Diversionary Theatre Reveals Cast and Creatives For DRAGON MAMA

Diversionary Theatre announces the cast and creative team for its production of Dragon Mama by Sara Porkalob, directed by Andrew Russell.  Dragon Mama will run September 14 through October 8 on Diversionary Theatre’s mainstage at their home in University Heights.  For tickets and information, please visit diversionary.org.

Dragon Mama is a solo show written and performed by Sara Porkalob.  The creative team includes: Yi-Chien Lee, Scenic Designer; Erin Bednarz, Sound Designer; Eliza Vedar, Associate Sound Designer; Jasz Bulan, Costume Consultant/Wardrobe Maintenance; Annelise Salazar, Lighting Designer; Angela Park, Stage Manager.    

"We are thrilled to be bringing Sara Porkalob's tour de force performance of Dragon Mama to Diversionary audiences under the brilliant direction of Andrew Russell,” shared Diversionary Theatre Interim Artistic Director Stephen Brotebeck. “This production will incorporate new material that Sara and Andrew have been working on for this San Diego premiere." 

Traversing 25 years, Dragon Mama is a one-woman adventure filled with queer love in a barren land, Filipino family lore, and a dope ’90s R&B soundtrack! Born to an immigrant mother with lost dreams, an absent father, and a society that fails immigrant families, Maria is forced to grow up too soon, acting as surrogate mother to her four siblings while trying to balance her intersectional identity—poor, queer, brown, and an immigrant. When presented with an opportunity to make a quick fortune, she must make an important decision: leave her debt-ridden family and newborn daughter for the wild unknown of Alaska, or stay close to home, family, and intergenerational ghosts. 

"With her unique blend of raw emotion, humor, and insight, Sara Porkalob's captivating storytelling and powerful performance delve into the heart of the human experience,” says Diversionary Theatre Executive Director Jenny Case. “We couldn't be more excited to share this transformative journey with our community." 

Dragon Mama playwright and performer Sara Porkalob recently made her Broadway debut playing Edward Rutledge in the official revival of the musical 1776.  She is a storyteller, creative consultant, artist-activist, and creator of the “Dragon Cycle,” a trilogy of matrilineal musicals about Porkalob’s Filipino American gangster family of which Dragon Mama is the second in the cycle, and won Best Original Script and Best Solo Performance for the 2019 Elliot Norton Awards. In the “Dragon Cycle” trilogy there is one play for each generation built around a central female protagonist — grandmother, mother, granddaughter — and her specific hero's journey. The first in the cycle, Dragon Lady, is the recipient of three 2018 Gregory Awards: Outstanding Sound/Music Design, Outstanding Actress in a Musical, and Outstanding Musical Production. The third play, Dragon Baby, and a TV adaptation of the entire cycle are both currently in development. Porkalob’s Awards and nominations include: 2021 Princess Grace Award Winner for Theater, 2020 nominee Seattle Mayor’s Arts Award, Seattle Times 11 Movers and Shakers to Watch this Decade, 2019 nominee for Americans for the Arts Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities, Seattle Magazine’s 2018's Most Influential People, and 2017 City Art's Futures List. She is a co-founder of DeConstruct, an online journal of intersectional performance critique. She’s a consultant with the City of Seattle and their Creative Strategies Initiative (CSI), a new City effort that uses arts-and-culture-based approaches to build racial equity in non-arts policy areas like the environment, housing, workforce and community development. 

Director Andrew Russell is a writer and director of theatre and film.  For over 20 years Andrew has focused on telling true stories in dynamic ways. He has collaborated as a director and writer with Oregon Shakespeare Festival, American Repertory Theatre, La Jolla Playhouse, The Old Globe, The Public Theatre, Pittsburgh Public Theatre, Marin Theatre Company, The 5th Avenue Theatre, Theatre Latte Da, On The Boards, Kansas City Repertory Theatre, Seattle Repertory Theatre, and Diversionary Theatre, among others. As the Producing Artistic Director of the Tony Award-winning Intiman Theatre in Seattle from 2011-2017, Andrew played a critical role in reorganizing, and reopening the theater after it closed in 2011. Previous to this he was an Associate Producer at the theater from 2009-2011. Multiple times he was named one of the “most influential" people in Seattle and it was recently announced that Intiman Theatre is fully debt free after reconciling over $2.5 million of debt and thriving as the professional theatre-in-residence at Seattle Central College. Andrew has served as a storytelling consultant for Universal, makes documentary films, and is a graduate of Carnegie Mellon University.

