Filipino American artists prep musical premiering at Kennedy Center in DC

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 23, 2023 | USA.Inquirer.net 

WASHINGTON, DC — Filipino American theater artists are hard at work creating the world premiere of a musical at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The endeavor is made even more meaningful because "The Mortification of Fovea Munson" features a Fil-Am protagonist.

Filipino American theater artists (from left) Ely Orquiza, Kelly Colburn,
Justin Huertas, Justine Moral, Regina Aquino and Sally Imbriano. 

Can life get any more mortifying for 12-year old Filipino American Fovea Munson? She's already called Igor (as in Dr. Frankenstein's assistant) by her classmates. Her summer camp's been canceled. Her parents are making her work as a receptionist in their cadaver laboratory.

Things take an even more annoying turn when she discovers three heads without bodies. Ordinarily, this would have been a normal incident in the lab, but these ones talk and sing! 

Director M. Graham Smith has assembled Fil-Am collaborators for the stage adaptation of Mary Winn Heider's middle grade novel, commissioned by the Kennedy Center's Theatre for Young Audiences.

Musician Justin Huertas has composed the music and written the lyrics. Justine Moral stars as Fovea and Regina Aquino portrays Fovea's mother and grandmother. Sally Imbriano is the understudy for all three characters. Kelly Colburn is assistant director, Ely Orquiza is dramaturg. Arnel Sancianco handles scenic design.

Special

Sancianco received a copy of the script last year. "At the time the show had one workshop under its belt. I watched the recording and listened to the demos. I couldn't stop humming the opening number," he says. "There was this specific moment where Fovea's lola is introduced and it immediately reminded me of my lola. I hadn't felt that level of representation in my work before. I knew I had something special in my hands." 

Filipino American set designer Arnel Sancianco's model
for "The Mortification of Fovea Munson." 

Born in San Diego, Sancianco is currently based in Tempe, Arizona where he is a professor of scenic design at Arizona State University. He was previously based in Chicago, where his credits include works for The Goodman, Steppenwolf, Lookingglass and American Theatre Company as well as regional theaters such as Oregon Shakespeare Festival, La Jolla Playhouse, American Players Theatre, The Rep at St. Louis and Milwaukee Rep.

When Sancianco was studying at University of California Irvine, he was on track to becoming an actor until he had a mortifying incident of his own. "No one thinks about casting Asians for theater," a mentor told him. "Hearing this from someone I had respected made my heart sink and I watched what I had believed to be my life's calling dissolve."

It took until his third year of college to regain his footing. During a course in scenic design, his class was assigned to report on designers throughout history. "Mostly white. As we entered the late 20th century, I was introduced to Robert Brill ... [a Filipino] American designer from San Diego like me! With a prolific career that I wanted. All at once, I finally felt seen. Robert Brill was the role model I had been looking for and because he had made a career in theater, I knew I could too." (Brill is featured in the book Barangay to Broadway: Filipino American Theater History.)

Excited

Sancianco surveys how far he has come. "It's a complicated halo halo of emotions. On one hand, I'm very excited to put a Filipino-centered story on stage. At the same time it breaks my heart that it took this long to do so.

Filipino American scenic designer Arnel Sancianco. 

"I've been designing theater for over a decade now and I can count on one hand the amount of Asian-centered narratives I've been part of. And while I've worked with many Filipino actors, I've never been able to work on a show where Filipinos get to be Filipino. I am so grateful for the folks at Kennedy Center who are able to make space for me and my culture."

Explaining his process, Sancianco says, "This show is set in a lab and labs are where you learn, dissect, and experiment. I feel I did exactly that. We talked to a lot of specialists to help us explore how to create a world where three severed heads can sing and act.

To better serve the storytelling, he was not afraid to excise what was unnecessary. "We spent a lot of resources investigating what was going to be a fun effect. In the end, we discovered that what we developed, while super exciting, would actually make the performance clunky in the end. Now, to any other person this would have been time wasted, but to a designer like me, this was time spent knowing what this show was not, and in turn discovered more of what this show truly requires.

"A lot of my inspiration for the show came from the tone of [the] music. The demos brought me back to the days of reading Goosebumps books. I wanted to capture that nightmarish and ghoulish feeling of being a young kid thrown into angsty anxious space. Ultimately, I'm very excited with what we developed and can't wait to see it on stage."

Visit Kennedy-center.org.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/122886/fil-am-artists-prep-musical-premiering-at-kennedy-center-in-d-c

Audiences nationwide will see a Filipino American Cinderella

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 10, 2023 | USA.Inquirer.net 

BUFFALO, New York — Audiences across the country will have a chance to see a Filipino American Cinderella on stage this year. Diane Phelan is playing the orphan-turned-princess in the touring production of "Into the Woods."

