Theater Mirror Interviews Sara Porkalob, Creator/Performer of ‘Dragon Cycle’

April 1, 2019April 1, 2019 michaelhoban1 Comment

by Deanna Dement Myers

On a snowy Sunday morning, I sat down with Sara Porkalob, storyteller and creator of the Dragon Cycle, being presented at the American Repertory Theater Oberon Theater until April 7. We had an inspirational and rambling chat where we talked about importance of a loving family, our shared Filipino-American heritage, the process of writing, and about creating the type of theater that reflects your values. She may have also given me tips on where to find the perfect lip color. 🙂

Porkalob’s ‘Dragon Lady’ a Class Act

March 25, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Linda Chin

‘Dragon Lady’ – Creator & Performer: Sara Porkalob, Director: Andrew Russell; Lighting Design: Amith Chandrashaker; Sound Design: Erin Bednarz; Original Music: Peter Irving, Band: Hot Damn Scandal, Assistant Director: Michael Rosegrant, PSM: Kate Hauser. Presented by the American Repertory Theater as part of the A.R.T. Breakout series at Oberon, 2 Arrow St. Cambridge through April 6

Sara Porkalob is a multi-hyphenate wonder: a Filipinx American activist-feminist and actor-writer-singer-producer-director-storyteller. Let’s add educator to this 29 year old’s list, as experiencing her remarkable show Dragon Lady is akin to taking a master class. A master class from a superhero, that is, as in this tightly crafted show written in homage to her grandmother, Porkalob the Wonder Woman takes us on a journey through time and space. Each vignette in Dragon Lady reveals part of Maria Porkalob Sr.’s life story – working in a nightclub owned by the Philippine mafia, immigrating to America, raising five children in a trailer park, sharing time-honored wisdom with her granddaughter Sara – and each is a pearl.

A.R.T. Gives Oxygen to Celine Song’s ‘ENDLINGS’

March 9, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Linda Chin

Endlings – Written by Celine Song; Directed by Sammi Cannold; Scenic Design by Jason Sherwood; Costume Design by Linda Cho; Bradley King, Lighting Designer; Sound Design by Elisheba Ittoop. Presented by American Repertory Theater. At Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St. Cambridge through March 17.

Like the Manhattan millennial Ha Young muses in the second act of Endlings, I love theater. After seeing Endlings, by playwright Celine Song, I love theater even more. And as a lifetime theatergoer and arts advocate who is Asian American, I admire the American Repertory Theater (where Endlings runs through March 17) even more than ever. Song wrote an “Asian play” she considered “unproducible” – with extensive technical and casting demands (beach and underwater scenes, talking clams, three elderly Asian actresses who could swim – and spoiler alert – could rap), and an inscrutable title (what exactly are endlings, anyway?). Not only did ART give Endlings its world premiere less than a year after its development during the 2018 Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s National Playwrights Conference, it was produced with all creative hands on deck. If the response of the audience on opening night (diverse in age, ethnicity, as well as students and long-term subscribers) was any indication, I was not alone in being moved by this work – at times funny, at times painfully poignant, and clever throughout.

Ancient Eastern Culture Meets Western Theater in A.R.T.’s ‘Endlings’

March 4, 2019March 5, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

Emily Kuroda, Wai Ching Ho, and Jo Yang in A.R.T.’s ‘Endlings’

by Mike Hoban

Endlings – Written by Celine Song; Directed by Sammi Cannold; Scenic Design by Jason Sherwood; Costume Design by Linda Cho; Lighting Design by Bradley King; Sound Design by Elisheba Ittoop. Presented by the American Repertory Theater. At Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St. Cambridge through March 17.

On the surface, Endlings – now being given its world premiere at the A.R.T’s Loeb Center in Cambridge – is about three older women who have spent nearly their entire lives earning a meager existence by diving for seafood from a tiny island off the coast of South Korea. While the subject matter sounds like it would make for an intriguing enough premise on its own, Korean-Canadian playwright Celine Song has chosen to expand her darkly comic play to include themes of her own family’s migration to Canada (and eventually New York City) in search of “better real estate”, as well as a wildly comic philosophical discussion of how much one’s ethnic/racial identity should inform their work. Staged on an absolutely gorgeous and cleverly constructed set, the play also smashes the fourth wall to pieces throughout, creating an uneven but highly entertaining and biting comic pastiche.

Is it really the ‘ENDLINGS’?

March 1, 2019March 16, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Sheila Barth

BOX INFO: World premiere of Celine Song’s 1-1/2 hour play at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.), appearing through March 27, at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Harvard Square, Cambridge. Tickets start at $25. americanrepertorytheater.org

While Celine Song’s new, two-act play is a fascinating foray into the world of little-known Korean women who spend most of their lives – and days – diving daily for seafood, the playwright needs to concentrate more on these women and less on her self-effacing fixation of writing about “white persons“ plays in Act II.

ART Delivers a Contemporary, Absorbing “Othello”

January 21, 2019January 21, 2019 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Michele Markarian

‘Othello’ – Written by William Shakespeare. Directed by Bill Rauch. Scenic Design by Christopher Acebo; Costume Design by Dede M. Ayite; Lighting Design by Xavier Pierce; Composer & Sound Designer, Andre J. Pluess; Projection Design by Tom Ontiveros. The American Repertory Theater presents the Oregon Shakespeare Festival production at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St. Cambridge through February 9.

