Love Philly? So do we. Let’s be friends. Sign up for the Billy Penn newsletter today.
About two years ago, playwright Saymoukda Duangphouxay Vongsay was in a sort-of stage and nowhere near writing “Seng’s Hair Salon” now being produced by InterAct Theatre Co. at its Drake theater April 17 through May 10.
Commissioned by InterAct to pen a play about Philadelphia’s Southeast Asian community, Vongsay sort-of had an idea for a plot. But not much of one, except that somehow it would involve a ghost.
Nothing, she knew, would truly jell until she found some place in Philadelphia that spoke to her heart as a setting for the play.
The staff at InterAct Theatre Co. did its best to help. As part of its Philly Cycle series of plays centering on underrepresented groups in the city, the theater company partnered with Laos in the House, VietLead, and the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia. Representatives from each group squired Vongsay around — to temples, to community centers, to businesses.
It was all good, and Vongsay, who is Laotian, was learning about Philadelphia’s vibrant Southeast Asian community, about 60,000 strong according to some estimates.
“Then one morning, I went to the hair salon,” Vongsay said. “I was supposed to stay for 30 minutes and I stayed there for an hour, sitting there and watching Grandma Seng and her daughter, whose name is also Seng.
“There was an Auntie from the community getting her hair permed. They were bantering and telling dirty jokes, and they were also talking about their grandchildren.
“I looked around the salon,” she said. “It felt like I had been there before.”
And, by the time she walked out, she knew. “This is it! This is it!”
Seng’s Salon is a real place, in the heart of the Southeast Asian community at Seventh and Ritner streets in South Philadelphia.
“I took a bunch of pictures so I could go home and dream and imagine,” she said. “And that’s what I did.”
In the play, a world premiere, three generations of Laotians offer salon services at Seng’s Salon. Almost the same as in real life.
Sengthong Sananikone, who came to Philadelphia following the war in Vietnam and opened the salon in 1986, is now retired. It was purely a coincidence that she was visiting from Florida the day Vongsay fell in love with the beauty parlor. Her daughter, Sengdao “Sandy” Sananikone, now runs the shop with the assistance of her son, Derick Sananikone, who was the person who brought Vongsay to his family’s business.
“I volunteer with Laos in the House and was working with InterAct to help bring this play to life,” he said. His job was to introduce Vongsay to the Laotian community, and he wanted her to see his family’s business.
“It’s been there since 1986,” he said. “It’s one of the foundations of the Southeast Asian community. Seventh Street in South Philly – it’s a business corridor now. The salon was one of the first businesses to open along the corridor.
“We see all walks of life – Cambodian, Vietnamese, Laotian,” he said. “We’ve seen parents bring their kids. There’s a real huge sense of community at the salon. [Vongsay] was open ears, open eyes, witnessing, and taking it all in.”
“Seng’s Hair Salon” is the second of three plays in the Philly Cycle, an initiative set in motion several years ago by InterAct. “It arose from a few different impulses,” said Seth Rozin, InterAct’s founder and artistic director.
“The first was whenever we have done a play that centered a Philadelphia story or issue, we’ve sold them well and we’ve engaged the community in a palpable way,” he said. Therefore, “why wait for those plays to come our way? Why not incentivize those plays” by commissioning playwrights to create them?
And then, sometimes, he said, Philadelphia plays tend to have predictable themes – sports, history, or crime. “We were exploring narratives that don’t get discussed.”
The first play, “On My Deen,“produced last season, centered on Philadelphia’s African American Muslim community, and told the story of a couple navigating both faith and love.
“We had good attendance by the Black Muslim community,” Rozin said.
While developing the play, he learned that members of the community “don’t go to the theater because most of the time the play would have something in it that would be considered problematic — profanity, intimacy before marriage. So, they just assumed that they wouldn’t go to the theater in general.”
“They felt seen and heard,” Rozin said. “Not only did they feel that they could see a play, but they also were seen as regular people who happened to believe something different.”
Part of the Philly Cycle process, Rozin explained, involves teaming the playwright with community groups so the playwright can capture the essence of Philadelphia and its communities.
“One of the things that is in the play that is fascinating to me is something I didn’t know,” Rozin said. “After this huge wave of refugees came in the mid-70s, many young men, only men, died in their sleep having no other medical conditions. Something took their lives.”
Vongsay began her life as a refugee.
Her parents fled Laos as the war in Vietnam was drawing to a close. She was born in a Thai refugee camp and came to the United States when she was four. The family moved to St. Paul, Minnesota, which is where Vongsay now lives.
One thing Vongsay didn’t want to write was a play where the Southeast Asian characters were suffering. “I’m tired of trauma porn,” she said. “We’re always painted in need of help. I could focus on the now and the present and looking into the future.”
“Seng’s Hair Salon”, April 17-May 10, InterAct Theatre Co., The Drake, 302 S. Hicks St. Phila., 215-568-8079. InterAct offers post-show talkbacks after many performances. Playwright Vongsay will appear following the April 25 matinee. Representatives from community partners and Seng’s Hair Salon will speak after weekend matinees, along with the actors and choreographer Jungwoong Kim. Rozin leads audience discussions April 29, 30, and May 6 and May 7.
About the Author
Discover more from USA NEWS
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