Filipino American Diane Phelan, who is playing Cinderella
in the touring production of "Into the Woods," in a backstage photo. 

Tony Award winner Lea Salonga has praised Phelan's performance in this latest Broadway revival of the beloved musical in an Instagram post as "supremely talented, smart and present."

The musical links several Grimm fairy tale characters, such as Little Red Riding Hood, Jack and the Beanstalk and Rapunzel, and goes on to explore the consequences of their fulfilled wishes.

This staging by New York City Center's "Encores!" program series started off as a sold-out concert with Broadway stars Sara Bareilles and Neil Patrick Harris as the Baker's Wife and Baker, respectively.

The show's music is by the late Stephen Sondheim, who had a cameo in the recently released Netflix whodunit "Glass Onion." The 2002 Broadway revival starred Vanessa Williams as the Witch while the 2014 film version had Meryl Streep heading the cast.

Best job

Phelan initially joined the Broadway production at St. James Theatre as a standby, which is an actor who goes on for an absent actor in specific roles. But she wasn't just tasked to be a standby for one role.

Diane Phelan (left) with Tony Award winner Lea Salonga. INSTAGRAM

"I was over the moon to be cast as a standby for five roles in this iconic and beloved show. The opportunity to work on five meaty roles with the opportunity to perform them on one of the most revered stages in the country made me feel like I had the absolute best job on Broadway.

"I loved the immense challenge of learning and honing so many principal roles. It was like the best playground ever."

Profound

Phelan, whose mother is Filipino and father is of Irish American heritage, was born in Taiwan and moved to the U.S. when she was nine years old.

Filipino American Broadway actor Diane Phelan. 

"When we first came to the states, my mother's lifeline had been community theater. We did `South Pacific,' `Godspell' and others. I joined in and discovered I had a voice and a love for telling stories. It was in high school doing `Fiddler On the Roof' that I felt a profound connection to acting and I had just started formal singing training. These were the beginnings for me.

Phelan's previous Broadway credits include "School of Rock," "Bernarda Alba" and "West Side Story." She was also in the off-Broadway staging of the Imelda Marcos disco-pop musical "Here Lies Love," which has been announced to open on Broadway in June.

Elation

As she went through performing her different standby roles, she developed an affinity for one that "felt most right [to] spend more time with." Of course, before you knew it, she was cast as Cinderella for the Broadway production and then for the tour. (Fil-Am Albert Guerzon played Cinderella's father in the Broadway production.)

"There is a special kind of elation when you are granted access to opportunity as a person of color in this business that feels like savoring the best meal without interruption. That's what it was like to close the run out on Broadway as Cinderella and what it feels like to be told I'm playing Cinderella on the full tour."

The tour kicks off in Buffalo, New York and will have shows in cities such as Washington, DC, Boston, Chicago and San Francisco, among others.

"One of my favorite parts about performing Cinderella in New York was getting to see all the Asian and Filipino families who would come up to me after the show to tell me with tears in their eyes how much seeing me on that stage has meant to them.

"I've fought long and vocally for diversity in casting over the years and to actually experience it from this angle is incredibly joy filled for me. So the prospect of being able to bring this show and representing in a capacity some of our community hasn't seen before feels deeply satisfying."

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https://usa.inquirer.net/122023/audiences-nationwide-will-see-a-fil-am-cinderella

A Filipino Canadian gay rom-com for Valentine’s

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 9, 2023 | USA.Inquirer.net 

OTTAWA, Ontario — A raunchy gay comedy by a Filipino Canadian playwright will hit the boards at the Canadian capital this Valentine's month.

Filipino Canadian actors Marc Ducusin (left) and Mark Hrynioch. 

Riley Palanca's "Would Virginia Woolf Contemplate Suicide If She Were Filipino?" will be showing at this year's Undercurrents Festival, a showcase  of "original, contemporary theater created by local, national and international artists."

Written under the pen name Revan Badingham III, the play tracks one evening between Lemar, newly arrived in Canada from the Philippines, and Warren, the son of rich immigrants. They agree to meet after matching on a dating app. During this intimate encounter, games will be played and pants will be unbuckled. However, they soon realize they each have very different expectations for the evening.

The work premiered in last year's St. Ambroise Montreal Fringe Festival and won "Most Promising English Text." "Our audiences were very receptive!" says Palanca. "Five out of six shows received standing ovations."

