Jesca Prudencio Brings Comedy and Visibility of AAPI Experiences
to the Spotlight at the Old Globe
By Lainie Alfaro
SAN DIEGO, CA -- Imagination and creativity are the words Filipino-American director, Jesca Prudencio, said captivated her when she came across “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play.” “I’m drawn to work that challenges what I know and what our audience knows,” Prudencio said. An Asian American teenager, MSG and time travel would seemingly have little in common. Yet, in Keiko Green’s play “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play,” these three things collide to tell the teenager’s story of redeeming her family name and fitting in, while also presenting moments grounded in comedy. The play is running at the Old Globe April 13 through May 7.
And for director of the play, Prudencio, the challenges that the main character must face are not far from home. “There’s so many things in the main character, a fourteen year old girl, that I relate to,” Prudencio said. “Thinking about how I grew up in a very white suburban town and wanting to be just normal, I think that’s what’s also fascinating about the play. When you grow up in a place where you stand out, you so desperately, or I so desperately wanted to fit in. That’s what Ami’s, the main character’s, experience is. She wants to fit in. She wants to blend in.”
Prudencio grew up in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where her parents immigrated for work as physicians. While her family isn’t in her same field of work, she said it was her family who inspired and continues to inspire her work ethic. “My parents were very supportive of me being an artist,” Prudencio said. “They just said that if I’m going to do it, I have to be the best. They were very big on me working hard, just as hard as they did as doctors. That work ethic I really took away from them. I see how hard they worked to live their dreams as physicians here in America; I put that same work ethic in my own.”
She also credited the Philippine-American Association of Central Pennsylvania she grew up in for inspiring her love of performance.“That’s actually my first introduction to performance and theater, doing these cultural dances,” Prudencio said. “From there, I got into singing and dancing. I played the violin. I got into acting and then eventually directing. It really all started with my Filipino cultural community doing cultural work.”
She continued to follow her dreams of performance, receiving her BFA in Drama from New York University Tisch and an MFA in Directing from University of California San Diego. She also was the inaugural recipient of The Julie Taymor World Theater Fellowship. With the support of this fellowship, she traveled throughout Thailand, Japan and the Philippines in 2017 researching traditional and contemporary forms of theater in each country. She said these experiences have impacted her directing journey, especially when it comes to “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play.” “You’ll feel that in this production too — my travels and training doing Filipino dance and Noh dance in Japan. This play unlocks my creativity in a really exciting way,” Prudencio said.
In her time as a director and choreographer, she said her creativity has been grounded in telling stories that are not only entertaining but also challenging to the audience “Here’s the thing. If an audience leaves my work just saying, ‘Okay, that was nice. What a nice show.’ For me, that’s not a success,” Prudencio said. “I’d rather people leave questioning something or wanting to talk about it, or wanting to call their mom. If I could wish for anything after this show, it is that people will want to call the people that raised them and tell them they appreciate them.”
From the Philippine-American Association she grew up in, to the creative teams and casts she currently works with, she said community has become a grounding force in her work. “I create a community in every production I work on. It’s really important that we feel like we are a community,” Prudencio said. “I’m not just a director coming in to stage a play or a choreographer to teach the dance. We actually feel like we are a community. We are aligned in what the purpose of the project is so that we can all bring our best work.”
The purpose she said she’s bringing to “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play” is walking the line between comedy and truth, especially when dealing with a topic that has been the source of discrimination for years. “Something Keiko said in an interview is that there are so many awful things happening when it comes to racism, hate and the AAPI community around the U.S.,” Prudencio said. “She believes, and I totally agree, that the first step of that is the offering of food. It’s easy for people to smell our food and say, ‘Ugh, ew what’s that?’ There’s a ripple effect to that.”
Prudencio said the comedy that the play brings is meant to help the audience relate while also revealing ugly truths about the impact of othering and hate. “We hope that this show makes our audiences question, ‘When have we done that, not only to the Asian community? When have we just quickly othered communities and dehumanized [them]?’” Prudencio said. “We hope our audiences stay curious and really question how we treat each other.”
