FEB 13 - MARCH 9, 2025
Cambodian Rock Band
By Lauren Yee
Directed by Chay Yew
Cambodian Rock Band
By Lauren Yee
Directed by Chay Yew
Presented at the David Henry Hwang Theater
February 13, 2025 - March 9, 2025
Opening Night February 16, 2025
Kicking off the season in February 2025, EWP will present the Los Angeles premiere of Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band, featuring music from Dengue Fever—the LA band that inspired the play after Yee attended one of their Long Beach concerts. This poignant new classic of the American theater canon has taken the country by storm, and EWP is proud to be the first to bring this production to Los Angeles County, the home of the largest ethnically Cambodian population outside of Cambodia.
This part-play, part-rock concert explores the story of a Khmer Rouge survivor as he returns to Cambodia after 30 long years. As his daughter prepares to prosecute one of the regime's most notorious war criminals, the ghosts of their shared past begin to stir. This deeply moving story weaves back and forth through time as father and daughter confront history, turning to music as a path towards healing.
This production brings back Director Chay Yew and features members of the original cast from the show’s world premiere at South Coast Repertory. Yew also helmed the off-Broadway premiere at Signature Theatre.
“There’s no better feeling than bringing the epic experience of CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND home to Southern California for its LA premiere at a theater I have long admired and whose importance to the Asian American theater movement cannot be overstated.”
“In CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND, Lauren has deftly fused history, arts, politics, rock concert, family drama into a potent work. This funny intimate epic touches on the timely issues of genocide, human rights abuses and immigration; the rights of refugees and emigres; the consequences of apathy when a country shifts under the brutal regime; and the destruction of freedom of expression and art in the midst of personal and political upheavals. In Lauren’s astute eyes, one thing remains consistent throughout our temperamental world: the resilience and enduring power of art and artists. CAMBODIAN ROCK BAND celebrates the indomitable legacy of art — how artists capture our individual and national spirit and hopes; and the uncanny ability of art to inspire, affirm our humanity, and to bring us together. I can’t think of a more important play for our current times.”
Playwright Lauren Yee is best known to EWP audiences for The Great Leap (2019), co-produced with Pasadena Playhouse, and is one of the most produced playwrights in America. Yee’s current commissions include Arena Stage, Geffen Playhouse, La Jolla Playhouse, Portland Center Stage, Second Stage, and South Coast Rep.
This will be Chay Yew’s tenth production as a director for East West Players. His directing credits with EWP include Big Hunk o’ Burnin’ Love (1998), A Beautiful Country, in association with Cornerstone Theatre Company and Mark Taper Forum’s Asian Theatre Workshop (1998), Golden Child (2000), Red (2002), Sisters Matsumoto (2002), M. Butterfly (2004), Question 27, Question 28 in association with Japanese American National Museum and Mark Taper Forum’s Asian Theatre Workshop (2004), Durango (2007), and Kristina Wong, Sweatshop Overlord, a co-production with Center Theatre Group (2023). As a playwright, EWP has produced Yew’s Whitelands Trilogy - Porcelain, A Language of Their Own, and Half Lives (1996), as well as Red, A Beautiful Country, and Question 27, Question 28.
Performance Schedule
Cast
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Kelsey Angel Baehrens (she/hers) is a proud Filipina-American actor and director from O‛ahu. Her travels with Cambodian Rock Band began in 2022 as Neary in the Hawai‛i community premiere. She then toured with the OG Cyclos as understudy to Neary and Pou from 2022-23. She is deeply honored to return to this story and to complete this circle with her heroes.
Other fave acting credits include Theater Mu’s world premiere of Blended 和 (Harmony), Peter/Wendy (as Peter Pan), Lizzie: the Rock Musical (Playhouse Square), Henry IV p1 (Hotspur, Hawai‛i Shakespeare Festival), and the first national tour of The Magic School Bus: Lost in the Solar System.
Her directing credits include the Hawai‛i premiere of Kate Hamill’s Pride & Prejudice, associate director for Jeannette, a new musical from Arianna Afsar, Lauren Gunderson, and Jordan Ealey, assistant to director Jess McLeod on various works, and assistant to artistic director Alex Gemignani at the O’Neill Center’s National Music Theater Conference. Kelsey is also very proud of her work as a co-producer for the Talk Story Collective, a team of kanaka and kama‛āina wahine producing Hawaiian plays and storytelling arts in communities across the country.
