EXPORT QUALITY Based On True Stories Of Mail-Order Brides From The Philippines to be Presented at HERE Arts Center

Drawn from true stories of mail-order brides from the Philippines, Export Quality will begin its limited run at HERE Arts Center (145 6th Ave, New York, NY 10013) from December 3 through December 17, 2023, opening night will be celebrated on December 7.  This production is written by Erica Miguel, Carolyn Antonio, Dorotea Mendoza and directed By Sonoko Kawhara. 

When survival means self-sacrifice, the only option for some women is to become a mail-order bride and marry a stranger from a foreign land. Inspired by true stories, Export Quality traces the harrowing journeys of four mail-order brides from the Philippines, as they experience hope and despair, love and loss, death and renewal. The play explores the complex phenomenon of the international mail-order bride industry. Does the business benefit or harm women? How does gender inequality and stereotypes feed the business? For a country like the Philippines, how does colonialism play a role? What are the power dynamics at play? Export Quality also bears witness to women's courage, their resilience in the face of violence, and the healing power of being in community and of storytelling.

“Writer, political activist Arundhati Roy said, "Our strategy should be not only to confront empire, but to lay siege to it. To deprive it of oxygen. To shame it. To mock it. With our art, our music, our literature, our stubbornness, our joy, our brilliance, our sheer relentlessness – and our ability to tell our own stories. Stories that are different from the ones we're being brainwashed to believe." This is precisely what we, the writers of Export Quality, aim to do: honor and appreciate the complexity in the stories of mail-order brides from the Philippines and resist the narrative that erases or simplifies their lived experiences. We are grateful to Loose Change Productions, John Breen (Producer) and the production crew, to Jeremy Stoller (Dramaturg), to Sonoko Kawahara (Director) and the entire creative team she has assembled. They have taken Export Quality to unexpected places, creating a theatrical experience that deepens our collective witnessing of suffering and of the joy that finds its way through. In these times of great peril and disinformation, we need truthful, inspiring, and courageous storytelling. Now, more than ever, we need stories that mirror and examine how we engage with the world; stories that compel us to continuously reconnect with our shared humanity. 

Playwrights Erica Miguel, Carolyn Antonio, Dorotea Mendoza

The cast for Export Quality includes Myka Cue (Regional: Sweeney Todd), Cat Grey (Off-Broadway “The Little Dancer ''), Jill Jose (Film: Birder), and Arianne Recto (Public's Hercules, As You Like It).  The creative team includes set design by Joey Mendoza, costume design by Siena Zoë Allen, lighting design by Reza Behjat, sound design by Nina Field, and projection design by Stefania Bulbarella. Produced by John Breen.

Export Quality will play Tuesday – Saturday at 8:30 pm; Matinees on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday at 4 pm. The show has a running time of 85 with no intermission. WARNING: Contains references to sexual violence. Tickets are $35 and can be purchased at Here.org. 

We understand the extreme challenges that our current financial climate presents. No matter your socioeconomic status, we want everyone to have access to groundbreaking art. There are ten tickets priced at $10 available for each performance on a first-come, first-served basis, for those in need of financial assistance. These tickets are available with the code ACCESS. Limit two tickets per patron. Subject to availability.

This production is a part of SubletSeries@HERE, a curated rental program that provides artists with subsidized space and equipment, as well as a technical liaison.

With support from the Asian Women Giving Circle , NYFA-NYC Women's Fund for Media, Music and Theatre, MAP Fund, and Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and from Community Partners: Womankind, Sari-Sari Women of Color Arts Coup.

Bios: 

SONOKO KAWHARA

(Director) is a New York-based theatre director originally from Japan. Her directing credits include; "Elephant Graveyard" by George Brant (Alexander Kasser Theater), "Tea" by Velina Hasu Houston (Lewis Center for the Arts at Princeton Univ.), "The Nighthawk Star" by Kenji Miyazawa (Target Margin Theater & Online live stream), "Deadly She-Wolf Assassin At Armageddon!" by Fred Ho & Ruth Margraff (La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theater), "Satellite" by Diana Son, "Anon(Ymous)" by Naomi Iizuka, Cuchulain Cycle plays by W.B. Yeats (Fordham Univ.), "Cherry Orchard" by A. Chekov (Connelly Theater), "Dream Play" by A. Strindberg (Horace Mann Theater), "Thousand Years Waiting" by Chiori Miyagawa (P.S. 122), and more. Her work has been supported by Rockefeller's MAP, NEA, Japan Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, Asian Cultural Council, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and others. Drama League directing fellow and a member of "Usual Suspects" at NYTW, Lincoln Center Theater Directors Lab, and was a Resident Artist of Mabou Mines. MFA in directing from Columbia University School of Arts.  Co-founder and Artistic Director of Crossing Jamaica Avenue (www.crossingjamaicaavene.org).

CAROLYN ANTONIO 

(Playwright) is a NY/NJ-based writer and non-profit worker. She has been in the publishing, arts and culture, and nonprofit fields for over two decades. She's a proud member of a 20-year-old women's writing group, was a founding committee member of FAM (Filipino American Museum), and is a member of Sari-Sari: Women of Color Arts Coup. She is collaborating with two other writers on the play, Export Quality: Monologues Drawn from True Stories of Mail-Order Brides from the Philippines. Carolyn has been involved in Filipino, broader Asian American, and BIPOC community organizing, along with a life-long focus on women's, racial, economic, and social justice issues. She believes in the power of words to inspire action, strives to be present, and is learning to (re)ground herself in nature

ERICA MIGUEL

(Playwright) is a writer and activist. She's a second-and-a-half generation Fil-Am Angeleno. She received her BA in both Environmental Studies and Feminist Studies from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Having lived in NYC for over thirteen years, she also considers herself a New Yorker. While there, she attended The New School's Creative Writing MFA program. When writing, Erica is interested in the stories of women, the natural environment, spirituality, and more recently, the early history of women in the craft of bookbinding. She is honored to be part of such a talented group who share the same goal of unsilencing the experiences of mail-order brides from the Philippines and all those in similar circumstances. Erica currently resides in Los Angeles (Gabrielino/Tongva land) with wolf descendant, Xochipilli, who doesn't leave her side. Or vice-versa. 

www.ericamiguel.com

US-based writer, community organizer, and Zen practitioner DOROTEA MENDOZA (Playwright) was born in the Philippines.  She mostly writes fiction, and loves the flash form.  At the center of all her work is her beloved homeland and her many kapwa Pilipino scattered around the globe.  Dorotea is drawn to community-driven, collaborative projects, which is what Export Quality: Monologues Drawn from True Stories of Mail-Order Brides from the Philippines is and has been from the start.  She's grateful to the many women in GABRIELA Philippines, AF3IRM (formerly GABNet), and BABAE, with whom she organized and whose activism around sex trafficking and advocacy planted the seeds for Export Quality.  Dorotea hopes that the production will spark meaningful questions, conversations, and actions around violence against women.  If she isn't writing, organizing, or in Zen practice, she's tending to her 56 house plants in a small apartment in NYC (or watching Liverpool FC with her partner Matthew).  You can visit her at www.doroteamendoza.com.

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