Year Zero Opens in Chicago 9/21

My buddy from college has since gone on to become an emerging playwright has just been inducted into the New Dramatists - kinda like the Justice League for people who write plays.  The play that got him into this cool club, along with tons of awards?  Year Zero.  The world premiere of Year Zero is going on in Chicago, and I am the one lucky guy not from town who was able to be a part of the whole shebang.  We opened a couple nights ago to an incredibly receptive audience and the reviews have come out.

" n many ways, Golamco is telling, with spirit and without preachiness, a traditional American immigrant story. "Year Zero" revolves around such typical flash points as assimilation, economic destiny, cultural memory, the processing of homeland atrocities and the pervasiveness of racial prejudice and hierarchies among immigrants themselves. But Golamco's self-aware characters are smart enough to  know they're living the traditional immigrant experience and to probe their places within that narrative. This play also offers an entry into the complexity of the oft-overlooked Cambodian experience, and it is gutsy enough to probe the polarities that mark a community obsessed with both its physical size (or lack thereof) and its low spot on the hierarchical Asian-American totem pole. " -Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune It's great to be involved in something like this, and to help tell a story that really should be heard.  It's also good to get back into theater.  One of the goals for any project, but for me, this project in particular, is to learn, and with Year Zero I have learned a LOT.If any of you Chicago folks are interested in seeing some new hotness, Year Zero runs at the Victory Gardens Theater until Oct. 18th.You can check out the reviews here:Hedy Weiss - Chicago Sun-TimesChris Jones - Chicago Tribune