Uyên Huỳnh

An interview with Uyên Huỳnh
By Yolanda Vo

Written and directed by Uyên Huỳnh, and with written contributions from cast members, “Around the World in 120 Minutes” is a quest that 12 young children must undertake to find an antidote that will cure their ill teacher Cô Uyên.  The children are provided pendants that have powers reflective of each person’s inner self, and that will assist them on the difficult journey of finding a cure.  The children are eager yet nervous about their mission.  Even more important, the journey for the children is one of self-discovery.
The 12 cast members of “Around the World in 120 Minutes” are a part of a theater art course taught at the Vietnamese American Arts and Letters Association.  Huỳnh has been teaching the course for 8- to 12-year-olds since 2006.  Prior to being involved at VAALA, Huỳnh was first drawn to storytelling and performance art through her grandmother’s oral history and love of opera.  After moving from Vietnam to the United States, Huỳnh felt that her voice could be heard through acting.  Since 1993, Huỳnh has been active as a performance artist and was a founding member of the Vietnamese-American Theater Company “Club O’ Noodles.”  Since then, Huỳnh has directed a trilogy of “Ghost Stories,” “Love Stories,” “War Stories” – also known as “Finding Home – and “Fox Demon.”  VAALA’s theater art course is her first time instructing children.
“This is my first time working with children, so I’m learning as I’m going,” Huỳnh said.  “The longer I teach, the more I feel like I need to stay with them.”
Because many of the students have no prior familiarity with performance art, Huỳnh approached the course as a fundamental methods class to acquaint students with acting. 
“When Ysa [the Executive Director of VAALA] asked, ‘When is the next class going to start?  There’s people that want to enroll,’ I said, ‘Oh, I’m not done with this one yet!’  So I told the parents that the first half of the class was in introductory, fundamental methods.  I taught the kids about theory, basic voice and movement, dance, how to act.”
With a bachelor’s degree in psychology from UC Irvine, Huỳnh has a curiosity and appreciation for mental processes and behavior.  Because of this, personal storytelling – sharing one’s pains and struggles – is characteristic of Huỳnh’s work.
“I had the students share their personal stories,” Huỳnh said.  “Those stories that the kids shared – their pains and their struggles – I was surprised that I remembered my own childhood.  I remembered my own struggles—everyday struggles.  When we’re adults, we don’t think that kids have struggles.  But we did have so many hardships, changes, traumas as well.  These kids were sharing, crying, comforting each other.  And just like all the other productions that I was doing – ‘Love Stories,’ ‘Finding Home’… with adults sharing their personal stories – the kids were doing the same thing.  So I interweaved their stories into a more fictional, fantasy-based setting and decided that we were going to do ‘Around the World.’”
The play does not only mirror each child’s personal traits and struggles, but it also introduces them to various cultures that are foreign to them.
“I wanted this to be an educational experience of the kids,” Huỳnh said.  “So I wanted them to learn other people’s culture as well, and experience their music, their dance.  ‘Around the World’ takes them to different countries that they like.  There was research of culture, of stories, legends, folklore, and those were incorporated into the story.”
With the performance of “Around the World in 120 Days” just around the corner and this particular theater arts course coming to a close, Huỳnh will take a breath of air from producing.
“I actually told the kids that this will be my last project in a while,” Huỳnh said.  “I really appreciate every single minute I have with them.  But there’s a time where you absorb and learn, and there’s a time when you expel what you’ve learned.  And I think this is the time I need to regenerate myself, to learn.”
“Around the World in 120 Days” will take place on Friday, March 28, 2008 at 7:30-10:00 p.m. at the Huntington Beach Library Theater located on 7111 Talbert Avenue, Huntington Beach, CA 92648.