Nostalgia rules
dallasvoice.comPlaywright Vichet Chum revisits his high school theater glory days at Creekview High in show set in North Texas DON MAINES | Contributing Writerdonmaines@att.net Did you know the score in 2004?
Perhaps not if you’re like playwright Vichet Chum, whose new comedy, High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest was informed by his senior year at Creekview High School in the north Dallas suburb of Carrollton.
Chum was, he says, “very much a closeted gay kid” who found safety and acceptance in the theater department. “It was a complicated experience, but really lovely in many ways,” Chum says, recalling that he greatly enjoyed the opportunity to perform but bristled at how “art” became a competitive sport in speech and debate tournaments and at the annual University Interscholastic League one-act play contests.
One-act also hit him where it hurt when some irate parents demanded that the Carrollton/Farmers Branch ISD school board reject a play with gay content, John Guare’s acclaimed Six Degrees of Separation, as Creekview’s UIL entry in Chum’s senior year.
