Export Quality: A Theatrical Exploration Based on True Stories of Mail-Order Brides from the Philippines
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: A Theatrical Exploration Based on True Stories of Mail-Order Brides from the Philippines 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.
Written by Dorotea Mendoza, Carolyn Antonio, and Erica Miguel
Directed by Sonoko Kawahara
Featuring: Myka Cue, Cat Grey, Jill Jose, and Arianne Recto
Set Design by Joey Mendoza
Costume Design by Siena Zoë Allen
Lighting Design by Reza Behjat
Sound Design by Chai Tamayo
Projection Design by Stefania Bulbarella
Casting by Gail Quitos and Susanne Scheel
Production Stage Manager: Debora Porazzi
Assistant Stage Manager: Erin Mittman
Assistant Director: Skylar Lerose
Dramaturgy: Jeremy Stoller
Producer: John Breen, Loose Change Productions
Production Manager: Lauren Parrish
POST-SHOW DISCUSSIONS
POSTPONED Wed, Dec 6, Thu, Dec 14, after the 8:30 pm show:
Mail-Order Bride Business and Trafficking of Women: Discussion with Annklise Enrile
Sat, Dec 9, after the 8:30 pm show:
Playwrights Dorotea Mendoza, Carolyn Antonio, and Erica Miguel discuss their process of writing Export Quality.
Sun, Dec 10, after the 4:00 pm matinee show:
Trauma and Healing: Discussion with Eliza Fabillar
THE PANELISTS:
Annalisa Enrile is a Professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, turning classrooms into brave spaces to train the next generation of change-makers. She traces her roots back to the Philippines, where she became a human rights defender and anti-trafficking warrior. She continues to work on both sides of the Pacific and across other oceans fighting to end modern-day slavery. Annalisa believes in the transformative power of stories, the strength of community, and the promise of innovation and design.
Eliza Fabillar is an educator, researcher, facilitator, and nonprofit leader. She supports education practitioners and policymakers in addressing the root causes of inequities and dismantling systemic barriers so that all students have opportunities to succeed, particularly in underserved communities. Eliza is also a teacher of movement, breath work, meditation, and restorative yoga therapy. Fifteen years ago, Eliza began studying and practicing yoga and it was a transformative experience. She was inspired by the mind-body-breath connection. Eliza has worked with women’s organizations around issues like sex trafficking and women’s empowerment. Recently, she co-facilitated Inside Out: Stories We Carry in Our Body and Breath, and continues to collaborate with friends to continue this work, creating spaces for women to effect change by sharing personal and collective narratives. Eliza was born in the Philippines and grew up in New York City. She holds a Master’s degree in cultural anthropology and education from Columbia University in the City of New York.
Updated: March 8, 2023
HERE is now a mask-optional space. All patrons attending HERE performances and events will no longer be required to wear masks.
We ask all audience members to please stay home if they have a sore throat, are feeling sick in any other way, or have been recently exposed to COVID-19, and to please contact the box office for refunds or exchanges.
All of our performers, technicians, and staff members are required to be fully vaccinated. Additionally, they are participating in an active testing regimen to keep everyone as safe as possible.
HERE reserves the right to revise protocols as the rate of transmission changes and in light of new scientific data that may present itself.
Performance schedule:
Tue, Thu, Fri at 8:30 pm
Sat and Wed at 4:00 and 8:30 pm
Sun at 4:00 pm
Tickets:
Previews (Dec 3-6): $20
Remaining performances: $35
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.
Running time: 85 minutes, no intermission
Content warnings: Contains references to sexual violence.
ABOUT THE ARTISTS
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, the Japan Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, the 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.
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: A Theatrical Exploration Based on 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
Dorotea Mendoza (Playwright) is an US-based writer, community organizer, and Zen practitioner, 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: A Theatrical Exploration Based on 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 and www.sari-sari.org.
Loose Change Productions (Producer), founded in 2009, creates transnational, cross-cultural theatre and performance exploring new creative, moral, ethical, and political territories. We develop work within the company itself and co-produce with outside venues. Our interest is in innovative structures; we seek stories that entertain but, more importantly, spur social awareness and empathy between diverse cultures and sectors. We’ve worked with and produced work by Spiderwoman Theater, including Material Witness (a collaborative theatre project that centers on indigenous women and their stories of violence, healing, and renewal), Red Mother (an old Native woman weaves stories of genocide with humor, music, and dance), and recently Misdemeanor Dream. Loose Change will produce The Mulberry Tree by Hanna Eady and Ed Mast at LaMama Downstairs in February 2024.