This year’s production, on May 8th and 10th, 2014, honors the legacy of the forgotten Filipino veteranos of World War II, focusing on the lives of three Filipino Americans in Los Angeles during the 1940s who are directly affected by the racism and discrimination at home and abroad. Two of the characters head off to war, but only one returns home, and the remaining family members must deal with the repercussions. The story was written by the English 103/203 AK class under the supervision of head writer Natassja Mullen. The students were able to successfully sell
tickets for two shows, a Preview Night and Gala Night, attended not only by friends and family members, but also past PCN alumni who wanted to support the next generation of PCN students. On Gala Night, after the show, the Kababayan Learning Community also celebrated 19 scholarship recipients and 21 graduates and transfer students, awarding stoles and program patches not only to the students, but to the departing Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant for 2013-2014, Lady Flor “Parts” Partosa.
Guerra marks the 9th and final show for Kababayan Learning Community coordinator Liza Erpelo, who created and developed the course in 2004. Janice Sapigao will begin teaching English 103/203: Applied English Skills in Cultural Production in Fall 2014.
A limited number of the Guerra hooded sweatshirts ($25) are still available, and the DVDs of the Gala Night show ($15) will be on sale in a few weeks. Please contact Liza Erpelo at erpelol@smccd.edu or x 4119 if you are interested in purchasing either of these items. All proceeds from the show go toward future productions and activities for the Kababayan Learning Community and its very active and dynamic student-initiated and student-run programs: Filipino Student Union and Kapatiran Mentorship Program.
This show would not be possible without the help and support of several important people:
Kababayan Learning Community advisors, Melanie Espinueva, Nate Nevado, Janice Sapigao, and Grace Burns. Theater Events Manager Alan Ceccarelli and the members of his Drama 310: Technical Production/Stagecraft class; Katie Beverly in Graphic Arts/Production; and our deans and their assistants: Mary Gutierrez and Kennya Ruiz, Donna Bestock and Kathy Fitzpatrick, and Joe Morello and Sandra Hatzistratis.
Article by Liza Erpelo | Photos by Ralsy Sabater
