Image by Michelle Raponi from Pixabay
For my birthday, I was gifted an amazing write-up for my new play! It’s always so cool to read how someone else summarizes my work. Does the writer get what I’m trying to get at in my play? And this hits every note that I wanted to say… which is a scary thing to put out. Will anyone else understand what I’m trying to do? And the below captured everything!
CIRCA Pintig presents DARYO’S ALL-AMERICAN DINER, a new play about family and friends coming together in times of crisis!
Press Release:
Chicago, IL – The pandemic brought the entire world to its knees and the challenges that it poses after a two-year wrath unravels the delicate fabric upon which our moral and cultural values find its true humanity. For its 32nd theater season, CIRCA Pintig, the Filipino American community arts organization, brings to the stage the story of the Daryo family in the fictional town of Lakeside, Illinois and how a tragic incident transforms their sense of humanity and community. Written by Conrad A. Panganiban, Daryo’s All American Diner is a new play about resilience seen through the lens of a Filipino family who struggles to keep a family business open at the height of the pandemic. May, the 40-year old daughter who manages the diner is torn between keeping the business afloat despite mounting expenses or sell the business altogether. As she tiptoes on navigating these choices, her mother April and her African American surrogate aunt Alberta suffer the brunt of racial hatred. May is forced to revisit her decision as family and friends redefine what binds them together as a community. The play sets the tone for how a traumatic act of violence can lead to an act of grace when Daryo family and friends find new joy in honoring the legacy of Augusto Daryo, the late father whose culinary prowess makes Daryo’s All American Diner ‘all American’.
Directed by Luis Pascasio, the play finds its strength through a multiracial assembly of characters creating a montage on which to view the ongoing anti-Asian hate from a perspective that engages cross-cultural healing and understanding. Cast includes Heather Jencks, Ginger Leopoldo, RJ Silva, Cary Shoda, Amanda Payne and KC Khan with music and sound design by Demetrio Maguigad and set design by Larry Leopoldo. In partnership with the Chicago Danztheatre Ensemble (CDE), the play is double billed with CDE’s Ellyzabeth Adler’s production of The Wasteland and will go on stage on May 5-6, 12-13 and 19-20, Friday-Saturday, 8pm at The Auditorium of Ebenezer Lutheran Church, 1650 W. Foster in Chicago.
This production of CIRCA Pintig is supported in part by Asian Giving Circle, Crossroads Fund, Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) City Arts Grant, Illinois Arts Council, an agency of the National Endowment for the Arts and Resist. For tickets and more inquiries, visit www.cricapintig.org or email Ginger Leopoldo, Executive Director at ginger@circapintig.org.
Playwright: Conrad A. Panganiban
Director: Luis Pascasio
Music & Sound Design: Demetrio P. Cardona-Maguigad
Set Design: Larry Leopoldo
Graphic Design: RJ Silva
Cast: Heather L. Jencks, Ginger Leopoldo, RJ Silva, Cary Shoda, Amanda Payne, and KC Khan
About this production:
Daryo’s All-American Diner is about its struggling 40-something Asian-American co-owner, May Daryo, whose life is transformed after a violent attack on her family during the height of the pandemic. This Full-Length Drama set in the fictional midwestern city of Lakeside, IL., explores how something positive and hopeful can come out of a traumatic act of violence.