Interview: Joyce Lao Is Refining #40SANDSINGLE at Don't Tell Mama Ahead of the Fringe

Every year, many performers from NYC get ready to head to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Part of the process of getting ready for the month-long festival involves producing "preview" shows in New York and other places. I spoke to Joyce Lao, creator of #40sandSingle, who just wrapped one preview show last week at Pangea and is gearing up for her final NYC preview show this Sunday, July 21st, 7 pm at Don't Tell Mama. (Tickets are available here.)

How would you describe your upcoming Edinburgh Fringe show? 

I am actually producing and performing in two Edinburgh fringe shows. The first is AI: The Waiting Room - An Immersive Experience. The Waiting Room is an immersive experience that utilizes a personalized AI audio creation tool writing stories tailored specifically for each audience member in real time. Placed in an immersive space with game design elements it creates a transformative personal exploration of a mundane setting unveiling magic of everyday life and giving participants a new perspective on their individual journeys. It's written and directed by Natalia Yandyganova, and co-produced by Sabrina Morabito and Anna Bredikhina. This will be at the C-Venues at Aurora Bow on August 3-4, 6-11,13-18, 20-25 at 15:30, 16:30 and 17:30 pm

My second show is #40sandsingle - A Cabaret Comedy and Variety Show. #40sandsingle is a new comedic cabaret variety show, written and performed by yours truly. My character, Dr. Kara Kibara is a self-proclaimed and successful online dating expert. She has helped thousands of people find love, but she herself is still single in her 40s. In this interactive cabaret show, Dr. Kara goes back to her past and reflects on what went wrong (or maybe right) that caused her to still be loveless. She shares her insights on dating, relationships and love, and she offers her advice on how to find, "The One."

Where did the idea for #40sandSingle come from? How did you come up with this character?

I conceived the show during the pandemic in 2020 when I stumbled upon self-help and love gurus dominating online spaces. I observed that these self-proclaimed experts multiplied rapidly, amassing followers and selling online courses, but later on, most of these gurus, influencers and self-proclaimed experts were exposed and they turned out to be frauds or they failed to practice what they preached.

Because of this phenomenon, I decided to create the character Dr. Kara Kibara - a vibrant online and offline self-proclaimed dating expert. The name "Kara" is derived from my cousin's name, while "Kibara" is my paternal grandmother's last name. I intentionally drew on my family names to symbolize the traditional Indigenous, Filipino, Asian family values of overachievement, life planning, and stability - values that contrast with my life since I in spite of having a pre-med, I embraced my artistic pursuits. I am free-spirited, and still single in real life to date, in my 40s.

How did your preview show at Pangea go last week?
I think it went well, in spite of the limited rehearsals we had. I like the cabaret space at Pangea. Since my other show also had its previews in the same week, it was hectic, and on top of that, I also have a full-time arts administration job. I was quite nervous because I used to produce and perform in theater more often and this is like my return to the world that I love. I choreographed the dances. I played for all who sang, I did my improv bits and we just had a great time! That is what I have always wanted, to do something fun, performing with some friends while combining all my skills, entertaining the audience and conveying a message. I guess this is the advantage of me being single, I can juggle all these things. We are performing our last preview at Don't Tell Mama on July 21st at 7 pm. I realized that some people expected a truly "One-Woman" show where I am the only one on stage, but since I am in New York City, it is but proper for me to include my talented friends, Rori Nogee and Anna Bredikhina, and have back up dancers, so I recruited Sofia Kim and Alyssa Grace Magalpo. I am also grateful to have found Kax Petrovitch last minute to help out with the tech aspects of the show. 

What has the process of trying to craft and refine this show ahead of the Fringe Festival been like?

This has actually been an interesting process for me. I was initially planning to go back to Edinburgh for my AI show since we were there last year for our other AI Immersive show, Soulmates (NOT) Found, and I realized I can develop a show with Dr. Kara as a character in mind. It's like shooting two birds with one stone. I played Dr. Kara, an online dating expert in the middle of the pandemic while I was with my aunt in California. I just decided to buy a red wig because, why not? I made a dating profile on OkCupid with Dr. Kara's pictures and whoever messaged her became a topic of Dr. Kara's online dating expertise. Of course, I did not show the profile owner's pictures, I just took the contents of the dating profiles.

Eventually Dr. Kara morphed into a social media character. Then I wrote a TV pilot based on Dr. Kara being in her 40s and single. Late last year, I started writing a variety show and called it #40sandsingle. I have written some songs for this show, two of them I will be singing at Don't Tell Mama on Sunday. This is another skill that I used to do more often. I used to write hymns and anthems for schools before I moved to the US. I was also playing gigs around the Lower East Side with my guitar, sometimes with a band in my 20's at different venues like Arlene's Grocery, Pianos, etc...  I am an Xennial, sandwiched between Gen X and Millenials. I love songs from the 70's to the 90's so I included some of my favorite songs in the show. I love jazz, R&B and as a typical Filipino - I love listening to ballads. I want the show to be funny, quite "slapstick-y" - which would appeal to audience from anywhere in the world but I also want it to be a bit "intelligent" and spiritual. I have different versions of this show: the Pangea version, the Don't Tell Mama version, the Ed Fringe version and the full production or tour version. It just depends on the stages of preparation, the audience as well as the duration of the performances. I am grateful that Pangea and Don't Tell Mama have allowed me to perform the previews in their venues. The previews are definitely helping me to edit and change things. I do get obsessive with my work. I literally edited a lot of my dialogues the night before my Pangea performance. I also don't want the show to be a typical musical because that is not the goal. I am always drawn to variety and the experimental theater. I want the audience to be involved, I want to connect with them in different ways.

