Filipino Americans star in one-night-only 'Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella' in NY

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 27, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

NEW YORK — Filipino Americans who want their children (as well as themselves) to see Fil-Am actors portray Cinderella and her prince can now do so.

Ali Ewoldt (left) and Joshua Dela Cruz
play Cinderella and Prince Topher
in "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella." 

Ali Ewoldt and Joshua Dela Cruz will play Ella and Prince Topher, respectively, in a one-night-only concert presentation of "Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella."

National Asian Artists Project is staging it for its "Rediscover Series," where professional artists of Asian heritage explore classic American musicals, proving great works of theater speak to all communities.

Dela Cruz had previously been on Broadway in the casts of "Aladdin," "The King and I" and "Here Lies Love" before being picked out of more than 3,000 hopefuls to be the new host of the children's educational television show "Blue's Clues and You." The rebooted show began airing November of last year.

Ali Ewoldt was the first actor of Filipino heritage and actor of color to portray Christine Daaé in the Broadway production of "The Phantom of the Opera." She was also in "Les Miserables" on Broadway and played Maria in a US tour of "West Side Story."

Choreography is by Fil-Am actor Billy Bustamante. His other choreography credits include "The Wild Party (La Chiusa)," "The Adding Machine: A Musical," "Flappers in Chains," "Suites By Sondheim" and "Man of La Mancha." He is also cofounder of Broadway Barkada, a support group for Fil-Am performers in New York.

Previous Fil-Ams

Unlike Richard Rodgers (music) and Oscar Hammerstein II's (book and lyrics) other musicals, "Cinderella" was not originally written for the stage. It was created for television broadcast and featured Julie Andrews in the lead role.

In the 1997 television adaptation of the musical, Fil-Am actor Paolo Montalban played the prince. He then reprised the role in the 2000-2001 national tour of the musical's stage adaptation.

This concert is using the latest updated version with book adapted by Douglas Carter Beane based on the original. (The two previous versions are differentiated by the titles "Rodgers and Hammerstein's Cinderella" and "Rodgers & Hammerstein's Cinderella.")

In this version, Cinderella opens an orphaned and deliberately sheltered Prince Topher's eyes to the plight of the people while her stepsister Gabrielle seeks to overthrow the unjust regime administered by the evil prime minister.

VIP Package

Gabrielle will be played by Fil-Am Jaygee Macapugay. Other Filipino Americans in the cast include Carol Angeli, Hannah Balagot, Jordan De Leon and Anthony Obnial.

The rest of the cast includes Caitlin Burke, Ann Harada, Kendyl Ito, Kevin Kulp, Jason Ma, Mia Mooko, James Seol, Kyra Smith, Matheus Ting, Vishal Vaidya, and Kelli Youngman. The concert will also feature the NAAP Kids and the NAAP Broadway Community Chorus.

Direction is by Alan Muraoka with music direction by Kristen Lee Rosenfeld.

In addition to the premium and reserved tickets, there is also a special VIP Package which includes a pre-show four-course meal at Masseria Dei Vini (887 Ninth Ave.).

"Rodgers + Hammerstein's Cinderella" is on March 2 at Alvin Ailey Citicorp Theater, 405 West 55th St., New York. Visit Naaproject.org.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/52020/fil-ams-star-in-one-night-only-rodgers-hammersteins-cinderella-in-ny

RELATED STORIES

Fil-Am Ali Ewoldt is first Asian to play Christine in 'Phantom of the Opera' on Broadway

Filipino American Hortense Gerardo's satire on beauty, aging, cosmetic surgery, social media, selfies

By WALTER ANG 
Feb. 26, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

BOSTON — What are the surreal lengths that some people will go to in order to achieve their ideal of beauty? That is the question that Filipino American playwright Hortense Gerardo explores in her new tragicomic play "Face Work."

Hortense Gerardo (left) and Michelle Aguillon

In the play, a series of experiments is conducted by world-renowned research scientist Solange Januario as a result of the disillusioning effects after a car accident alters her facial appearance.

Gerardo describes "Face Work" as a futuristic, dystopian satire on what might happen if people altered their appearances based on algorithms determined by "likes" on social media.

It will have a staged reading helmed by Fil-Am director Michelle Aguillon.

Popular

Back in 2017, Gerardo had read an article in the New Yorker by Jiayang Fan titled "China's Selfie Obsession" and was struck by "the implication that altering one's appearance through apps and filters had become such a norm that, among social media influencers, it was considered almost rude to send an unfiltered photo of oneself."

