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Conrad A. Panganiban

Conrad A. Panganiban

playwright | conradap@gmail.com

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american and filipino

Being a Fil-Am Playwright

Posted on 07/05/2019 by Conrad

Over my time as a playwright, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be an American playwright of Filipino Descent. Why should I even box myself into a title of being a “Filipino American” Playwright? Can’t I just say, I am a playwright? And I guess before I started posting all of my plays on here, I did and wanted to be considered just a playwright. I take the stories in my head, set them in my mind’s stage, and then write them out. Boom. Done. No nationalities except in the only language I’m fluent in–English. As long as the plays have humor and heart, that’s all I should be concerned with. Plays that are universal. That’s what I need to be writing. If they have fil-am themes, so be it. But I won’t be trapped in that box. And I’d be committing career suicide if I publicly marketed myself as a “Fil-Am Playwright”. Or so was my thought process.

As I started the process of adding the stories of what I have written over the course of 20 years, whether intentional or not, most of my plays have Filipino/Filipino-American themes and characters. The most obvious explanation is that I am Filipino American and these are my experiences. It’s what I know. What I grew up with. As I’ve gotten older and fallen more in love with theatre, I’ve seen the need to write these stories in order to not only see these themes live on stage, but to also have other Filipinx Americans be seen on stage. And this is where I’ve separated my thinking of just wanting to be seen as a playwright. Looks like the time I’ve been surrounded by people of political action has caught up. And it’s not being trapped in a box, it’s more about writing the shit out of what’s in this space and being confident that my work could build the bridges between different communities than only writing for my own community.

I wrote a play a while ago that started as The Barbary Caper. I originally wrote the play for a Latinx character, which is totally awesome to have another POC represented on stage and the possibility of getting the play produced might be increased. But after writing it, something told me nagged at me that something isn’t right. I say nagged because that gnawing feeling into my creative soul wouldn’t go away until I made that character Filpino. And with that change, the title changed to Holed Up at The Delta and I felt the entire play change. It felt right. (Sidebar: now that I think about it, it would be cool to see other POCs play the role to 1) show that other POCs DID exist in the 1920s America and 2) show that POC males can be hella dope leading protagonist characters which have always been dominated by white males. Hmmm…)

I am proud of the fact that I have a Masters of Fine Arts degree in Playwriting, but I’m even more proud that I know that I’m not a master at it yet. I’m still constantly learning this craft, what I like, what I want to see, and ultimately, what I want to leave behind. I’m on my way and I’m truly excited about this journey. I’m happy to live for something.

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Headshot of Conrad A. Panganiban

Conrad A. Panganiban (he/him/his) is an award-winning Filipino American playwright representing the San Francisco Bay Area. His plays include Daryo’s All-American Diner, Welga, and River’s Message. Conrad’s work has been produced by Bindlestiff Studio, The Chikahan Company, CIRCA Pintig (IL), the MaArte Theatre Collective, and CATS (Contemporary Asian Theatre Scene) . Awards include: Best Play of 2023, Daryo’s All-American Diner (BroadwayWorldAwards Chicago), Best New Play, Daryo’s All-American Diner (Chicago Reader, Best of 2023), Susan Fairbrook Playwright Fund Awardee (TheatreWorks Silicon Valley), 2023 New Voices in Comedy Writing Fellowship (Killing My Lobster), James Milton Highsmith Award Winner (SFSU), National Ten-Minute Play Festival Finalist (Actors Theatre of Louisville), and Bay Area Playwrights Festival Semi-Finalist (Playwrights Foundation). Resident Artist: Bindlestiff Studio. Member: Dramatist Guild of America, and Theatre Bay Area. MFA, San Francisco State University. @consplayspace

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