Theater, Representation, and Community with Multi-Hyphenate Artist Michelle Aguillon

Written By Trish Fontanilla

Show Description (also the podcast Intro):

Today’s guest is Michelle Aguillon. Michelle is a theater artist, producer, director, actor, writer, and sometimes scenic designer. In this episode, we talk about Michelle’s career path in theater, the challenges of representation in theater, particularly for Asian Americans, and her efforts to diversify casting and provide opportunities for people of color. We also chat about her upcoming projects in Greater Boston. I’m so excited for you all to get to know her. Enjoy! 

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Episode Transcript

Trish Fontanilla: All right, welcome to the podcast, Michelle, thank you so much for taking time and chat with us today.

Michelle Aguillon: Thank you for having me.

Trish: So I was trying to figure out when we first met or interacted, and I had to go into the email archives, because the brainsicles post pandemic isn't always great, and when I searched your name, I came across an email from Christina Chan. So if folks don't know her, she's a co founding member of the Asian American Playwright Collective. But Christina had reached out to bus Filipinos to nominate both you and Hortense (Gerardo) to be profiled for the website, and it was because you were directing a stage reading at the Boston Center for the Arts on February 27 2020. And I went to see it, and it was the very last show I saw before the quarantine started.

And then I was trying to think, when was the next time I went back into a theater, not a movie theater, not a conference. The next time I saw a show was 2023, almost three years exactly, when I saw Middleton Heights, which you also directed. Like wow, Michelle's my full so circle theater moment of the past few years.

So I remember being really excited when I saw the stage play, because there are themes that really resonated with me, and I was really excited to go to more theater, and that didn't happen. And then the thing that got me back to the theater was the show that was an all-Filipino cast about Filipino, Filipino American life.

So all this to say, it was really lovely to reflect while I was prepping for this episode, but we ended up highlighting you for Instagram, and in that you told us you were born in Northern California because your dad was in the Air Force. You moved around a lot. So would love to talk about what it was like growing up and having this nomadic childhood.

Michelle: Sure. I was born at Travis Air Force Base, Northern California, outside of San Francisco. My dad is Filipino. He's from Pampanga, but he moved here when he was 18, with nine brothers and sisters. My grandfather was in the Navy, and of course, I gave his family an opportunity to come here, but when my dad graduated high school, supposedly, my grandfather said, “Yeah, can't afford college. Go join one of the four branches.” And so legend has it that he joined the Air Force because he wanted to go back to the Philippines and be stationed at Clark Air Force Base, which is what did happen. He met my mom, and the rest is history.

But I bring up my dad because he introduced me to theater in a very indirect way, because he bought the Jesus Christ Superstar album. And then I also have to credit the Air Force Base, because we had an American channel when I was a kid there, and they used to always play musicals. And in school, they would show us reels of Disney movies and musicals.

Trish: Yes, and then, how did you end up getting into it?

Michelle: Well, I was one of those people in high school that didn't excel in anything, and if I did, I kept it a secret, like tennis, I was really great at tennis, and really great swimming, but not competitive, because I would totally collapse under pressure. And then I discovered theater there, and it was a nice, fun thing that my mom was like, “Oh, she's getting out of her shell. Maybe she'll go into something serious now that she's out of her shell.” But I did not.

I went into San Francisco State as a film and television major, and I walked across the way to the theater department, and, yeah, all was lost. I went in and never came out. It was not approved. Let me put that way, right?

And then I also got married really young. I had a child really young as well, when I decided to go back to school, and I still stuck to the same major because I just couldn't get away from it. And quite honestly, in that major, I was quite lost in exactly feeling confident about it and not knowing exactly what I wanted to do in it. I know exactly now why I do it, but it's been a long journey, but a very, very fruitful one. I learned a lot along the way, and I've met so many different people who've supported me, and my mom did ultimately support me, and when she passed away right before the pandemic, I mean, we were at a good place with it, but it took a while.

Trish: Personally, I didn't even think these were types of careers growing up, because I just didn't see any representation. You know…

Michelle: Same.

