Experimental Theatre Movement – Journey of a Brown Girl

I recently had the opportunity to attend a performance of Jana Lynn Umipig’s Journey of a Brown Girl. Umipig and her cast mates made the journey from New York to perform for a two night stint at the Factory Theatre in downtown Toronto on August 28 & 29th, 2015
The first International production by the Kapwa Collective met with a resounding success, evidenced by two sold-out shows. The Kapwa Collective, describing themselves as a group of Filipino Canadian artists, critical thinkers, and healers who work across different academic and applied disciplines.” are mentored by Indigenous cultural leaders such as Lee Maracle (St̤ö:lo Nation) ,and Laini Lascelles (Lanaape Traditional Healer and Wolf Clan member), as well as Martha Ocampo a Filipino Canadian community leader.

Journey of a Brown Girl was birthed as the culmination of Jana Lynne Umipig’s Masters thesis which included interviews of a variety of Filipina women from across the United States, and had its first performance as a one woman show. Since then, Journey of a Brown Girl has performed in a number of venues including: New York University’s Center for Multicultural Studies “Ism Projects”- Pinayism; Da Poetry Lounge in Los Angeles, California; Wow Cafe Theatre in New York, and Search to involve Filipino Americans in Los Angeles,California.

A powerful, and emotionally charged production which showcased the history of Filipina women re-storying their collective history as teachers, healers, visionaries, and warriors. “Since July 2010, this collective of Pinay womyn from New York and New Jersey have been meeting in solidarity and sisterhood to examine the experiences, perceptions, struggles and triumphs of the Pinay body and spirit.”

An Experimental Theatre Movement, Journey of a Brown Girl was a whirlwind experiential teaching tool and highlighted numerous Indigenous and Filipino presentations as part of their pre-show line up. Community and partnerships worked together to bring together performers such as the EarthTALKER Water Project, Ester Dulawan Tuldague of the Ifugao Association of Canada, The Pantayo Kulintang Ensemble and Combat Science: Warrior Arts of Asia provided a vast array of teachings and wisdom from Indigenous and Traditional Filipino teachings and cultures.

This Toronto production witnessed the talents of Jana Lynne Umipig, Vanessa Ramalho, Lee Hubilla, and Karen Pangantihon. Audiences were riveted as our “Brown sisters” shared their stories on stage using their Malong, a garment known as a life cloth and the main tool of their storytelling which becomes an “extension of the spirits of the womyn to transform the characters and breathe life into the stories of all sisters, mothers, women, and girls whose voices fill the piece”. The combination of compelling performances and powerful stories shared in “Journey of a Brown Girl” resonated deeply with me, as an Indigenous woman fighting the colonial onset of the British and French, I empathized strongly with the dispossession and demonization of these women and their ancestors by Spanish colonizers. Sadly, there were also many stories that closely resembled the experiences highlighted by the Missing and Murdered Indigenous women and girl’s movement here in Canada.

I encourage readers to join the Journey of a Brown Girl movement, and follow the movement online. It is an important experiential piece that invites the theatre goer not only to learn about Filipino history but brings meaning to the lives of Filipino and Indigenous peoples culture and spirituality in a way that is disarming, open, and respectful of the collective consciousness of their audience.