Filipino Canadians involved in the production include director Dennis Gupa and actors Mark Hrynioch and Marc Ducusin.

Identity

Palanca incorporated English writer Virginia Woolf into this work because "she is a literary queer icon. A lot of queer writers have already been inspired by her, with works like 'Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?' and 'The Hours.'

"We also added a layer of race into the equation. We are brown people looking at someone whose work is so prominent in the Western canon.

"She wrote about how different people have different experiences of the same thing. She posed the thought experiment: If William Shakespeare had a sister who was equally intelligent and creative, would she have been as successful as her brother or would societal expectations have impeded her?

"This kind of multilayered way of looking at literary icons is also echoed in the play's own narrative of identity."

Inspiration

The production has made it a point to highlight that the play's subject matter has been inspired by "the BL [genre] in Asia."

Palanca explains that Boys' Love is "a tradition of homoerotic work, originating from manga and anime (Japanese comics and animation) that explores male-male pairings from a more diverse, non-traditional viewpoint."

Employing it as a launching point for his piece was "a matter of using a different, non-Western lens in discussing relationships to the public."

"We're doing it for cultural conversations. We are Filipinos abroad [from the Philippines], our main existence is a paradox. We want to share an Asian way of storytelling, that has already proven popular with audiences abroad. If BL is to be done in Canada, let it be done by a group of queer Filipino artists."

Authentic

Palanca gushes as a fan of the genre. "I'm really into the Filipino BL! BL became very famous during the onset of the pandemic. As a Filipino abroad, it felt like a way of connecting with my own roots, seeing gay stories represented.

"Particularly, I use 'Gameboys' as my base line," he says, referring to a YouTube series that was picked up by Netflix, followed by a film. "It was the first major BL in the Philippines and arguably still one of the best."

While the BL genre is traditionally known to be associated with female audiences, Palanca says "there is, of course, nothing wrong with writing for female audiences. The romance genre, regardless of pairing, is generally geared toward a larger female audience. "

He points out that "most contemporary BL shows from the Philippines are created by gay men and are also able to attract a queer following."

What he stresses is that "our team believes it important to have our stories be told by queer Filipino artists to keep the message authentic. At its core, it's about the lived experience of queer Filipinos in Canada."

"Would Virginia Woolf Contemplate Suicide if She Were Filipino?" runs Feb. 16 to 18. Feb. 17 show will have ASL interpretation. Visit bit.ly/VirginiaWoolfOttawa.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/121964/a-fil-canadian-gay-rom-com-for-valentines

Filipino Americans originate roles in ‘Young Americans’ world premiere

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 7, 2023 | USA.Inquirer.net 

PORTLAND, Oregon — Filipino American actors Danny Bernardo and Marielle Young have the distinction of originating two roles in the world premiere of the play "Young Americans."

Filipino American actors Marielle Young and Danny Bernardo.

Written by Lauren Yee and staged by Portland Center Stage, the play veers back and forth in time as it takes audiences on two road trips, traveling to and from Portland, 20 years apart, across two generations.

In one trip, immigrants Joe (played by Bernardo) and Jenny (played by Young) drive from the East Coast to Portland, trying to connect as a newly engaged couple. In the other trip, 20 years later, Joe and their adopted daughter, Lucy, set out on a similar cross-country adventure.

With some unexpected detours along the way, Joe and Jenny traverse the strange territory of their new country, while their daughter, Lucy, pieces together their bittersweet family history.

Heritage

The Joe and Jenny characters were not written to have any specific country of origin, only that they are of the same heritage. "Lauren is such a gifted writer," says Bernardo. "She's made the experiences shared between the two characters so universal that it transcends many cultures and really connects with both the artists and the audience."

Bernardo's recent credits include "Wally World," "Mamma Mia!," "Pacific Overtures" and "Urinetown."

"Because Marielle and I are Filipino American, that's who Jenny and Joe are for the world premiere. We're so blessed to be in a [rehearsal] room full of people from different backgrounds and are finding camaraderie in our shared experiences and the universality of the piece. And because both Lauren and our director Desdemona Chiang are very collaborative, we've infused a lot of Filipinoisms into the piece."

Young has recently been in the world premiere of Laura Gunderson's "The Book of Will." Other credits include "Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them" by Fil-Am playwright A. Rey Pamatmat, "A Doll's House, Part 2" and "Love's Labour's Lost."

New

The pair expressed excitement at the opportunity to create never before seen characters from scratch. "I love the generous collaboration of developing new plays! The audience has no roadmap for what to think of this character, and that's a cool opportunity," says Young.

