THE DRAGON CYCLE

The DRAGON CYCLE is her trilogy of matrilineal musicals about her Filipino American gangster family; one play for each generation built around a central female protagonist and her specific hero’s journey. DRAGON LADY (Part I) premiered at Intiman Theatre and was the recipient of three 2018 Gregory Awards (Outstanding Sound/Music Design, Outstanding Actress in a Musical, Outstanding Musical Production). DRAGON MAMA (Part II) premiered at American Repertory Theatre (A.R.T.) and was the recipient of two 2019 Elliot Norton Awards (Best Original Script and Best Solo-Performance). The third and final play in the cycle, DRAGON BABY, is currently in developement.

DRAGON LADY, Part 1 (Premiered at Intiman Theater 2017)

DRAGON LADY is a two act cabaret musical with a three-person band and a cameo appearance by Maria Porkalob Sr, the matriarch of the clan. On the eve of her 60th birthday, faced with her crumbling legacy and apathetic children, Grandma Maria decides to share the dark secrets of her fantastical life with one lucky grandchild and discovers that it is never too late to atone for the pain we inflict on the ones we love most and to forgive ourselves for past regrets.

Intergenerational trauma and healing, lots of karaoke, and a couple of murders: this is Dragon Lady.

DRAGON MAMA, Part II (Premiered at American Repertory Theatre 2019)

DRAGON MAMA is a two act solo-show with music about Maria Porkalob Jr,. the eldest of the second generation. Born to an immigrant mother with lost dreams, an absent father, and a society that fails immigrant families, Maria Porkalob Jr. is forced to grow up too soon, acting as surrogate mother to her 4 siblings while trying to balance her intersectional identity--poor, queer, brown, an immigrant. She yearns for a gayer, more POC-filled life than Bremerton, WA can offer her. When the opportunity to earn a lot of money in a short time presents itself, Maria must make an important decision. Leave her debt-ridden mother, four young siblings, and newborn daughter for the wild unknown of Alaska, or stay close to home, family, and intergenerational ghosts?

Dragon Mama traverses 25 years of her mother’s life filled with queer love in a barren land, a dope 90’sR&B soundtrack, Filipino gangsters, and ghosts.

DRAGON BABY, Part III (currently in development)

DRAGON BABY is a two act musical with a cast of 10. The first of her family to attend college, Sara Porkalob has one more project to complete before she begins her glamorous life as a professional actress: her senior thesis. Faced with her parent’s ugly breakup and midlife crisis, Sara decides to devote all of her time and energy into writing the next Great American Musical but no matter how much she writes, it all seems...wrong. What story did she have to tell? What could she create that hadn’t been already invented?

Picking up where Dragon Mama left off, we follow Sara’s journey from the queer communal house of her childhood in Anchorgage, AK to her teens in conservative hometown of Bremerton, WA to the hallowed halls of a Seattle liberal arts college as she deconstructs her white supremacist education, juggles 5 jobs including but not limited to a phone sex operator, a drug dealer, and a pizza call center aide, and ultimately realizes her purpose in the universe.