Colorado’s TEA Presents ACE: Asian/American Caberet Evenings An Evening in Vietnam

READINGS BY AUTHOR ANDREW LAM

Andrew Lam was born in Vietnam and came to the United States in 1975 after the fall of Saigon when he was just 11 years old. He recalls being uprooted from a comfortable, happy life and finding himself thrust first into a refugee camp then onto the American scene in northern California. He quickly adapted to his new American life and embraced many aspects of popular culture, learning English primarily from television shows. A talented student and tri-lingual speaker (Vietnamese, French and English), he entered UC Berkeley as a biochemistry major. Soon, however, he abandoned his family’s dream of a medical career to pursue his passion for writing. He went back to school and earned…an MA in Creative Writing from San Francisco State University. Since that time he has been published in many fiction and non-fiction anthologies. His book Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora won the Pen American ‘Beyond the Margins’ Award. His second book, East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres, features essays on the historical and contemporary relationship between Eastern and Western cultures, with an emphasis on the impact of Asian immigration. In 2013 Red Hen Press published his collection of short stories entitled Birds of Paradise Lost, which includes the frequently anthologized “Show and Tell.” The thematic focus of this collection is Vietnamese immigration to the United States and the frequent clash between the old and new generation. Currently, Andrew is a syndicated writer and an editor with New America Media, a regular commentator on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” and a blog writer for the Huffington Post. 

SPEACIAL PERFORMANCE OF BOAT PERSON

TEA’s own Assistant Artistic Director, Peter Trinh, will be performing a truncated performance of his play, BOAT PERSON. BOAT PERSON chronicles Peter’s parent’s escape from Vietnam in the 1980’s, and was one of three origin stories in TEA’s compilation hit COMING TO AMERICA last year. TEA also recently entered an excerpt of COMING TO AMERICA in The 2016 Colordao Theatre Festival, and took home an accolade of awards including best production! BOAT PERSON as well as the other two one acts will be encored by a sequel show, COPING IN AMERICA, opening with TEA in Spring 2017!