THE PLAY On the Way written by Huong “Lyn” Nguyen ’15 was a 2010 Philadelphia Young Playwrights (PYP) playwriting festival winner and was performed at Temple University last year. In December it was performed by a professional cast of actors at the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia as part of the 2011 Professional Productions presented by PYP.
Nguyen says that she has often felt that being a non-native speaker of English hinders her ability to communicate. But playwriting has helped her find her voice. The play explores the lives of a Vietnamese family after the Vietnam War and draws on her own memories of growing up in Vietnam.
Although considering a minor in theater or music, Nguyen expects to major in math. “My creative side helps me in studying math. Although math has right and wrong answers, it is not always black and white — just like theater. The openmindedness and curiousness that playwriting requires help me to find multiple approaches to a problem and to constantly question why certain methods don’t work.”
Nguyen has been writing plays since eighth grade. “Through theater I can communicate what is special to me, what frustrates me, what makes me think in hidden forms. I can piece together answers to questions…fi x situations that cannot be fixed in real life.”