Chosen Family by Jessica Lưu Pelletier

Directed by Cara Hinh

Performances: Friday, Dec 17 @ 7:00 PM & Saturday, Dec 18 @ 7:00 PM

Community Story Workshop with the Director and Playwright: Saturday, Dec 18 @ 2:00 PM

Venue: Pao Arts Center, 99 Albany Street, Boston, MA 02111

**This indoor event requires attendees to be fully vaccinated and masked throughout the duration of the event.

Chosen Family weaves together the Vietnamese-American diaspora with Buddhist reincarnation theory. The theory in question for this story is one that claims a person’s soul enters a “void” after passing on. Once in that void, the soul gets to decide if they’d like to live again. In this lies the piece’s Dramatic Question: if you knew everything you know now, would you do it all over again?

*Performance in English and Vietnamese.

Chosen Family (Gia đình được chọn) đan xen giữa cộng đồng người Mỹ gốc Việt với thuyết luân hồi của Phật giáo. Lý thuyết được đề cập cho câu chuyện này là một lý thuyết cho rằng linh hồn của một người đi vào một “khoảng trống” sau khi vượt qua. Khi ở trong khoảng trống đó, linh hồn sẽ quyết định xem họ có muốn sống lại hay không. Trong đó, câu hỏi ấn tượng của tác phẩm nằm ở chỗ: nếu bạn đã biết tất cả những gì bạn biết bây giờ, bạn có làm lại tất cả không?

Translation by Ngoc-Tran Vu

Community Story Workshop: Chosen Family 

Led by Cara Hinh, Director & Jessica Lưu Pelletier, Playwright 

Sat, Dec, 18 2:00PM-3:30PM @ Pao Arts Center

**This indoor event requires attendees to be fully vaccinated and masked throughout the duration of the event.

Join us for an all-age, family-friendly hour to become an artist of your own stories, to delve into the power of communal storytelling, and find the connections to your “chosen family”. After the workshop, stay for the evening performance of Chosen Family!

*Free round trip transportation available from Dorchester to Chinatown!

Chosen Family “Field Trip” on Saturday, Dec, 18!

1:30PM Bus departing from Fields Corner, Dorchester

Location: 1471 Dorchester Ave, next to the Dorchester Community Fridge!

2:00PM-3:30PM Community Story Workshop: Chosen Family @Pao Arts Center

Led by Chosen Family Playwright, Jessica & Director, Cara!

5:30-6:30PM Food Social with API Arts Network @Pao Arts Center

Are you an API creative based in the Boston area? Get to know who’s-who and find your community with great food on us!

7:00PM-8:30PM Chosen Family Staged Reading Performance @Pao Arts Center

RSVP via the Pao Arts Center website!

8:30PM Bus back to Fields Corner, Dorchester!

This event is a part of

FOUND IN TRANSLATIONS

A series of bilingual new plays produced for Boston, in collaboration with Pao Arts Center and Asian American Theatre Artists of Boston