From Voyager’s golden discs to ghostly encounters of the unsettling kind, the slate for Pork Filled Productions’ Unleashed 2020 (New Pulp Stories for the 21st Century) showcases genre stories and POC voices seldom seen on stage.
“This is just our third year of Unleashed” says Executive Director Roger Tang, ,”and we’ve already had five of our scripts receive offers of productions from five different theatres. That’s a testament to the quality of work we get.
“Every year we’ve received more plays to read and meet more new playwrights from across the main. This year we got more than a hundred submissions, with the same quality of work. The market for genre work by POC artists simply thrives.”
The seven pieces include
- I Thought I Was Safe by Patrick Zhang
An amalgamation of the noir and horror genres, I Thought I Was Safe explores multigenerational immigrant trauma as it converges with decaying urban America. - For the Living, by Chie-Hoon Lee
“If the clone had to be incarnated it would remember everything I do, as of today. But it still wouldn’t be me, would it? I’d still be dead, wouldn’t I?” - The Golden Record, by Greg Lam
Two friends have their day interrupted by the sudden arrival of an alien object. - CJ: An ASpanglish Play, by Mercy Floresislas
Carolina Juarez, CJ, is a fifteen year old forced to live with her estranged aunt and Deaf grandmother when her mom overdoses again. She has been disconnected from her Latino heritage and is not interested in getting to know her family including her grandmother who is Deaf and has dementia. During a teenage tantrum, she destroys her grandmother’s childhood toy and the family’s comadre conjures up a recipe to intervene as her personal Nahual. Two Aztec deities appear to her to give her a chance to change her life before is too late. - Mustard Seeds, by Michelle Tyrene Johnson
On the banks of the Missouri River, a group of researchers gather at a former site of the Underground Railroad where slaves fought for their lives and swam for freedom. Under a full moon, old friends and colleagues are at each other’s throats as they struggle to reconcile their past. Nearby…spirits watch, as spirits do…trying to make sense of these mortals and find a way out. - 100 Hungry Ghosts, by Jesse Jou
Graham lives on the most haunted road in America. After multiple tragedies upend his life, he begins to see spirits, as his neighbors’ own painful histories surface. Will he learn to let go of grief or will he meet a grisly end at the hands of one hundred hungry ghosts? - miku and the gods, by Julia Izumi
Miku wants to be a god. Ephraim wants to be an Olympian. Grandma wants to remember. And Shara wants people to just include him in the conversation, you know? miku, and the gods is an epic and small adventure that braids friendship, death, and power beyond what one could ever desire.
The next step is to match each script with a dramaturg, who will aid the playwright in re-writes and development over the summer. This culminates in a staged reading of the work, produced by PFP, set for late fall, this year.
“We’re following in the footsteps of our brethren at Theater Mu and Ma-Yi,” says Tang, “as we support the playwright at every step of the way, with dramaturgs and workshop readings to make the script the best it can possibly be.”
Directors and casting for the entire festival will be announced later.
The oldest Asian American theatre group in the Pacific Northwest, Pork Filled Productions centers Asian American and POC artists to imagine fantastical, inclusive and FUN universes. Through the genres of science fiction, noir, fantasy, steampunk, horror, and more, we envision a bright universe informed by diverse experiences and perspectives, populated by larger than life characters, where everyone’s story can be told. PFP’s season is supported by 4Culture and the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture.
Pork Filled Productions is fiscally sponsored by Shunpike, the 501(c)(3) non-profit agency that provides independent arts groups in Washington with the services, resources and opportunities they need to forge their own paths to sustainable success.
Playwright Bios:
Mercedes Floresislas is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who writes trilingual plays to create opportunities for Deaf and Hard of Hearing actors to spread awareness of Deaf related issues and American Sign Language. Her first play, Tamales de Puerco revolutionized American Theater by introducing the first Latino Deaf characters. Floresislas first MFA play, Los Moreno, is the recipient of the 2016 Kennedy Center American Theater Festival Latinidad Award, the first alternate for the National Partners American Theater Award 2016, it was selected as the 50 Playwrights Project Best Unproduced Latinx plays 2017, Austin Latino Play Festival at Teatro Vivo, Milargo Theater Latinx Festival, and it was a runner up for Met Life’s 2017 Nuestras Voces. Floresislas is a recipient of the Gerbode Special Awards in the Arts.
Julia Izumi’s work has been developed at MTC, The Bushwick Starr, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, WP Theater, Great Plains Theatre Conference, Berkeley Rep’s Ground Floor Residency and NNPN/Kennedy Center’s MFA Playwrights’ Workshop. She is a current member of Clubbed Thumb’s Early-Career Writers’ group and New Georges’ Audrey Residency. MFA: Brown University.
Michelle Tyrene Johnson is a public radio journalist, a writer and a former attorney. As a playwright, Johnson’s plays have been staged nationally, including in California, Texas, Illinois, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Kentucky. Several of her plays, such as Wiccans in the Hood, The Negro Whisperer, Trading Races: From Rodney King to Paula Deen, Echoes of Octavia, and Buried Roots have been in New York City festivals and readings.
Primarily a director of new and contemporary plays, Jesse Jou is currently on faculty at Texas Tech University. He is an alumnus of the Cherry Lane Mentor Project, the Drama League’s Directors Project, and the Soho Rep Writer/Director Lab. Jesse is a graduate of the Yale School of Drama.
Greg Lam is a playwright and podcaster who’s just moved to the Bay Area. His full-length play REPOSSESSED received its world premiere at Theatre Conspiracy in Fort Myers, FL in 2018. His newest play LAST SHIP TO PROXIMA CENTAURI received readings in 2019. For more about Greg, see https://greglam.wixsite.com/home.
Chie-Hoon Lee‘s credits include the short plays “For the Living” and “Half Life”. Chie-Hoon has worked in non-creative capacities for the renowned Belvoir and Griffin theatre companies in Sydney.
Patrick Zhang is a Philadelphia-born, but LA-based actor, writer, filmmaker, and student. He is inspired by the intersection of social justice and art. Patrick ultimately desires to democratize creativity through his work.