberta and David Elliott, and Helen and Peter Bing, in 2013 the New Theatre was renamed the Thomas Theatre in recognition of longtime OSF Development Director Peter D. Thomas, who died in March 2010.

The gift answered a challenge issued in 1993 when Jo Lynn Allen of the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the lead donor for the construction of OSF’s New Theatre, passed on the opportunity to name the theatre, issuing the requirement for other donors to make a significant contribution to secure the naming rights. The combined gift from the above group of donors meets the Allen’s threshold, and gives them the naming rights.

The New Theatre opened in 2002 and it carries on the pioneering spirit of its predecessor, the Black Swan. Here, on this intimate and extremely versatile stage, we present new works and explore familiar plays in ways designed to challenge, excite and illuminate. Depending on the flexible seating configuration (thrust, arena, avenue) in use, the theatre seats from 270-360 audience members.

Our 2019 Season