The press release that was too pure for PR log, according to my aunt Sue:
When was the last time a piece of theater transported you to a place of healing where visions of a liberated future seem as inevitable as they do impossible? With no set and only 18 hours of rehearsal, this quick and dirty developmental reading promises to be one for the history books… unless it is lost in obscurity. The nascent play, "PUBLIKprivate" is all about history and the mysteries all around and in between recorded history.
"PUBLIKprivate" is the audacious creation of eppchez yo-sí yes, artistic director of Alma's Engine. The play was first conceived as a solo show at (Re)Focus Fest 2018 in Philadelphia. This bold and scrappy festival challenged a handful of small Philadelphia companies to create new work around the theme "reclaim". In six weeks eppchez wrote, rehearsed, and wowed audiences with the first iteration of "PUBLIKprivate". eppchez worked with frequent Alma's Engine collaborators Gil Johnson (outside eye) , Evelyn Shucker (lights), and Camila Carolinas (Puppets) to mount this first exploration into the lives of two gender non-conforming historical figures, La Monja Alférez (The Lieutenant Nun) and the Publik Universal Friend. Audiences called it a "historical romp", Award-winning Playwright MK Tuomanen said of the show "a show that smashes the binary in more ways than one: out and passing, chaste and carnal, pacifist and warmonger, hero and villain, thwarted imperialist and well-intentioned gentrifier. With a wry smile, eppchez dances between the polar opposites of these two trans lives, and joins them together in something tender, irreverent, and all too human."
Alma's Engine produced a second iteration of the play directed by Gil Johnson later that spring as part of Philadelphia's favorite shoestring festival, So-Low Fest. In the intervening months, eppchez dug into more historical research on these two unique seeming ancestor figures. Traveling to Cornell, where the Publik Universal Friend's papers are housed, and collaborating on the Spanish in the play with eir father, the renowned Quaker translator Benigno Sanchez-Eppler. Alma's Engine toured "PUBLIKprivate" to Amherst College and Penn State in 2019. In 2020 Alma's Engine produced a film version of the solo show for Boston University, scored with original music by eppchez. The film was part of the Philadelphia Fringe Festival in 2021 and has since continued to be screened at universities where students and faculty grapple with questions of what it means to leave a legacy. How to keep history from becoming hagiography? What is to be done with European colonizers ancestors and the resounding echoes of their violence? How do we know who we are supposed to be and how do our belief systems create us?
In the spring of 2023 PlayPenn and The Sol Project, approached eppchez with the idea of expanding "PUBLIKprivate" to a three-person cast for two developmental readings over the summer of 2023. The first reading was in Philadelphia at the end of July. Despite, the serious subject matter, the audience was laughing out loud throughout. In a post-show conversation with the playwright and audience, eppchez elicited feedback that could be incorporated into the play in advance of the New York reading taking place at the end of August. The team for the New York Reading includes Santiago Iacinti (Director), Karina Batchelor (Dramaturg), Joseph Distl (Stage Manager), Mele Borges (Performer 1), Han Van Sciver (Performer 2), Jackie Rivera (Performer 3).
This reading will be the first New York performance of eppchez's work. The playwright and performer is known in Philly for intimate, thought-provoking tomfoolery. "I am curious to see what the big city will make of this bouncy house for earnest existentialism," eppchez shared regarding "PUBLIKprivate". "To take this piece that has been in my head and body for so long and see it moving through other performers— to feel how much the staff of PlayPenn and The Sol Project believe in my strange and nerdy play, it has been humbling and exhilarating. I have been able to go deeper with this play and find hope in rewriting it that I never expected."
The Second developmental reading for "PUBLIKprivate" to come out of this collaboration will take place in The Pregones/Puerto Rican Traveling Theatre in Manhattan (304 West 47th Street New York, NY 10036) at 7 p.m. on August 29. This event is one of the many cultural offerings of SolFest. The Sol Project has revealed full details for the sixth annual SolFest: A Latiné Theatre Festival, produced in partnership with Pregones/PRTT. The five-day program runs August 27-31 with both online and in-person events, including four evenings of live programming at Pregones/PRTT. Admission to all events is free, and seats can be reserved now. RSVP at https://pregonesprtt.org.
ABOUT THE PLAYWRIGHT
eppchez yo-sí yes is a Quaker, gender-expansive, Cuban & Jewish playwright, musician, mover, and inventor. In 2016 eppchez started up Alma's Engine, a production company and creative ministry developing eir playful and profound new work across a variety of mediums (They Extract, Training; a one-troll-show, PUBLIKprivate, Pollination, CODEx pt1). eppchez has collaborated with beloved Philly companies such as Pig Iron, Simpatico, Bearded Ladies Cabaret, Applied Mechanics, and Swimpony. Currently, ey is a member of both Azuka Theatre's New Pages writer's group and The Foundry at PlayPenn. Learn more about eir various work at https://www.almasengine.com.
ABOUT PLAYPENN
PlayPenn is a Philadelphia artist-driven organization dedicated to the development of new plays and playwrights. PlayPenn fully supports the needs of the writer and the demands of the play in an ever-evolving process within which playwrights can engage in risk-taking, boundary-pushing work. (https://www.playpenn.org)
ABOUT THE SOL PROJECT
The Sol Project is an Obie-award winning national theater initiative dedicated to amplifying the voices of Latiné playwrights in NYC and beyond. Guided by the values of advocacy, collaboration, and joy, The Sol Project works in partnership with leading theaters to produce the work of Latiné playwrights and nurture a growing community of Latiné theater artists. The artistic collective includes Adriana Gaviria (SolFest Producer, Co-Artistic Director), Rebecca Martínez, David Mendizábal, Jacob G. Padrón (Co-Artistic Director), Julian Ramirez, and Laurie Woolery. George Strus is the Artistic Producer. Isabel Pask is the Producing Associate. Brian Herrera is the Resident Scholar. Stephanie Ybarra is the Resident Dramaturg. Kaelani Burja is the Student Intern and SolFest Dramaturg, and John Venegas Juarez is the 2023 Sol Summer Intern. (http://www.solproject.org)