About the Project
Welcome to the Hollywood Fringe Festival page of space exploration because SPACE EXPLORATION because sPaCe eXpLoRaTiOn!!!
My name is Krystle Tugadi and I am the creator, executive producer, and actor of this humble Filipina-American solo show premiering at the 2024 Hollywood Fringe Festival!
WHAT IS “space exploration because SPACE EXPLORATION because sPaCe eXpLoRaTiOn!!!”
space exploration because SPACE EXPLORATION because sPaCe eXpLoRaTiOn!!! is a Filipina-American solo show written and performed by me! It’s been 6 years in the making completing this script, and now we are finally here putting it up on its feet!
SYNOPSIS:
After a novena held at her home, we follow Baby as she navigates the delicate art of bidding farewell to her final guest. Longing for her husband who is in outer space handling diplomatic affairs, Baby strives for solitude as her role shifts from host to subject of inquiry.
Being probed about her husband’s secret mission, coupled with confronting the challenges of being a new mother and new immigrant in a foreign land, Baby is cornered into unearthing the complexities of all the stories that make her – her.
Against the backdrop of familial traditions and societal expectations, Baby’s story becomes a tale of resilience and self-discovery, reminding us all that our pasts and futures are intricately woven into the fabric of our present realities.
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SPACE AND TIME!!!
Be in Baby’s space! And time!
VENUE: Madnani Theater – 6760 Lexington Ave, Los Angeles, CA 90038
SHOW DATES & TIMES
- Monday, June 10, 8:30pm – PREVIEW
- Saturday, June 15, 6:30pm- OFFICIAL OPENING (SOLD OUT)
- Wednesday, June 19, 7:00pm (SOLD OUT)
- Sunday, June 23, 12:30pm (SOLD OUT)
- Sunday, June 30, 1:00pm (2 tickets available)
RUNTIME: 60 minutes
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HOW WE ARRIVED IN SPACE
Let me share a bit about how this project came to be:
During grad school, I frequently received the note to “TAKE UP SPACE.” As a first-gen Filipina-American, this puzzled me as I felt like I was already occupying so much space by pursuing a career in acting rather than following the typical prescribed career paths, among the long list of things that didn’t fit the bill of being a more “palatable” Filipina lady.
So, in 2018, during my last year of grad school, I began writing a piece called “Taking Space” to genuinely explore what it truly meant to do just that. I deeply needed to understand this persistent advice from my instructors and mentors.
At the time, the type of pride I had for my Filipino culture made it challenging to confront some of the truths I had to grapple with. However, this process compelled me to honestly acknowledge the deep hiya (shame) ingrained in our culture due to colonization, patriarchy, capitalism, etc. Diving into *publications authored by members of the Filipino community (and not our colonizers!) opened my eyes to the importance of decolonizing our minds, bodies, and souls to kindly and rightly honor ourselves, our community’s beating heart, and to reimagine a world that celebrates our deepest roots.
After six years of writing and lots of healing work (shoutout to my amazing Filipina-American therapist), I stumbled upon the opportunity to enroll in the East West Players’ “Solo Show” class. Through the class, I began to hone my literary and theatrical voice with a more profound empathy for all the Filipina women in my life, especially my Mother.
Kindly encouraged to keep at it by my fellow artistic peers, I kept on, keeping on, and finally completed the script in time for the Hollywood Fringe Festival submissions.
So here we are, in a space where I’m now unafraid to say what’s on my heart. I hope you all could join me in this exploration where we can begin/continue talking about how we are all worthy of taking up the space we deserve and know we are all worthy of speaking our deepest truths. May this show remind us that we all deserve to be seen.
*publications: Brown Skin, White Minds by E.J.R. David, Filipino American Psychology: A Handbook of Theory, Research, and Clinical Practice by Kevin Nadal, The Miseducation of the Filipino by Prof. Renato Constantino
Learn More at krystletugadi.com
Production Team