The Filipino Press attended opening night. The actors delivered line after line of raw humor that contorted and morphed my laughing mouth into an ajar gape when it hit me that the comedy of this play was deeply funny because it was deeply truthful. Truthful about my own insecurities.
Truthful about the ways I sometimes want to disappear into a quiet, cold, empty place. Truthful about the generational hurt that therapy can only tap at the surface of a sea of undercurrents coursing with anger, disassociation, confusion and rejection. And the minute a bubble is popped on the surface, another lurking hurt fills the well.
Ricocheting between joy and sadness, present and past, hope and loss, I was propelled through an hour and 40 minutes of storytelling that made me feel known, represented and heard.
The ways the characters interacted with the audience at times encouraged us to confront our internalized racism or biases and at other times made us want to join in with the dancing or let out deep-belly laughter. The actors’ knack at being able to do those things and stand in the in-between space of those very different experiences was astounding. To see “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play” as a Fil-Am person is to take ownership of the seasoning, the food, the culture, the ancestors that came before us.
The Old Globe Theatre Company is hosting the world-premiere of “Exotic Deadly: Or the MSG Play.” Previews ran April 8 through April 12. Opening night was April 13, and the play will run through May 7. Tickets are available for purchase online https://www.theoldglobe.org/pdp/23-season/exotic-deadly-or-the-msg-play/#?startDate=2023-04-01&?endDate=2023-04-30
Kick It California is here to help Californians quit smoking -- and improve their mental and physical health
By Mark Hedin, Ethnic Media Services
California is once again emerging as a leader in the fight against Big Tobacco with the California Smokers’ Helpline, renamed Kick It California — the state’s official effort to help people stop smoking.
Through Kick It California, anyone who wants to quit tobacco use – whether it’s cigarette smoking, vaping, chewing or anything else – will find an array of resources available for free on the program’s new, mobile-friendly website, kickitca.org. Other ways to get started on the path to better health include texting “Quit Smoking” to the number 66819 or calling 1-800-300-8086. The program offers services in English and Spanish, including coaching, and in some cases providing nicotine patches, gum or lozenges at no charge.
“Kick It California has helped more than one million Californians kick the habit. We’re here to help you take that first step toward being tobacco free — and we encourage you to check out our website for free guides and quit plans, or speak with one of our quit coaches to make a personalized quit plan that will work for you,” said Emily Aughinbaugh, Kick It California program director.
Now more than ever, it’s important for Californians to prioritize their mental health. More than half of the smokers who called California’s Quitline reported a mental health condition such as depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, drug/alcohol abuse or schizophrenia, and two-thirds faced more than one condition.
Notably, more than 70% of all smokers in this study tried to quit, regardless of mental health status. The high rate at which the sampled smokers sought help quitting indicates that counseling, like the services offered by Kick It California, can provide an “excellent opportunity toward improving smokers’ quality of life.”
Quitting smoking is a process that often takes several attempts to succeed. But, it’s well worth the effort, both for one’s physical and mental health.
Quitting smoking at any age is beneficial as it reduces the risk of premature death from chronic diseases and improves overall health. Over time, you lower your risk of heart disease, poor reproductive health outcomes and 12 types of cancer, including lung, liver and bladder. Within the first 24 hours of quitting, nicotine levels in the blood drops to zero. By the second week, circulation has improved and your lungs are starting to work better. Did you know that quitting can add as much as 10 years to your life expectancy?
In addition to spurring physical improvements, quitting tobacco use can reduce anxiety and stress — and even lead to improved mood and quality of life.
Kick It California is there to help Californians kick the habit of smoking, not only to support their physical well-being, but also their mental health.
“Every step forward counts. Start 2022 tobacco free!” Aughinbaugh of Kick It California urged.