Kenneth Keng And Red Concepcion To Present BUONG-BUO At Life World As Part Of Salon! Series

Playwright and performer Kenneth Keng partners with acclaimed international and Broadway performer Red Concepcion to create and present Buong-buo, an audience-participative dance work that explores the tension between maintaining one’s identity within the Philippine diaspora and the pull of cultural assimilation in the United States.

“Buong-buo,” very roughly translated from Tagalog, means total completeness or wholeness—both in community and within one’s soul. The piece invites audiences to question what it means to belong while navigating intersecting cultural identities.

“When does one go from being Filipino to being part of the diaspora? How does that affect one’s art?” said Keng. “I am thrilled to have the skills of Broadway performer and fellow Pinoy Red Concepcion on hand to help explore this theme through the piece we have created, with the encouragement of the good folks at SalOn!.”

Concepcion, a multi-award-winning actor known for his performances on Broadway and in the West End, joins Keng in choreographing and leading audiences through a mass movement of building gestures, vocalizations, and bursts of action—culminating in an attempt to speak the words Buong-buo.

Collaborators Carlos Lising and Danilo Zepeda also contribute to the creative team. Lising, a stage manager currently with the Perelman Performing Arts Center, and Zepeda, a veteran New York-based theatre and film actor, helped shape the concept through conversations about language, cultural translation, and performance.

“I would now describe my favorite theater pieces as very buong-buo,” said Zepeda, who was first introduced to the term while learning Tagalog from Lising.

Buong-buo will be presented as part of the Fall iteration of the SalOn! performance series at LIFE WORLD (563 Johnson Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11237) on Thursday, October 23, 2025.