• Alongside and Behind the Community: TeAda’s Decolonial Ensemble Theater Practice¹
• Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns (bio), Leilani Chan (bio), and Ova Saopeng (bio)

This interview with TeAda Productions highlights the nearly three-decade-old inter/multidisciplinary theater organization’s commitment to community-based theater work dedicated to telling stories of immigrants and refugees. Founded by Leilani Chan in 1996, with Ova Saopeng now as the Co-Artistic Director, TeAda has pivoted away from the traditional “theater season” that includes presenting and producing works to focus on creating original ensemble work. In this interview, Chan and Saopeng discuss their works (Refugee Nation, with Laotian American communities; Global Taxi Drivers, with immigrant and refugee workers from Somali, Eritrean, Ethiopian, Russian, Thai, Ecuadorian, and Mexican refugees, and immigrant workers in the global taxi industry; and Masters of the Currents, inspired by the stories of Micronesians living in Hawai’i today), their methods of creation, and the relationships they have built and continue to maintain with those they have worked with. Centering community perspectives as their primary source, TeAda employs talk-stories, story-telling workshops, and individual interviews to construct the narrative of their theater pieces. [End Page E-55]

TeAda identifies as a “nomadic theater,” inspired by the communities whose stories and experiences of itinerancy, displacement, migration, and diaspora TeAda foregrounds in their performance work.² In their discussion of the relationships they create and maintain through their ensemble work both in and beyond Los Angeles, we recognize an articulation of Rossi Braidotti’s “politically invested cartography of the present condition of mobility in a globalized world…stressing the fundamental power differential among categories of humans and nonhuman travelers and movers.”³ Although TeAda’s reference to “nomadism and displacement” may sound similar to how postmodern theory uses these concepts to describe the contemporary human condition, Chan, Saopeng, and TeAda’s work emphasizes the importance of recognizing the power dynamics that contribute to the experience of displacement and nomadism. Their works portray these conditions as not simply consequences of modern society but are shaped by particular forms of inequality and marginalization. “Nomadic” also describes TeAda’s process of traveling to various communities outside Los Angeles to create their ensemble work and how their process has connected otherwise disparate communities. With their current work, Masters of the Currents, the presumed mobility of people from the Federated States of Micronesia [FSM], Guam, and the Republic of the Marshall Islands [RMI] exposes the continuing imperialist occupation by the United States. The US geopolitical investments in the Western Pacific create mobility pathways for those states’ citizens. Yet this mobility is encased in precarity and indeterminate relations with the US government and society that positions them as unequal and subordinate.

For nearly three decades, I have had the honor and privilege of working with, witnessing, and learning from Leilani, Ova, and TeAda Productions’ work. I have benefitted from the space/home they have created for Asian American and the broader BIPOC, queer theater artists in Los Angeles and beyond. [End Page E-56]

Refugee Nation (2010), Pangea World Theater, Minneapolis. Left to right: Leilani Chan, Ova Saopeng. Photo by Sean Smuda.

TeAda Productions’ mission foregrounds performances that express the experiences of communities that have been displaced, exploited, and overlooked—more explicitly, those of immigrants and refugees. How did you arrive at this commitment? Why are you centering the experiences of immigrants and refugees?

TeAda grew out of the multiculturalism movement of the time, committed to providing opportunities for people of color to develop their work. TeAda has been technically a nonprofit for over twenty years. I started producing solo and ensemble works in the mid to late nineties. We were tiny, and I was quite young, with all those lovely ideals. We attracted a lot of folks, especially women of color and multidisciplinary artists and dancers who also wanted to do theater. At that time, I was incorporating hula into storytelling. We were already doing ensemble practice and supporting many solo works. We were also producing TeAdaWorks Festival, primarily featuring solo performances, women of color, and queer solo...