Trish: Theater-wise, I was very lucky in high school, the Filipino American group in my hometown got tickets to Miss Saigon, and we saw Lea Salonga. That was the first time, maybe 15 or 16 years old, and gone my whole life thinking we are not for stage and screen, and seeing her, and she wasn't even playing a Filipino person. So it's like, are our stories even worth telling?

And then it wasn't until I went to Emerson, and, you know 21, that I met Reggie Cabico, who's a slam poet, and I remember asking him during class, I think I was the only Asian person, like he was nationally ranked. This was his full-time job, not a side hustle. And I raised my hand and I said, What did your parents say when you told them you wanted to be a slam poet, and everyone laughed, and he looked at me like, Oh, honey. It is hard to pursue something if you don't have that familiar backing, or you don't have the path already laid out for you.

Michelle: Sure, we all have similarities, right? Filipino artists, Asian artists, in general, we have that in common, but we each have our own experience. And I don't pretend to represent all experiences, but you're making me think about it. Yes, there was Lea Salonga. I was in my late teens when I was visiting the Philippines, and my cousins were like, “Have you heard of this show?” And well, because they knew I was in the theater already, and they're like, here, just listen on your walk... I had a Walkman, and they gave me a wave and and I listened on that plane ride back to the States, and I was just blown away listening to her notes soar, and it made me cry. To this day, I can listen to Lea Salonga and just shed tears, because it's just so amazing.

Anyway, but before that, growing up in the Philippines that it's such a big influence on me, even though I lived there for a short time, Filipino movies, magazines, actors, actors besides Bruce Lee and the Jackson Five. But I had heavy influences watching Tagalog movies, because cinema there is a big deal, and I grew up watching a lot of those movies.

So there was representation all the time, until I moved here when I was seven or eight, and my cousins, half Filipino, they're like, “Oh, you've got to watch this show. You'll love it.” And it was the Brady Bunch, and everyone was blonde and everyone was white, and it was like, that's right, we're in America where that's just how it is. You know, there was some kind of preparatory period before we transitioned back to the States of, you know, American life and how different it is here. And certainly, that culture shock was there. So not seeing representation on television, I didn't realize it until many years later, when I was already in college, taking media courses at San Francisco State, I mean, they were pointing it out then that it was a white world, and we're trying to live in it.

Trish: Going back to the we are not a monolith piece. AAPI is such an interesting thing, right? Because it is such a huge group of people.

But then, even just within the Filipino experience, whenever I ask people, they want to talk to someone within BOSFilipinos, like, well, I'm Filipino American. My parents are immigrants. So that's one experience. I have friends that are biracial, and they don't look, quote, unquote, traditionally, Filipino. That's another experience. There are people that grew up in the Philippines and didn’t come here until their 20s, another experience, because when I talk about racism, they have probably experienced microaggressions or things that are not outrightly racist. But I'm like, Oh, when I was a kid, I was always, you know, some Chinese slur, which I'm like, if you're going to be racist, right, it'd be kind of funny, because people would say something, and I'd be like, is it…

Michelle: Are you talking about me? Because I'm not, right, same, same.

Trish: But it's interesting for you to talk about that. So you grew up all this Filipino media, and then you come here, and theater here is notoriously homogenous. Yeah, there's a show here and there, like you said, Miss Saigon, Flower Drum Song. You know, some of these, like pops here and there, and until the, you know, past decade or so, yeah, it's been like that. But I know that you've done all Asian casts before for shows that wouldn't necessarily cast that way. So how did you enter into this world, feel comfortable, but then also get into shows and think, let me put my spin on it, with my particular voice.

Michelle: Sure, and the San Francisco Bay Area diversity there is normalized.

But when I moved here, yes, I found that it was a lot more traditional casting, even though this is a very quote, unquote progressive, liberal region of the country, I have experienced more racism here than anywhere I've ever been, but I haven't been all over the United States either. I've driven across the United States several times, and I've come across, you know, just microaggressions, assumptions, things like that, but outward racism? Yeah, I've seen that here and more recently, because people are just emboldened. But I find that it's folks that think they're not racist are probably more dangerous than the ones that are outwardly. I'd rather deal with someone who's an upfront racist so I at least know where they stand, someone who doesn't realize where they stand. I think that's more dangerous. Yeah. Anyway, what's your original question, again?