kelseyangelbaehrens.com,
Instagram: @kelseyangelb
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Regional: Originated the role of Rom in Cambodian Rock Band (2022-23 National Tour, Signature Theatre Company, Pacific Playwrights Festival, South Coast Repertory, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse); Son in LA Riots (Cafe-Club Fais Do Do). Music: National and International tours with Run River North, DANakaDAN and Magnetic North & Taiyo Na. Drummer on Magnetic North & Taiyo Na’s album, Home: Word. Music band affiliations: IXS, Monroe St., The Blazing Rays of the Sun, Former Faces, Fyke, Ruth + the Library, Priska, Surrija. Music Producer: Priska (State Change), SGLA (Be Thou My Vision). TV/Film: Good Sessions (CBS pilot). Jasyn’s Theme (YouTube). Education: Craig Kupka, Daniel Yoo, Angelica Thompson. Instagram: @0abrahamkim0
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Tim Liu was born and raised in New Jersey. He most recently performed in Cambodian Rock Band at Arena Stage (DC) and ACT/5th Ave (Seattle). Additional theatre credits include off-broadway performances with Audible Theatre (Good Enemy, dir. Chay Yew), Pearl Theatre Company (A Midsummer Night’s Dream, dir. Eric Tucker), Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, HERE Arts Center, and other NYC Theaters. Regionally he has worked with Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival, B Street Theatre, Capital Repertory Theatre, The Shakespeare Theatre of NJ, NJ Repertory Company, and Centenary Stage Company. Recent TV and Film credits include: Pam and Tommy (HULU), The Endgame (NBC), New Amsterdam (NBC), Girls on the Bus (HBO), A Father’s Son (w/ Ronny Chieng and Tzi Ma), Knock at the Cabin (M Night Shyamalan).
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Jane Lui (She/her)(Co-Music Director, Pou, Guard) Jane is delighted to return to EWP with Cambodian Rock Band. Born in Hong Kong, she is a songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who began her career making quirky music videos on YouTube. Her current project and fourth album, SURRIJA, earned Best Recording and Best Pop Song nominations at 2022 SDMA. Recent works include featured vocals on soundtracks of Jentry Chau vs The Underworld (Netflix), Everything Everywhere All At Once (A24), Lost Ollie (Netflix), Pou in Cambodian Rock Band (eight theatres, incl. Off-Broadway Signature Theatre, original cast at South Coast Rep), Huong in Vietgone (EWP), Composer in All’s Well That Ends Well (OSF), Composer & Music Director in Secret In The Wings (Coeurage Theatre). “It’s been an honor serving CRB through the years. Thank you to each creative who’s been a part of the family. Joe & Abe, it’s wild that we’ve been in nine productions together, thanks for many lessons you might not know you’ve given me. Thank you to Lauren Yee for the chance, and thank you Andy Lowe for giving me my first acting job. Each time we’ve opened this show it strangely becomes more relevant to our times. May we learn from history toward a brighter future.”
IG @surrija
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JOE NGO (he/him) is elated to be making his East West Players' debut as proud native of LA (MPK) and in reprising his role as Chum in Lauren Yee’s Cambodian Rock Band; with previous productions at South Coast Repertory (World Premier), La Jolla Playhouse, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, ACT (Seattle), Berkeley Repertory, Alley Theatre (Houston), Arena Stage (DC) where he received a Hayes Award, and Signature Theatre (NYC) where he received an OBIE for his performance. Other notable credits include: The White Snake (Baltimore Center Stage), King of the Yees (ACT/Seattle, Baltimore Center Stage), Vietgone (Studio Theatre, DC), All's Well that Ends Well (OSF), Mlima's Tale (Rep. St. Louis), The Old Man and the Old Moon (South Coast Repertory)
TV: Crashing (HBO) V/O: Funan (gKids). An enormous thank you to everyone who helped bring this incredible story back to the community! Joi Sia 㩼謝, Orkun Chran អរគុណច្រើន
Joe-Ngo.com
IG: @Joengoinsta
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Daisuke is tickled with joy to make his East West Players debut with Cambodian Rock Band, and he would like to acknowledge and appreciate all the past CRB cast members, understudies, crew, and artistic teams that worked on this poignant play that touched so many lives. On stage, he has worked on Broadway with Life of Pi, at Oregon Shakespeare Festival for 6 seasons, Cirque du Soleil, as well as South Coast Rep where he was in the original cast of CRB. On TV, you can catch him in Season 2 of Night Agent on Netflix, Invasion, Man in the High Castle. In video games, he has played Jin Sakai in Ghost of Tsushima and Scorpion in Moral Kombat 1. Daisuke is a proud graduate of UCLA, where Gary Gardner first introduced the idea of working with EWP: “It took a while, but I got here, Gary!” He’d also like to dedicate this performance to his family.
Company
Creative Team
Director
Chay Yew§
Music Directors
Jane Lui and Matthew MacNelly
Original Costume Design
Linda Cho†
Additional Costume Design
Ashphord Jacoway
Co-Sound Designers
Megumi Katayama† and Mikhail Fiksel†
Original Scenic Design
Takeshi Kata†
Production Scenic Design
Mina Kinukawa†
Lighting Design
Derek Jones
Projections Design
Jason H. Thompson†
Hair & Make-Up Design
Yoko Haitz
Properties Coordinator
Glenn Michael Baker
Fight Director
Cesar Cipriano
Associate Director
Graham Schmidt
Stage Manager
Edward Khris Fernandez*
* AEA member
§ SDC member
† USA 829 member
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