Lotus Rising Theatre (LRT) supports Southeast Asian (SEA) and Southeast Asian American (SEAA) narratives. Youth and young adults share their own narratives and collect narratives from elders through a collaboration of traditional Southeast Asian drama and Western theatre devising practices. Narratives will become an original theatre performance for the community.
The daughter of a Cambodian refugee and a Vietnam Veteran, Simone Cottrell is a multidisciplinary theatre-maker in Fayetteville, Arkansas. Simone has led programs with the Veterans Health Care System of the Ozarks, Marshallese Educational Initiative, A+ Residency, Teen Action Support Center, and other regional partners. Simone earned her BA in Communication-Theatre and studied creative writing at Mississippi State University, interned at Lexington Children’s Theatre, and trained at Martha’s Vineyard Institute for Creative Writing. Simone is an Artist INC Fellow, a 2018 Artist 360 Finalist, and a 2016 nominee for the PEN America/Robert J. Dau Short Story Prize for Emerging Writers.