it is for when you meet me
Artist: Anjela Magpantay
In Development Presentation
Russian Hall (600 Campbell Street, Vancouver)
Friday, February 7 @ 7pm
Duration: 35 minutes
it is for when you meet me – Anjela Magpantay
Photo by Avyen von Waldenburg
Image description: In a room full of several large, stacked open brown cardboard boxes, a Filipino woman with long dark hair stands in front of an open cardboard box, holding onto its edge with both her hands. Light emanates from the box and spills onto her face. Falling down from above her are small pieces of torn paper, like confetti.
it is for when you meet me is an interactive theatre piece that explores and draws upon cultural gift-giving and the human nature of acceptance. Intermingling autobiographical material, verbatim texts and personal family histories, it is for when you meet me will guide the audience through a process of asking: what does it mean to gift-give as a way of connecting with loved ones who we are separated or distanced from?
it is for when you meet me will engage with the Filipino cultural phenomenon of gift-giving, in which travelers bring or send a ‘Pasalubong’ home from their travels. The English translation of Pasalubong is: “A gift for when you welcome me.” It is customary for the one traveling to bring thoughtful gifts back home, often packed in big cardboard boxes, called “Balikbayan boxes”. Overseas Filipino Workers have modernly adapted this custom in situations where they can’t go back home right away, stuffing large boxes with Tim Hortons ground coffee; Centrum vitamin pills; SPAM; name brand clothes and much more to express love and the sentiment: “I am coming soon.”
Devising Lead, and performed by: Anjela Magpantay
Choreography: Tin Gamboa
Dramaturgy: Maiko Yamamoto
Research Advisor: Dennis Gupa
Set and Installation consultation: Alexandra Caprara
Lighting Design Consultation: Jonathan Kim
Sound Design Consultation: Nancy Tam
Projection Design Consultation: Andie Lloyd
Composer: Argel Monte De Ramos
it is for when you meet me is developed through Theatre Replacement’s COLLIDER Artist Residency. In-kind donation of space provided by Theatre Conspiracy. Created with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
ANJELA MAGPANTAY is a multidisciplinary artist and is a graduate from SFU with a BFA in theatre performance. She is a director, actor, and maker of new devised work. She has worked nationally and internationally as a performer and collaborator in Hong Kong, the Philippines, the UK and across Canada. Anjela is the interim Artistic Director of rice & beans Theatre on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
CONTACT
Anjela Magpantay
anjela.m16@gmail.com