Trish: See, this is, this is where my assumptions come in too, right? Because I grew up in New Jersey, and I've spent over half my life here in Boston, and I've been in a lot of predominantly, you know, white areas. So I've even projected myself onto you when you grew up in the Philippines, which is, everybody looks like us, and then San Francisco, which is like not everyone looks like us, but there is more variety.

But when you get to the theater itself, things that were written, or if you looked in the character descriptions, yes, you know, things won't necessarily like Asian or Filipino, or if they are, it is, I'm thinking of Thoroughly Modern Millie. I love Sutton Foster in it, and I listen to her songs, but I cannot listen to the whole soundtrack, right? Yeah, so that if people don't know the shows, there's characters that speak with broken English, yes, accents, yeah. And so looking at a lot of theater, it is generally more homogenous. But people like you and other producers, directors, etc., choose to make the casting a little bit different. In the imagination and in writing, it is like, yeah, we're imagining this. As you know, even to me, when I was reading a lot of theater, it was either African American or it was white.

Michelle: Well, a lot of roles I got cast in when I was much younger was traditionally played by white women, Chekhov and Shakespeare, and some of the more traditional American playwrights from the mid-20th century. I loved doing those classics, Thornton, Wilder and, you know, beautifully written stuff. But no, there was, there was no representation. And also, when you're in school, you know, those writers are central to most theater programs. The one I was in, you know, though it was more diverse, you know, Fugard, like I'd never seen Fugard before, and lesser-known playwrights, that's really tricky work. You know what I'm saying?

And then I get here, and I start auditioning for things, and told a couple of times that I don't match the family, and it was the first time I heard stuff like that. And of course, I accepted it, because I come from a generation of folks that are like, Okay, well, that's the way it is. I'll just move on.

And then there are other groups that took a shot.

And then when I eventually started directing, I was directing a lot of, well, I love dark, humorous, you know, like Pillow Man. I just love that kind of stuff.

Then along the way, I was always trying to cast diversely whenever I could, and more so in the last 10 years. Because I left Boston for a while. I won't go into that, but I came back and decided, because I had quit theater for a few years, and it was my second time doing that, and I found every time I quit, it was refreshing to go live real life for a while, and then come back into the dark theater and start telling stories again.

But you know, someone told me a long time ago, when I was in college, she said to me, you need to go out in life and learn about it and live it in order to be able to bring it back in. And I always valued that little comment that made no sense to me when I was 20-something, but in the last 10 years, I've been trying to make better efforts, and since the pandemic, so much more, and seeking out writers of color and discovering the AAPC, Christina and Hortense, and that gang of folks. And so that's where my world has been.

And then also, I dove back into education. I run an art school in Reading, and we just closed Moana last weekend. And we tried to get as many children of color as possible, and I was insistent that the leads be kids of color, no matter what their level was in acting or singing, because I believe that the more experience we get, the better we are, right? And you could tell the kids that have been doing it for a long, long time, and I'm talking about white kids, right, lovely kids. I love all our kids, but you could see where they've had the opportunity and the experience, whereas the kids of color haven't.

And I've researched all the programs around here, what they're doing, how they're casting, because they post production photos all the time. And I saw a production photo of Aladdin that was done, I think last year around here somewhere, and all the leads were white, and all the children of color were in the back in the chorus. And I was like, I’m not having that.

But we did Moana Jr, and I also made sure that our production staff was mostly people of color as well. The director is Dominican. She's an islander like, she can identify with the culture and and so we made sure that the culture was intact and respected and respected and understood. I mean, there are kids who just want to be creative. They're like, Oh, can we just put any tattoos on? And we're like, No, you can't. And explaining why. And coming from a Pacific Islander’s perspective, I think it hit home a lot deeper.

Trish: It isn't Broadway yet, right?

There's this opportunity. It's the same thing I think about with interns, where people complain like, this is their first job. It's one thing if they just completely dismiss all the things that you're saying, but if they don't know how to, you know, use BCC on an email. You teach them how to do that.

