Dominic took up acting as a self development tool to work on his voice and movement technique at the Centre of Performing Arts (CPA) in Adelaide. During a time of institutional cooperation between CPA and Flinders University Drama Centre, Dominic went onto further study in Directing and Drama Theory. In his BA Honours he was awarded the R.A. Simpson International Travelling scholarship to write a playscript based on his experiences during his first trip to Vietnam and growing up in rural Australia. Dominic then went to work with Australian Vietnamese Youth Media (AVYM) 2000-2003, based at the Footscray Community Arts Centre (FCAC) in Melbourne. He developed projects with young Vietnamese-Australians on Aussie Bia Om, and Viet Boys Downunder, funded by the City of Melbourne and Banana strip. During this period he also worked with Adelaide Festival Centre on Memory Museum, a large-scale installation performance using short excerpts from his first trip to Vietnam for the Centenary of Federation Celebrations in October 2001. Dominic was a participant in the 2002 Levis-Strauss Asia Australia New Leadership Program at Asialink, a cultural study program focused on business in Asia. Over a scattered three year period 2001- 2004, Melbourne Workers Theatre (MWT) commissioned Dominic to write a playscript from a 53 page monologue written from his first trip back to Vietnam into a three hander, with titles like; Another Shrimp for the Barbie, Shrimp BBQ, Grilled Shrimp and Vegemite, to eventually be titled simply Shrimp. In late 2003 Dominic directed and coordinated Walking Without Feet, an arts development project for Vietnamese young adults with special needs, in partnership with the Vietnamese Community in Australia (VCA Vic chapter), and FCAC and AVYM and Vic Health. In 2005, Big West Festival was able to secure funding from Arts Victoria and Shrimp found its way to the stage, co-produced by MWT and La Mama. In 2006 Dominic travelled to Vietnam for 10 months, to fully immerse himself in the country, learning about history, culture, customs, language and the arts.

Shrimp is a long endeavour, surrounding memory and human desire, it has taken on many forms and travelled over many seas. Shrimp is an autobiographical account by a Vietnamese-Australian adoptee wrestling with a past history of war, the identity of Australia, and being seen as something I'm not. I am a writer and performer of what is in principle poetic prose/playwriting. As a writer I'm creating a discussion with words. As an actor of my own words the process is about embodying language, and becoming. Acting is about being in the moment and telling that story. Adoption is not a public affair, open to debate, like immigration and refugees. It is by its nature a private affair kept within the confines of the home. Trans-racial adoption is like any action where culture, language, and customs have significant impact on the shaping of ones' identity. Writing and performing is my currency of trade between Australians and Vietnamese both here and in Vietnam. What is it like having a disability? I don't see myself having a disability; I do have a physical impairment but my brain is the same as yours. What was it like for you in acting school? Did you have any difficulties? I had no difficulties participating in exercises, improvisation, writing, script analysis or voice work in fact I realised every moment. Only dance routines like the cha cha cha, or the waltz took me longer to grasp. I got it. As they say, practice makes perfect. Does being an actor and having a disability affect you in any way? Only in my capability to perform acts outside my ability like ballet or tight rope walking, otherwise hearing certain accents and pronunciation of certain sounds can be a case of working on more technique. In Sue Thomas: F.B.Eye an American TV series, Deanne Bray plays a FBI agent. She is an actress and is deaf in real life. Or there is Marlee Matlin from the film Children of a Lesser God for which she won an Academy award. Having a disability allows you to think outside the square, it allows you see solutions to problems from a different light, it allows you to find better ways to communicate and in my case to write poetic prose for performances.