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Conrad A. Panganiban

Conrad A. Panganiban

playwright | conradap@gmail.com

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WELGA, the production that brought me Full Circle

Posted on 12/17/2019 by Conrad

So, this is a thing. A thing I wrote in 2014 for my MFA Thesis as a reflection of everything I learned in my 3 years at SFSU. A play that grew out of an idea to share what I had learned about the Filipino Labor Leader, Larry Dulay Itliong. My first thought of how to write this play was a back-and-forth interview that travels through time based on the events that led to the 1965 Grape Strike that took place in Delano, CA. While this version bounced around through my cranial noodle, I started to dread having to make sure that this play was 100% factual! Ulk, and then out of resect, I wanted to get permission from the Itliong family in order to tell his story… and then got hella worried that if I did write this story, I could just imagine all of the backlash I would have gotten by others who had either worked with Manong Larry or have taught his history. I started to talk myself out of even telling this story because of the enormity of trying to write a biographical history play! “Fuck me! This is so stressful!!!”

And then I remembered what one of my playwriting teachers from a playwriting class I took at Berkeley Rep’s School of Theatre, Gary Graves. “You’re writing a play, not a History Book.” Armed with this advice and the hours of individual discussions with my MFA Advisor, Roy Conboy, I started from scratch to tell the story I wanted to tell!

I’ve already invested all the time researching Filipinx American Labor Rights History from Philip Vera Cruz’s “right-hand man”, Sid Valledor where he shared a lot of cool stories with Manong Larry and his work with AWOK that lead to them beginning the 1965 Grape Strike BEFORE having Cesar Chavez’s NFWA join them. With the belief that the best way to create a brighter future is to LEARN about the past and create action instead of just learning about it. I needed to make our Manong’s history RELEVANT!

Reflecting more on the origin story of how WELGA came to be, it’s about all of my loves:

  • 80s & 90s movies set in high schools: LEAN ON ME, SUMMER SCHOOL, THE BREAKFAST CLUB, STAND AND DELIVER and SISTER ACT 2
  • Filipinx American History
  • Quick non-sequitored humor
  • Mother and son relationships
  • Dream of becoming a music teacher
  • Need to see Filipinx American experiences portrayed in a stage
  • Life in the SoMA
  • Music
  • A forward moving narrative… though I see where some edits can still happen
  • Connecting plotlines
  • Having a narrator
  • A prologue and epilogue to bookend a story. A storytelling method I’ve always wanted to try! Especially where the epilogue says what happens to the characters!
  • Not a love story
  • A story about community activism
  • An ending where the main protagonist DOESN’T get what they want at the end of the story
  • Flawed characters
  • Monologues with complex beats to help the actors flex their work
  • Show that a movie plotline can be theatrical
  • Create a nuanced ethnic story where people of that culture will recognize (and hopefully have joy in seeing a piece of their culture represented on stage) but won’t isolate people of other ethnicities and backgrounds. Aka, insider jokes!
  • The use of a story-within-a-story plot device (Hamlet and Midsummer Night’s Dream)
  • Something to involve the youth whether through music and/or jargon
  • Dialogue that naturally glows into the other.

I think I’ll stop there. But one of the things I wanted to accomplish in school was thinking find MY voice. What are the things that will separate your work from someone else’s? When someone comes to see Conrad A. Panganiban play, how will they know it’s his. I’ve been searching for this goal for so long and if you have to search for it, you won’t find it. It just has to happen… And I think it finally did. A major step to find my voice is to learn as much about the craft as possible and read and watch as many plays possible to find the things I LOVE about a play. Luckily, I think I’ve found most of those interests above.

The exciting part about being an artist is that this list keeps growing. In future plays I want to:

  • be inspired by other structures and implement them
  • definitely use more music
  • write a good villain/anti-hero
  • etc…

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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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