And I've done a little bit of theater. I don't have the stomach for all the rejection as an artist, my voice has changed a lot over the years. I found out at one point that I was speaking incorrectly. That's another story for another day, but I went to a speech therapist in my 20s, and my voice changed.

So there's things like that where kids are learning how to use their voice. It's an instrument they haven't learned to play yet. They haven't had the experience. Some of them haven't had this space of play and pretend, and so it's not even that these kids are not talented. They just don't even know how to do the things yet. So you're giving them an opportunity again.

It's not Broadway yet. It’s one thing for it to be Broadway. And someone's like, okay, that lead does not know how to sing. But by giving these kids experiences so they can be, yeah, this is for me. Help me practice and get better. Or oh no, no, no, no, please don't put me on a stage ever again.

Michelle: Yeah, well, you know, I worked in the corporate world for many, many years, and I found that my theater background got me through so much. Oh yeah, no, we are versatile people. We're resourceful, we're flexible. We can pivot even the most anxious of people that need things exactly the same way all the time. These theater people with that they still know how to pivot.

And I always make a curtain speech to these parents, and I always thank them for supporting the arts and supporting their kids in this weird endeavor. Because I tell the kids, what we do is really hard. Think about that. It's really hard. And I always say, even if your children never do this again, they have this one experience they will carry with them for the rest of their lives. I promise you, it gives them a level of confidence they didn't know they had, whether it's conscious or subconscious, it's there.

I truly believe that, and I see it as fertile ground what we do for them there, and I give them a 360 experience, the staff and I, and make sure that they're sewing their own costumes. They're making their own costumes, and we teach them scenic design and painting. A nd we don't build anything from the ground up. I have professionals do that, and then the kids take over at a certain point.

This year, we got a whole lighting system and a board donated to it by a very good friend who's a lighting designer in community theater. And so I had these three 10-year-old boys, two of them had never done it before. One had some experience, and I said, Okay, guys, I'm not a lighting person, but this is how it works. And go figure it out. And then we'll talk about looks and feeling and emotions and scenes based on lighting. And so they had a grand old time, the three of them, even if they never do it again, it's an experience that's very, very unique, and I think it gives them skills just in socializing, right? Because kids are coming out of the pandemic, their social skills are very different.

Trish: You're just making me think of my past theater memories in school, and how it is just as important as sports when it comes to the socialization, the teamwork, the collaboration scenes, get better when you are more familiar with your lines and with the people that you're working with. Yeah, there are just so many really great opportunities for that.

So I'm a freelancer. I do a bunch of different things now, but years ago, I was working in tech. At that time, I had a bunch of us and talked to this group of young artists at Citi Arts, and said the arts are really important, but you are learning so much that is a transferable skill.

So one of the things I work on is customer experience. And so basically it is, what does the customer do when they find you, all the way to, like your year anniversary? And I told them, having done writing in Emerson and becoming a storyteller, your customer is the same as your protagonist, and all the different characters they meet. That's the website that you have. That's the physical product that you have. Like, there are all these different ways to translate how you're thinking and the creativity, and I think, in a different way than someone that trained, you know, by the book to do. It. And when I come in, they're like, Oh, we didn't think of that. I'm like, Oh, I'm just, you know, dreaming about what the customer might do, versus robotically thinking, yeah, go here, go here, go here. You develop all these different things that I learned. When I think back, I'm like, Oh, this is theater stuff that I'm applying to this other job.

But, you know, pandemic, obviously, was hugely devastating to a lot of theater, but now we're in a time too, where there are funding cuts, and so for you as an artist and as an educator, how are you thinking about the state of theater right now?

Michelle: It's scary and devastating. It hasn't hit me directly yet, but I know it's coming. It's hit me indirectly. Our school does not depend on federal funding. However, what's happening in the government is affecting the economy and jobs, and will my parents and families be able to afford this quote, unquote, extra activity that they pay for their kids to do?

