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 Undesirable Elements / Secret History is an
ongoing series of community-specific oral history theater works by theater
director Ping Chong examining the lives of people born in one culture but
currently living in another, either by choice or by circumstance. Each
production is made in a specific host community, with local
participants testifying to their real lives and experiences. The development process
includes an extended residency and rehearsal period during which Ping Chong and collaborators conduct intensive interviews with potential
participants. These interviews form the basis of a script that covers
the historical and
personal narratives of individuals who are in some way living between cultures. Undesirable Elements testifies to the history of the 20th and
21st centuries and to the displacements of people and cultures in the modern
world. The series is designed to help communities confront and overcome cultural insularity by encouraging a greater understanding of the commonalities
that bind us all.
Undesirable Elements was
first produced during a residency at Artist Space in New York City. Since 1992,
Ping Chong has made 30 productions in the series, in communities around the
United States and abroad, in cities like Atlanta, Berlin, Charleston,
Cleveland, Minneapolis, Seattle, Chicago, Rotterdam, Washington DC, and Tokyo. Often, the only shared trait between the performers is their experience of
living between cultures and residence in the current community. However
in 2002, Ping Chong created an original production in the series called Children of War. This production brought together a diverse group of
young people who not only shared the experience of living as refugees in the
United States, but who had also each experienced war, civil turmoil, and/or
domestic trauma before their arrival here. Children of War toured to
theatres, governmental and social service organizations, was featured on PBS's NOW
With Bill Moyers, and presented at the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees' 2003 World Refugee Day.
Since then, productions
in the Undesirable Elements/Secret History series have continued to expand
thematically. Most recently, Native Voices-Secret History explored the
experiences of Native Americans living in Lawrence, KS, as part of a
community-wide civic dialogue project, Undesirable Elements-Ten Years Later revisited the experiences of the 1994 cast of Undesirable Elements/Twin Cities, and Secret History: Journeys Abroad, Journeys Within explored the experiences of young refugees living in New York City.
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