Also, "the so-called 'beautification' apps were used to alter Asiatic features to allow people to resemble Western pop stars."

Then last year, she came across Filipino American writer Jia Tolentino's essay in the same publication, titled "The Age of Instagram Face."

"The article implies that it's already become quite common place for young people to submit to cosmetic surgery to resemble people who are popular on social media, and that we are seeing the rise of a kind of homogenization of features toward something called `Instagram Face.'

"Those who aspire to this look are described as resembling a 'sexy, baby tiger' which I found both hilarious and profoundly disturbing.

Gerardo see her play as examining identity in the social media age, "very specifically with respect to ethnic self-hatred and the Herculean efforts aimed at denying the aging process."

Artist-in-residence

In addition to her work as a playwright, Gerardo is also an Associate Professor of Anthropology and Performing Arts at Lasell College. Her works have been performed nationally and internationally; collaborations have included LaMama Experimental Theatre; Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston; International Performance Art Festival in Monza, Italy; Venice Biennale; Nuit Blanche Festival in Toronto, among others.

She is about to complete her stint as Artist-in-Residence of the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (Greater Boston's regional planning agency) to promote creative use of community assets and promote community resilience through art.

One of her projects is site-specific play, "The Medfield Anthology," which will be performed at the Medfield State Hospital in May and will feature information about the former state hospital's residents and its impact on the community when it was still operational.

Collaboration

As for her current collaboration with Fil-Am director Michelle Aguillon, she says, "I am triply blessed to be working with Michelle because not only is she an immensely talented director and actor, but as a fellow Filipina American of my generation, she has an innate understanding of my cultural references and sensibilities."

The staged reading is part of Asian American Playwright Collective's New Works Series and was made possible with support from The Boston Foundation and the Bob Jolly Charitable Trust. There will be a reception after the staged reading with Filipino hors d'oeuvres.

Gerardo's upcoming works include "The Sauna Plays" to be staged in Oslo, Norway (March). Back in the US, "Small Steps on Climate Change" will be staged in April.

"Face Work' staged reading is on Feb. 27 at Martin Hall, Calderwood Pavilion, Boston Center for the Arts, 527 Tremont St., Boston. Visit HortenseGerardo.com.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/51924/satirical-play-by-fil-am-on-beauty-aging-cosmetic-surgery-social-media-selfies

Filipino American explores violence, racism in 2020 Barbour Playwrights Award Festival

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 20, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

NEW YORK — Filipino American playwright Cherry Lou Sy's "Panic Room: An Unkindness of Ravens" will kick off the Barbour Playwrights Award Festival in March.

Filipino American playwright Cherry Lou Sy

The festival will feature staged readings of three new plays nominated by this year's partnering company, Leviathan Lab. The award, given out by the Episcopal Actors' Guild (EAG), will go to one of the three plays at the end of the festival.

Included in the lineup is Garrett David Kim's "Are You There, Truman? It's Me, Just Another Guy Who Grew Up Secretly Worshipping Your Chiseled Porn Star Body Online, And Now I Think I Love You."

Closing the festival is Ray Yamanouchi's "Pure//Love." Each reading will be followed by a wine and cheese reception.

In "Panic Room," May, an Asian woman studying for her doctorate, is trying to get over the violent death of her ex-boyfriend who had worked as a police officer. She joins a grief support group to try to move on. While there, she discovers that she's actually living the nightmare of American history with its collisions in prejudice, racism, toxic masculinity.

Trapped

Sy says, "In 2017, I was thinking about James Joyce's words, 'History is a nightmare from which I am trying to awake" and how James Baldwin applied this to the black condition and wrote, 'Joyce is right about history being a nightmare - but it may be the nightmare from which no one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.'

"I thought, what if we are all just trapped in history and we are just playing in a loop of intergenerational traumas from colonization and the inevitable change that globalization, identity politics, prejudice, racism, and time imposes on us?

"The play wrestles with these questions in the form of people who are trapped in the histories that are theirs and not theirs. History is a kind of panic room that is vulnerable to the chorus of voices that people are trapped with."

Feelings

Sy appreciates being included in the festival. "The pieces examine the intersections of desire, race, and identity from an Asian and Pacific Islander American (APA) perspective. Sometimes, it feels like the APA experience seems invisible regardless of the recent glut of Asian and Asian American films and TV shows. It's through initiatives like this that we realize that we are a community that has opinions and feelings about the America we live in."

