Filipino American Artists Network

Rude Guerrilla Theater Company presents the World Premiere of playwright Aurelio Locsin’s black comedy HELLTOWN BUFFET as the ninth production in its eleventh season. Can a Filipino-American manager of  Hometown Buffet and his hunky demon seducer fall in love through their real and imagined histories? This dark comedy propels them from Orange County to several afterlives, prompting encounters with a sexy demoness, a fabulous stylist, bewildered tribesmen, and talkingtrees. The production is directed by the playwright.
Rude Guerrilla Theater Company member, playwright and director Aurelio Locsin comes from a long line of Filipino writers: his father, grandfather, and uncle were all journalists, and his
grandmother completed a much-praised translation from Spanish to English of Noli Mi Tangere, the seminal Filipino novel. His mostly Filipino ancestry is enriched with DNA from mainland China on his father’s side and from Germany and the Republic of Texas on his
mother’s side.

Helltown Buffet

Aurelio started his American life when his family moved from Manila to Seattle during his early teens. With a compatible degree from the University of Washington, he began his professional writing career as a technical writer with detours into magazine articles and a game book on the Aztecs. In 1997, bored with the world of computer manuals, he turned to acting and graduated from the South Coast Rep Professional Conservatory.

Among his more memorable acting gigs were a year of Improv with the Berubians and a month at the 2000 Edinburgh International Fringe Festival. “One of the reasons I turned to acting was because I got tired of writing,” he says, “but after a few people suggested that my
writing might be better than my acting, I tried playwriting.”

Aurelio Locsin

His first-produced play, Asian Acting, was nominated for Best New Play at the 2005 OC Weekly Theater Awards. Last year, his full-length directorial debut of Chay Yew’s Language of Their Own was designated one of Orange County’s best last year by OC Register Critic Eric Marchese.

His contributions to the Asian community in Orange County include the founding of an Asian AIDS Response program in the 80s and helping to form Asian Pacific Crossroads, a gay Asian support group that existed for a dozen years. He lives in Placentia with his partner, Anthony,
five computers, and several MMORPG characters.

“Hometown Buffet” is one of my favorite places to eat, even without the 99-cent coupon,” says playwright/director Locsin. “During one of these food orgies, I noticed how a huge number of larger-than-normal people left uneaten food on their plate, which the servers promptly threw away. I thought, wouldn’t it have been better to give all that food to hungry and homeless people? When I asked the employees, it turns out it was against health department regulations.

Those images put together produced the opening buffet scene in one inspired sitting. That scene remained a stand-alone short without dialog until I took it to the playwriting class of East-West Players in Los Angeles, where playwright/instructor Prince Gomolvilas advised his students to write the first scene of the play and then continue with the ending of the play before filling in the remaining scenes. That unusual technique produced the script for this production.

People who specialize in such things will find all kinds of symbolism, social commentary, and educational messages in HELLTOWN BUFFET, but my main goal was to create something fun and entertaining for the audience. If anything more than that comes out, it’s a happy accident.”

In my correspondence with Aurelio, I’d asked him about his process in his craft:

CP: What’s the main theme of your play? What’s the intent behind it? Is there any personal experiences that you want to relate to your audience thru this play? What is it?
AL: Love conquers all. Religion and God are not absolutes but ideas created by human beings.  My intent with this play, as with all of my plays, is to entertain.  I wasn’t really intending to relate any personal experiences but as is true with any playwright, personal experiences color the play.  Lots of things I learned about Catholicism and the afterlife are in this play.

CP: Your work in “Helltown Buffet” is quite surreal. Is this intentional? Why?
AL: Not really intentional.  It just came out that way, given the subject matter.  It’s probably because while many playwrights think of plays in words, I tend to think of them in images, given my acting, production, and directing background.  In fact, most of my plays start out as a short scene trying to explain an image that’s popped into my head.
But I’ve written all types of plays from highly surreal to realistic.  Check out “Asian Acting” at rgasian.blogspot.com for a collection of my short plays.  They run the gamut.