Sound Designer Erin Bednarz works in sound, music, production, and performance. Their awards include Gregory (Seattle, WA) and Broadway World (Regional) and they’ve been mentioned in the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times.  Award Nominations include Drama Desk, Lucille Lortel, LA Drama Critics Circle.  Residencies include Centrum, Sou’Wester, 2+U Studios, and Jack Straw.  Bednarz has worked on the TV series “Band In Seattle” and Off-Broadway on MAC BETH (Red Bull, Hunter Theater Project, Seattle Rep); The Convent (Rattlestick); and An Endless Shift (Theatre Row).  Regional productions include A Few Good Men (Pittsburgh Public); "Dragon Cycle" (American Rep, Marin Theatre Company, Pittsburgh Public); Teenage Dick, Public Works: The Tempest, Lydia and the Troll (Seattle Rep); Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Seattle Children’s Theatre); The Year of Magical Thinking, The Thin Place (ACT); Choir Boy (ACT/The 5th Avenue Theatre); Wonder Boy (The 5th Avenue Theatre).  Bednarz has taught at NYU/Atlantic Theater, Cornish College, Pomona College, and University of Washington.

Associate Sound Designer Eliza Vedar is a multifaceted designer, composer, music director, and pianist.  Vedar’s original music, arrangements, and sound designs have been featured in theatrical productions throughout the San Diego area with such companies as: La Jolla Playhouse, TuYo Theatre, Moxie Theatre, New Village Arts, and Common Ground Theatre.  Vedar’s original music, arrangements, and sound designs have also been featured at educational institutions including San Diego State University, CSU San Marcos, and University of San Diego. Most recently she was Artist in Residence at CSU San Marcos Theatre Arts for the 2021-2022 academic year.  Vedar holds a Bachelor’s degree in Music Performance: Piano from San Diego State University. 

Scenic Designer Yi-Chien Lee is thrilled to be designing her fifth show at Diversionary Theatre. Credits include Life Sucks, El Huracán, Water by the Spoonful, The Great Leap (Cygnet Theatre); Future is Female (Flint Repertory Theatre); King of the Yees (Sierra Madre Playhouse); The Great Khan (San Diego Repertory Theatre), Eighty-Sixed, Girlfriend, A Kind of Weather, Monsters of the American Cinema (Diversionary Theatre); Mother of the Maid, The Pleasure Trials (Moxie Theatre); October Night of Jonny Zero, (Backyard Renaissance); The Winter’s Tale (Globe for All at The Old Globe). Projection design credits include Everybody (Antaeus Theatre). 

Lighting Designer Annelise Salazar’s credits include Mother of the Maid (MOXIE); Desert Rock Garden, Leonard Bernstein New York (New Village Arts Theatre); Water by the Spoonful (Cygnet Theatre, ALD). Salazar has also worked at The Old Globe, Bay Street Theatre, and Tuyo Theatre. Salazar earned a BFA in Design and Technology from Millikin University and is an MFA student at San Diego State University.

Costume Consultant Jasz Bulan has been an associate with Diversionary Theatre for a handful of seasons, last year making their costume design debut with Monsters of the American Cinema. She is an SDSU Alumni.

Diversionary Theatre is the nation’s third-oldest LGTBQIA+ theatre dedicated to amplifying queer voices through the performing arts in a dynamic, inclusive, and provocative environment that celebrates and preserves their unique culture, while contributing to an environment of diversity and inclusion throughout the broader community.  Since Diversionary’s founding in 1986, it has continually provided an inspiring and thought-provoking theatrical platform to explore complex and diverse stories of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning communities in the form of live entertainment that can be enjoyed by all. 

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