Compare it to Qui Nguyen's best-known play, "She Kills Monsters"; the reputation of his theater company, the Obie Award-winning Vampire Cowboys of New York City; and just the titles of works in development, among them "War Is F***ing Awesome," "Samantha Rai and the Shoguns of Fear" and "Six Rounds of Vengeance" -- a sequel to "Soul Samarai." "DUST" might be the closest thing to a "straight play" in the young playwright's canon.
"He's a really cool playwright," Bob Ford, artistic director of TheatreSquared, says with enthusiasm. "But it's also really fun to have Qui here because of the amazing coincidence of him being an Arkansas born and raised playwright."
FAQ
‘DUST’
By Qui Nguyen
WHEN & WHERE — 2 p.m. June 20 & 7:30 p.m. June 28 at Nadine Baum Studios in Fayetteville; also June 27 in Little Rock
COST — $40 for the festival; single tickets $7-$15
INFO — 443-5600 or theatre2.org
FYI
Arkansas New Play Festival
June 19 — “Fault” by Bob Ford: In the aftermath of a severe quake along the New Madrid Fault, a pro football player defies a government quarantine and returns alone to his family farm in the Arkansas River Valley, 7:30 p.m.
June 20 — “DUST,” 2 p.m., and “The Dingdong: Or, How the French Kiss” by Georges Feydeau, adapted by Mark Shanahan: Dive headfirst into the misadventures of one madcap night in a Parisian hotel in this new adaptation of Feydeau’s classic farce, 7:30 p.m.
June 21 — “Uncle” by Lee Blessing: A comedy about an academic sabbatical gone terribly awry, 2 p.m.; and the 24-Hour Playoff, 6 p.m.
June 25 — “The Quest for Don Quixote” adapted by Mark Brown from Miguel de Cervantes: Playwright Ben Eisenberg sits in a Starbucks, just one day before his epic adaptation of “Don Quixote” begins rehearsal. There’s just one problem — he hasn’t written it, 8 p.m.
June 26 — “The Dingdong,” 5:30 p.m.; “The Quest for Don Quixote,” 8 p.m.
June 27 — “The Quest for Don Quixote,” 2 p.m. & 8 p.m.; Young Playwrights Showcase, 5:30 p.m.
June 28 — “Uncle,” 2 p.m.; “DUST,” 7 p.m.
Additional performances will also be staged in Little Rock, hosted by the Arkansas Repertory Theatre, on June 27, including “DUST” and “Uncle.” For information, call 501- 378-0405 or visit therep.org.
Ford says he loves to have "one or two playwrights who have some strong connection to Arkansas" at the Arkansas New Play Festival, which this year spreads over 10 days and two cities. Qui is not the biggest name at the festival -- a designation that likely belongs to Lee Blessing, Mark Brown or maybe Ford himself -- but he just might be the one to draw millennials in. Although "DUST" doesn't include Dungeons & Dragons, the trappings of a spaghetti Western or secret weapons, it does take a compelling look at a young Vietnamese woman's efforts to reach across cultures to her father.
"There's always something about me in all my plays," Qui says. "This play specifically is set in El Dorado, Arkansas, during the late '80s, which is when and where I grew up. There's definitely homages to my hometown due to that. The lead is Vietnamese, which by reading my last name, one can easily ascertain that obvious connection. And it's a tale about immigration, which is also very close to my heart. Ultimately, it's about finding a home. And as an often vagabond artist, that's something I'm always searching for, whether it be artistic or a literal place to hang my hat."
Although Qui's parents met and fell in love in an Arkansas refugee camp, "DUST" was inspired by "a New York Times article about 'Amer-Asians,' soldier babies that were left behind in Vietnam who hereditarily favor their American parent but culturally are still very Vietnamese," Qui says. "In Vietnam, they're outsiders because of how they looked, in America they're outsiders because of how they sound. I've always been fascinated by identity since it's something that I juggled with growing up as one of the few Asian faces in my small town of El Dorado."
Mark Brown's "The Quest for Don Quixote" will be fully rendered but "DUST," like all the other new plays being presented by TheatreSquared, will be performed script in hand as part of its development for future production.
"'DUST' is both a very old and very new play," Qui says. "It was actually the third play I ever wrote back in graduate school. And since it was written during a time when I took myself very seriously (as many young people do at that age), it was a drama filled with tears and anguish and a broken family.
"Since then I've gone on to have a career primarily as a comedic writer. I started a theater company that's known for creating live on-stage action-adventure plays and penned cartoons like the current PBS show 'PEG+CAT.' My writing voice is known for its irreverent spirit and rebellious humor. 'DUST' is very different from that voice.
"However as I've grown older, I'm now curious if I do still have the muscles to write something a bit more on the 'dramatic tip'," Qui says. "When I sat down and read it last year, I remembered all the questions I was wrestling away with and recognized there was something in that overly earnest writing that could one day be a good story. ... I'm hoping to find how the current me can help the younger me fulfill the potential of this play -- to see if I can't imbue it with some of the humor and fun of how I write now but still honor the ideas I was juggling with when I was in my 20s."
NAN What's Up on 06/12/2015