A love affair from Alaska - in song
The Huntington Theatre Company’s sixth annual Breaking Ground Festival begins this afternoon with a reading of a play about Filipino immigration to Alaska in the 1920s and the unionization of a cannery there.
Sounds painfully earnest and politically correct, right? Well, think again. It’s centered around an illicit love affair between a Filipino cannery worker and the Irish immigrant wife of the factory foreman. Oh, and it’s a musical.
“Long Season’’ by writer Chay Yew and composer Fabian Obispo was commissioned by Huntington artistic director Peter DuBois in 2001, while he was leading Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska.
“Peter and I met at one of those awful panels, and I think we bonded because we were both interested in new work,’’ Yew said. DuBois enticed him to start work on a piece about the Filipino community in Alaska, a process that started with taking oral histories.
“I slowly got more attracted to the stories of the grandfathers, the first generation of immigrants,’’ said Yew. “I told Peter . . . ‘I don’t know, oral history, I’m kind of bored with it, maybe it should be a musical.’ I just made it as kind of a joke. And Peter said, ‘Go for it.’ ’’
Today at 4 p.m. the cast will be reading the dialogue and singing the songs, accompanied on piano by Todd C. Gordon. DuBois directs, and the musical director is George Fulginiti-Shaker. The cast features Telly Leung (currently touring with “Rent’’ in Boston) and Tony Award winner Cady Huffman as the Irish woman. Her character was originally a Filipina, and rewrites dealing with the change will be evaluated tonight.
“Musicals take an incredible amount of time,’’ said DuBois. “It’s been incredible going back to it over the years and watching it sort of grow and change.’’ He hopes the show will eventually be produced at the Huntington.
The festival continues Aug. 3-5 with readings of three new plays by Huntington playwriting fellows, pieces that Huntington director of new work Lisa Timmel describes as “exciting and unpredictable.’’ We asked Timmel to explain how so.
“Deported/a dream play’’ by Joyce Van Dyke: “Joyce’s play is about two survivors of the Armenian genocide. . . . She’s playing with form, playing with time, and the way that tragedy and oppression continue to work their way through the lives of the characters and how they cope with that.’’
“Lizzie Stranton’’ by Lydia R. Diamond: “This is an adaptation of [Aristophanes’] ‘Lysistrata.’ All her plays have a really fine-tuned comic sensibility . . . and ‘Lizzie’ is kind of a wild romp.’’
“Jeanie Don’t Sing No Mo’,’’ by Jacqui Parker: “It’s an incredibly musical and moving and engaging drama that has a twist at the end. It has a mystery at the heart of it, and it’s really fun to see her explore the Southern milieu of the piece, the musical milieu, and draw on the blues-writing tradition that is very much exemplified by August Wilson’s early writing.’’
“Long Season’’ will be in the Roberts Studio Theatre at the Boston Center for the Arts, the other titles in the Deane Rehearsal Hall.
Tickets free (suggested donation $10); reservations strongly recommended. 617-266-0800, www.huntingtontheatre.org
Lyric producing artistic director Spiro Veloudos directs “Kiss Me, Kate,’’ “Lady Day,’’ and “Blithe Spirit.’’ Jacqui Parker stars in “Lady Day,’’ while Paula Plum, Richard Snee, and Kathy St. George star in “Blithe Spirit.’’
Season tickets are on sale now; single-show sales begin in mid-August. 617-585-5678, www.lyricstage.com
