Second Generation Survivors Of The Khmer Rouge Genocide Shatter Its Silence in ArtsEmerson's SEE YOU YESTERDAY
On the heels of Cambodian New Year, ArtsEmerson is honored to welcome See You Yesterday, a moving performance by Global Arts Corps which explores the painful history of the Khmer Rouge genocide in Cambodia. Directed by Michael Lessac, nineteen Cambodian performers utilize their extraordinary physical skills, including acrobatics and circus arts, to travel back in time and shatter a legacy of silence. Global Arts Corps brings See You Yesterday's U.S. premiere to Boston to close ArtsEmerson's 2018/2019 season, for five performances only, May 16-19, at the Emerson Paramount Center Robert J. Orchard Stage.
Tickets for See You Yesterday start at just $20 and may be purchased online at www.ArtsEmerson.org, by phone at 617.824.8400, or in person at the box office. Group, student, and senior discounts are also available. Tickets are also available at the Merrimack Repertory Theatre box office in Lowell, MA.
Over 22 weeks of development since 2012, Global Arts Corps-whose celebrated work brings together people from opposite sides of violent conflicts-collaborated with these young Cambodian artists as they grappled with the painful history of their country's genocide. While details of the four-year horror have largely gone unexplored by younger generations of Cambodians, the cast of See You Yesterday interviewed their elders (and even a former Khmer Rouge child soldier) to build a stunning performance that is both beautiful and cathartic.
"In 2013, when we brought our Northern/North of Ireland production Hold your Tongue, Hold your Dead to Boston audiences, we witnessed two communities, separated by an ocean and burdened by their own personalized historical memories, find a common healing ground in talk-backs across the footlights," says See You Yesterday director Michael Lessac. "At a time when we seem to be clinging to what separates us and not what connects us, we wanted to be in the same place again to see what happens when another, totally different, theatrical vision of honesty, tenacity, and imagination takes the ArtsEmerson stage. See You Yesterday brings to Boston a cast of young Cambodian circus artists whose culture has forced them to live in silence with a harrowing memory. They have created a performance that shows us how hope can emerge from despair and how truth can emerge out of a powerfully moral and courageously honest imagination. I could not be more proud to be working with David Dower and his extraordinary team, in the namesake space of my old friend, Rob Orchard, as we once again explore together what happens when inherited conflict and unspoken multiple truths are surfaced across continents so that generations can talk to each other again."
"See You Yesterday is precisely the kind of experience that ArtsEmerson has become known for over these past nine seasons," says ArtsEmerson artistic director David Dower. "The show puts one of most vibrant world cultures in the spotlight. Our region hosts one of the largest Cambodian communities in the nation and as with last season's Bangsokol, we are presenting it in deep partnership with that community, both in Boston and in Lowell. This effort to put the world on stage in dialogue with diverse communities delivers that particular synergy between the art and the audience that our supporters have come to count on. See You Yesterday also uses a form of storytelling that is entirely ArtsEmerson - sharing its moving search for restorative justice through the tools of circus and dance. We are proud to be working with Michael Lessac and Global Arts Corps to tell this story."
Photo by Jacqueline Lessac
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