AMA
Kenneth Keng
AMA is Ask Me Anything but it's my grandma asking and the audience answering and also she’s dying and also my country is about to be invaded for the second time this century.
Written by Kenneth Keng
Directed by Annaporva Green
Lighting design by Zee Hanna
Stage Manager: Laila Gerstmann
Cast: Emma Callahan
Photo by Kelsey Cheng
Find them: @kennethbestopped kennethkeng.com
Thanks to Aya Ogawa, Flako Jimenez, Caden Manson and Sibyl Kempson for invaluable early developmental advice, and to my ama, Benita Go, continually driving our family to brighter shores.
A participatory silent monologue about the difficulty of intergenerational communication despite trilingual fluency, interrupted by the invasion of the Philippines by the Japanese Imperial Army. A lecture on the combat capabilities of the World War 2 Era Japanese Type 94 Tankette, drowned out by the sound of an air pump inflating a life sized replica thereof. An invitation to participate in choosing who gets to be the Philippines' next colonizer.
Content warnings: war, mention of historical sexual violence.