Because I not only run theater programs. We do music programs too. We have over 100 music students, and then we also have art classes in our studio for children and adults. So I just wonder, because art is one of those things that is at the bottom of priorities when it comes to funding and paying for extra activities for kids like sports doesn't die. That's just fine. But arts always suffers.

Because growing up, part of our day was we go off to the music room and we would play flutes or accordions or whatever. We had a full music program, but we also had a full choir program, and a full folk dance program, which was kind of strange, but when I think about it, but it was so normal for us. We were exposed to all kinds of arts as well as sports. Kids don't have that now. It's considered an extra thing that you have to pay for. Now it's not part of the public school system anymore.

I know it’s coming for us at some point, but I look around me and arts, in all its forms, are being attacked on every level. Some of our friends are being directly affected. Some of the companies that we support, yeah, that have been around for years, they're being attacked. And also subject matter is being attacked, certainly not as heavily around here. I think it's much more microaggressive around here. I think all of us that are theater artists of color can safely say that a lot of things are going back to the way they were, because people have to go back and make money and it always comes down to money, doesn't it, but there are other parts of the country, certainly where it's just being taken away, and that's scary and heartbreaking.

But what we have learned throughout the ages is arts will always survive. It'll survive somewhere. It could be a hovel in some alley. It will survive because human beings need to express themselves in some way, through graffiti or an improv group. It will survive, but it's really sad and scary to see how it's just being dismantled. I think that's part of the doom scrolling I do every morning that I cannot get away from because I'm watching and seeing, because I want to bear witness to this horrible thing that's happening, but also bear witness to the hope and the inspiration that that is out there. I think we're all trying to stay inspired, to stay positive. It's hard, though.

Trish: Yeah. I mean, on the one hand, it is really interesting. I think this past Tony season has been a triumph for Filipinos, between Nicole Scherzinger and Darren Criss, and then I forgot his name [fact check: Marco Paguia], who's a musical director for Buena Vista Social Club, is Filipino, you know, all these folks, and Lea Salonga was really amazing. She posted about Filipinos and plays and, you know, Eva Noblezada is in Cabaret. So we're everywhere, which has been really amazing, but we're like, in this wave motion of, right before the pandemic, there was Crazy Rich Asians. It was really amazing. And then the pandemic happened, and then all Asians were, you know, maybe you have a disease or something, right? And now we're going back in. Is there something that, if anybody's listening, and they're not in the arts, but they really want to support the arts, what would you tell them to do?

Michelle: Wow, I'm thinking about so much right now.

Trish: Say it all.

Michelle: Oh, God. Where do I start?

Trish: I mean, there's the surface things, right? So there are butts in seats. Get to a show.

Michelle: That’s the easy answer, right? But it's that's not easy. Yeah, it's inconvenient, right?

Trish: There's that, you know, buy subscriptions to theater companies. You know, reach out to theater companies and tell them you're looking for more diverse shows.

Michelle: Yeah, it's funny because I, I'm looking at it from the inside and because it always starts for me with decision making. Who's making the decisions about what people are doing and seeing, and I understand the whole economics of it, like if we do the show, who's going to come see it well, then you have to go into community organization and engagement. You need a whole entire staff for that. It's separate from marketing, right? Because marketing is marketing.

Trish: Especially if you're appealing to an audience that you have not historically appealed to, yes,

Michelle: Yes, and then you have to have representation from those communities, in those, you know, in those subcommittees or suborganizations at different companies. And that's hard, right? Because there's not a lot of money in paying people in the theater, let's be honest, right? I think some companies are doing better at that, but like I said, it starts from the inside, who's making the decisions, because it kind of goes from there.

Also, allyship has to be fully intentional, full follow-through, and we have a lot of great friends that are great allies. But as a community, you know, that community of audience out there, I don't feel it in all the different spaces at all the different levels I've worked at, it seems like there's still that general, mainstream audiences that companies are catering to because they have the money or they have the commitment to go. That's not to say that they don't want to see non-mainstream stories, right? But that's why I love Asian joy nights or blackout nights, because it tells, you know, those audiences that this story's for you.

Trish: I remember, I went to Middleton Heights with a friend of mine who's not Filipino, yeah, and I did have the rep sweats

Michelle: Everyone does. It’s common.

