Ma-Yi Writers Lab & Playwrights Horizon Will Host Typhoon Haiyan Benefit, 2/17

Writers Lab, the largest collective of Asian-American playwrights in the country, continues its annual tradition of presenting a "stunt" event, announcing today that this year's evening of brand-new short plays centered around a contemporary, pressing theme will be held at the Mainstage Theater at Playwrights Horizons. The event, called Mga Kasabihan, which is Tagalog for Words of Wisdom, will be a benefit for recovery efforts in the Philippines.

For this one night only benefit event, the Ma-Yi writers, whose recent achievements include a 2013 Helen Merrill Award, Lanford Wilson Award, NNPN Commission, Leah Ryan Prize, Laurents/Hatcher Prize, Kendeda Grad Playwriting Award, two Princess Grace Fellowships, two PONY Fellowships, and five New Dramatists residencies, are writing original pieces inspired by Filipino proverbs, sayings, and even nonsensical malapropisms in order to raise funds for Negrense Volunteers for Change, a not-for-profit organization based in Bacolod, capital of Western Negros, an island hit hard by the typhoon. For every $500 raised, the organization will be able to buy a new fishing boat, restoring the livelihood of victims in Negros, Cebu, Panay, Leyte, and Samar.

Performers lending their skills to the evening include Mia Katigbak (The Foundry's Good Person of Szechwan), Ron Domingo (Phillip Himberg's Paper Dolls), Ali Ewoldt (Bway's Les Miserables), and more, including a few new talents brought in through a highly competitive community-searching open casting call.

The special performance will be followed by a reception with the opportunity to meet the writers and cast.

"We are thrilled to team up with Playwrights Horizons," says Mike Lew, co-director of The Ma-Yi Writers Lab. "Given that Ma-Yi was originally founded as a Filipino-American theater company, it feels right to work with a charity that is able to directly help Filipino fishermen affected by the typhoon by buying these boats, and to work with a major off-Broadway theater company in increasing our reach."

Last year's stunt event was hosted at The Signature, on the set of David Henry Hwang's Golden Child, with a special appearance by the playwright himself, and addressed the casting controversies surrounding The Nightingale and other plays in which Asian characters were played by white actors.

Tickets for Mga Kasabihan/Words of Wisdom are $35 for general admission and $50 for premium seating, which includes reserved seats and a discount code to Ma-Yi's mainstage show The Wong Kids running in tangent. They can be purchased here: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/9881284

Additional information about Ma-Yi Theater or Negrense Volunteers for Change Foundation can be found at: http://ma-yitheatre.org/the-labbies and http://www.nvcfoundation-ph.org/.