Bravo!! 5 out of 5 stars for me. No printed program to hype you up. Just a scan QR code for the digital program to be appreciated at home.
Then, you read the opening message of a very thoughtful creative director Snehal Desai, music and lyrics by an inspiring genius Paulo K Tiról and co-created and directed by Noam Shapiro, you get a feeling they are in synchrony with you, and your heart and your mind.
In reading their words – it is as if you wrote them, the importance of cultural literacy, authenticity of representation on stage, true stories portrayed (not caricatures), the remembering of struggles, the journey, hanging onto hope (kapit lang), even kilig – fluttering of the heart as a language lesson.
All those bring you home into your immigrant heart plus the beauty of a friend’s heart who thought of you as an immigrant, invited you to see this play wherein you remember and felt the loss of a home wherein you once belonged, your birthplace, where you grew up, where you hang out, where you went to church, where you cooked in the kitchen with your dad (here, the mom).
You are grateful to be watching this play tonight and realized that you are choosing your home to be America, though decades of being here as a dual citizen of both the Philippines and the US, you feel the gaps – the childhood you don’t share with friends, however inclusive they maybe, friends who were born here and grew up here learning the school hymns, the playground games, the songs they sang growing up – do you remember that – they asked?
Of course you don’t as you did not live your childhood years here. You feel an outsider over and over again though you keep trying to be relevant, to be in the know, to belong.
So when you see this play, feel the feelings of connecting through “balikbayan goods” your relatives’ needs, that morphed to wants, or the gossips done in churches and you laugh at certain songs being acted and portrayed – your laughter and your tears bring you home to that space in your heart, connected to the Motherland. You no longer feel being on the outside, but on the inside, empathizing with all the characters and their life’s journeys. For 3 hours, I was safely inside my birth home and I felt so connected with the best of humanity inside the theater, regardless of gender and ethnicity.
Actors were amazing and acted so well and seamlessly three or four roles in a two-act-play with intermission. My favorites were Cool Tito, Rice Queens, The Language Lesson, Lantern in the Window, Ay!America and One Way Ticket opening and closing.
Phenomenal cast were Steven -Adam Agdeppa, Zandi de Jesus, Michael C. Palma, Cassie Simone, Andrea Somera, Shaun Tuazon, Understudy Melvin Biteng and Understudy Justine Rafael.
The band was phenomenal with Marc Macalintal, Vincent Reyes, Khris Kempis, Christopher Spilsbury and Rebecca Yeh.
Great work @East West Players for my theater home! Thank you @Ted Benito for my invite.
I am because you are! – @Prosy Delacruz
