a dramaturg, and an educator.
“Balikbayan” is part of her Exit Project as a candidate for the MFA Theatre Arts - Dramatic Writing degree from the University of Idaho.
She wrote the script under the guidance of Robert Caisley and her playwriting cohort, whom she would like to thank. She crafted this work because of their support, critical generosity, and friendship. She would like to let them know that the mangoes are ripe.
It was her interest to adapt a dialogue-driven short story entitled “Balikbayan” written by her friend and fellow writer Rayji de Guia. She had two major figuring-out moments in the process of writing the script.
First, she recognized that the nonlinearity of the short story’s time was an important aspect of the narrative, but she knew that it can be difficult to successfully pull it off for the stage.