Sy's family moved to Brooklyn from the Philippines when she was 13 years old. While she was taking up Cultural Studies at New York University, she became involved in theater director Ping Chong's production of "Undesirable Elements" as a performer and deviser.

"It was life changing for me." She says the experience helped change her frame of mind of seeing her life as being as being differentiated for her being mixed in the Philippines (her father is of Chinese heritage) to being differentiated for being an immigrant in the US.

"I was able to begin looking at my cultural identity crisis and look at collective and personal histories that explained to me why I felt like an outsider or why certain groups treated me like one.

Encouragement

She said that before her experience with that production, "I didn't even know that theater [could be] a tool to mine these kinds of questions. It opened up the space for me to consider that theater is not just for entertainment or spectacle, but a mode of inquiry."

"I got into playwriting seriously about five years ago when I took a fiction class with [Fil-Am novelist and playwright] Jessica Hagedorn. At some point I gave her a one-act I wrote. She read it and told me that I should write plays."

Her work has been developed at La Mama Experiments, Rising Circle Theater Collective, The Letter of Marque, Brooklyn College, Primary Stages' ESPA, The Wild Project, The Brick, the Classical Theatre of Harlem and The Tank.

Fil-Am Ariel Estrada is Leviathan Lab's founding artistic director. "We are honored to partner with EAG," he said. "The Award represents a significant endorsement of Leviathan's mission to advance Asian and Asian American voices in theater and film."

"Panic Room: An Unkindness of Ravens" is on March 9 at The Episcopal Actors' Guild, 2/F, 1 E. 29th St., New York.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/51664/fil-am-explores-violence-racism-at-barbour-playwrights-fest

Fil-Am artist searches for multiracial heritage in Peabody Library

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 14, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

BALTIMORE, Maryland — Filipino American theater artist Tara Cariaso is searching for her multiracial roots and she's taking us along on her journey.

Tara Cariaso with a copy of
Barangay to Broadway: Filipino American Theater History,
a book she intends on adding to the library, as she rehearses her piece for "See Also." 

In the production "See Also" by Submersive Productions, audience members will choose their own story as they follow "figurative and literal threads around the George Peabody Library while encountering visual art, soundscapes, and performers portraying characters based on women and non-binary individuals from the collections of the Johns Hopkins Sheridan Libraries and University Museums."

Cariaso, whose father is Filipino and mother is of Irish, Scottish and English heritage, will be playing a character who is "a seeker of historical data looking for information about the women in her family tree."

Inspired by family

"On her journey, the library comes alive with magic as she follows clues towards understanding both her Irish and Filipino ancestors."

"I never got to meet my grandmom from the Philippines, but I'm told she is where I get my passion for movement and performance," she says.

"While the character I play is not me, it's a transposition of me. We . have the same desire to find a piece of our heritage through a magical act of research."

Road less traveled

Born and raised in Baltimore, Cariaso studied drama at University of Maryland and trained with the San Francisco Mime Troupe. In addition to acting, directing and teaching, she's also a mask maker/performer.

Her passion for working with masks began when she pursued higher studies at Dell'Arte School of Physical Theatre. "When I was introduced to mask performance and commedia dell'arte, I realized that I had so much more in my range than people could see.

"I wanted to play the old lecherous father or the over the top control freak . all these parts that traditional casting didn't acknowledge."

But it was also a matter of circumstance and practicality. "At the time, no one was going to cast a busty Filipina woman as Pantalone (an indispensable father figure commedia dell'arte stock character)! So I knew I was going to have to take a road less traveled.

"Making masks and teaching mask performance kept me doing work that protected my spark throughout the many years when I wasn't being cast in stuff that was interesting and useful to my growth."

Leadership

Be it as it may, the path Cariaso's carved out led her to become a leader of her own organization. In 2010, she cofounded theater group Waxing Moon Mask Company with Aaron Elson.

It also led to a previous collaboration with Submersive Theatre where she performed in and led the mask fabrication for butoh piece "Mass/Rabble."

"Submersive Theatre is highly engaged in using puppetry and fabricated objects; their work is created collaboratively. Our intersection makes a lot of sense. I love that I get to work with a collective of skilled, compatible theater makers who are very diverse in background and self-expression."

