Meet the St. Paul Bush Fellow working to shine a light on Lao artists

Playwright Saymoukda Vongsay is one of 20 Minnesota community leaders — five from St. Paul — who recently received fellowships of up to $100,000 from the St. Paul-based Bush Foundation to further their education and training.

Vongsay, who came to St. Paul from Laos just before her fourth birthday, wants to use her art to drive social change. She also wants to use a knack for interpretation to shine a light on other Lao American artists.

To become a leader for Lao American theater, Vongsay wants to expand her connections with Laotian artists and communities nationally. She also plans to travel to Laos and become more fluent in reading, writing and speaking Lao — all to better share Lao stories.

Eye On St. Paul recently interviewed Vongsay about what she hopes to gain in the next year.

This interview has been edited for length.

Q: Tell me a little bit about you.

A: I am an allergy sufferer and am feeling it right now [laughs]. I always tell people I am a Lao American artist. And I do that because there aren't very many of us out there in the world. It's my way of trying to find others.

I came to the U.S. in 1985, in November. It was 17 days before I turned 4. And I remember the first place we lived, right on E. 7th Street in Swede Hollow. I just remember loving living here and smelling bread all the time. I later learned it wasn't bread, but it was beer. The brewery was basically our backyard.

Later on, I found myself being the connector between my family and our neighbors. My parents would tell me something and I would interpret it for my neighbors. My neighbors would tell me something and I would interpret it for my parents. I continued to do that with my writing and as a playwright.

Q: You began doing spoken-word poetry, then written-word. How did you decide that you were going to be a playwright?

A: I really didn't decide. [After] I met some poets [in college at the University of Minnesota-Morris], I started going to all of their shows. I wanted to learn how to become a better poet, because I couldn't get published. I got frustrated and told myself I'm going to quit writing altogether. And my friend said, "Maybe you just need to find a better way to let it out." She told me about a group of playwrights at The Playwrights' Center.

Q: What was your first play?

A: It was an eight-minute piece. It took place in an apartment building, and the residents were Siddhartha, Gandhi … there were four historical figures, and they were trying to figure out how to get hold of their super. It was a bad piece. I wouldn't go back and revisit it.

Q: Tell me about the Lao theater movement — is there one and I just don't know about it?

A: There is now [laughs].

Q: Are you the creator?

A: I don't think that I'm the creator. But maybe I'm the re-instigator. The people who were theater-makers 40 years ago, they weren't playwrights. Lao theater is very different from western theater. Lao theater incorporates a lot of dance and music and song and mostly talks about Buddhist folk stories.

Q: Will the fellowship allow you to do what you did as a child, be a conduit between those creators and the American audience?

A: I think I am. I have been for a long time. As a Lao American artist, I don't have the luxury to just not write Lao stories. Because I feel incomplete if I do that. Of course, it would be easier if I were just a playwright, and I just wrote plays. But I consider myself a social practice artist. I don't only tell Lao stories, but I bring people to Laos.

Q: Why is that important?

A: Our community has been excluded from American theater for so long. We've also been in this country for over 40 years. But our stories are not part of the curriculum. They're not part of mainstream media or pop culture. If I can tell our stories through my art, I'll do that.

Q: Why is it important to bring those stories to a wider audience?

A: We're your neighbors. We are in the wider community. And I think to fully understand each other, we need to tell each other our stories. And also share our differences. That's powerful too. To embrace each other's differences, I think that's amazing.

Q: What do you plan to do when you return to Laos?

A: Eventually, I would like to be fluent enough to speak to my elders. And speak to other people in more nuanced ways. I want to know the poetry of Lao language. And the metaphors. It just makes language more rich and participation in that culture more rich. I want to write a whole play in Lao language. I want elders to come to my plays and feel fully included.