Trish: This, this feeling, you know, was coined. I always forget, I think there's like, Angry Asian Man and Jenny Yang, like a few of those folks. We get so few pieces of art, of theater shows, that when something like Fresh Off the Boat isn't fully representative or Crazy Rich Asians, which is hilarious, because not all of us are millionaires and billionaires, but you know, it was our one big shot after Joy Luck Club. And so if we don't get this one romantic comedy, right, we will not get any funding for any TV, film, or show.

Michelle: It's ridiculous. It's a ridiculous standard that I am guilty of two, right? I was just talking to someone on the last project about how there's this pursuit for perfection, as if it's our one shot. And that's why, in different spaces that I work in, whether it's in education with little kids or community theater or professional or semi-professional theater with adults is that, you know what? It's not going to be perfect. We're going to have different levels of experience and acting. We need to give ourselves some grace and time, because we haven't had those opportunities like others have had, right? So we need to do it more and more in all these different spaces at different levels in order to normalize it.

So for me, it's normal to work in different spaces and work with different levels of experience. Have I worked on shows in, you know, when I was younger, where it had to be perfect, it had to be right? Yeah, I have a lot of experience directing a lot of shows written for white people, acted by white people. I've had a lot of experience in that, and it was a joy, and I'm taking that experience and sharing that with peers, or mentoring other young directors, or directing actors who are fairly new to it, in order to normalize it. At some point it's, it's gotta be normalized, that it's we don't even that. We don't even have to say that anymore. So this, so this strive for perfection. It's something, it's a realization I just had in the past year, which is, it doesn't have to be perfect all the time.

Trish: Yes, yeah. I mean, I think it was the comedian Michelle Wolf, when Wonder Woman came out, and everyone was like, Oh my gosh, it's so great. And she was like, I will know that we are successful when 10 bad movies led by superhero women come out, because so many other people have been allowed to fail and fail publicly, and they continue to get money. A lot of us have done projects, and it's like, hey, if this doesn't go well, none of the people behind you will get funding either,

Michelle: And that's tough. I used to have this worry. I don't have it anymore, trust me, but will this translate to the mainstream? And I was like, no, wait a minute. Listen. I crossed an ocean to learn about Jane Austen and Shakespeare. They can cross the Pacific Ocean to come here and see what we sound like and what our stories are like, although we're right here same backyard, right?

Growing up in a very Filipino American community, so many communities out in California like that, but also mixed in with Korean and Guamanian and Japanese and Vietnamese, and Cambodian. Then I come here, and there's hardly that kind of representation in the early ‘90s. And then I learn about the history here, about segregation between whites and Blacks and bussing and, oh my God, and Chinese segregation bussing, and there's just still so much work and awareness that needs to be told. I feel like I have done a lot. And even though I said 2020, it seems like a long time ago, I think of it in terms of shows like my timeline, yeah, shows. That's why it seems like a long time ago, but it really isn't, and I feel like I've helped tell a lot of stories, and I never want to go back to Zoom theater again, knock on wood. But I kept busy. I didn't stop. I didn't care that Zoom was limiting and hateful. We figure out a way to tell it and have some people see it. There were some that just didn't want to bother, but I feel like I'm still scratching the surface, you know, and that's okay.

I was saying a couple of months ago, we need to give ourselves some grace that we are doing the best that we can with whatever resources we have at the moment. Yeah, but we have to keep going.

For example, the AAPC this year. It's our eighth year, because when I first started with them, I was like, you know, we got to stop doing these stage readings. Let's do readings. Let's do some full-on productions, form sort of our own stable of Asian folks. And I feel like we've achieved that in numbers. And I feel like we're we still have a lot to do, but this year, funding was not as robust as it used to be. So we're doing stage readings. And I'm like, That's okay. Let's… that way we continue it. We still get to work together, because we have formed quite a stable of friends and peers, and we all enjoy supporting each other and working together on these stories. And so we'll be doing that this year. We're not going to do full production, but tell you the truth, most of us are really busy on so many projects. Doing a stage reading is easier,

Trish: Yeah, and I will say I'm not speaking for all the people, but I think you've done a really amazing job of working on shows that are really meaningful, and as an audience member, have felt seen and loved. And I've trauma bonded with people, and I've trauma bonded with friends that have come to your shows that you've been involved in that are immigrants or people of color that are like, I now understand you a little bit better. And also, I see myself in some of these characters, in a way that is really, really lovely. And so I think it is music and art. Is this language that a lot of people can speak that…but we just don't.

