THE WALTZ

It’s 1993 Romeo Alvarez, is on his way to university, driving his hatchback from his home in Scarborough, ON, to Vancouver, BC. Having been guilted by his mom into stopping to visit family, Romeo pulls off the TransCanada to drop in on rural Saskatchewan (where she first landed from the Philippines as a nurse some twenty years ago). As he sets about fulfilling his awkward family duty knocking on doors of relatives he’s never met, he discovers Bea, a girl his age whose history is woven to his own, though neither knows it. Set entirely on one accidentally romantic evening on the Canadian prairies, this play starts as a random encounter, and ends with a dance under a fateful moon.

The Waltz is a commission for the Blyth Festival Theatre. Additional development was made possible by The Factory Theatre and The Banff Playwrights Lab. Development has been generously supported by the Ontario Arts Council.

World Premiere: The Factory Theatre October 2022, Toronto.

COMEDY [Romance, Coming-of-Age]: 75 minutes; CAST: 1 female, 1 male.

The Waltz is the SECOND play of The Prairie Trilogy. Each play, though connected, is a stand alone story.

THE BEST FRIEND BLANKET FORT SHOw

Commissioned and Presented by Young People’s Theatre for Right Here, Right Now Online Theatre Festival, April 2021.
Directed by Mieko Ouchi
Dramaturg: Stephen Colella
Music: Lavender Badian-Parker
Featuring Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks & Gabe Maharjan

TYA: 20 minutes. CAST: 1 non-binary, 1 cis female

PRAIRIE NURSE

It’s November 1967.
Two young nurses, just off the plane from the Philippines, arrive at a rural hospital in Arborfield, Saskatchewan - population 300.
No one in town can tell them apart, including the lab tech at the hospital whose real job is playing goalie for the Arborfield Flyers. He falls in love with one of them but accidentally courts them both. It’s a comedy of errors with a great heart. 

Commissioned by The Blyth Festival. Development supported by The Ontario Arts Council.

World Premiere at The Blyth Festival, August 2013.

COMEDY: 2 ACTS, 1 hr 30 mins. CAST: 7 , 4 female, 3 male

FIRST play of The Prairie Trilogy.

Published by Scirocco Drama. Available here.

THE MAKING OF ST. JEROME

Guilt, grief an brotherly love set against the backdrop of a Coroners's Inquest into the untimely death of a Toronto school-boy. Inspired by real-life events.

PRODUCTIONS:

Next Stage Theatre Festival, January 2010, Directed by Nina Lee Aquino. Nominated for three Dora awards. 

DRAMA: 60 mins CAST: 5 - 3 male, 2 female. Can be cast larger by expanding CHORUS

Published by Playwrights Canada Press. Available here 

NOVENA

Novena is the story of a father and a daughter. A story of hypocrisy and forgiveness.

And did we mention a glow-in-the-dark statue of the Virgin Mary? 

PRODUCTIONS:

Uno Fest 2005, Victoria BC - Directed by Sue Miner

Toronto Fringe Festival 2002 - Directed by Anand Rajaram

RADIO:

Adapted into CBC Radio Drama - March 2004

Published by Scirocco Drama in anthology Where is Here? The Drama of Immigration Volume 2, Edited by Damiano Pietropaolo. Available here.