How Sritala from The White Lotus is promoting arts at home in Thailand
For Thai actor and educator Patravadi 'Lek' Mejudhon, her role as Sritala in the smash hit third series of The White Lotus has put her in a broader spotlight than ever before, and she's harnessing this success to further train and inspire youth in arts and culture in rural Thailand.
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Whilst her character in the show is the high-society owner of the fictional
White Lotus resort, Lek is far more humble and comfortable in the small town of Hua Hin on the Gulf of Thailand coast teaching arts and music at her own school and supporting community creativity.
Hua Hin is three hours south of Bangkok with a population of roughly 65,000, famed for its Royal Thai heritage, a preferred retreat for King Rama VI (1881-1925) and King Rama Bhumibol IX (1927-2016), with its bucolic beaches, seafood, and warm-hearted residents. On the sidelines of a recent press conference for the Hua Hin International Jazz Festival , she said Hua Hin has also 'always been a cultured town with dance and musical plays, Thai music and jazz. It's an East and West kind of place'.
Lek Patravadi plays hotel co-owner Sritala, a former singer and actor, in season three of HBO's The White Lotus. Photo: HBO/TNS
Indeed, Lek is harnessing East and West entertainment beyond The White Lotus – she was recognised as a National Artist in the performing arts in 2015 – sharing lessons with her 33 years of building performance creativity for Thai youth.
In 1992, she developed her family's estate near the Chao Phraya River by Wat Rakang temple in
Bangkok to launch the Patravadi Theatre in support of young Thai choreographers, directors and performers. Nearly two decades later in 2010, she opened Patravadi School in Hua Hin.
'I've got a camp for kids this week and all the little ones are running around,' she says of her namesake arts and music school's camp, which also hosts a state-of-the-art theatre, Vic Hua Hin.
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'My school is a normal high school, but I train my kids to do music and arts to become successful human beings. [I] nurture kids and teach them to appreciate cultures.'
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