Melissa Leilani Larson

MESTIZA, OR MIXED

Lark Timon is no stranger to failure; it’s loomed large throughout her filmmaking career. Plagued by debt and professional disappointment, Lark chances upon a potentially career-changing opportunity only to be confronted by questions about her art, her relationships and her identity as a queer mestiza.

“Melissa Leilani Larson’s superb play challenges the actors, who are part of the first majority-Filipino theatrical cast in Utah history…. Everything about Mestiza, or Mixed, and the production resonates with laser-like realism.” — Les Roka, The Utah Review

MESTIZA, or MIXED was commissioned by Plan-B Theatre in Salt Lake City, appearing on Plan-B’s 2022 season June 9 - 19, 2022. The production was directed by Jerry Rapier with lighting design by Emma Eugenia Belnap; costume design by Aaron Asano Swenson; sound design by Cheryl Ann Cluff; scenic design by Iris Salazar; props design by Arika Shockmel; stage management by David Knoell; intimacy direction by Kimi Handa Brown; COVID-19 safety officer, Kallie Filanda. The cast included: Joy Asiado, Jayna Balzer, Lily Hye Soo Dixon, April Fossen, and Carlos Nobeleza Posas.

“The only thing more American than dreaming and working for a better life is the constant struggle between individuality and yearning to be part of a community. MESTIZA, or MIXED captures that poignancy in so many layers—family, culture, sexuality—while evoking the question every immigrant asks, ‘What does it mean to be American?’ ” — Ashlei Havili Thomas, Front Row Reviewers

MESTIZA, OR MIXED “succeeds as an engaging character-based drama…. Larson’s exploration of Filipnx identity is an integral part of the play, which succeeds both because Larson has an honest, interesting perspective about life as a mixed-race person and because viewpoints like hers are so rarely seen onstage. (You’ve probably seen plenty of narratives about starving artists, but rest assured you haven’t seen one about a Filipina woman in Utah trying to make a Western.)” — Josh Petersen, Salt Lake Magazine

Check out these reader responses on the New Play Exchange.