Your Typical Question and Answer Sheet for the Pork Filled Players

What are the Pork Filled Players?

The Pork Filled Players is Seattle’s close approximation of a multicultural comedy group, devoted to promoting the art of sketch comedy through thought provoking original material, making it accessible to diverse audiences. Using our own original madcap (though not necessarily zany) material, the Players aim pointed barbs at sacred cows, the bees knees, the cat’s meow and other non-porcine material. Using humor (hopefully funny) and song (hopefully on-key), PFP has their own take on modern life through their sketches (which can also be found on their web site, which is sometimes at http://www.arfarfarf.com/pfp and other times at http://www.abcflash.com/a&e/r_tang/PFP.html).

Didn’t you used to be an Asian American comedy group?

Well, yeah...

So, why the change?

Hey! Part of our cast is white, part of our writing staff is white and one of our directors is white...you think we were gonna call ourselves Seattle’s part Asian, part white, part hapa comedy group? Besides...you think funding sources are gonna UNDERSTAND anything other than the “M” buzzword???

Hmmm...so where did you get your name?

From the local Japanese supermarket lunch menu.

No, seriously, where did you get your name?

Like we said.

Now, come on...

Hey, we wanted something funny. We wanted something non-mainstream...but not OBVIOUS like Chop Suey Theatre or the Rainbow Grotto Warriors. The Pork Filled Players is perfect: Asian food reference, funny, refers to acting (ham)...and nobody else would ever think of the name. Of course, most groups have the self respect to call themselves something else...

What’s your relationship with NWAAT?

PFP is part of an emerging trend in multicultural theatre, where an ever growing number of actors and writers are using comedy to express...

*Yawn*..yeah...so what’s your relationship with NWAAT?

As the second oldest Asian American theatre on the continent, NWAAT is in perfect position to be a mentor for the next generation of emerging voices in the wider as well as the Asian/Pacific Islander community. As such...

SO WHAT’S YOUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NWAAT???!!?

<Grumble, grumble> the Pork Filled Players are one group; NWAAT is another group. They’re older; we’re newer. They got more resources, but we do things they don’t do on their main stage; i.e., sketch comedy (duh).
Basically, we’re artists in residence at NWAAT. We put on shows and use NWAAT resources and experience; they get new audiences (and more money). We shamelessly use their name to get credibility we couldn’t otherwise get, they send us around the known world to do shows and skim money off, er, share in the proceeds from those events.

So what makes you think you can pull this off?

Hey, we may be relatively new, but we ain’t no spring chickens. Wait a minute. Let’s rephrase this...

The Players are a blend of the old and new, a potent combo of veteran hands and fresh, new faces to the world of theatre. On the one hand, the group can tap the talent of folks who’ve worked in theatre for over two decades, working on shows with folks like David Hwang and Phil Gotanda (before they had pretentious middle names). On the other, we have folks who are making their first professional appearances on stage anywhere, and bring fresh perspectives to the PFP mix.

The Players have roots that stretch back to earlier groups. The founders of PFP have also worked on NWAAT’s 11:07 Late Night and OPM, the Asian American comedy group in town. These folks have taken their experience with those groups and applied it to a new formula to make it bigger and better than ever.