Immigration and community take center stage in new play

A new, multi-lingual play about a Filipino immigrant boy living in New York City has its world premiere this weekend in Boston.

Written by Gaven D. Trinidad, “Learning How to Read by Moonlight” follows 6-year-old Eddie, who is portrayed by a puppet. As his family faces the challenges of being undocumented, he learns English from his imaginary friend. A co-production of CHUANG Stage and Company One Theatre, the show has dialogue in English, Tagalog and Ilonggo, languages spoken in the Philippines.

“The story centers this little boy who's immigrated to the U.S., who is trying to navigate life as someone who's learning English, who's undocumented and doesn't feel that they belong,” said Trinidad.

Trinidad is a first-generation Filipinx American playwright, director and dramaturg. They said they found inspiration for the play in both their own family’s immigration and as a public school teacher working with young students, including undocumented ones.

“I was in my early 20s. I didn't have the maturity or emotional capacity to really care for my students. I had fifth graders calling me dad,” said Trinidad, who described the process of writing the play as a reflection on their time as a teacher. “It’s me trying to show the love that I couldn't show when I was a public school teacher at that young age.”

Alison Yueming Qu, CHUANG Stage executive director and 2023 WBUR Maker, visited New York City (where Trinidad is based) to meet about staging the play. Qu also tapped Chicago-based Natsu Onoda Power to direct and design the set.

Power has earned a reputation for her visual achievements in staging new works, incorporating a variety of inspirations into her work, from comics, animation to a Japanese paper-placard storytelling form known as kamishibai. Company One audiences may remember Power’s previous titles: 2016’s “The T Party” and her 2015 Elliot Norton Award-winning play “Astro Boy and the God of Comics,” both of which she wrote and directed.

“The set consists of a lot of boxes and shipping crates, which represent people in transit and also at the same time containers for memories,” said Power, also noting how the boxes stand in for the New York City skyline in this new play.

In addition to directing and designing the scenery, Power built Eddie the puppet herself. She noted it “was not just a technical choice.” In order to study the main character as early as possible, "I wanted to have the puppet day one, so that's what I had to do.”

While “Learning How to Read by Moonlight” is not a musical, it incorporates several original songs by Trinidad, performed in English and Tagalog. The actors sing and play accompaniment live onstage. They also take turns operating the Eddie.

“It's collaborative puppeteering,” said Power. “So the puppet becomes a site of community itself. The boy, Eddie, has multiple forces that's moving him.”

The role of narrator will be played by a different community leader each performance, including Brandie Blaze, mica rose and more artists, activists and educators.

The play has taken on a new sense of urgency for Trinidad and Power in light of the recent increase in ICE activity under the Trump administration.

“This play is very — unfortunately — relevant,” said Power. “[It’s] a compliment to the play, but also not a compliment to the world that we live in.”

Trinidad said when they first conceived of the play, it was about resilience. “And the play is still that," they noted. “But now the play has become a story of people coming together because they're in a moment of crisis and they're trying to remind each other that they're human beings.”

“Learning How to Read by Moonlight” will travel across three venues during its run in Greater Boston, in alignment with CHUANG Stage’s mission to make art accessible to working-class communities of Asian American immigrants. It will run at the BCA Plaza Theatre May 16-25, Pao Arts Center May 29-June 1, and The Umbrella Arts Center in Concord June 5-8. The tickets are also priced on a “pay-as-you-are” model.