THE HOME PROJECT
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I was born and raised in Vietnam into a Vietnamese nuclear family. My mother is a diplomat and so we spent 3 years of my childhood in Sydney, Australia, and the rest of my academic and professional life in English. I am a third culture kid: an individual raised for a significant part of their life in a country different from their own or from their parents’ country of nationality. Though I identify with the root definition of home, I've struggled with a changing association, struggled to feel complete. Home can feel like a suitcase, two different buildings on two different continents or a person. And sometimes, home is haunted.
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This project began in 2020 in hopes of "testing out” different homes.
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It’s interesting how something so crucial to the framework of who we are as individuals can be so hazy. Alongside the growth of globalization, the edit of this definition seems ever evolving.
We meet a person and have no idea what is going on at home, or even where home really is for them. Perhaps if we did, we could have more empathy for one another. And maybe home is a choice; one we recognize, want bad enough, and have to keep making. I hope this project helps illustrate what may prompt an individual to make that choice, for it has brought me closer to understanding mine.
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
UNDERGROUND LABORATORY THEATRE
COLLECTED ARTIFACTS
Through a two-week workshop, collaborators utilized moment work in the form of sensory memory explorations, object theatre, table top puppetry, stream of consciousness and question-led discussions to craft individual and group scenes.
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The performance featured poetry, prose, film projection, movement pieces, a sensory exploration, suitcase puppetry, audience interaction, a bilingual conversation, and paper mache puppets. The final piece, Dinner Time, was a group scene in which the ensemble members entered one by one in spoken word with a different prop for a picnic potluck. It was originally an object theatre exercise but we decided it was a fitting curtain.
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After each night, a talkback was conducted with the audience to continue conversations about home and the project's process. The performance was also extended into an interactive lobby display outside the blackbox.
DOES IT FEEL LIKE HOME
THE THEATRe worKShop
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
UNDERGROUND LABORATORY THEATEr
DOES IT FEEL LIKE HOME
THE DOCUMENTARY
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO
SCHOOL OF COMMUNICATION
Set in Hanoi, Vietnam
The first phase of production took place in Fall 2020, consisting of conducting and videotaping 9 in-person and remote semi-structured interviews. The second phase began in Spring 2022, with the analysis of 3 interviews to be edited into a final documentary film. In getting to know someone at 20-something, 40-something and 60-something years old, the film explores how one’s definition of home may change.
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Lê Trần Thu Thảo (Emma): a Vietnamese recent university graduate. She is a Third Culture Kid and international student. Her family lives in Vietnam and she was abroad in the United States for university.
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Lê Thu Trà: a Vietnamese working mother. She is from Hanoi and lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam with her husband and son.
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Mark Carle: a retired American teacher. He lives in Ha Long, Vietnam with his Vietnamese wife.
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After some review, I chose Emma as the central narrative. In total, we spoke on 3 different occasions: once via Zoom in 2020 and twice in-person in 2021. The documentary follows her story from 2020, backpacking in the United States right after graduation, to her return to and current life in Vietnam in 2021.
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It was particularly exciting to see how everything laced together so well; the way Emma's questions were answered by Trà's reflections and Mark's experiences spoke to Trà's curiosities.
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*the film is CURRENTLY in post-production, set to PREMIERE IN 2025
