Theatre Rhinoceros Presents STICKY RICE: A Free Staged Reading

Acclaimed playwright Boni B. Alvarez's newest play Sticky Rice is his latest embodiment of "for us, by us" - "us," in this case, referring to gay Asian men who have struggled in silence with their body images, dating prospects, sense of self, community judgment, and the white gay male gaze (white male gay-ze?) as it uniquely affects gay men of the Asian diaspora. The play is also a twist on a fish-out-of-water comedy: a group of San Francisco gaysian friends splinters apart when one of them brings his new boyfriend into the fold. This new boyfriend is divergent and unexpected because ironically, he is also Asian, and in this friend group there is an unspoken, societally motivated rule that Asian men don't date each other.

Sticky Rice: A Free Staged Reading breaks a generally community-wide silence by introducing an impressive all-queer, seven-actor ensemble cast, five of them skillfully characterized, fully humanized Asian men. And perhaps most impressively, they talk amongst themselves, frankly and sometimes painfully, about their selves and their lives, moving together toward resolution. This is not just a play where everyone just happens to be Asian and gay - this is also a play about being Asian and gay, unfolded deftly and lovingly through dialogue between five human perspectives.

From the playwright: "In American media, Asian men have largely been depicted in an emasculated light - as the asexual nerd, the comedic foreign exchange student, the active yet sexless martial artist, the suffering gay butterfly. Sticky Rice features a group of San Francisco gaysian friends who have internalized such popular depictions and explores what happens when they are forced to confront their own self-hatred. Can these men embrace their masculinity and learn to celebrate the bodies they live in? Sticky Rice is about unwrapping sticky rice - about unearthing gay Asian beauty outside of the white gaze and beginning on the journey to self-love."

Sticky Rice: A Free Staged Reading is directed by Ely Sonny Orquiza and performed by a cast of Bay Area actors at Theatre Rhinoceros, the longest-running LGBTQ+ theatre in the world.

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