LEARNING HOW TO BE IN COMMUNITY

Few productions manage to collapse the space between art and community like Learning How to Read by Moonlight. In this world premiere from Gaven D. Trinidad, directed by Natsu Onoda Power, theater becomes a living, breathing act of solidarity.

Between May 16 and June 8, Learning How to Read will be performed in three different venues—Boston Center for the Arts in the South End, the Pao Arts Center in Chinatown, and the Umbrella Arts Center in Concord. All performances are pay-what-you-want, and the production has built relationships with a dozen organizations, including several focused on Filipino and Filipino American communities, a number of AAPI organizations, and others that generally support immigrants and refugees. Each performance will feature a narrator from one of these organizations, and the lobby area included Know Your Rights leaflets and cards as well as information on how to support these groups on the evening I attended.

As my companion and I sat in our seats waiting for the performance to start, this community outreach was reflected in the audience make-up, which could be characterized as overwhelmingly young, racially diverse, gender nonconforming, and fashion rebellious, many of them hugging and waving to one another as they arrived. In other words, beautiful.

The community spirit continued once the “official” performance began. We were told that we were about to see a hero’s tale that would bring “hope, happiness, and healing.” Each cast member then introduced themselves and the audience took part in a rhythmical call-and-response exercise, repeating the first name of the actor followed by the name of the role they would perform. This was followed by a brief breathing exercise, allowing audience and performing artists to enter a shared space of respect and anticipation for the show to come.

That show was the story of Eddie (Elijah Estolano Punzal), a 6-year-old Filipino immigrant who lives in Queens, New York, with his mother Nanay (Christine Armenion). As undocumented immigrants, Eddie and Nanay are subject to threats and demands from their landlady (they live in a hidden, illegal garage apartment) as well as bullies—whom they can’t report to the police. Eddie copes with his grief over the losses of his family—his father Tatay (Alfredo Reyes) is still in the Philippines and his brother has been killed by the Duterte regime—and the challenges of adjusting to life in an American public school with an imaginary friend (Jude Torres). Puppetry and video clips integrate Eddie’s real life with his fantasy world and Pinoy (Filipino) legends in this bilingual production—much of the dialogue is delivered in Tagalog with a simultaneous English translation from another performer—a technique that is surprisingly successful. The breathing exercise that proceeded the show recurs throughout the performance—moments of tension or pain are followed by invitations to the audience to take a deep breath and then exhale. The breathing exercises do more than soothe—they remind us that survival, especially for undocumented immigrants, is an act of constant, conscious endurance.

It’s easy to love little Eddie, and it’s clear that the cast feels that way as well—he is cuddled and applauded—and we ache for him even as we cheer his achievements, knowing he will continue to face difficult challenges.

While Eddie’s richly imagined inner world is integral to the story, at times the layering of puppetry, video, and folklore overwhelmed rather than deepened the emotional core. A more focused narrative might allow Eddie’s heartbreak and resilience to resonate even more strongly. The story is a powerful one that deserves—no, NEEDS—to be told, but could be more effective in a less busy version. Eddie’s fantasy life is essential to his survival, but the role of the different elements in this little boy’s psyche wasn’t always clear.

In the context of Boston’s current theatrical offerings, Learning How to Read by Moonlight stands beside SpeakEasy Stage’s Jaja’s African Hair Braiding–also at the Boston Center for the Arts–in its effort to bring immigrant stories to light. These dramatizations of the heroism and tragedy of our immigrant communities comes to us at a time when illegal deportations and detentions are on the rise, and these messages very much need to be heard. While Jaja is certainly the more polished of these two productions, I am equally grateful for Learning How to Read for reaching beyond the task of informing to mobilizing activism and resistance.

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Learning How to Read by Moonlight
Company One Theatre and CHUANG Stage
100 minutes with no intermission
Boston Center for the Arts Plaza Theatre, 539 Tremont St, Boston (May 16 – 25)
Pao Arts Center, 99 Albany St, Boston (May 29 – June 1)
The Umbrella Arts Center, 40 Stow Street in Concord (June 5 – 8)
ends on June 8, 2025
for tickets (Pay-What-You-Want), visit Company One or CHUANG Stage

for more shows, visit Theatre in Boston