"It's been thrilling to refine who Jenny is with our director and playwright in the rehearsal room. Then for me to add a piece of my individuality and experiences to the mix. Lauren's writing addresses some juicy questions through these three compelling relationships. The dialogue is also just really, really funny," she adds.

Bernardo says, "Working on a new piece is always very exciting. There's an extreme amount of trust between the writer and the actor. As an actor, you really want to honor what the writer has given you to the best of your ability. The writer wants to make sure they're supporting you enough in the text while giving you space to explore."

"There's an amazing fusion where the character is being breathed into existence by two people while being shaped by the director. You have an ongoing collaboration and conversation with the writer. Your input in the core of the character is integral. That's just something you don't get working with an established character. It's an honor and somewhat terrifying at the same time. You want to get it `right' but by just trusting yourself and the writer, you are right," he says.

Personal

Both actors have been drawing from personal experiences and relationships to help build and shape their characters.

"I'm very blessed to be playing Joe," says Bernardo. "I know him very well in my father, my Kuya Roger, and the prolific actor Joseph Anthony Foronda, all of whom I'm drawing inspiration from in creating this role."

Young says "This play means a lot to me because it very closely resembles my mom's immigration story coming from the Philippines with lots of hope, weighty familial expectations, and having the essence of being a wanderer who seizes every moment."

Young Americans begins preview performances on Feb. 11, opens on Feb. 17. Visit Pcs.org/young-americans. 

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https://usa.inquirer.net/121823/fil-ams-originate-roles-in-young-americans-world-premiere

Filipino American puppeteer conjures imaginary friends

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 3, 2023 | USA.Inquirer.net

NEW YORK — The rich world of a little boys' imagination is brought to tangible life onstage by Filipino American puppeteer Maria Camia. She has designed the puppets for a workshop staging of "Learning How to Read by Moonlight."

Filipino American puppeteer Maria Camia designing a puppet
for the play "Learning How to Read by Moonlight" by Gaven Trinidad.

Written by Fil-Am playwright Gaven Trinidad, the play features six-year-old Eddie, who lives in New York. Eddie rarely gets to see his mother because she works long hours, he only gets to communicate with his father in the Philippines via calls, he is bullied at school.

To cope, he has his love for Filipino and American pop singers and he has his imaginary friends, one of which teaches him English and another that can eat moons.

The play goes on to tackle issues faced by Filipino communities in the United States, such as mental health problems, racism and violence.

"Puppets have been used through all generations of storytelling," says Camia, who is also one of the directors of the play. "As a puppet's life exists only in the play, the audience gives more empathy to it than to an actor who we know has a life outside of the play."

Camia also notes what playwright Trinidad had shared with her. "Puppets remind us of when we were kids and they are otherworldly. Anything can happen with them. Gaven wants adults to feel magic again."

Sculpture

Hailing from Chesapeake, Virginia, Camia was "the shy art kid all throughout elementary to high school. I learned to speak up in college because my roommate asked me to perform spoken word with her. Later, I joined the Filipino club and became part of their culture night show every year."

She says puppetry was a natural extension of her studies in sculpture and extended media. "Everything I made turned into a costume, prop piece, installation or puppet. My professors Elizabeth King and Leslie Rogers supported and led me deeper into the puppetry community."

Her favorite materials to work with are cardboard ("Specifically the cardboard from the grocery store next to my apartment."), masking tape, and acrylic paint. "I love transforming recycled objects into art pieces. The most fun material I've worked with are wigs for the puppets. It gives them a playful and slightly uncanny quality. Eddie's hair has a lovely bounce when he shakes his head."

Process

"My process for this play started by asking Gaven what his highest dreams were for the puppets. He showed me reference photos and his favorite influences," says Camia.

She then kept notes of all the actions the puppets needed to do. "I drafted designs and began making. During the building process, I have a general idea, but I honestly watch my hands create the puppets."

"I stop my critical brain from interrupting the flow by singing songs or listening to long videos online." Eventually, "During rehearsals, I ask for the actor's input on the design and I adjust accordingly. We have been playing with the puppets in different ways than is conventional. I've never worked with puppets in this way and it's exciting!

"There are moments when actor-puppeteer Sergio Ang takes his energy back from the puppet and performs. With this back and forth from actor to puppet, we see many different layers unfold as it generates dialogue around puppet therapy, missing childhood, escapism and trauma still held in the adult body. It allows us to think about what energies we are still holding onto from childhood and how to breathe."

Guest narrators

Each show will feature a different guest narrator. Artists, community organizers and elected officials have been invited to join the show. Fil-Am guest narrators include playwright Roger Mason (Feb. 16); Obie Award winning actor Ching Valdes-Aran (Feb. 22); and poet, playwright and writer Luis Francis (Feb. 23).

