Tony, what are you doing here?
I'm creating some blood and guts for the chickens.
For the chickens, the poulet boucherie.
I've been supporting this community for many years.
Worked in the community.
I chose to work in a low paying job because was something that needed to be done, to help
build up our community.
And I'm a little choked up because I'm at that time where I'm soon going to retire and
I wonder, who's going to step up to the plate?
Where are there going to be new people coming up to see the spaces in between, there's someone
to support the community.
Someone has to be behind getting things together.
And I've been that person for a long time.
I'm worrying about what will happen if our young people don't get the sense of stepping
up and becoming more a part of the community.
Rather than maybe looking to go elsewhere.
I've been working for the City of Abbeville for twenty-one and a half years doing the Mainstreet
Program.
And it was about preserving buildings and letting your community be authentic.
Not trying to copy strip malls.
Not trying to be something you weren't.
To try to be your unique self.
Well this play and this process, by capturing stories, by getting people to talk about themselves
and validate themselves.
It preserves our history and our culture.
You seem to be looking for something.
I am.
I'm looking for home.
In there, I was her special niece so she would take me.
One of the fine memories I have is the living room, filled with visitors.
Fifteen or twenty people gathered in the parlor, all talking at the same time and raising their
voices over each other to be heard.
I remember being in the parlor.There'd be fifteen or twenty people and they'd be talking.
Everybody would be talking...
Even as you're just beginning to read (the script), bring it to life.You can do that.
And as an actor, it's expected.
Okay?
Go for it again, David.
And don't be afraid to...yeah, remember, there's no bad, there's no wrong.
Mistakes are fine.
They're great.
All right?
We're learning together.
So, but I'm always going to push.
Okay?
All right.
So he shouted to be heard.
Much better, my man!
You've nailed it, you've got it!
Keep going.
Don't rush, keep going.
...in French.
It would almost be a shouting match because that one person wanted to be heard over everybody.
How did you like your first rehearsal?
What's the thing that hits you the most?
The energy from everyone else is just so, I feel welcome when I'm rehearsing with everybody
else here.
It's like, positive energy is being with everybody, and, you know, when that's together, you know,
it's like we're one person together.
It's great.
This open up the flood and let the water in and it'll go down.
Think you can make it work?
The roosters on the floor and they go pecking all over the floor.
One thing you always carry in your heart to know this. Family must always go where we needed.
Daddy, when were you in Vietnam?
I found myself converted to this way of living.
We had no equipment except a mule and a siphon.
The water is our life...
It's gonna be great.
It's really going to show the heart of our community.
Once it's all together.
I can feel it already.
What we've got going on here is pretty rare and it's everything to do with what's happening
between the folks here in this community.
What we're witnessing is, as we put this thing together we're making it up as we go along.
So what it's asking each of us to do is to grab hold any inspiration and bring it into
the creative center where we're working and then make something beautiful.
But along with just something beautiful and entertaining what's emerging is really the
spirit of this town, the Spirit of Abbeville.
(Singing) Our story is an old one.
It happened long ago.
And if you listen close, you will come to know it's not so different from yours.
Now I hear that you have a story, too.
And it happened long ago.
Our story!
As we listen close, we will come to know it's not so different from mine. Not different!
My name is John Nguyen.
I am, play Minh who is a Vietnamese.
Left Vietnam about seven years old.
We came to America, didn't know anything.
When I was asked to play a part in this play, I was very reluctant because I never been
in this play before, and I have never known any plays--I mean all my life.
So I came with less confidence.
But after a few days, you know, met with the cast and the people that I work with,
I like it.
I like it very much.
This would be an experience for my lifetime.
So I say, well, let's take a chance.
I get to meet a lot of people that I never know before, even though we live in the same
town, like especially Uncle Nonc.
He's playing the opposite with me.
But I get to know him, we get along fine.
That's good.
Whoever came up with the idea that combine all the different culture, from love to hate,
getting along, and prejudice.
This play here we all come together as one.
(Singing) Sunday morning up with the lark
I think I'll take a walk in the park.
Hey, hey, hey, it's a beautiful day.
I got someone waiting for me...
By crossing different boundaries, you know, we see people on the street who are a different
color, different culture, different age than us, but we don't often get the chance to meet
with them and join with them.
When that happens, instead of having a sensation of being with a stranger, we have a sensation
very quickly that this is a person who is enriching my life.
So, when we put this together, what you're seeing is Abbeville turned up, bright, strong,
clear, and inviting us all together.
