ANCESTRAL TABLE

Ancestral Table (in process) is a shared meal and interdisciplinary performance (music, word, movement, film) that examines the relationships between ecology, migration, cultural inheritance and maternal legacy through my Thai mother’s family recipes. Audiences experience an evening-length solo performance presented alongside a 6-course communal meal retracing the obscured legacies of my maternal ancestors and their pathways of migration revealed through foodways. Within the performance, I layer found and newly-made media, personal artifacts, heirlooms, and my mother’s forgotten memoirs, transporting the audience to the environments, time, space and place of my ancestors.

Through this multisensory approach of combined performance and meal, Ancestral Table engages audiences at the intersections of cuisine, ecology, politics, migration, personal histories and memory.

Co-commissioned by The Great Northern Festival, The Schubert Club, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and National Performance Network. In partnership with Liquid Music, Public Functionary and American Composers Forum.

Development support provided by Harlem Stage, Loghaven Artist Residency and The Bogliasco Foundation.

Expected premiere in 2026.

Photo credit: Bill Phelps