And More Plays…
whisper fish
Cast: 4–7 (3W, 1M, others if desired)
· When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the largely unacknowledged Japanese diaspora of Peru became a pawn on the chessboard of the war. In this epic, massively imaginative story, the sacred and the profane unite two estranged Japanese-Peruvian siblings, a fishmonger and a nun, as they attempt to avoid deportation. Elements of magical realism stitch together the play’s highly theatrical and poetic tapestry of resistance, while Glenn Miller and his all-fish orchestra, praying nuns, and a dancing chorus of masked Devils from Puno are its colorful threads.
· Developed at Cutting Ball, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, East West Players, ArtsEmerson, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival.
La Lechera
Cast: 5 (2W, 2M, 1 flexible)
· Lubia, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, works for the Gallagher family, who live in a high-rise penthouse overlooking Central Park. Lubia is maid, cook, and wetnurse for the Gallaghers' son who, at seventeen, still nurses. To prove his manhood, he bottles and sells Lubia's breast milk, pocketing all the profits that literally flow from Lubia's body.
· Developed at Playwrights Foundation and Crowded Fire.
Boot-Heel
Cast: 9 (6W, 3M)
· The southeastern panhandle of Missouri, aka the Bootheel. In early January 1939, over 1,000 Black and White sharecroppers camped out alongside Highway 55 to protest their eviction from the farms where they worked and lived. In late December 1938, a group of Tsalagi (Cherokee) being forced to Oklahoma from Georgia on the Trail of Tears, passed through this same site. In 'Bootheel,' Afro-Cherokee sharecropper and reluctant protestor Earl Jean Wilderness travels back in time one century, learning about her heritage, the history of the land, and how to walk through pain by standing with others.
· Developed at ArtsEmerson.
Beauty Secrets
Cast: 3 (2W, 1M)
· Medusa is Kim Kardashian to Athena's Paris Hilton. After Athena accuses Medusa of seducing her uncle, Don, who in reality raped her, she disfigures Medusa's face with a pot of scalding coffee. Medusa becomes a recluse, until she meets the macho Percy, who hides his drone-operating-induced PTSD beneath a fake pair of Air Force pilot's wings.
· Developed at Cutting Ball and SF Olympians Festival.
Sam the Ham
Cast: 7 (2W, 5M)
· After his father's fatal heart attack, chubby Sam Hamamoto, mid-40s, who works at a Foster's Freeze and has always lived with his parents, decides to finally go on his first date with Deborah, his schoolyard bully turned mail deliverer. His efforts are threatened by the ghost of his sports-obsessed, patriotic father, his manipulative mother, and his lack of belief in himself.
· Developed at Asian American Theater Company and Mu Performing Arts.
The Patron Saint of Monsters
Cast: 6 (3 W, 3M)
· Medieval princess Wilgefortis, a closet Catholic, has her prays for protection against marrying the pagan King of Sicily answered when she grows a beard overnight. Enraged, the King of Sicily storms out, declaring war, and her father consequently orders her crucified. Thus displayed before the world, Wilgefortis becomes a symbol of hope for abused wives, wandering minstrels, and, above all, ‘monsters,’ who carry her icon and spread her message of acceptance around Europe. Note: This play was previously titled 'The Patron Saint of Monsters.'
· Developed at Playwrights Center (Minneapolis)
Cast: 4–7 (3W, 1M, others if desired)
· When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the largely unacknowledged Japanese diaspora of Peru became a pawn on the chessboard of the war. In this epic, massively imaginative story, the sacred and the profane unite two estranged Japanese-Peruvian siblings, a fishmonger and a nun, as they attempt to avoid deportation. Elements of magical realism stitch together the play’s highly theatrical and poetic tapestry of resistance, while Glenn Miller and his all-fish orchestra, praying nuns, and a dancing chorus of masked Devils from Puno are its colorful threads.
· Developed at Cutting Ball, Victory Gardens, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, East West Players, ArtsEmerson, and Bay Area Playwrights Festival.
La Lechera
Cast: 5 (2W, 2M, 1 flexible)
· Lubia, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala, works for the Gallagher family, who live in a high-rise penthouse overlooking Central Park. Lubia is maid, cook, and wetnurse for the Gallaghers' son who, at seventeen, still nurses. To prove his manhood, he bottles and sells Lubia's breast milk, pocketing all the profits that literally flow from Lubia's body.
· Developed at Playwrights Foundation and Crowded Fire.
Boot-Heel
Cast: 9 (6W, 3M)
· The southeastern panhandle of Missouri, aka the Bootheel. In early January 1939, over 1,000 Black and White sharecroppers camped out alongside Highway 55 to protest their eviction from the farms where they worked and lived. In late December 1938, a group of Tsalagi (Cherokee) being forced to Oklahoma from Georgia on the Trail of Tears, passed through this same site. In 'Bootheel,' Afro-Cherokee sharecropper and reluctant protestor Earl Jean Wilderness travels back in time one century, learning about her heritage, the history of the land, and how to walk through pain by standing with others.
· Developed at ArtsEmerson.
Beauty Secrets
Cast: 3 (2W, 1M)
· Medusa is Kim Kardashian to Athena's Paris Hilton. After Athena accuses Medusa of seducing her uncle, Don, who in reality raped her, she disfigures Medusa's face with a pot of scalding coffee. Medusa becomes a recluse, until she meets the macho Percy, who hides his drone-operating-induced PTSD beneath a fake pair of Air Force pilot's wings.
· Developed at Cutting Ball and SF Olympians Festival.
Sam the Ham
Cast: 7 (2W, 5M)
· After his father's fatal heart attack, chubby Sam Hamamoto, mid-40s, who works at a Foster's Freeze and has always lived with his parents, decides to finally go on his first date with Deborah, his schoolyard bully turned mail deliverer. His efforts are threatened by the ghost of his sports-obsessed, patriotic father, his manipulative mother, and his lack of belief in himself.
· Developed at Asian American Theater Company and Mu Performing Arts.
The Patron Saint of Monsters
Cast: 6 (3 W, 3M)
· Medieval princess Wilgefortis, a closet Catholic, has her prays for protection against marrying the pagan King of Sicily answered when she grows a beard overnight. Enraged, the King of Sicily storms out, declaring war, and her father consequently orders her crucified. Thus displayed before the world, Wilgefortis becomes a symbol of hope for abused wives, wandering minstrels, and, above all, ‘monsters,’ who carry her icon and spread her message of acceptance around Europe. Note: This play was previously titled 'The Patron Saint of Monsters.'
· Developed at Playwrights Center (Minneapolis)
