Poor Yella Rednecks

Poor Yella Rednecks was a collaboration project with Pirronne Yousefzadeh as a guest director.

Poor Yella Rednecks by Qui Nguyen is the sequel play to Vietgone. Based on a true story of the playwright’s family, Vietgone was about Tong and Quang’s budding love story in the Fort Chaffee refugee camp, while Poor Yella Rednecks recounts finding their home in America. One thing that was essential to the design of this project was portraying that these were real people with valid and real experiences and it was my job to honor and uplift their stories in the most respectful way possible. This show speaks a lot about family, survival, and identity. Within those themes, the costumes will invoke the immigrant experience through American storytelling. The costumes embrace the time period, Vietnamese culture and bold early 80s clothing in order to properly and truthfully tell this story.