And three, and four, and five, and six, wave it down, yah, yah, yah, yah, one and a two.
You're communicating words and an idea, you have the responsibility to fill that with
some type of emotion that you care about.
Some kind of connection.
So if you're saying "So my people came, from far away, from a land they loved dear....
Whatever you're saying, you have to fill it with you heart and your emotion.
You stand up here Emotion, that's what I wrote in it.
Emotion, like a cry.
Yeah.
You know.
I remember being a part of a show once where the senior citizens were very afraid of the
teenagers.
Because they had very little interaction with them.
Or the teenagers didn't understand the seniors.
so we have these divides in our community because we don't have close proximity anymore.
And we don't have a process by which to really get to know and value the different ages and
all the gifts that that brings.
So Community Performance is one of the rare places that you can engage in a truly intergenerational
artistic experience.
And I just really love that about it.
What really moves me all the time is when I sit in the room, whenever we're doing a
run for instance, once we've done a lot of the work, and I get to just sit back and I watch
the intergenerational interaction that happens in the room when the work is getting done.
I love that.
This experience has been amazing.
My favorite part would be listening to everyone's stories.
All these stories are unique and I love each and every part of that.
My dad's story, it really touched me as how he loved his grandmother so much and he
spent so much time with her and that he even actually moved over to his grandmother and
spent that much time, that really touched me.
I think being Younger Steve would be being my dad as a young boy and interacting as an
actor as Young Steve.
That's my favorite part.
Until I came here, I did not know the full story.
We went everywhere together.
Shopping trips, mass on Saturday, and beignets with our cousins and sisters.
And every summer, every week, like clockwork, I'd bring her down to her rosary group with
the other old ladies.
Now I couldn't participate because I didn't know my French prayers.
But I'd sit there and I'd listen to them and it would do something for me.
This experience has made me a different person.
The things of the past are amazing and I can't wait
to share the stories with other people and how they've changed me.
This time when I clap my hands, everyone will find a position on the railing looking directly
at the audience.
When I clap my hands.
Keep walking.
Any position on the railing, looking at the audience.
(He claps)
So what do you like most about this experience?
Umm.
I would say the directors.
They never turn down an idea.
Like we can say something crazy and they're like "Sure, let's go for it."
A lot of things that we suggested have been used, so,
it's really fresh and creative, like being here.
Well this process has been fascinating to me because of my own experience with group
process and all the years that was a psychologist.
Definitely, for me, the collaborative nature of this process and the subtle ways the leaders
keep handing us the responsibility for each other.
Because, clearly, that's what will make or break the play, but it's also what is going
to make or break the whole experience for everyone.
And I appreciate that very much.
It's gentle, and yet it's clear.
Now, I might look like the director, but we're all the director.
I don't mean that this is going to be mayhem.
But I mean that each one of you is sitting on top of wisdom
that needs to get into this play.
Okay?
And it may be a song that needs to get into this play.
He wrote a song that just happens to fit perfectly with the theme of the play,
only he'd never read the play.
And it's a wonderful song as you will meet it and begin to work with it.
And I could go on down the list of people like that.
So I just want to say, the reason I'm telling you this is because I do not want you to sit
and wait to be told what to do.
I don't, I want you to tune in to the thing that you are making.
You understand?
So the youngest person in this room knows that your vibrant energy is what's going to
lift this up, okay?
If we have that we can take it and work with it.
If we don't have it, it's only as smart as, for instance, Jules is.
You know?
All by herself...
All by myself it's nothing.
It's nothing.
All of us together.
You've heard that bundle of sticks story, right?
You take one stick and any of us could break it.
You take a stick, and you take a stick, and you take a stick, and we put all our sticks
together.
And try to break it...You can't.
So what's ever inside you that wants to get out, that came here to learn--
not to be taught--but to learn, right?
Honor that thing.
Listen to that still small voice.
That's what they mean when they say it in the Bible.
They're talking about that.
Your intuition will make this play great.
And we're all good enough to shape it together.
I'll do my part.
I can remember my grandfather.
He didn't yell..
Now, where is your grandfather in this room?
Just to think about it, where is he?
Make a choice?
One of the things you gottta all do on these stories is make choices.
I remember my grandfather.
He didn't have to shout.
Does that make sense?
You know where he is, don't you? He's over there. Okay, all right.Yep, pick it up wherever you want.
I can remember my grandfather.
He didn't yell, but he could make everyone
Not sure where he is.
It looks like that's your grandfather.
