Spring 2012 - Producer:
For details see:
Meet the Artists--
Jeannie Barroga, Playwright Member, Dramatists Guild
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Alleluia Panis, Collaborator Kularts
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Anthony J. Haney, Director
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Randall King, Artistic Director/Producer San Jose Stage Company
Winner - Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation and The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation Playwright
Collaboration Awards 2009 Initiative and
Awardee-Applied Materials Excellence in the Arts 2011 Technical Support Grant
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Bindlestiff Studio cultivates artists who reflect and celebrate the diverse values, traditions, and histories of Pilipino and Filipino American cultures, through bold artistic expression and community engagement.
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(L-R) Clarissa Chun - Elizabeth Carter * - Adriam Roberts* - Jed Parsario - Tim Hart - Alex Diaz DeFato
*courtesy of Actors Equity Association
Set in 1899,
BUFFALO'ED retells the story of the Buffalo soldiers (descendants of American slaves) who were stationed in the Philippines during the Philippine-American War. Class distinctions provoke a Filipina rebel while the letters from one soldier's wife pose hard questions. Buffalo'ed highlights all of their mutual fates.
Amielynn Abellera
Clinton Derricks-Carroll*
(L-R) Nila Le - Rajiv Shah* - David Arrow* - Daniel Redmond -Greg Manalo -
C. J. Blankenship*
BUFFALO'ED
CAST 2012
Mythic David Fagen...Coyote-like, connects this pro-imperialist era to current foreign occupations.
Projected period graphics,
mesmerizing movements, and
live music enhance a one-of-a-kind production.
didn’t learn much about the Philippine Insurrection in high school history class. The ginned up Spanish-American war of 1898 lasted a few months and ended with a peace treaty that included a twenty million dollar payment that eased the Spanish surrender, put a period to that country’s global empire, and added Puerto Rico, Guam and the Philippines to our back pocket as “protectorates.”
But the conflict continued in the Philippines when the indigenous people who had struggled against the Spanish yoke for centuries discovered that the United States of America, rather than liberating the islands, became occupiers instead. The U. S. shoved the Spanish boot off the necks of the Filipinos and replaced it with their own. Eventually seventy thousand American soldiers were deployed to the Philippines to put down the rebellion, thus turning the “freedom fighters,” who opposed Spanish imperialism, into “insurrectos” struggling against American imperialism. Moreover, mid-Twentieth century high school students never learned that
– African American Indian fighters – were sent to war in the Philippine jungles and that some twenty of them defected to the rebels.
goes to Jed Parsario as the young water boy Nading. With beatific eyes and angelic charisma, he charms the soldiers (and the audience) with his wit and honesty even as he, too, gathers intelligence for the rebels.
The theatrical choreography of Alleluia Panis throughout the show adds a
to many scenes and the use of elaborate martial arts routines disguised as folk dancing – the rebels honing their fighting skills before the very eyes of the occupiers – was a revelation.
Directory Anthony J. Haney keeps the action flowing and the emotion true in this
for commissioning and producing a fine world premiere.
Clinton Derricks-Carroll* as Fagen-Photo by Dave Lepori.
by Paul Myrvold on Tuesday, April 10, 2012 at 3:03pm
Playwright Jeannie Barroga’s Buffalo’ed, staged in collaboration with Alleluia Panis, is a dynamic olio of style and form that tells the story of the soldiers and the insurrection with
and boundless energy, Clinton Derricks-Carroll simply owns the audience from first to last as a kind of protean master of ceremonies who, as scripted by the savvy Barroga, does away with the Aristotelian unities of time, place and action. In the styles of a stereotypical minstrel, cadence-driven preacher and one man Greek chorus, he
entertaining as well as educating and even blows a pretty good sax. Along the way he subsumes himself into the character of the notorious defector David Fagen and together with Daniel Redmond as the intellectual Woody and Adrian Roberts as the conflicted corporal Linc completes a trio of soldiers who represent the much-abused Negro soldiers of the time. They endure the climate, bad food, separation from loved ones and the scorn of their arrogant white captain (David Arrow) who segregates them and humiliates them with punitive duties. Only their Irish American master sergeant, Connor (Tim Hart), treats them as men.
Amielynn Abellera gives a tour de force performance as Doña Luisa, an insurrectionist commander who, assuming the guise of a Manila aristocrat, uses festive soirees to gain useful intelligence by deploying a mixture of charm and alcohol against the Captain. In a
she blitzkriegs the Captain in no less than five tongues while peppering their encounter with coy innuendo. Whenever she is on she commands the stage with power and emotion. Together with the appealing Rajiv Shah as the rebel general Porfirio, she
of doomed, melting passion.
Alexandria Diaz de Fato; Nila Le; Gregory Manalo; Clarissa Chun; and Carmichael "CJ" Blankenship-Photo by Dave Lepori.
Rajiv Shah and Amielynn Abellera- Photo by Dave Lepori
R E V I E W
We certainly
drama, music, dance and minstrelsy. With magnificent showmanship
shines a modern light on century-old events
thousands of Buffalo Soldiers
An enthusiastic bravo
entertaining, powerful production.
Kudos to San Jose Stage Company
"...engrossing...
captivating...
fast paced. . . awesome...
excellent....enjoyable.. . .
a beautiful and epic piece...important
. . .a passionately moving experience
. . .a great theatrical evening"
dizzying display of linguistic virtuosity,
sparks a satisfying and
touching moment
LAST SHOW APRIL 29, 2012
counterpoint of emotion
Message to Collaborators:
holla@jeanniebarroga.com
