Press Release: March 24, 2002

New Filipino Comedy to Play at UIC: Sister Outlaw

As part of Asian American Awareness Month at UIC, sponsored by the Asian American Coalition Comittee, Chicago's Pintig Cultural Group will perform their Filipina, immigrant, and lesbian comedic play SISTER OUTLAW in UIC's Latino Cultural Center on Thursday, March 28th, at 6:30PM.

Featuring an all-Filipino cast, including UIC architecture student Louie Sison, SISTER OUTLAW is the newest of Pintig's widely hailed performances. The play is free and open to all.

SISTER OUTLAW explores the plight of Marina, a "femme Filipina" immigrant and lesbian who must marry the brother (Jason) of her true love (Joey a.k.a. Joy) in order to stay in the country. Easing the audience's encounter with controversial subjects, laughter merges with serious scrutiny of immigration and gender issues.

"SISTER OUTLAW is a rhythmic fugue on gender and immigration," says the play's director, Louie Pascasio. "It's a comic meditation on love and how far love can go to make people move heaven and earth as the heart grows fonder. It warmly plays out voices of equally resonant, familiar yet underprivileged themes that are only heard on certain spots not nearly close to where mainstream audiences are."

"Joey and Marina's struggle to assert their legitimate claims to their feelings and identities strike a strong chord in our everyday politics," Pascasio explains. "It is rather unfortunate that for a country whose origin of civilization sprang from migratory movements of culture and people, such themes as immigration and gender are left to meander within the periphery of public debates."

"Artists should never cease to be conscious of creating opportunities that will continue to challenge misconceptions, demystify stereotypes and construct new identities to expand the latitude for human understanding."

Producer Greg Taruc expressed his opinion on the play's issues as well. "How I feel for those who cannot even give their partners the right every other heterosexual individual can so freely give to the green card-less person whom they chose to fulfill a long-term relationship with. What options do same-sex partners have who find themselves in this immigration-quagmire?"

Lani T. Montreal, SISTER OUTLAW's playwright, ends her Playwright's Notes with her thoughts: "SISTER OUTLAW is for all outlawed lovers, their friends and chosen families, who prevail in the face of state- and church-sanctioned odds. And when Marina asks, 'Is it worth it?' we might also want to ask ourselves, "Isn't true love always?'"

For more information about Thursday's performance, or other Asian American Awareness Month events, the public can visit http://aacc.uiconline.com. For more information about Pintig Cultural Group, they can visit http://www.pintig.org.

The Asian American Coalition Committee is an umbrella organization of Asian American student organizations at UIC. It aims to unify Asian American students to strengthen their voice on campus, to educate the entire UIC community about issues concerning Asian Americans, and to empower Asian American students through their gaining visibility and representation.