Okay?
Now he may be imaginary, or maybe we have an actor playing him.
Okay?
Specific.
You decide exactly where he is.
And see him there.
Okay, same place.
I can remember my grandfather.
He didn't yell, but he could make everyone come to a hush.
You want to see yourselves as part of the painting,
the picture that Richard's painting on stage.
Yeah?
So even though you may feel that no one's seeing you, they are.
And how you watch the primary person, to reiterate, is going to empower what we're looking at.
But we also still are going to be seeing you.
It's very important that you see yourself as part of the design.
Here I see a small group of people collaborating, and a larger group collaborating.
And it's really umm, umm broadening as we go.
So that the connections are growing, and the excellence
of each individual's abilities are growing, the skill sets are growing.
I think for this play, and the biggest challenge, and also for other plays we do is really how
we can hold a safe space for all members of the cast and artists and also the partners
to collaborate.
Because the goal to do this work is really not about letting one person's voice to be
heard, but for multiple voices to be heard.
So, from my perspective, if we keep the space, all the people to be able to collaborate in a generative way
we can freely give each other advice and support each other
to be their best selves in this process.
And that, I think, is the biggest challenge.
But personally, to me, I think that's also the biggest reward in this work.
So what do your feel, Odile, right now?
Um, I'm taking a deep breath.
The show opens in a few minutes.
You don't have to, you don't have to force yourself.
You have to open yourself.
You have to open a space inside yourself for the story to speak you.
If you'll do that, it will oome.
And you will deliver, with the intention of being heard, and felt, and understood.
John (Minh) speaks for all the people who didn't make it on the boat.
You (Nonc) speak for all the people who didn't come home.
These stories are that important.
Hold up each other.
Listen to each other.
You'll have a great show.
They lived in a house with no air conditioning.
And when the water rises up against us.
Where the worst...
My Uncle Ho, which is Ho Chi Minh (Singing)
Nineteen-years-old, man, 19 years, getting to the point
that I paid no attention to death.
(Singing in Latin) The bones of my ancestors....A few days later...
My country. My country didn't care if I lived or died
The water kept coming up and up and higher and higher.
We didn't know when it was going to stop.
The spirits and the water and the blood, these three agree.
(Singing) Put you hand in mine.
A place where we can plan to stay and a life that we made our way.
(Applause)
It was awesome!
It was fantastic!
It made me so emotional, I was crying in there.
It helped me to understand what my family had gone through.
I've always heard about it, but now I could really see it and feel it.
The play was beyond my expectations.
And the play described the common denominator of all people in Abbeville.
Thumbs up.
It was great.
It was moving.
It was touching.
It was everything we wanted it to be.
Bringing the community together.
It was an energy that people were putting out was magical, and they were so very tuned
into each other.
I feel very happy that we had a successful show and that the cast is really pumped and
positive right now.
Amazing.
Oh, I love it, it was amazing.
It was so fun and creative.
It was just amazing.
(laughs) I feel happy.
It told me more about my history.
The play with the most heart for me.
It was my favorite.
I've never been in a play where it was real, like that.
I had the best time ever.
You made us start to see, "Yeah, that's us!
That's in Abbeville.
That's next door to here."
I love that.
I love that you built our community and made us feel worthy.
Feel special.
If you are my age.
Like I love this age because, like, I can play anything.
And I think, umm, people my age need to thrive on that, like really, really go all the way.
How do you feel right now?
I feel good.
You had this concern about who is coming up, what do you feel right now?
I have hope because I think that some of the young people in this show are getting the
spirit of being part of the community.
Community in our country is really messed up.
I think every one that I've ever visited...some glimmer of something really powerful is there,
but we're missing it by so far.
And the big way we miss it is
that we keep people who are different from one another apart.
And there's a fundamental truth that we've learned from social science research which
is, the empowerment pathway, the most direct path to a creative community full of creative
people is to get people in the room together who aren't normally there.
And that's what this work does.
It puts strangers, people of real difference, in the same room.
And then what they discover is, they see in each other...
each other.
They see themselves.
In someone they didn't expect to see themselves in.
And that's exciting, and lifts us with an energy that opens up possibiilties for our
community we wouldn't have thought of.
And, boy, we need that.
Because we're not going to get the help from outside.
It ain't comin'.
(Singing) My Story is an old one.
It happened, long ago.
And if you listened close, you will come to know,
That it's not so different from yours.
My people, came from far away.
From a place where...
My legs hurt and I feel exhausted, but also happy.
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