Fil-Am named artistic producer of inaugural AAPI playwright fest

Filipino American artistic producer Jeffrey Lo (left) and playwright Conrad Panganiban are both part of Contemporary Asian Theater Scene’s inaugural Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Playwright Festival. CONTRIBUTED

SAN FRANCISCO — Filipino American Jeffrey Lo has been named as the artistic producer of Contemporary Asian Theater Scene’s inaugural Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Playwright Festival.

The festival is slated for July 2024 and is co-produced with San Jose Stage Company.

The festival will feature staged readings of six short plays performed by local Bay Area artists. Multi-awarded Fil-Am playwright Conrad Panganiban is one of the featured playwrights and is currently working on his entry.

Panganiban’s plays include “Daryo’s All-American Diner,” “Welga” and “Esperanza Means Hope.” His work has been produced by Bindlestiff Studio, The Chikahan Company, CIRCA Pintig, MaArte Theatre Collective and the Sinag-tala Filipino Theatrical Performing Arts Association.

READ about Fil-Am playwright Conrad Panganiban’s play ‘Daryo’s All-American Diner’

The festival is described as “a one-of-a-kind theater arts experience that fosters and showcases the talent of existing and emerging local Bay Area AAPI theater artists, from writers and actors to directors, stagehands and others.”

“It is an exciting time to be an Asian American theater maker in the Bay Area,” said Lo. “From the early roots of the Asian American Theatre Company to the works being done today, the Bay Area has always been a center for the development of new AAPI voices and stories.

“This festival helps us continue that history of lifting up the next generation of storytellers and highlight exciting and emerging artists in our community.”

Based in the Bay Area, Lo’s directing credits include “The Language Archive,” “Little Shop of Horrors” and “The Santaland Diaries” at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley” and “Chinglish,” “The Paper Dreams of Harry Chin” and “Hold These Truths” at San Francisco Playhouse.

READ about the Fil-Am actors in a staging of ‘The Language Archive’

He’s also directed “Vietgone” and “The Great Leap” at Capital Stage, “A Doll’s House, Part 2” and “Eurydice” at Palo Alto Players and “The Grapes of Wrath,” “The Crucible” and “Yellow Face” at Los Altos Stage Company.

As a playwright, his plays have been produced at Berkeley Repertory Theatre, TheatreWorks Silicon Valley, BindleStiff Studio, City Lights Theatre Company and Stanford University.

READ about Fil-Am Jeffrey Lo’s plays

Lo is the associate producer of casting and literary manager at TheatreWorks Silicon Valley where audiences can see his work this April as he directs Mike Lew’s “Tiger Style!”

READ about how the Fil-Ams of TheatreWorks celebrated its Tony Award

This East-meets-West satire examines the cause and effects of strict “tiger parenting,” as 30-something Ivy League graduate siblings Albert and Jennifer wallow in their adult dissatisfactions with life despite their childhood ultra-achievements.

When their lives fall apart, they blame their parents and run away from California to China on an “Asian Freedom Tour” where calamity ensues.

“Tiger Style!” will feature Emily Kuroda (known to television audiences as the uber-controling Mrs. Kim on “Gilmore Girls”) and Francis Jue (CBS’s “Madam Secretary” and “The Good Wife”).

“Tiger Style!” runs April 6-28 at Mountain View Center for the Performing Arts, 500 Castro St., Mountain View.

Walter Ang is the author of Barangay to Broadway: Filipino American Theater, available at Amazon, Bookshop and other online booksellers.