RJ Silva to Present Solo Play YOU EAT SO WELL at the Solo Performance Festival
RJ Silva's new play delves into the complexities of cultural identity through the lens of food.
RJ Silva will premiere a delicious solo play about the love language of food in Filipino culture this year at PlayGround's Solo Performance Festival. Titled You Eat So Well! Silva tells his story of always being told as a child how delicious it looks when he eats and how that "gift" defined his relationship with food as he goes through American assimilation and physical challenges. Bringing his personal stories from childhood as the face of his parents' food establishment, to finding a new life as "the perfect American boy," Silva captures the clashing Filipino and American cultures and ideals through stories of food-trading in his family's dried fish "tuyo" breakfasts for Special K cereals.
"Food has always been an important part of my life," says Silva, the writer and performer of the play, "so much so that I've tried many times but failed to let it define my life as its purpose." From trying to be the perfect dinner host, to being a food content creator that was not able to catch up with trends, Silva charts both happy and sad moments of his food adventures as a way to find self-acceptance in himself and the food he wants to enjoy.
After performing test shows in Chicago, You Eat So Well will premiere at the 9th Annual Solo Performance Festival at Portero Stage, and online simulcast. The festival features 18 solo performers, Silva being one of those competitively selected from open applications. PlayGround's mission and commitment to the discovery of bold new voices for the stage was the perfect setting for the premiere of You Eat So Well. Silva hopes that the premiere in San Francisco and the Bay area, a historically rich region for Filipinos and Filipino Americans, can find a community within the audiences that will resonate with the story's exploration of Filipino American acceptance through its food.
You Eat So Well will have three performances at Portero Stage and through online streaming on Thursday, January 29th at 7pm, Friday, January 30th at 8:30pm, and Saturday, January 31st at 4pm.
Running time is approx. 50 minutes per performance. The festival represents an extension of PlayGround's mission and commitment to the discovery of bold new voices for the stage and the first PlayGround offering fully dedicated to solo performance.
TICKETS: Admission is free (donations gratefully accepted and directly support the artists).
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