Chhon Sina, Ieng Sithul, Rithisal Kang and Catherine Filloux discuss genocide and other human rights issues in Cambodia from the perspective of theater artists/activists.

Chhon Sina is a playwright, actress, teacher from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Her new play PHKA CHAMPEI (FRANGIPANI) is about a sex worker and victim of domestic violence who lives in a slum in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. (Translated from Khmer to English by Suon Bunrith).

Renowned Cambodian performer Ieng Sithul; Cambodian Fulbright grantee in Arts Management Rithisal Kang, and playwright Catherine Filloux will join Chhon Sina in discussing issues surrounding Theatre in Cambodia.  

Ieng Sithul was featured in Where Elephants Weep, a Khmer Rock Opera, which premiered in Phnom Penh, composed by Him Sophy; Libretto by Catherine Filloux.  Ieng Sithul and Chhon Sina are survivors of the Khmer Rouge regime.  During the period from 1975 to 1979, an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died; 80 to 90 percent of the artists from this time perished. The Cambodian artists have been sponsored by Theatre and Visual Arts at Fordham University at Lincoln Center.  This marks Chhon Sina’s first visit to the U.S.

Photograph by Toni Shapiro-Phim

Brown Bag Lunch Series