Park Square To Open Theatre Season With AUBERGINE By Julia Cho

Park Square Theatre opens its 2019-2020 Theatre Season on the Andy Boss Trust Stage with the area premiere of Aubergine (SEPT 20 - OCT 20, 2019) by Julia Cho, author of The Language Archive. Aubergine will be directed by Park Square's Artistic Director Flordelino Lagundino - his Park Square directing debut.

In this poignant and lyrical new play, a son cooks a meal for his dying father to say everything that words can't. Since this first generation Korean American speaks English and only limited Korean, the making of a perfect meal is an expression more precise than language, and the medium through which his love gradually reveals itself.

"This was one of the most beautiful plays I have ever read," says Flordelino. "When I encountered it for the first time, I felt it was the best play I had read by an Asian American author in the last ten years. The writing feels so personal. It is a humorous and sensitive play about memories, food, and a relationship fractured by the loss of native language and the distance created between families because of war and the resulting Korean diaspora."

"This play is also personal to me and plays out in my own history" Flordelino continues. "My father is Filipino, I am Filipino-American. I don't speak his dialect, Ilocano. This is something that immigrants from any country feel. I also think it's a fascinating exploration of men as caregivers since Ray's father in the play is in hospice care. The personal aspects hit home."

The cast includes, Sun Mee Chomet*, Shanan Custer, Song Kim, Glenn Kubota, Kurt Kwan*, and Darrick Mosley*.

The Production team includes: Lindsey Cacich Samples (Assistant Director Fellow), Deb O (Set Designer), Amber Brown (Costume Design), Matt Otto (Sound Designer), Mike Kittel (Light Designer), Kenji Shoemaker (Properties Designer), Kathy Maxwell (Video Designer), Ruth Coughlin Lencowski (Vocal Coach), Akiem Scott (Assistant Sound Design Fellow), Maxwell Colliard (Assistant Video Design Fellow)

*Member, Actors Equity Association

Ticket prices: Previews: $20-$37. Regular Run: $25-$55. Discounts are available for seniors, military personnel, those under age 30, and groups. Tickets are on sale at the Park Square Ticket Office, 20 W. Seventh Place, or by phone: 651.291.7005, (12 noon to 5 p.m. Tuesday through Friday), or online at parksquaretheatre.org.