Photo by Rich Ryan
Cambodian Rock Band
The Jungle Theater and Theater Mu have collaborated to put their first co-production, of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band, on the Jungle’s stage. Yee was set to become one of America's most-produced playwrights prior to the pandemic. Audiences can expect a story about family, Cambodian music, and the genocide of nearly two million Cambodians by the Communist Party of Kampuchea, also known as the Khmer Rouge.
“While it mourns a region’s immense loss, it also celebrates the survival and resilience of the human spirit,” says Mu artistic director Lily Tung Crystal, who also directs the production.
“Yee magically weaves together both tragedy and joy, music and words, to create a transcendent Asian American theatrical experience.” While this is the first time the Jungle has produced one of Yee’s works, Mu produced the world premieres of her first play Ching Chong Chinaman (2009) and The Tiger Among Us (2013).
The story centers around a Khmer Rouge survivor who returns to Cambodia for the first time in 30 years, as his daughter prepares to prosecute one of the country’s most infamous war criminals. To help bring the story to life, many of the actors doubled as a live band of actor-musicians playing Dengue Fevers hits and classic Cambodian oldies. Eric Sharp, a veteran of both Mu and Jungle stages, says he’s thrilled to be part of this collaboration and story.
Eric Sharp
Eric Sharp
From going to rehearsals to the opening day Saturday, what are your thoughts and feelings?
Rewind: When I originally heard that I had booked this show over two years ago, it was a mixture of great excitement and trepidation. This range of emotions is what makes theater such an addictive art form for all involved. I’ve only played a couple of historical characters, but never an actual war criminal: a mindset I find both fascinating and abhorrent. That said, researching a regime, an ideology, and a specific set of circumstances is endlessly interesting to me. Of course, I don’t excuse or condone the Khmer Rouge or Duch’s actions in any way (in history, or in the play), but working on him as a character has humanized him in various ways. Lauren Yee has created a role that is a delicate balancing act that I'm still navigating as we speak.
This is the Jungle Theater and Theater Mu’s first co-production together. Do you think this partnership better helps tell the story of Cambodian Rock Band versus just one theater putting it on?
This Twin Cities production would not be possible without the shared ideas, intentions, lived experiences, and frankly budgets that the co-pro makes possible. So there is the brass tacks part of producing a play, but in the best sense, a co-production is a coming together of two theater families. The artistic directors Lily Tung Crystal and Christina Baldwin are both masters of bringing together people for a theatrical experience so much greater than the sum of its parts. Both Mu and the Jungle are known for high-quality, intentional work that combines deep heart with sublime stagecraft. What’s not to love?!
Did you learn anything from the actors you're working with? What’s the collaboration like on and off the stage?
As an actor who gets to be a part of a show where every other performer acts AND rocks out in the onstage band, I feel like a stowaway sneaking champagne at a boat party way above my station. My fellow castmates are all so talented, but it has been those little conversations about how we can hold each other up to make the best show possible that have been so heartening. Not to mention getting to learn from and act opposite Broadway vet Greg Watanabe who is as generous onstage as he is funny and kind in real life. In the end, the lovely thing that Lauren has done is pick stunning Cambodian music that will not only make you want to get up and dance but enriches the story at every turn.
Being a veteran of both Jungle and Theater Mu (the second-largest Asian American theater company in the nation), what does it mean to you to work with a theater that empowers and celebrates Asian American culture, but also tells stories from Asian American experiences?
I owe my career (not to mention my sanity as an actor of color) to the generations of Asian American artists of Theater Mu. It is my artistic home in every sense. I feel the most whole when I walk through the rehearsal room doors for a Mu project. At the same time, we all know that "Asian American" as a label can be a misnomer, woefully imprecise at describing our actual lived experiences. I see the work of Mu as an invitation to Asian folks here in this Midwestern context to pull up a seat and lend their voices and their theatrical talents to the weft and weave of American theatre writ large. What better way to add Asian texture and pattern to that fabric than a company that puts people of Asian descent center stage? Mu has allowed me to feel like I am part of an important movement—a beautiful table that continues to feed my people decades after the first meal.
Cambodian Rock Band runs June 11-July 31. Tickets $45/Pay as you are. Jungle Theater, 2951 Lyndale Ave S Mpls., jungletheater.org