CP: A lot of your characters seems to be out of this world (literally), how do bring it down to your audience so they can relate to them?
AL: Give them concerns that people can relate to.  (The Greeks did this with their gods all the time, which made their gods more relatable.)  For example, Madame, the queen of Hell, is worried about getting old while Grom, her bodyguard, is concerned about being rejected in love.   As long as audiences can see common emotions, virtues, and vices, they’ll relate to the character.

CP: I haven’t seen your other works. Are your works tend to denote Asian themes? Why?
AL: All my plays are detailed in my blog at rgasian.blogspot.com.  And they do tend to emphasize Asian or Filipino themes.  There’s enough stuff out there being written for non-Asian actors.  I want to provide roles for Asian actors, who typically don’t get cast.  Paradoxically, it’s very hard to cast Asian actors in Orange County, where my plays are typically produced.  So I may be writing general plays rather than Asian plays in the future.

CP: Are there any projects you’re currently working on? Future projects?
AL: I’m at David Henry Hwang Writer’s Institute  writing a play about Gladys Towles Root, who was instrumental in legalizing Filipino/White marriage in California in the 1930s.  I usually don’t have the energy to concentrate on more than one project at a time.

CP: Are there any themes you would like to explore in the future as a writer?
AL: Filipino historical themes (such as the Spanish-American war’s effect on the country), Asian myths and legends (such as the Chinese Monkey God’s “Journey to the West,” and the deterioration of long-term gay relationships.

CP: What advice can you give to other FilAm writers on getting their plays on stage?
AL: Send your stuff out everywhere, whether or not they produce Filipino plays.  The more people who know about your plays, the more likely they are to get produced.
Get involved in your local theater, not as an usher, but as part of the production crew.  One of the most useful positions is that of script reader – you’ll not only be at every rehearsal but you’ll get a good feel how actors and directors handle scripts since you’re studying the script word by word.   From there, you can proceed to become a production assistant and learn how plays are produced.  Many playwrights suffer from a myopic view of playwriting since only other playwrights or writing teachers have seen their work.  Being a production assistant teaches you how directors, actors, fundraisers, board members, designer, and crew can approach a play.
Collect business cards, headshots, and resumes from other playwrights, directors, and actors.  Not only will you need those resourcse if you ever want to hold a playreading but networking is how many plays are produced.
Publicize every achievement, every change about your playwriting abilities, maybe in a blog.  This will keep your name fresh in people’s mind.  And the fresher your name, the more likely they are to contact you if they need a play.
Finally, stop talking about your play: write it.  All the discussion of plot, character, and motivation is irrelevant if you don’t have what’s in your head down on paper.

The production opens last Friday, September 19, 2008 and runs thru Saturday, October 18 for 14 performances at 202 N. Broadway, in Santa Ana. Show times are Friday and Saturday nights at 8:00 pm., with Sunday matinees @ 2:30 p.m. beginning September 28th. There is one
Thursday performance, October 16th at 8:00 p.m. Tickets are $20 general admission, $15 for seniors and an inexpensive $10 for students with an ID.

The Helltown Buffet cast includes RGTC member Alexander Price (last seen in CHAIR). Returning are Frank Aranda (last seen in THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS), Trina Estanislao (last seen in MAN OF LA MANCHA), Adam J. Ferry (last seen in THE SEVEN DEADLY SINS), and Rick Kopps
(last seen in NOCTURNE). Making their debut on the Rude Guerrilla stage are Ashley Jo Navarro, Brian Chayane Salero, David Tran and Maggie Zamora. Understudy is RGTC member
RJ Romero (last seen in CLOWNZILLA).

HELLTOWN BUFFET’s choreography is by Assistant Director Lee Samuel Tanng, Costumes are by Sarah Boros, Lighting Design is by Ryan Joyner, Sound and Projection Design by Aurelio Locsin and Stage Manager is Brenda Kenworthy.

http://www.rudeguerrilla.org
More information about the play is at rgasian.blogspot.com