Learning How to Read by Moonlight, by Gaven Trinidad (NYC, NY)

Learning How to Read by Moonlight, by Gaven Trinidad
Leviathan Lab (click here for exact show times)

UNDER THE MOONLIGHT…

six-year-old Eddie imagines a dragon eating moons and an imaginary friend teaching him English. His mother smokes as she prays to a statue of the Santo Niño. His father waits alone in Manila for their daily phone calls. Songs from a mythical giant turtle travel across oceans, but are drowned by the voices of Duterte and Trump on the television. As fantasy and reality become indistinguishable, the family is forced to learn how to articulate unspoken truths that will either break them or heal them. How will the weight of living undocumented in New York City force them to reevaluate their understanding of “community”, “dreams”, and “home”?

​To assist the actors, a new narrator (a fellow artist, community organizer, or elected official) joins the cast every night. The narrator reads the play aloud to the audience, having neither seen the play nor read the entire script. The cast performs original music and songs to help tell the story. The play is spoken in English and Tagalog with subtitles and translation.

2021 Bay Area Playwrights Festival Finalist
2021 E.A.G. Barbour Award Finalist

A portion of the proceeds will go to support Churches United for Fair Housing, a grassroots organization that works towards community empowerment through community organizing, youth engagement and by providing sophisticated social services.

CARE ADVISORY
We will sing, laugh, and dance as a community! The play is hella Pinoy. Note that it also explores mental health, racism, government sanctioned police violence, and xenophobia with a vulnerable and tender heart. We encourage each other to explore these themes as a community and be witness to each other’s humanity. Let us lean in with empathy and love so that we may support each other through the performance.

CAST (in alphabetical order)
SERGIO MAURITZ ANG*
​PATRICK ELIZALDE
KRISTIAN ESPIRITU*
VANESSA RAPPA
CLARO DE LOS REYES*

*Equity member appearing with permission of Actors’ Equity Association without benefit of an Equity contract in this Off-Off-Broadway production.

CREATIVE + PRODUCTION TEAM
written by GAVEN D. TRINIDAD
direction by MAURICIO SALGADO
​original music and lyrics by GAVEN D. TRINIDAD
projection and scenic design by CYNTHIA CHEN
lighting design by ALEX ALIPIO
sound design by JORDAN ROSE BERNSTEIN
puppet design by MARIA CAMIA
stage management by MARS NERI

ARIEL ESTRADA, executive producer + artistic director of Leviathan Lab
JENNIFER OGASIAN, producer
production organizations, LEVIATHAN LAB + EPISCOPAL ACTORS’ GUILD

ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
Gaven D. Trinidad (they/him/siya) is a brown, first-generation, Filipinx American theatremaker, illustrator, and educator from NYC and is currently New York Theatre Workshop’s Community Engagement Associate. Their artistic work examines the intersections of race, immigration, queerness, ritual, and community. They’ve collaborated with folx in various administrative and artistic positions at places such as The Juilliard Drama Division, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Roundabout Theatre, May-Yi Theater Company, and the Arts Project of Cherry Grove.

Theatre Communications Group named them as a member of the 2021 Rising Leaders of Color Cohort. Living with Bipolar 1, they are an advocate for Mental Health Awareness and Suicide Prevention. Thank you to Ripley, their 12-year-old Jack Russell mix, for always bringing them joy (and attitude). www.gaventrinidadtheatre.com

ABOUT THE DIRECTOR
Mauricio Tafur Salgado is an Assistant Arts Professor of Theatre Studies in the Department of Drama at NYU Tisch School of the Arts.
Salgado is mestizo + first gen + born to proudly subversive Colombians + brown skinned + amateur bio-regionalist + aspiring theologian + cis-hetero + married + artist, pursuing justice and healing through a decolonial framework. He collaborates to organize space where folx rehearse revolution, compromise, rage, tolerance, strength, trust, and vulnerability. Prior to joining Tisch Drama, Salgado co-founded Artists Striving to End Poverty (ASTEP).

At ASTEP, he recruited, trained, and supported more than 325 teaching artists and created and implemented 23 programs for artistic youth. He is currently a founding creative producer with the Remember2019 Collective, which supports local black cultural workers in Phillips County, Ark., as they facilitate spaces for self-determination, memory, and reflection that are directly related to the Elaine Massacre.

He has worked as a facilitator, actor, deviser, and director with communities in Peru, the Dominican Republic, South Africa, India, Belgium, Germany, Scotland, and across Turtle Island (the United States). He has taught at the Boston Conservatory, Brown University, Santa Clara University, La Guardia Community College, and Kingsborough Community College. www.mauriciotsalgado.com

ABOUT LEVIATHAN LAB
Founded in 2009, Leviathan Lab is an award-winning not-for-profit creative studio whose mission is the advancement of Asian and Asian American (A/AA) performing artists and their work. Through the speaking of A/AA artists’ words, and the presentation of A/AA bodies, presence, and gestures on stage and film, Leviathan works to open spaces that promote social justice, bridge communities, and assert the power of art to change the world. We function as a lab where early-career and established A/AA artists can be courageous, experiment, and thrive as they create works that captivate the audiences we serve. www.leviathanlab.org

ABOUT EPISCOPAL ACTORS GUILD
The mission of the Episcopal Actors’ Guild (est. 1923) is to provide emergency aid and support to professional performers of all faiths who are undergoing financial crisis. We are also dedicated to helping emerging artists advance their careers through scholarships, awards, and performance opportunities. Our headquarters and historic theatre are located on the second floor of New York’s landmarked Church of the Transfiguration, also known as “The Little Church Around the Corner.” ​www.actorsguild.org

ABOUT ACTORS’ EQUITY ASSOCIATION
​Actors’ Equity Association (“Equity”), founded in 1913, is the U.S. labor union that represents more than 51,000 professional Actors and Stage Managers. Equity fosters the art of live theatre as an essential component of society and advances the careers of its members by negotiating wages, improving working conditions and providing a wide range of benefits, including health and pension plans. Actors’ Equity is a member of the AFL-CIO and is affiliated with FIA, an international organization of performing arts unions. www.actorsequity.org