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Asian Journal wrote a very nice piece about the two Ilocano artists at FringeNYC this year: Joyce Lao and Jeremy Rafal. Check out an excerpt on the interview below.  Make sure to click the link to go to the full article.  After going to see The Boy from Bantay, also go see Behind the Wall to support our fellow Ilocano friends.

Ilocano artists share their stories at FringeNYC

By Momar Visaya
Published: July 31, 2015

It’s the height of summer and it’s Fringe season again.

This year marks the 19th year of The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC), touted as the largest multi-arts festival in North America with programming from 200 of the world’s best emerging theatre groups and dance companies.

Fringe festivals are open access, artist driven, uncensored arts and community events that showcase fresh, daring, and groundbreaking work.  Fringe Festivals have been around since 1947 and the first was held in Edinburgh, Scotland, and is the largest in the world. The festivals highlight the unique point of view of emerging and established artists from the Philippines and all over the world in theater, literature, music, dance, visual art, film, cabaret, performance art, circus and every other artistic genre in between.

From Edinburgh to London, New York to Philadelphia, Hong Kong to Taipei, South Africa to Melbourne, and numerous global cities with vibrant arts and culture scenes, Fringe represents the voices of artists and artistic genres that both challenge and reflect traditional and contemporary art forms.

This year, even the Philippines got into the fray as it joined over 200 international Fringe Festivals around the world through Fringe Manila, which organizers hope will be the perfect platform for emerging and local established artists to take risks and share their work to diverse audiences.

Here in New York, FringeNYC takes place over the course of two weeks and has about 20 venues in downtown Manhattan, particularly in the Lower East Side, East Village and Greenwich Village. With an attendance topping 75,000 people, FringeNYC is considered as New York City’s fifth largest event.

And this year, a couple of Ilocano artists made it into this year’s lineup and  will be taking center stage to share their stories and journeys.

The Boy from Bantay

In a nutshell, The Boy From Bantay is a heartwarming autobiographical journey of growth and self-discovery through the life of a cartoon-obsessed boy who moved from the Philippines to the United States to chase his dreams of being a concert pianist.

– See more at: http://asianjournal.com/aj-magazines/ilocano-artists-share-their-stories-at-fringenyc/#sthash.KdAaV7Cy.dpuf

We have been featured in Playbill as one of the six solo shows not miss at FringeNYC.  I don’t know how this happened, but thank you Playbill for believing in our work!  Check out the article below.  Make sure to click on the link for the full article.

Six Solo Shows Not to Miss at Fringe NYC
By Olivia Clement
27 Jul 2015
The New York International Fringe Festival, the largest multi-arts festival in North America, will kick off its 19th year on Aug. 14, running through Aug. 30 at 16 different venues in downtown Manhattan. In the lead-up to opening night, Playbill.com offers a round-up of festival highlights.

Six Solo Shows Worth Seeing at Fringe NYC:

Winner of Best Production and Best Directing at the 2015 Hollywood Fringe Festival, Tiananmen Annie is the true story of finding your “true Chinese soul” as told by creator and performer Ann Starbuck. Commemorating the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Starbuck relives her experiences of Beijing in 1989. Performances take place at 64 East 4th St.

The romance between First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her lesbian lover Lorena Hickok, a prominent journalist, is captured in Hick: A Love Story. Pieced together using verbatim quotes from their letters, the show is created and performed by Terry Baum. The show had a sold-out and critically acclaimed run at San Francisco’s Eureka Theatre. Performances take place at Drom.

From the creator of the musical Eat $h*t: How Our Waste Can Save the World, which the The Scotsman called, “the most important show on the 2012 Fringe,” comes another politically savvy and comical musical show exploring climate change. Shawn Shafner’s An Inconvenient Poop was presented at Dixon Place and returns to New York for the Fringe Festival at The White Box at 440 Studios.

Christopher Duva adapts and performs David Foster Wallace’s best-selling essay A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again, for the stage. The essay chronicled the writer’s misadventures aboard a week-long Caribbean cruise and was published in the collection with the same title. Performances take place at the White Box at 440 Studios.

Jeremy Rafal’s The Boy from Bantay is a solo play with music and images, written and performed by him. Now a concert pianist, Rafal takes his audience on a heartwarming journey of growth and self-discovery beginning with his childhood in the Philippines. Performances take place at Spectrum.

Fans of musical theatre legend Elaine Stritch will appreciate Jay Malsky’s Elaine Stritch Still Here. Playing at Spectrum, the work invites audiences to spend the evening with the late dame as Malsky regales with songs and stories from Stritch’s life.

For more information on Fringe NYC and its full calendar of events and performances visit FringeNYC.

You can now buy tickets online.  Go get them before they sell out!  If you don’t know when to come, join us for our opening night on AUG 16th at 9:45PM.

Get your The Boy From Bantay tickets here.

We’re using Indiegogo to seek $1,200 to fund the development and production of this show. Check out the link to see all the great perks we’re offering, including premium tickets, show swag, and even a dinner date with Jeremy!

Support The Boy from Bantay at FringeNYC 2015!

We are excited to announce that we will be performing at Venue #4: Spectrum. It is a beautiful venue equipped with multimedia and a concert grand piano!

Excerpts from The Boy From Bantay will be performed at Dixon Place on June 26th at 7:30.