In 1-man play in Shepherdstown, Cody Wilson explores Vietnamese, WV roots, finds home

“So, immediately, people thought that he must’ve had an affair and brought her home,� Wilson said. “There was a question of guilt, and everyone wanted to label it with their own sort of truth.�

But nobody ever asked.

Wilson tells that story and more with his one-person debut play, “Did My Grandfather Kill My Grandfather.� The show opens this month at Shepherd University as part of the annual Contemporary American Theater Festival. It runs until early August. Seats over the next month are limited.

Wilson’s play is an uncommon highlight of the festival. Plays from West Virginia natives aren’t regularly staged during the festival, but not a lot of new plays from West Virginians are being staged anywhere.

"I picked Cody's play because his story is personal," said Peggy McKowen, CATF Artistic Director, "and a specific West Virginia story while being a search for belonging that all people can relate to."

But it’s not the typical story of life growing up in the mountains.

A shy kid gains confidence in theater class

Wilson was raised in Tyler County, in a place called Plum Run, but his family moved to Fairmont, where he attended high school and had his first brush with theater.

“So, I was in high school and kind of coasting a little bit,� Wilson said. “It was my sophomore year and my friend Cameron Williams asked me if I wanted an easy A.�

Of course he did, but it was a theater class. Wilson wasn’t so sure. He saw himself as a bit shy, but Williams told him it was fine.

He told Wilson, “We don’t do anything. It’s just fun.�

That wasn’t actually true, but Wilson went along with his friend, thinking he could hide out backstage.

“I had really intense social anxiety,� he said. “I didn’t like talking to a lot of people, didn’t like the idea of being on stage.�

Theater became a way to get over some of that. Wilson worked backstage for school shows, but he also took small roles, gradually becoming more confident.

From Plum Run to WVU to New York

Wilson had a good upbringing in West Virginia.

“I was very fortunate to be surrounded by a loving and accepting family and a loving and accepting community.�

But there were moments of tension and sometimes he felt like an “other.�

“I always felt like a zebra in a den of lions,� he said.

His mother tried to prepare him.

“Early on, my mom made it aware to her children that, yes, we are not white,� Wilson said.

And she told them that being Asian was going to make things different for them in a community that was largely white.

He said, “It didn’t really mean that anybody was going to attack me, but it did mean that people were going to point it out.�

And for Wilson, what that usually meant was that people often saw him as an Asian living in West Virginia and not necessarily as a West Virginian who also happened to be Asian.

People often asked where he was from. They still do.

“And I tell them from Plum Run, West Virginia,� Wilson said and laughed. “It just melts their brains for a second.�

Still, theater was often the place where he felt the most accepted, the most encouraged.

“I went to WVU to study international relations,� he said.

Wilson had long been interested in Southeast Asia and Vietnam. This was part of his heritage, though he said neither he — nor his mother — had a firm connection to the region.

Theater began as a minor course of study, but his professors encouraged him to audition for WVU’s studio intensive program.

“And I got in,� he said.

International studies became a minor that he didn’t quite complete.

“I’m still a few hours short,� he said.

After WVU, he went to New York, where he followed the time-worn path of taking various part-time jobs while trying to break into the competitive theater world.

He dabbled with a little bit of everything and even did some standup comedy, which was partly how his play took shape.

“I’d been telling some version of that story for years,� he said. “So, there was this really heavy version and there was this other version where I looked at it and tried to be amusing.�

A play about being Asian American, and finding home

Wilson said his play is part of the conversation about what it means to be Asian American. The Vietnam War figures into the story because its effects continue to ripple past the war’s conclusion in 1975.

The Vietnam War, which ended long before he was born, figures into that story.

“When I learned about the Vietnam War in high school, I was told about all these terrible things the Vietnamese did to American soldiers,� Wilson said.

He wondered if his family had taken part in any of that. He didn’t really understand the war and his education would have focused more on the American side of the war.

“It became this level of imposter syndrome,� Wilson said. “I’m not allowed to be in America because my people hurt Americans, but I’m not allowed to be honorably Vietnamese because I know nothing of the culture.�

He said, “I was just never comfortable.�

Wilson said the war has had a rippling effect that has continued long past the fall of Saigon.

“There were messy immigration tales, whether you came through by adoption, like my mom, or you took a boat or were part of a relocation program,� Wilson said.

There has been an occasional urge to visit Vietnam. Wilson said friends have told him that the country is beautiful and the people are warm, but he’s not sure if he’ll ever go. As much as he’s sometimes felt like an outsider in the United States because he’s Asian American, he doesn’t think he’d feel much different visiting Vietnam.

It doesn’t feel like home.

Home is West Virginia.