EDITH's Filipino Connection

"I'm from a Filipino family... I tend to think that Filipino women are very outspoken.  But maybe it's just my mother and her family." (playwright A. Rey Pamatmat, NPR)

Our director Jennifer Chang was asked to write a "First Person" article for the LA Stage Times.  Here is an excerpt: 

"Over the past month, I have had the tremendous honor of helming the LA premiere of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them by A. Rey Pamatmat, produced by Artists at Play.  I was approached at the beginning of the summer about my interest and availability to direct Edith... What an amazing opportunity for someone of Filipino heritage to direct a play by a Filipino-American about Filipino-Americans!

My parents were born and raised in the Philippines.  My father is ethnically Chinese with a splash of Malay-Arabian blood, and my mother is a typical Filipina of Spanish, Malay, and Chinese stock.  I grew up speaking Tagalog in a multi-generational household.  A life pursuing theater and art was definitely not what my family had imagined for me when they emigrated from the Philippines. Nonetheless, here I am, an Asian-American artist in Los Angeles –  ultimately very much like them, I might add, in pursuit of a dream."

Read "Chang’s Filipina American Connection to Edith" in its entirety here. 

Purchase tickets to the show (which runs until November 10) here.

Rodney To, Amielynn Abellera, Brian Hostenske. (photo credit: Michael C. Palma)