“This is wonderful, isn’t it?” “Terrific!” was the buzz on the stairs to the restroom during the intermission for Othello, currently playing at A.R.T. People sounded pleased and slightly surprised. Not because it was good – who doesn’t like, or pretend to like, Shakespeare? – but because it was so stunningly good. We weren’t watching a play, we were immersed in it.

ART’s ‘Barber Shop Chronicles’ A Shear Delight

December 11, 2018December 28, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

‘Barber Shop Chronicles’ – Written by Inua Ellams; Directed by Bijan Sheibani; Set Design by Rae Smith; Lighting Design by Jack Knowles; Sound Design by Gareth Fry; Music Direction by Michael Henry; Movement Direction by Aline David. Co-produced by Fuel, National Theatre, and West Yorkshire Playhouse. Presented by American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St. Cambridge, through Jan. 5.

Ever since the release of the movie series of the same name in the early 2000’s, I’ve pretty much thought of the “Barber Shop” as the social and cultural domain of African-American men. It had never occurred to me before seeing Barber Shop Chronicles (now playing at the A.R.T.), that the same elements that made barber shops a safe haven for black men in the U.S. – namely, a place where they could gather and express themselves without the judgement/harassment of an often hostile society – were also a cultural institution in other corners of the world, despite knowing that those same conditions existed pretty much everywhere, including the African continent.

BARBER SHOP CHRONICLES – Where Real Men Gather, Gab, and Get Groomed

December 10, 2018December 22, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

By Sheila Barth

BOX INFO: One-act, 110-minute play, written by Inua Ellams, co-produced by The Fuel, National Theatre, and West Yorkshire Playhouse, appearing at American Repertory Theater (A.R.T.) through Jan. 5, 2019, on its US premiere tour, Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St., Cambridge: Dec. 19-22. 26-29, 31, Jan. 2-5, at 7:30 p.m.; Dec. 19,22,23, 27, 29-31, Jan.5, 2 p.m.. Tickets start at $25, subscriber, member, groups, student, senior, Blue Star families EBT cardholders and other discounts. americanrepertorytheater.org, 617-547-8300.

We all do it. While getting our hair cut or styled at the barber shop or salon, we engage in small talk with our hairdresser/barber. We even discuss lofty topics, solving the world’s problems. Sometimes, we lean over a bit to eavesdrop on what the person in the chair nearby is revealing. Strangely enough, we openly talk about family and friends’ secrets, our feelings, likes and dislikes, political and personal problems to a stranger. You never know what truths, boasting, or bravado may erupt, but you know the dynamic exists globally.

A.R.T. Does The Greatest Hits with “ExtraOrdinary”

November 21, 2018November 21, 2018 michaelhobanLeave a comment

*(Bryonha Marie Parham, Mj Rodriguez, Melody A. Betts, and Kathryn Gallagher in ExtraOrdinary | Photo: Gretjen Helene Photography)*

by Mike Hoban

‘ExtraOrdinary’ – Written by Dick Scanlan; Directed by Diane Paulus; Music Direction by Lance Horne; Choreography by Abbey O’Brien. Presented by American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St. in Cambridge through Nov. 30.

You don’t have to be an American Repertory Theater subscriber (or a reviewer) to appreciate the selections from ExtraOrdinary, the company’s exhilarating salute to itself playing now through November 30th. With a veritable ‘Cavalcade of Stars’ performing selections from the last decade of musical theater with Diane Paulus at the helm of A.R.T. – many of which ended up (or will be) on Broadway – it’s an evening of some truly extraordinary highs and few lows. Featuring seven cast members from productions staged in Cambridge (both the Loeb Center and Oberon) ExtraOrdinary showcases numbers from Broadway staples like Pippin, The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess, and Cabaret, as well as lesser-known works such as Natasha, Pierre & The Great Comet, Witness Uganda, and Prometheus Bound – all of which had premieres of sorts at the A.R.T.

A.R.T.s “WARHOLCAPOTE” An Entertaining Diversion

September 28, 2017September 28, 2017 michaelhobanLeave a comment

by Mike Hoban

“WARHOLCAPOTE” – Adapted by Rob Roth from the Words of Truman Capote and Andy Warhol; Directed by Michael Mayer; Starring Stephen Spinella and Dan Butler; Scenic Design by Stanley A. Meyer; Costume Design by Clint Ramos; Lighting Design by Kevin Adams; Sound Design by John Gromada; and Projection Design by Darrel Maloney. Presented by the American Repertory Theater at the Loeb Drama Center, 64 Brattle St, Cambridge through October 11.

The A.R.T.s Broadway-bound WARHOLCAPOTE is making its much-anticipated world premiere at the Loeb Center, and while there’s a lot to like about this “non-fiction invention”, it’s really less of a fully developed play and more of a series of outtakes from conversations between the two 20th century icons. Which – considering the colorful nature of the work’s subjects – makes for an entertaining 90 minutes.