Lives count

"I've had to question a lot of the world around me to better grasp the challenges that I face as an actor in the US with a Fil-Am face and body. It's important for Fil-Am actors to know that the western canon will often not hold the answers we seek regarding our place in the performance industry.

"The theater community at large is finally becoming more accessible for Fil-Ams to play a wider range of roles, but the work is far from done."

Reflecting the professional and personal parts of her life, her character's journey involves adding a book that represents her history to the library's collection. "This is a means of adding to the new canon. And having Filipino American representation in the new canon."
"The character struggles to find identity and ancestry. Her arc examines the complicated nature of living in two worlds at once.

"There are some things we can take into our own hands. I hope her journey will encourage other multiracial folks to know that their answers and stories lived lives count, that multiracial people's stories belong on those hallowed shelves in US libraries."

"See Also" runs Feb. 18-20 at George Peabody Library, 17 E Mt. Vernon Pl., Baltimore. Visit Submersiveproductions.com.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/51558/fil-am-artist-searches-for-multiracial-heritage-in-peabody-library

Fil-Canadian play festival to run in Toronto

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 6, 2020 | USA.Inquirer.net

TORONTO — Six Filipino Canadian plays will receive staged readings at "Tales from the Flipside" this month at Theatre Passe Muraille's Backspace.

Filipino Canadian playwrights featured
in "Tales from the Flipside 2020" include
(from left) Marie Barlizo, Davey Calderon, Primrose Knazan,
Riley Palanca, Kodie Rollan and Bryan Sandberg. 

This festival of new Fil-Can plays is organized by theater groups Carlos Bulosan Theatre (CBT) and Theatre Amihan. This is the first time both groups are collaborating.

Since its founding in 2017, Theatre Amihan has been presenting staged readings of works by Filipino Canadian and Filipino playwrights.

CBT artistic director Leon Aureus reached out to Amihan Theatre founding co-artistic directors Maddie Bautista and Adriano Sobretodo Jr. to ask them to take the lead on this year's installment of the festival.

The organizers point out that the submissions represent Fil-Can playwrights from across the country. All plays are in English except "Sa Dakong Kawala," which will be read in Tagalog.

Feb. 13 Thursday

"The Watchdog Society" by Kodie Rollan. Five residents in a neighborhood watch group are forced to come to terms with their own racial biases.

Calgary-based Rollan is a playwright, actor and producer whose credits include: "Ya Burnt!" "Free from Phobia," and "Funny Man."

"Sa Dakong Kawala" by Riley Palanca. Naglalaro ang dula sa kahalagahan ng patuloy na pagalaala sa batas militar.

Palanca is a multi-disciplinary artist in theater work, spoken word, novel-writing and stand-up comedy.

Feb. 14 Friday

"Collapse" by Bryan Sandberg. Fifteen-year-old David deals with his international school in Davao, the aftermath of a bomb threat, his deeply religious Christian parents and a new person in his life.

Calgary-based Sandberg is a writer, actor and stand-up comic who is mixed Filipino Canadian.

"Happiness (a.k.a. the Art of Betrayal)" by Marie Barlizo. Gemma and Christina are best friends who secretly envy each other. Unhappy at 40, they're determined to get what they want. But are they willing to risk it all to get it?

Montreal-based Barlizo is playwriting mentor at Black Theatre Workshop, artist-in-residence at Imago Theatre and instructor at National Theatre School of Canada.

Feb. 15 Saturday

"Then Comes Marriage" by Primrose Knazan. Alex and Bobby meet at a same-sex marriage rally, fall in love, get married. Then everything changes. (Cast changes with each performance: a man and woman, two men, two women; the script stays the same.)

Knazan is a playwright who is Jewish Filipino Canadian. Her work has been featured at the Winnipeg Writers Festival, Sarasvati's FemFest, the Winnipeg Fringe, ad Prairie Theatre Exchange's new works festival.

"Big Queer Filipino Karaoke Night!" by Davey Calderon. A Clown-Drag-Karaoke Extravaganza, serving up Filipino Canadian identity shenanigans, queer insights, family epiphanies, and soul gratifying karaoke!

Calderon is a director, playwright and drag artist who is queer. He is cofounder of theater group New(to)Town Collective.

"Tales from the Flipside" runs Feb. 13-15 at Theatre Passe Muraille, 16 Ryerson Ave, Toronto. Visit Carlosbulosan.com.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/50839/fil-canadian-play-festival-to-run-in-toronto