Updating my website with what I’ve been busy with has been on my To Do list for two years. I recognize that isn’t something to be proud of, but it is the truth. On my 102nd day in quarantine and 1 week before I move out of my Bronx apartment to stay with family in the SF bay area (until theater comes back to NYC), now seems as good a time as any to check something off the To Do list.
I’ll keep this post to what I’ve done since graduating YSD, and how you can learn more about these past projects. I hope wherever you are, you are well, safe and taking care of yourself amidst the struggle. The struggle for your health and sanity while in quarantine, as well as the struggle for the liberation of Black people from unjust and broken systems, because none of us are free until all of us are free.
Photoshoot with William Sinclair Moore, March 2020.
GLORIA: A LIFE at the Daryl Roth Theatre, photo credit: Joan Marcus, 2018.
After finishing Summer Shorts, I had the privilege of joining the original cast of GLORIA: A LIFE, an off-Broadway documentary play about Gloria Steinem by Emily Mann. It premiered October 2018 at the Daryl Roth Theatre, directed by Diana Paulus and starring Christine Lahti. Learn more about GLORIA here.
Once GLORIA: A LIFE closed, I traveled to California to fulfill a childhood dream and perform at the California Shakespeare Theater, or CalShakes, in Orinda. I watched my first Shakespeare play there in high school and also interned for them in college. Embodying Shen Te and Shui Ta in Bertolt Brecht’s Good Person of Szechwan on that stage for the bay was a true honor. Directed by CalShakes Artistic Director, Eric Ting. You can learn more about Good Person here.
Good Person of Szechwan at CalShakes, Jay Yamada 2019.
Since moving to NYC, I’ve had the privilege of collaborating with other pilipinx theater artists at Clubbed Thumb, The Lark, Loose Change Productions and Egg & Spoon Theatre. Never in my life had I worked in a rehearsal room that was majority pilipinx, exploring issues and performance specific to the pilipinx diaspora. You can learn more about these workshops and readings here.
In January 2020 I collaborated one again with Rachel Shuey, the Managing Director for Yale Cabaret when I was a co-Artistic Director for it’s 50th year. Love, Medea, written by Peter Gray and directed by Michael Alvarez, premiered at the Center at West Park. You can learn more about it here.
Finally, while in quarantine my creativity has manifested in different ways, returning to my background in community organizing and producing.
Photo by William Sinclair
As a producer with AYE DEFY, we partnered with Ma-Yi Theater and HowlRound to stream a reading of Diana Oh’s My H8 Letter to the Gr8 American Theater June 2020.
I’m joining the Asian American International Film Festival (AAIFF) as Associate Development Manager for their digital festival October 2020.
April 2020 I performed in an onlinereading of The Other Place by Sharr White, produced by Play Per View and directed by Tyne Rafaeli. Starring Kate Walsh and Sendhil Ramamurthy.
Most exciting is I’ve been writing scripts, and I hope to share more news about that soon.