“When I write about ethnicity, I try to do it from the inside. I don’t like writing about ethnicity as a thing to display to other people. I think it’s more interesting if the audience steps into your shoes.”

-A. Rey Pamatmat

Playwright Bio

A. Rey Pamatmat is a celebrated Filipino-American gay playwright from Port Huron, Michigan. He grew up acting in a local community theater, surrounded by few peers who looked like him. Influenced by Tony Kushner, Maria Irene Fornes, and August Wilson, Pamatmat has been the Co-Director of the Ma-Yi’s Writers Lab since 2004, the nation’s largest collective of Asian-American playwrights. His play Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them had a rolling world premire on the National New Play Network starting at the Actors Theater of Louisville Humana Festival. Pamatmat currently teaches playwriting at SUNY Purchase and has worked in the development departments at various Off-Broadway theaters. He is a Resident Artist at SPACE on Ryder Farm and the Sundance Theater Institute. He has been nominated for a Lambda Literary Award and won a GLAAD Media Award for his writing. He received his BFA in Acting from NYU and an MFA in Playwriting from the Yale School of Drama. Pamatmat currently resides in Sunnyside, Queens.

Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them

Synopsis: Edith and her brother Kenny are latch-key kids on a farm in the Midwest, trying to get through school while raising each other in the process. Their only visitor is Kenny's friend Benji, a nerdy 16 year old classmate who becomes Kenny's boyfriend after some less-than-wholesome study dates. We learn that Kenny and Edith's father abandoned them after their mother died, and their father has a new girlfriend. Meanwhile Benji's parents try to limit the amount their son can visit the siblings. When Benji's mom finds a love note for Kenny in his bag, he is kicked out of the house and moves in with Kenny and Edith. Thinking it was Benji's mom, Edith accidentally shoots her dad's girlfriend. Edith is sent to a boarding school, and tries to run away. She hurts herself, trying to fly, ultimately resigned to premature adulthood.

How this play can be used: Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them is a sweet and funny coming-of-age story about independence, love, and their consequences. The play could be taught alongside classic coming-of-age literature as a contemporary counterpart. It also contains excellent monologues and two person scenes for Filipino-American high school students to be used in auditions and in drama classrooms. This play could also be used to introduce LGBTQ narratives for high school or college students, and as a great example of de-centralizing whiteness and queerness in American dramatic literature.

Sample activity: Ideal for middle school students. The instructor begins by asking students to draw a picture of the 'typical American family' on a sheet of blank paper with colored markers. Then, the instructor will ask students to draw a picture of their own family. Once they've done this, students will break out into small groups to discuss the similarities and differences in the two drawings. The instructor can then ask each group to pick one example to dramatize as tableux. First, students will show an image of the 'typical American family' and then an image of one of their own families. In the last step, students will take five seconds to slowly transform their first 'idealized' image to the latter 'real' image using their bodies. The instructor should wrap up the exercise with a discussion about the many ways families can look and function, with the goal to inspire pride amongst students with non-traditional families.

Discussion questions:

1. What lessons do the young people learn about life by the end of the play?

2. How does the remote setting influence the tone and sequence of events throught the story?

3. How does Edith question traditional heteronormative views on the American family?

4. In the lobby for a production of Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them Pamatmat overheard a woman say, “This play would get done everywhere if the main characters weren’t Asian.” How can we actively de-centralize and de-normalize whiteness and straightness from American theater?

“All of my plays usually start with confusion: something in the world doesn't make sense to me, or two very different things seem related but I don't know why or how. When that confusion crystallizes into a question, I start writing—writing for me is a search for answers and understanding. Perhaps because of that my plays tend to be about self-actualization both for individuals, and for groups—people or communities using their own power to change or determine their fate.”