The all-Fil-Am cast includes Sergio Mauritz Ang, Claro De Los Reyes, Patrick Elizalde, Kristian Espiritu and Vanessa Rappa. Fil-Am collaborators include lighting designer Alex Alipio and language and co-cultural consultants Bing Magtoto and Lydia Gaston. Leviathan Lab founder and producing artistic director Ariel Estrada is the executive producer. The play has received several developmental workshops through Leviathan Lab.

"Learning How to Read by Moonlight" runs Feb. 10-25, 2023.  Visit https://events.humanitix.com/learning-how-to-read-by-moonlight.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/121639/fil-am-puppeteer-conjures-imaginary-friends-2

Filipino American accent coach helps bring Milwaukee Rep’s immigration play to life

By WALTER ANG
Feb. 2, 2023 | USA.Inquirer.net 

MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin — Filipino American Joy Lanceta Coronel is taking on dialect coaching duties for the staging of "The Heart Sellers" at Milwaukee Repertory.

Filipino American theater artists involved in "The Heart Sellers."
Actor Nicole Javier, director Jennifer Chang
and vocal and dialect coach Joy Coronel.

The play is directed by Jennifer Chang and features Nicole Javier, both also Filipino Americans. Set in 1973, Javier plays Luna, a newly arrived immigrant from the Philippines.

As their husbands go off to work, life in the USA for Luna and her new friend from South Korea leaves the pair feeling isolated and invisible. They dream of spreading their wings together in the land of opportunity: disco dancing, learning to drive and even a visit to Disneyland.

The play's protagonists represent the waves of immigrants from Asia at the time who were finally able to enter the US as a result of the passage of the Hart-Celler Act or the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act. 

The law had removed much of the restrictions from previous immigration legislation, some of which dated all the way back to the late 1870s. (Note: For interested readers, some of these laws and their effects on Filipino immigration to the US is briefly discussed in this reporter's book Barangay to Broadway: Filipino American Theater History.)

Coach

Coronel hails from Louisville, Kentucky. "But as a child, I spent every other summer in the Philippines." She grew up with an older sister who was a singer who "naturally pivoted to musical theater."

"I grew up inspired by her work and began to try out different avenues of theater, which led me to pursue acting. In my undergraduate drama training program, I was instantly drawn to the voice and speech class.

"Growing up in a multi-lingual, Filipino household in Kentucky, I was exposed to a variety of speakers, thus making me more attuned to accent and speech work." She followed a professor's encouragement to take up a master's in Voice Studies at Central School of Speech and Drama in London.

Coronel now counts Broadway professionals and Emmy-award-winning actors as part of her clientele in her speech, communication and dialect coaching.

She's also written a chapter in the recently published book Stages of Reckoning: Antiracist and Decolonial Actor Training on "Societal othering of Asian Americans and its perpetuation through casting."

Accents

But what is dialect coaching, exactly? The term "dialect" has different definitions depending "on who you ask and in which country they reside," says Coronel.

"For a US dialect coach, `dialect' is most commonly used to describe an accent or regionalism and 'accent' describes a foreign accent."

She explains that, elsewhere, "dialect" usually refers to "language which is peculiar to a specific region or social group." This definition is one that is used by linguists.

Since Coronel works with clients on both sides of the Atlantic, she switches back and forth among the different definitions and terms based on who she's working with. "It's a much-debated topic!" she says, laughing.

Nevertheless, in the US, she has with worked with Ma-Yi Theatre, National Asian American Theatre Company, Comedy Central, Atlantic Theatre Company, Actors Theatre of Louisville, and Connecticut Repertory Theatre, among others.

Crucial accents

Currently in rehearsals, Coronel has been working one-on-one with the actors. "We've been spending a lot of time researching, discussing, and integrating socio-political events like the Hart Cellar Act and women's rights, in addition to how women from Korea and the Philippines during the 1970s would think, act, speak, and behave."

She believes the play is a "beautiful, universal story accessible to people from all backgrounds, and is yet still culturally specific and true to the identities represented."

For Coronel, the characters' accents are crucial in the storytelling because "this is an immigration story. The accents represent the character's native language and culture. It is important for all of us that these accents are not stereotypical, but that their speech is comes from an authentic, humane place."

"The Heart Sellers" runs Feb. 7 to March 19, 2023. Visit Milwaukeerep.com.

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https://usa.inquirer.net/121522/accent-coach-helps-bring-milwaukee-reps-immigration-play-to-life