• 社区的旁边和背后：TeAda 的去殖民合奏剧院实践¹
• Lucy Mae San Pablo Burns（简介）、Leilani Chan（简介）和 Ova S​​aopeng（简介）

TeAda Productions 的这次采访突显了这个拥有近三十年历史的跨/多学科戏剧组织致力于以社区为基础的戏剧工作，致力于讲述移民和难民的故事。TeAda 由 Leilani Chan 于 1996 年创立，现由 Ova S​​aopeng 担任联合艺术总监，TeAda 已经摆脱了包括呈现和制作作品的传统“戏剧季”，专注于创作原创合奏作品。在这次采访中，陈和 Saopeng 讨论了他们的作品（《难民国家》，与老挝裔美国人社区；《全球出租车司机》，与来自索马里、厄立特里亚、埃塞俄比亚、俄罗斯、泰国、厄瓜多尔和墨西哥的移民和难民工人，以及老挝的移民工人）。全球出租车行业；以及潮流大师，灵感来自于今天生活在夏威夷的密克罗尼西亚人的故事），他们的创作方法，以及他们与共事者建立并继续维持的关系。TeAda 以社区观点为主要来源，采用谈话故事、讲故事研讨会和个人访谈来构建戏剧作品的叙事。[尾页 E-55]

TeAda 被定位为“游牧剧院”，其灵感来自于 TeAda 表演作品中以流动、流离失所、移民和侨民为背景的社区故事和经历。² 在讨论他们通过洛杉矶内外的集体工作所建立和维持的关系时，我们认识到罗西·布雷多蒂 (Rossi Braidotti) 的“对全球化世界中流动性现状的政治投入的制图……强调了不同国家之间的基本权力差异”的阐述。人类和非人类旅行者和搬家者的类别。” ³ 尽管 TeAda 提到的“游牧和流离失所”听起来可能与后现代理论如何使用这些概念来描述当代人类状况相似，但 Chan、Saopeng 和 TeAda 的工作强调了认识到有助于流离失所和流离失所体验的权力动态的重要性。游牧主义。他们的作品将这些状况描绘成不仅仅是现代社会的后果，而且是由特定形式的不平等和边缘化所塑造的。《Nomadic》还描述了 TeAda 前往洛杉矶以外的各个社区创作合奏作品的过程，以及他们的过程如何将不同的社区联系起来。通过他们目前的工作《潮流的大师》，来自密克罗尼西亚联邦[FSM]、关岛和马绍尔群岛共和国[RMI]的人员的假定流动揭露了美国持续的帝国主义占领。美国在西太平洋地区的地缘政治投资为这些国家的公民创造了流动途径。然而，这种流动性却隐藏在与美国政府和社会的不稳定和不确定的关系之中，这使他们处于不平等和从属地位。

近三十年来，我有幸与 Leilani、Ova 和 TeAda Productions 的作品一起工作、见证并向他们学习。我受益于他们为亚裔美国人和更广泛的 BIPOC、洛杉矶及其他地区的酷儿戏剧艺术家创造的空间/家园。[尾页 E-56]

难民国(2010)，盘古大陆世界剧院，明尼阿波利斯。从左到右：Leilani Chan、Ova S​​aopeng。肖恩·斯穆达摄。

TeAda Productions 的使命是通过表演来表达那些流离失所、被剥削和被忽视的社区的经历——更明确地说，是移民和难民的经历。您是如何做出这一承诺的？为什么你要以移民和难民的经历为中心？

TeAda 诞生于当时的多元文化主义运动，致力于为有色人种提供发展工作的机会。从技术上讲，TeAda 已经成为非营利组织二十多年了。我在九十年代中后期开始创作独奏和合奏作品。我们很小，而我还很年轻，有着所有这些可爱的理想。我们吸引了很多人，尤其是有色人种女性以及也想做戏剧的多学科艺术家和舞者。那时我正在将草裙舞融入讲故事中。我们已经在进行合奏练习并支持许多独奏作品。我们还制作了 TeAdaWorks Festival，主要以独奏表演、有色人种女性和酷儿独奏为特色……