Michelle: Yeah, I totally agree. Thanks for sharing that. That means a lot. You know, if I died tomorrow, I feel like my goal has been achieved, you know, or if I win the lottery, and, you know, I feel like, no, no. I used to say, Hey, I might get hit by a bus tomorrow. I used to say that for years, and a Filipino peer of mine at a corporate job said, can you stop saying that?, I was like, why, she was like, because that's just really dark. Can you say, if you win the lottery tomorrow? Oh, I was like, Oh, that's so positive. I didn't realize I was so dark.

Trish: There is a dark piece. Again. I'm just generalizing. There is this, if we don't laugh, as people that have been colonized and have faced all these things, if we do not laugh, we will cry, and it will be very very sad,

Michelle: Yeah, yeah. And trust me, I've cried a lot, almost every day. That's something because, you know, theater artists are empathetic people. We are, we feel things. I've rarely met a theater person who doesn't feel anything, but I'm sure they exist somewhere.

Yeah, you know, going back to something you said earlier, being flexible in the workplace, it's it, you know that line you drew between the customer experience, and it's because we learned empathy, because we have to tap into that, you know, not just as an actor, but as a director, as producer, because ultimately, you're all telling a story and how you get there, you have to share human experiences. You have to draw from them. You have to research them if you didn't have them. You have to talk to each other to understand the reaction, action between the characters that you're portraying or that you're directing, or that you're writing. All that tied together is the human experience and empathy. That's why, when we go out in the world outside of theater, we can cope. I think most of them cope.

Trish: Clarifier.

Michelle: I've been in therapy again for the last, I don't know, a year and a half, and I didn't realize how much I was out there, just pivoting, making it work, compromising, being resourceful, not just in my theater work, but in my own personal growth and self-care. I'm used to putting everything else first, although it seems selfish, because theater seems to be tied into vanity and ego, yes, yes, yes. Of course, anything that we do, yeah, anything we do that we pour ourselves into, personally, that we love with passion, doesn't have to be theater. There is ego involved, and that's okay. I mean, that's tied in with pride and trying to do better. So that's the that's the good side of that, but there's also the bad side, as we all know. But what am I trying to say? I don't know. There's so much my brain. I love this conversation that I’m all over the place, so I'm sorry.

Trish: I love it. But speaking of ego, well, I had to close out on giving a shout out to someone that's Filipino in the greater Boston area. And it could be a few people or a cast or something. Who should people check out and look to these days?

Michelle: Shout out for me, top of mind, is Iskwelahang Pilipino. They moved their headquarters to Watertown, because education's big on my mind. I was teaching there in 2005, and guess what? I was directing Miss Saigon.

So yeah, I was teaching there two Sundays a month, from toddlers to high school kids. I don't know how I did that, but again, opportunity pivoting, I say yes to most things, particularly if they're new and challenging. And of course, it involved Filipinos. And I was like, I didn't have any community here. I started teaching them, and it was theater all day long, from like 8:45 to about 4:30 in the afternoon, two Sundays. Pretty exhausting. I don't know that I could do that today.

I did direct a show for them last summer.

They are a community of parents. Some of them now are parents, but I taught some of them when they were high schoolers. I can't believe it, but they started in 1976, and they are an amazing community. Who really care about Filipino culture and preserving it for their kids and… as well as being Americans, the mix of points of view there, as in any human group you put together, but they work out those challenges and differences, because their goal is to make sure the kids are learning about their culture through dance. Are going to see other things. And of course, food is tied into it, because there's a group of parents that cooks their merienda, and they all eat together and have a meal. It's really lovely.

Trish: I don't think I need that piece of it that's amazing.

