- The New York Times
- The New Yorker
WHAT YOU ARE NOW
By SAM CHANSE
Directed by STEVE COSSON
Pia is a passionate young researcher investigating cutting-edge new ideas about how to heal the mind from traumatic memories. But her interest is also personal, deeply intertwined with her family’s history. When a figure from the past unexpectedly shows up, urging Pia’s mother to testify about her experiences during the violence of 1970s Cambodia, unresolved histories are brought to the surface. Pia must navigate through a latticework of interconnected memories: her relationship, her brother Darany and, centrally, her mother Chantrea—making discoveries that will radically alter everyone’s lives in the present.
what you are now asks what if our memories aren’t fixed, but change each time we recall the past? This world premiere by Sam Chanse is a thrillingly insightful new play that asks the audience to move through the shifting dance between the past and present, and to consider how with new understanding we might change “who you were then” to “what you are now.”
The Civilians’ co-production of What You Are Now is supported by The National Endowment for the Arts
and Venturous Theater Fund, a fund of the Tides Foundation.
Sonnie Brown
Curran Connor*
Emma Kikue
Robert Lee Leng
Pisay Pao
*Member of Actors’ Equity Association, the Union of Professional Actors and Stage Managers in the United States
By ……………………….. Sam Chanse
Director………………………………Steve Cosson**
Dramaturg ………………………………Soriya Chum
Production Stage Manager………………Fran Acuña-Almiron
Assistant Stage Manager……………Lauren Nicole Jackson
Scenic Designer………………………………Riw Rakkulchon
Props Designer………………………………Caitlyn Murphy
Lighting Designer……………………… Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew
Costume Designer………………………………An-lin Dauber
Sound Designer………………………………Leah Gelpe
Original Music………………………………Sophy Him
Technical Director……………………….Steven Brenman
Casting………………….JZ Casting, Geoff Josselson, CSA and Katja Zarolinski, CSA