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TEATRO EVENT SHOWCASES PILIPINO-AMERICAN PLAYWRIGHTS FROM AROUND THE U.S. --

EIGHTH ANNUAL FESTIVAL OF PHILIPPINE ARTS AND CULTURE

Sunday, September 19, 1999, 3:00 p.m.
Cabrillo Marine Auditorium, Cabrillo Beach, San Pedro

The Teatro Event of this year's Eighth Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture (FPAC) showcases the work of Pilipino-American playwrights from around the country, and takes place Sunday, September 19, 1999, 3:00 p.m. at the Cabrillo Marine Auditorium at Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro. Among the highlights will be readings from the upcoming Asian American Repertory Theatre (AART)'s production of Ralph Pena's Flipzoids, and excerpts from Jeannie Barroga's new musical, The Bubblegum Killers, and Alison De La Cruz's one-woman show, Sungka. Also featured will be works by Washington D.C.-based playwright RemÈ A. Grefalda and L.A.-based playwright Felix Racelis. The Teatro Event is part of a weekend of festivities and is free and open to the public. For more information, please call (213) 389-3050.

When it premiered in October, 1996, at Theatre for the New City in New York, Flipzoids instantly became one of the most talked-about and well-known of Pilipino-American plays. Flipzoids is written by Ralph Pena, a Founding Member and Artistic Director of Ma-Yi Theatre Company, who has worked extensively as an actor and director not only with Ma-Yi, but also off-Broadway and in regional theaters. Pena is a recipient of scholarships from the Birch Foundation, and the South Coast Arts Council, as well as a playwright's commission from South Coast Repertory. Ching Valdes-Aran, an original cast member, won an Obie for her performance in the original production. The reading of excerpts from Flipzoids is directed by George Ye and features members of the upcoming Asian American Repertory Theatre (AART) production. AART is San Diego's only contemporary Asian-American theater company.

Jeannie Barroga, Literary Manager of TheatreWorks in Palo Alto, is one of our country's most produced Pilipino-American playwrights. The Bubblegum Killers is the title coined by the San Francisco Chronicle for a renegade Robin Hood-like gang operating in San Francisco in the late 1930's. Barroga's musical was first read at ACT Quarry Playwright's Group, Bindlestiff (Tongue In A Mood Players), in October of 1998 in San Francisco. Barroga has written music and lyrics for The Bubblegum Killers, and also directs the reading. Barroga's plays have been produced and published nationwide. Her most recent publication, Talk-Story (But Still Like Air I'll Rise), premiered at TheatreWorks in 1992, and will be produced at UC-Davis beginning October 28, 1999. A Good Face is her one-woman show that has been performed throughout California. Barroga is a member of Dramatists Guild in New York.

Alison M. De La Cruz is a poet, playwright, performance artist, community organizer, event producer, atÈ. De La Cruz is currently preparing for the debut of her solo show, Sungka, which will premiere at California State University, Dominguez Hills in October, 1999. Alison will perform excerpts from Sungka at the FPAC Teatro Event. Alison will also be performing in Rice and Beans: A Must Taste Show, performances by fierce and queer Asian and Latina women at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica on Tuesday, September 21. De La Cruz recently performed excerpts from Sungka, at Tanglaw: Lighting the Arts in San Diego and Hapaning America sponsored by the Asian American Theater Company, San Francisco. De La Cruz is an alumna of the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute at East West Players.

RemÈ A. Grefalda is the resident playwright of QBd Ink, a repertory company inWashington, DC. To date, two of her full length plays have been produced, In the Matter of Willie Grayson and 30 December 1896, both historical dramas focusing on Philippine centennial themes. A play in one-act, Milkshake's bad for you! will be read in its entirety at the Teatro Event, and is dedicated to Grefalda's 91-year-old mother, Remy Cabacungan.

Felix Racelis is a playwright/screenwriter based in Los Angeles. The Philippine American Library launched their 1999 reading series with a reading of three of Racelis's short plays this April at SIPA. The Teatro Event will present a reading of Flipped Out, one of Racelis's short plays. Racelis, along with partner, Larry Nash, plans to mount a production of his short plays in early 2000. His ten-minute play, Peanut Butter, is a finalist in this year's West Coast Ten-Minute Playwriting Contest. Felix's most recent full-length play, Days of Rest, has received staged readings at First Stage in Hollywood and at the Writers Gallery series of East West. Racelis is currently a member of East West Players' Literary Committee.

Popular Actor/Director Ogie Zulueta serves as director for Grefalda's Milkshake's bad for you! and Racelis's Flipped Out. Zulueta played Joey Sands in Jessica Hagedorn's Dogeaters at the South Coast Rep. for their Pacific Playwrights Festival, directed by Michael Greif. He also performed in Hamlet in Singapore for the Singapore Rep. Ogie has also performed in plays in New York, San Diego, Los Angeles, and El Paso, Texas. Some T.V. and film credits include Venus on the Hardrive (Fox Pilot '97), Model's Inc., L.A. Heat, and the indie film, Pink as the Day She was Born. Ogie was a series regular on One West Waikiki (CBS). Direction credits are Twelfth Night, and several staged readings for the David Henry Hwang Writers Institute of East West Players.

This year's Teatro Event is sponsored by Sabocor & maglan, Certified Public Accountants. Event curator is Felix Racelis. For more information on the Teatro Event and the entire weekend of the Eighth Annual Festival of Philippine Arts and Culture, please call the main office at (213) 389-3050.

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Teatro Event
Sunday, September 19, 1999, 3:00 p.m.

Program
Sungka (excerpts)
written and performed
by Alison M. De La Cruz

Flipped Out
written by Felix Racelis
directed by Ogie Zulueta
Cynthia Cruz -- Gina Honda
Charing Cruz - Chamina Maniquis
Primo Cruz, Chet -- Robert Shinso
Harold Beach -- Kennedy Kabasares
Stage Directions -- Robert Shinso & Kennedy Kabasares

The Bubblegum Killers (excerpts)
Music, Lyrics and Direction by Jeannie Barroga.
Theo Gonzalves, Musical Arranger
Rob Robinson, Vocal Arranger
Jaime Martin, Choreographer

Narrator....Rona Par
Jimmy Cortez...Erwin Urbi
Emiliano...Francis Aguas
Fermin...Ian Mendoza
Bianca...Chamina Maniquis
Chorus: Jesse Abrescy, Paul Balagot, Rona Par, Tony Williams

Milkshake's bad for you!
written by RemÈ A. Grefalda
directed by Ogie Zulueta
Boy -- Kennedy Kabasares
Lola - Chamina Maniquis
Stage Directions -- Robert Shinso, Gina Honda

Flipzoids (excerpts)
written by Ralph B. PeÒa
Directed by George Ye
Excerpts from the upcoming
Asian American Repertory Theatre Production in San Diego
Cast: tba

Sponsored by Sabocor & Maglan, Certified Public Accountants.
(Please note: Program subject to last minute changes.)