-A. Rey Pamatmat

House Rules

Synopsis: The American children of Filipino patriarch Ernie get word that their father suffered a heart attack in church. Two months later, Ernie is still in the hospital. One of the hospital doctors, Momo, argues with her mother Vera about supporting her photographer sister Twee as they play gin rummy. In the middle of their argument, Twee walks in, having just returned from a trip to India on an artist grant that has run out. The sisters fight. That same day, Rod, Ernie's eldest son, goes to game night at Momo's apartment with his brother JJ. He's upset to find his recently-ex boyfriend Henry there and an argument ensues that ends with Henry, JJ, and Twee leaving the apartment. Later, Twee and Momo get into a fight only to be reprimanded by their mother Vera, who has a stroke from the stress of the arugment. We learn that Vera has died, and Twee is left helpless as JJ abandons his dying father in the hospital, just like Henry abanadoned Rod. As the lights fade, Ernie lets go of his solitaire cards and passes away.

How this play can be used: House Rules explores the grief and frustrations of two generations of two Filipino-American families. The play could be a tool for exploring assimilation and family identities with immigrant high school or college students. It would also be useful in a family therapy setting.

Thunder Above, Deeps Below

Synopsis: Perry, a business assistant at Prince of Tires tire shop, asks a mystical Boatwoman for help crossing the mysterious waters of Lake Michigan. Meanwhile, a group of young gay-for-pay and transgender homeless prostitutes talk about Hector's latest trick outside the local Dippin' Do's donought shop. They are Puerto Rican, Dominican, Filipino- striving for some semblence of the American dream. Inside the store, Marisol offers Theresa a job, but Teresa is saving up for three bus tickets to San Francisco for her and her friends. She recounts how Marisol found her drowning in the frozen lake, having submerged herself after giving up her newborn baby after her family rejected its' Black father, Perry. High above the stage, the Boatwoman grants Perry journey across the lake towards resurrection. Later, young Hector dines with his wealthy closeted john, who he's worried will take over his life completely. He tries to rob the john, Locke, and then Marisol at the Dippin' Do's. In the end, all are left in need of resurrection.

How this play can be used: Thunder Above, Deeps Below is a Shakespearean epic on modern themes of poverty, sexuality, and identity. With a diverse cast, the play provides many opportunities for transgender actors of color, and could be performed with trans community groups. The play, with characters experiencing homelessness, could also be performed by LGBTQ homeless youth. In an educational setting, the play provides a contemporary lense through which to understand Shakespeare, magical realism, and modern dramatic literature.

Complete Works

FULL PLAYS

Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them

Thunder Above, Deeps Below

after all the terrible things I do

Beautiful Day

New

Out of Joint

A Power Play; Or, What’s-its-name

Picture 24

Pure

The Shotgun Message

A Spare Me

SHORT WORKS

1260 Minute Life

Ain’t Meat

Baked, Bean & Fran

High, a five excited!

Limbo

Red Rover

Additional Resources

Bibliography

Blair, E. (2012). Edith Can Shoot and Knit a Family Together. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2012/03/16/148774075/edith-can-shoot-centers-on-precocious-young-girl

Evans, S. (2016). This Time It’s Personal For A. Rey Pamatmat. American Theatre. https://www.americantheatre.org/2016/03/17/this-time-its-personal-for-a-rey-pamatmat/

NA. A. Rey Pamatmat Gets To The Heart. Huntington Theatre Company.https://www.huntingtontheatre.org/articles/after-all-the-terrible-things-i-do-articles/Gallery/A-Rey-Pamatmat-Gets-to-the-Heart/

Pamatmat, A.R. (ND). Plays. A. Rey Pamatmat: Playwright. Photographer. Punk-Ass B!%*#. https://areypamatmat.wordpress.com/plays/

Pamatmat, A.R. (2012). Edith Can Shoot Things and Hit Them. New York: Samuel French Inc.

Pamatmat, A.R. (2012). Thunder Above, Deeps Below. New York: Samuel French Inc.

Pamatmat, A.R. (2015). Some Other Kid in Facing Our Truth: 10-Minute Plays On Trayvon, Race, and Privilege. New York: Samuel French Inc.

Pamatmat, A.R. (2018). How To Be An Artist in a World That Hates You. American Theatre. https://www.americantheatre.org/2018/04/10/how-to-be-an-artist-in-a-world-that-hates-you/

Shannon, S. (2015). Being Real: A. Rey Pamatmat and The New American Identity. Howlround. https://howlround.com/being-real