The Romance of Magno Rubio -- Ma-Yi Theater Company's acclaimed, OBIE Award-winning production based on a short-story by the McCarthy-era blacklisted novelist Carlos Bulosan -- will be presented for a limited Off-Broadway engagement with previews to begin May 19, prior to an official press opening May 27 at The Culture Project (55 Mercer Street) in Manhattan.
Directed by OBIE Award-winning director Loy Arcenas, the play "tells the tale of Magno, a short Filipino migrant worker who longs for love. Set in the central valleys of California in the 1930's, the play follows Magno's long-distance relationship via love letters exchanged with his pen pal Clarabelle, a woman from Arkansas whom Magno discovers through a lonely-hearts ad. Believing he has found the woman of his dreams, the young man fantasizes about their life together, only to soon realize that reality and dreams do not always align," state press materials. "An Asian-American, Bulosan himself came to the U.S. as a Filipino immigrant worker, and went on to become a celebrated writer whose radical activism and writings about the horrendous conditions for migrant workers in the U.S. landed him on Senator Joseph McCarthy's notorious blacklist in the 50's"
Jojo Gonzalez heads the all-male cast of The Romance of Magno Rubio in the title role, joined by Arthur Acuņa, Bernardo Bernardo, Paolo Montalban ("Cinderella" with Brandy and Whitney Houston, Pacific Overtures), and Ramon de Ocampo.
For tickets, call TheaterMania.com at 212-352-3101 or online at www.ma-yitheatre.org. For more information, visit www.ma-yitheatre.org.
Photos by Matt Zugale
Jojo Gonzalez and Ramon De Ocampo
Paolo Montalban and Bernardo Bernardo
