Something In The Air - CalArts Student Play in HFF

“So many of us take for granted the comfort that seeing ourselves onstage brings… if our stories are not told, it can equate to an erasure.”

– Evelyn Serrano

 

Hello!! My name is Chacha and I am a BFA Acting student at California Institute of the Arts. As an Asian actor who was born and raised in America, I’ve been fighting for more representation in the arts my entire life. My fellow CalArts peers from across the diaspora are either Asian-American or Asian in America. This makes each of our stories and backgrounds so diverse, full of nuances, and make up who we are today. I wanted to create a story that featured diverse characters who all happened to be Asian. Most Asian-American theatre is segregated by ethnicity, so I wanted to change that narrative. 

 

In the wake of the anti-Asian hate crimes in this country over the last year, it is crucial now more than ever to highlight Asian voices onstage/onscreen. I myself have found healing through working on a piece with other Asian actors. There is a sense of familiarity, as well as the urge to represent the other voices in our community that are never heard. This is something worth fighting for together.

 

Something In The Air started as a tiny seed, an artistic response, and is now developing into a project that I aim to dedicate a moment of my life to. Hollywood Fringe Festival has been celebrating theatre in the heart of Los Angeles for years, and I truly believe this show would be an important addition to its 2022 Festival lineup. This play not only tackles issues of identity and community, but also is a story of loss, friendship, existentialism, comedy, and pure entertainment. It all takes place at an airport with eight college students on spring break– a mainstream trope and quintessential college experience that we do not usually see people of color represented in the big picture. I hope this story will be a small but mighty change in the way Asian people are seen in the media– not sidekicks, not tokens, not caricatures. Just simply us. Our truths. Our stories. 

 

This fundraiser will help cover the submission to the festival, the venue costs (total for each performance of our run), as well as marketing/promotional material. All of your help is so greatly appreciated, thank you so much in advance from the bottom of my heart. We definitely could not do this alone.

Follow us on Instagram : @something.intheair

Poster designed by Josh Lin