CHICAGO, IL – CIRCA Pintig, a not-for-profit, 501 c(3) community arts organization celebrates the Filipino American History Month with “Stage Play Readings”. With a mission to produce theatre dedicated to develop and promote work that speak of the immigrant experience within the multicultural landscape of America, CIRCA Pintig kicks off its 2017 theater season with staged readings of three new plays written by contemporary Fil-Am playwrights. Featured are:
Giovanni Ortega’s Criers for Hire (Chicago Edition)
Synopsis: Aurora, Remedios, and Eugenia are three of the most sought-after professional funeral criers in Albany Park. They are eager to welcome Aurora’s 14-year-old daughter Ligaya (nicknamed Gaya) from the Philippines into their world and teach her their somber trade. However, they soon realize that Gaya has the opposite effect on people, making them laugh instead of cry. What ensues is a hilarious and heartwarming story of cultural identity, generational conflict, and finding home in a new country.
Playdates and Venue:
September 30, Saturday, 7:00pm @ The Hana Center, 4300 North California, Chicago and October 1, Sunday, 2pm @ Seafood City (Function Room), 5033 N. Elston Ave., Chicago
The Playwright: Giovanni Ortega is an Actor, Author, Director who has been working professionally since 2004. He believes in creating an accepting and inclusive relationship with artists and communities alike regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and class. He wrote ALLOS, the story of Carlos Bulosan which was commissioned by East West Players Theater (Southern California tour, 2011). It was produced in Chicago the following year by the CIRCA Pintig Theater Company, who once again as part of Migrant Stories (March, 2014). He has performed and spoken at over 300 organization/universities and prisons in North America with various one-person shows including Playfair, a program that incorporates Motivational Speaking, Diversity Engagement and Improvisation. In addition, he recently conducted a Method Acting and Directing Workshop for Upstage Theater in Bern Switzerland.
Lani T. Montreal’s Nanay (Mother)
Synopsis: Nanay (Mother) is a play about a woman coming to terms with her mother’s secret identity as a manananggal. A manananggal is a monstrous creature in Philippine mythology. Usually a medicine woman in the daytime, she transforms into a monster with wings that can detach her upper torso from her lower body during full moon. She is the bold aswang—a monster who kidnaps little kids, snatching them from their mother’s bosoms as they nursed. She is known to suck unborn fetuses through a sleeping mother’s umbilical at night. The only way to kill her is to find her lower body hiding in the forest and pour salt all over it. This way she will not be able to reattach herself. She will disintegrate like a vampire caught in daylight. Set during the last years of the Marcos dictatorship and the non-violent revolution that ousted the dictator and installed Corazon Aquino as the first woman President of the Philippines, the play raises feminist questions about the woman’s role as a mother and an activist in a macho society.
Playdate and Venue: October 7, Saturday, 7:00pm @ The Hana Center, 4300 North California Avenue, Chicago.
The Playwright: Lani T. Montreal is a Filipina educator, writer, performer, and community activist based in Chicago. Her writings have been published and produced in Canada, the U.S., the Philippines and in cyberspace. Among her plays are: Nanay, Panther in the Sky, Gift of Tongue, Looking for Darna, Alien Citizen, Grandmother and I, and Sister OutLaw. She is the recipient of the 2015 3Arts Djerassi Residency Fellowship for Playwriting, 2008 3Arts Ragdale Residency Fellowship, the 2001 Samuel Ostrowsky Award for her memoir “Summer Rain,” and was one of top finalists for the 1995 JVO Philippine Award for Excellence in Journalism for her environmental expose “Poison in the River.” Lani is a Voices of Our Nation Writing Workshop alumni, who holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Roosevelt University. She teaches writing at Malcolm X College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago, and writes a blog called “Fil-in-thegap”. (filinthegap.com.) She lives (and loves) in Albany Park, Chicago with her multi-species, multi-cultural family.
Conrad A. Panganiban’s The Perfect American
Synopsis: THE PERFECT AMERICAN is a comedy about a strong willed Filipina entrepreneur named Beverly Marie Spencer who’s mission in life is to teach new immigrants how to become the “perfect” American. Along with the help of her teenage son, she seeks out to make this dream a reality during a live audition with a cable tv executive as part of the living room audience. Her TV Dreams are turned sideways by a meddling grocery store clerk from Kyrgyzstan and a mysterious person from her past. The play asks, “How much is a person willing to give up to reach the American Dream?”
Playdates and Venue:
October 14, Saturday, 7:00pm at The Hana Center, 4300 North California Avenue, Chicago and October 15, Sunday, 2pm @ Seafood City (Function Room), 5033 N. Elston Ave., Chicago
The Playwright: Conrad A. Panganiban is a Filipino American Playwright living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His work has been performed by Bindlestiff Studio (San Francisco, CA), San Francisco Playhouse, A-Squared Theatre Workshop (Chicago, IL), CIRCA Pintig (Chicago, IL), in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland and in the Philippines with the Philippine Educational Theater Conrad A. Panganiban Association (PETA)! Conrad’s awards include: THE PERFECT AMERICAN – Official Selection for SF Playhouse’s Words Rising: A Celebration of Emerging Playwrights’ Monthly Reading Series; INAY’S WEDDING DRESS – Winner: James Milton Highsmith Drama Scholarship Award; THE BARBARY CAPER – First Place: Playwrights CageMatch Script Competition (Douglas Morrisson Theatre); and PRINSESA – Audience Award for Best Screenplay (Scary Cow Film Festival). His play, WELGA, inspired by the work of Larry Itliong and the Delano Manongs of the 1965 Grape Strike, will have its World Premiere Production at Bindlestiff Studio in October 2017. He is a member of Theatre Bay Area and the Dramatists Guild of America. Conrad earned his MFA in Creative Writing with an emphasis in Playwriting from San Francisco State University.
About CIRCA Pintig
Now on its 26th year, CIRCA Pintig continues to explore the power of theater in telling immigrant stories and dreams. We value the contribution of all our volunteers and donors to make theater accessible to everyone. The staged readings are open to the public but we welcome donations. As a 501 c (3) entity, donations to the organization are tax deductible. With support from the Philippine Consulate, Philippine American Cultural Foundation, The Hana Center and the Alliance of Filipinos for Immigrant Rights and Empowerment (AFIRE), CIRCA Pintig enjoins the greater Filipino American community in celebrating the 2017 Filipino American History Month (FAHM). Talkback sessions and reception with the playwrights and actors after each reading will also be held. For inquiries, contact Ginger Leopoldo, Artistic Director, 312- 956-9489 or gingerleopoldo@yahoo.com.
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