ARTISTS AT PLAY!
Hi everyone! We are Artists at Play, a Los Angeles-based theatre company dedicated to programming that explores the Asian American and Pacific Islander experience. Since 2011, we have presented plays that demonstrate the humanity and complexity of diverse AAPI communities while championing and uplifting AAPI theatre artists who give voice to our past, present and future.
Every year, Artists at Play producers and artists come together to create Artists at Play … at Play!, a one-night-only performance of original short plays that has become our annual tradition of checking in with our audience. It’s an evening full of music, laughter, fun and a little bit of vulnerability.
We start the evening with “Theatre Addicts Anonymous” where we explore who we are in and out of theatre. This is the piece we performed on Friday, June 30, 2023 at the Los Angeles Theatre Center.
THEATRE ADDICTS ANONYMOUS
STEFANIE: Theatre Addicts Anonymous
ALL: Let’s play!
STEFANIE: Hi, my name is Stefanie and I am a theatre addict.
ALL: Hi, Stefanie!
STEFANIE: The first year of the pandemic I lived in a state of existential dread. As someone who made a career out of problem solving in order to bring people together, I couldn’t problem solve my way out of no more in-person theatre, my kids’ schools closing and my husband being an essential worker. But the tenacity and resourcefulness of our community kept me going with YouTube play readings, Zoom meetings and socially-distanced hangouts with artists friends. But, now that things are “back to normal,” what happens when you start questioning the very thing that sustained you? What happens when the work that has become so much a part of your identity, starts to feel overwhelming? There are days when I just don’t know why I’m doing what I’m doing. But there are more days, when everything makes sense. When I sit around a table with Marie, Julia, Nicholas, Katherine and Sandy and I feel safe. Thanks to them, and all of you, I know this is where I’m supposed to be. Thank you.
ALL: Thank you, Stefanie.
SANDY: Hi everyone, I’m Sandy
ALL: Hi, Sandy!
SANDY: I quit my day job and immediately used my final paycheck on getting my first professional headshots. The selfie I took in front of an elevator when I was 19 just wasn’t cutting it anymore. I looked up every single one of my actor friends’ Actors Access profiles, copied the formats of resumes, applied for the same scholarships to get into the same classes, and compiled a list of all your agents…I think stalking all of my friends and copying what they’re doing helps make me feel like I’m being proactive about my career. I’m really trying to embody the idea that “if I had poured as much effort into my acting career as I did to relationships and men, I would literally rule the world right now.” My friend SunHee dumped her boyfriend when he said she wasn’t paying enough attention to him at our premiere and now look at her! She’s famous! (and has a staaaaage name!!!)
I’ve also just learned about the joys of musical theatre…albeit 24 years late…nobody told me how good Phantom of the Opera is…why didn’t anyone say anything???
ALL: Thank you, Sandy.
KATHERINE: Hi everyone, I’m Katherine.
ALL: Hi, Katherine!
KATHERINE: A confession I have is that I don’t think I love theatre all that much. I feel kind of lukewarm about it. And if you ask me to drive across town for theatre, my first feeling is…despair? I may resent you for it, secretly. But why, if I hate theatre, do I know the words to so many musicals? Why is it that one of my core memories is collectively going apeshit over the Les Mis 10th Anniversary Concert in English class, all of us - jocks, nerds, druggies losing our minds over Jean Valjean?
I love the process of making theatre. I love exploring being human with other artists and translating that into movement and design…And maybe this is how most people feel about their jobs. Like they’re not passionate about accounting, but adding up figures and numbers makes their brain light up in all the right ways. Or perhaps what you see here is a strong case of denial. Because why else would I be here, still, doing this against my will, if it wasn’t an addiction?
ALL: Thank you, Katherine.
JULIA: Hi everyone, my name is Julia.
ALL: Hi, Julia!
JULIA: Can I still call myself a theatre 'addict?' I don’t think so, and I don’t know if I want to. If I’ve learned anything during the pandemic, it’s that the hustle isn’t real and grind culture is harmful. The irony is that once I started doing theatre outside of Artists at Play, at the ‘best of the best’ of Los Angeles theatre no less … I am no longer 'addicted.' I am disappointed, disillusioned, disenchanted and I will never allow myself to be so blinded by my passion and the art the powers-that-be assume that I will do whatever it takes to make the show happen even without proper support and infrastructure in place. But one of the silver linings of these experiences is that I am now even more emboldened and confident in the work that I do with Artists at Play. No more impostor syndrome, no more self-guessing, feeling like we're the underdogs up against these big fancy white theatres. Who can only get an audience that looks like this with BIPOC discount codes and Affinity Nights. So I’m more excited and dedicated as ever to do the work we have already been doing for over a decade and cultivating community like this. Thank you.
ALL: Thank you, Julia.
MARIE: Hi everyone, I’m Marie
ALL: Hi, Marie!
MARIE: I might as well admit it. Yes, I definitely go through theatre withdrawal and subsequent depression if I don’t see live performance in a long time. Luckily, this is kind of my job, but am I just enabling my habits? I know that we’re usually half-joking about our theatre dependency, but one of the things I learned about myself at the beginning of the pandemic is that my well-being is really dependent on theatre. But what I’ve learned since the pandemic is that it’s not just any theatre. It has to be worthwhile. Or else it feels like eating Jack in the Box at 2am and I wake up with regrets.
What’s interesting to me is that in the last few plays I have attended, I’ve noticed people walking out. And not in a huff, like anyone is upset–but just, leaving. And not just during intermission–but while the performance is going. And I’m okay with that–I think it’s fine. And you can come at me, but life is too short to sit for theatre that I’m just not into anymore. So, I guess that’s growth? Thank you.
ALL: Thank you, Marie.
NICHOLAS: Hi my name is Nicholas and I am a theatre addict.
ALL: Hi, Nicholas!
NICHOLAS: I’m addicted to theatre. And it’s not anonymous. Literally my name on TikTok is “Nicholas Pilapil | Playwright.” Now that I think about it. What I am possibly addicted to is attention. So please follow me on TikTok at “Nicholas Pilapil | Playwright.”
ALL: Thank you, Nicholas. And Break!