Vu

Coloured Aliens

Chi Vu

My proposal is a play reading/discussion of my script ‘Coloured Aliens’, which was recently developed through Playwriting Australia’s Lotus program (where I worked with Patricia Cornelius and Jane Bodie).

‘Coloured Aliens’ is a comedy of manners about racism and Australian theatre. The iDARE Conference is the perfect place for this debate to be had. It shows an interracial couple trying to understand each other as people in a context of racism in Australia. Mai is an Asian Australian female playwright who’s plays are misunderstood by a mainstream audience. Her boyfriend, Kevin, is a security guard who has his own ideas about commitment to pursuing one’s art. The script also explores the playful teasing between two people who know each other really well, and so can explore racism and its reverse in a more in depth and sustained way.

Biography
I am a Melbourne writer. My plays include the critically acclaimed ‘A Story of Soil’ (2000), ‘Vietnam: a Psychic Guide’ (2003), and ‘Banh Chung installation performance’ (2013). Each of these works were bilingual and/or bicultural. My gothic novella, ‘Anguli Ma’ is published by Giramondo (2012) and shortlisted for a NSW Premier’s Literary Prize. My stories appear in ‘Joyful Strains: Making Australia Home’, ‘Growing up Asian in Australia’ and the ‘Macquarie PEN Anthology of Australian Literature’. In 2013, I completed an MA in Writing for Performance at the VCA. My play ‘The Dead Twin’ premiered at FCAC in partnership with Theatre Works and VCA as part of the Flight Festival. http://thedeadtwin.com/media/