The original idea was to really have just me, playing all my own songs, dancing my own choreography but I had to stop myself and say, "Joyce, this is not real life - you get to have fun with other performers too!" so I decided to involve more people in the NYC Previews. In Edinburgh, I will be having one guest per night. My show runs from August 13th-17th at theSpaceUK, Symposium Hall, Annexe Theater. I don't want to overextend myself. I will also be performing as a guest for other shows while I am there. Interesting story, I met a second cousin in Edinburgh last year. We messaged each other on 23andme before I left New York City for the Ed Fringe. He then told me that his sister is a musical theater major so I connected with her. Her name is Iris Pigganto and she will be singing her original song at my show on August 14th and 16th. 

My aim for the previews is to see if there are more opportunities to either extend or step back to see how #40sandsingle can go. I asked for honest feedback from friends and strangers that attended last week.  Although I am delighted that the audience enjoyed the show, the artist in me knows that I need to work on some aspects of the show. I am blessed that performers that are here with me, like Rori Nogee who is such a professional and a strong performer, and Danny Boyd, who plays one of my clients. Each person on that stage made the show better. The audience were so involved! It's crazy how when the show was going on, my brain was making mental notes. I just edited my script again to add two of my original songs and included more soliloquy about my upbringing as an Indigenous Filipino which is very important to me. I belong to the Igorot tribe -  Ibaloi and Mt. Province sub tribes . I found out later on that our ancestors were a mixture of Southern Tribal Chinese like Lahu and Dai as well as Aboriginal Taiwanese. I also talked about how growing up Protestant has influenced my decisions in dating. I added some aspects of my Filipino culture as well as being an American. My process in getting ready for the Edfringe is almost like a playtest - which is what we do in our immersive shows. As the producer of #40sandsingle as well as AI: The Waiting Room, I have to consciously get into the zone and be a performer, be Dr. Kara and not the writer, producer, choreographer, director Joyce. 

In addition to crafting #40sandsingle for Edinburgh, there are a lot of factors essential to the creation of the shows I am producing - finding a venue that would accept our work, accomodation, getting on top of marketing, and promotion for the NYC previews and the Edinburgh run are crucial to this process. Finding financial support to make all these things happen is still a challenge as an independent producer, and this is another aspect of the art that is important for each producer to learn. I have applied to a lot of grants for both #40sandsingle and my immersive show, I thought I was very detailed and comprehensive in all my applications - all were rejected except for an Indiespace grant which I am very grateful for. At this rate I am using my savings and mostly out-of-pocket to produce my shows. While I rewrite my scripts, my songs and rehearse my dances, I am also learning how to scale my shows to a level where I and my co-producers can get paid and receive some profit since grants, in mine and my peers' experience are usually given to the same group of artists. For someone like me, who has been applying to grants for more than a decade (I even hired a grant writer at some point) will probably never be selected to receive anything. 

What are your next steps with the show?

I would love to keep developing it, hopefully perform it more in NYC, it is tour-ready post-Edinburgh, and pitch it to any opportunities that come my way. Since it was originally written as a non-musical TV pilot - I am now hoping to combine the musical aspect to the TV pilot script and hope to pitch it. I would love to find someone who can help write an episodic. We shall see, for now I am enjoying the process. I used to pressure myself to Go! Go! Go! all the time. I have been producing my own work in NYC since 2011, both in theater and in film, because of opportunities for someone like me -  not so Filipino- or Asian-looking as some casting directors told me before, I look more Hapa (half Asian), and I have an American with a slightly unfamiliar accent. These are the industry's words, not mine. I honestly thought that I would make it far at this stage of my life. I rested for a few years and now I am back! I am determined to make #40sandsingle a success, of course with the help of everyone is working with me right now, the venues, the supporters, audience, God, the press. I am very grateful.

Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I would love to fill the Brick Room at Don't Tell Mama this coming Sunday, July 21st at 7 pm. Tickets are available on Don’t Tell Mama’s website.

Of course, it would be ideal to have sold-out shows at the Ed Fringe - I would love the Edfringe audience, industry and press to attend my #40sandsingle - cabaret, comedy and variety show from August 13th-17th at 9:45 am!!! Get your tickets at theSpaceUK’s website.

Other shows that I cannot wait to see at Ed Fringe are Coming Out to Dead People by Ricky Sim, of course, my other show AI:The Waiting Room - An Immersive Experience, Funny Guy Play directed by Jesse Tendler, all the Punch Drunk shows, Laughing Horse Comedy productions, "Improbotics", "Non-Player Musical" and many more. I cannot wait to experience all the immersive and digital theater shows. This is me, I love tech and cool immersive, experimental experiences. I also love the standard indie theater and any show that involves comedy, clowning and good music!

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Find more upcoming shows at Pangea on their website at pangeanyc.com.

Find more shows at Don't Tell Mama online at donttellmamanyc.com.

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