Michelle: Yeah, and a lot of time it, it's potluck too, depending on how busy…

Trish: Still, because we don’t have a lot of Filipino restaurants, so being out together, one to eat Filipino food, but also that, that communal piece, which I think is so important, yeah, really great too.

Michelle: Yeah. And that's a big that's a big deal for us. That's a big deal in our culture, isn't it? Because I think here in New England, I think Filipino families or individuals can feel sort of isolated, and I do see that on Facebook, that there are these groups, New England Filipino-based groups that are like, Hey, does anybody want to have a meetup and or come over for a meal, or cook a meal together. I mean, that's so prevalent in our culture. I'm so proud of that, and that's one of my favorite things to do, by the way, is have a kayaman dinner.

I mean, I've hosted kamayan dinners for closing night parties, because I need that communal experience. And of course, I love to cook. But one of my theater breaks, more than 10 years ago, I went to culinary school, which was a lifelong dream, because that was the only vocation I was interested before theater was becoming a chef, and it was too scary. It was very male-dominated, very militaristic, hierarchical environment, and it just scared me away.

Trish: It is another same but different things, because you're creating experience. But speaking of... so one of the reasons why I'm interviewing is when we announced the podcast was coming back. Jeanine (Florence Jacinto), who has been in some of your shows, said, Oh, Michelle, has some things coming up, so you should interview her. So what are some of the shows that you have coming up that people can I. Either attend or hype up.

Michelle: Jeanine. Shout out to Jeanine.

Yeah. Well, I start rehearsals for a series of plays that I've been workshopping with with Plays in Place, Boston-based company, and it's the Kitty Knox plays. It's a series of three one-act plays based on a woman who lived in the late 1900s who was a bicyclist. You know, when bicycles were invented, you know, people don't realize it, it brought a sense of freedom for the working class and people of color, because cars were very unaffordable. But the freedom to transport oneself. We take that for granted now, but it's about Kitty Knox. We meet her at about 1920, years old. She's buried at Mount Auburn Cemetery. Yeah, and a Mass Bike, an annual biking event every year in her honor, anyway. So I'm directing these three one act plays that are site specific. We're hoping to do Martha's Vineyard this year, because she was a dressmaker, and every summer would go to Martha's Vineyard. But we couldn’t make that work this year, but hopefully next year, if we start rehearsal on Monday and it's outdoors on bikes, that sounds crazy, doesn't it? In period costume. I'm excited. It's one of the things like, how am I going to do this? Oh, I can't wait to figure that out, right? That's always my thing.

Trish: Yeah, listeners, we're recording this in August. So the idea of period costumes on bikes is not, I can barely wear shorts in this weather.

Michelle: We recruited an amazing customer who loves the period, loves period costumes, and loves the challenge of trying to figure out how to make the costumes wearable, washable, and, you know, breathable in this weather, on bikes. And then I'll be directing Dance Nation at Brandeis starting in September. And then the AAPC has its eighth annual mid-November at the Foundry. And then I'll be directing Exit, Pursued by the Bear, which is a strange name, but I love it. It's Lauren Gunderson, and that will be at Florida State University. So I'll be there for a month during the winter. And then after that, I come back to community theater, and I'm directing Once on This Island at Arlington Friend. So it's a very full six months.

Trish: Yeah, well, I really appreciate you taking time to talk to me. I know this is like your one day off for a very long time.

Michelle: It's okay. No, I love this conversation. Thank you so much.

Trish: Yeah, I'm excited for people to get to know you. Please go and support theater. Buy tickets. I know it's tough right now. If you can't buy tickets, I tell this to people all the time, promote the events. Because if you can't buy a ticket, then your friend can buy a ticket, or your friend of a friend can buy a ticket. So take some time to promote it, and make sure that we get diversified arts out there in the universe around Greater Boston and Massachusetts.

Michelle: Excellent, excellent endorsement.

Trish Fontanilla

Co-Founder and CEO of BOSFilipinos

http://www.bosfilipinos.com
Next

Catching Up With Emmy-Nominated Costume Designer & Owner of gather here, Virginia B. Johnson