Balikbayan, Homecoming

On Friday, April 15, the Andrews Filipino International Association (AFIA) held a Filipino cultural night entitled “Balikbayan.” I attended the event knowing that there would be a musical play and Filipino food served. Still, I, and the individuals I came with, were not anticipating a Broadwayesque performance. We were met with a 3-hour musical epic, entirely written and directed by Franky Paypa (junior, pre-physical therapy). It was a drama about love, loss, family, and culture with a healthy dose of comedy balanced with notes of drama, intrigue, and reconciliation in the face of devastation.

The performance began after the Filipino and American anthems were sung in three-part harmonies. The musical followed an 18-year-old named Mahalia Robinson (who calls herself Lia), who found herself on a quest to discover her identity. She did so on a mission trip to the Philippines that she was on with her adoptive parents who were coming back to a clinic that they had left 18 years before. In the first act, we are introduced to the choreographed opening song, “This is Home,” which was placed in the Philippine city of San Jose and was somewhat ironic as Mahalia did not initially feel at home. Part of this is because she is resentful toward her birth mom, who she believes did not care about her when she gave her daughter up. This anger for her mom extends to disillusionment with her culture and even her name, a name that was the last thing her birth mom gave her before she was abandoned as a baby. The musical is tied together by the idea that Mahalia is writing a college application essay to Yale with the prompt, “In your own words, describe what homecoming means to you.” By the end of the piece, Mahalia learns homecoming means Balikbayan, or “a return to [her] roots, to [her] culture.”

This musical was also full of complex and rich subplots and backstories. One such subplot was that of Mahalia’s adoptive parents, Dr. Sarah Robinson and Mr. David Robinson, who lied to her about how she came to be in their care. They told her that they got her in a closed adoption in the United States when they actually found her on a stormy night in the Philippines on the front porch of their clinic. This withheld truth leads to quite a few hijinks and a “Hamilton”-inspired song called “It’s Not a Lie.” There was another subplot about a boy named MJ Merardo, who Mahalia begins to like. As they start spending time with each other, he tells her a story about a woman who wanted to come to America but found herself in an abusive relationship with a man who wanted her to give up her pursuits. This woman becomes pregnant, and the abusive man leaves her and steals from her. She becomes so desperate that she puts her baby in a basket and places her on the porch of a local clinic, the very same clinic where the Robinsons work. A note in the basket simply said, “her name is Mahalia; please take care of her.” The web becomes even more complex as we learn that Mahalia’s mom is the sister of the woman who adopted MJ Mercardo. Those are only a couple of the beautifully embedded narratives sprinkled throughout the musical, some of which contain anything from silly gang members to the tragic deaths of loving parents.

This is what Savannah Tyler (freshman, speech pathology) had to say about the musical after its conclusion: “I felt completely immersed in the story and the music was very catchy. I enjoyed the fact that you could tell the cast and crew were passionate about their production and the food afterward was delicious.” Nick Rouse (freshman, computer science) had similar sentiments and said: “I felt the AFIA musical was one of the best plays from this school year. It had a great message that wasn’t masked by its Christian themes. I especially enjoyed the musical performances from the third act of the show. The whole play was well put together and I look forward to any more productions AFIA puts out in the future.”

A couple of the performers also had something to say, including Samantha Cardwell (sophomore, music performance piano), who played Dr. Sarah Robinson. She said: “It took us a long time and we rehearsed basically every week on Sunday for about two hours and [as we got] closer to the performance, we had to do five to even six hours… on top of practice on our own. Honestly, I’m sure I can speak for all of us, but we were nervous and we were worried that maybe some things might go wrong, but overall I think that . . . the performance went way better than we all anticipated, and I’m just really glad that we all had a great time. I personally had a lot of fun rehearsing as well as performing, but nothing beats performing, it’s the real deal.”

Zachary Lowe (freshman, pre-physical therapy), who played the former gang leader Vince Mercardo, said “It took a good amount of work . . . it was kind of hard.” When asked how he feels now that the musical is over, he stated, “It’s actually kind of bittersweet, because it was a lot of work and took a lot of time to dedicate to this, but the sweet part is [that] it was really really fun despite all the hard things that we had to do and all the cramming of lines. I really truly enjoyed it.”

Franky Paypa (junior, pre-physical therapy), who was the mastermind behind this performance, said,

“It was a huge undertaking, considering that I had to take on the project fairly last minute. Throughout the entire month of December, I slaved away to rewrite the original script, complete the unfinished songs, and write entirely new songs in less than three weeks so rehearsals could start straight away when school started back up again in January. And that wasn't even the hardest part. Since it was so late in the school year, it was incredibly difficult to find people to fill in all the character and band positions, despite the fairly small cast requirement of the new script. I'm thankful to the people who did say yes, and I wouldn't have had the casting any other way. My producer, Rhymiel Prudente (sophomore, medical lab science), and I seemed to run into a new problem every week, and it was hard to put on this project with less time than usual while still balancing a full school workload, work, and other co-curriculars . . .

Aside from the weekly rehearsals, I had to carve out some of my personal time to meet in small groups with the cast, or work one-on-one with them to coach them on their songs or do scene work. We also had to iron out issues with the venue, but even by the performance date, we still had not done an entire full run-through of the musical. Honestly, we were playing everything by ear on the day of. Our final performance WAS our soundcheck.

But, despite all the bumps along the road, the cast, band, and crew really did a marvelous job in pulling everything together. It wouldn't have been possible without each and every one of them, and though I can't say the play went on without a hitch or exactly to my vision, we did the best that we could with the time and resources that we had, and the memories I made along the way were well worth the pain (and tears). Thank you to the entire PCN 2022 team, and an even bigger thanks to Kristin Ferrer and her team back in 2020.

‘Balikbayan’ wouldn't have existed without their work and dedication, and I can only hope that what I delivered met at least half of their expectations.”

The 2021-2022 AFIA President, Justin Flores “Jflo” (junior, medical laboratory science), adds, “So much work was put into not only making this PCN come to life but also producing it in a way that truly encapsulated the dreams of the original producers from years ago. I actually had no role in any of the actual PCN musical planning, coordinating, directing, etcetera. All credit should go to Franky and the team that she put together! I can’t even begin to imagine the amount of blood sweat and tears that were shed in the process of rehearsing every single week, on top of any academic responsibilities they had.

Usually, a PCN director is chosen in the summer before the Fall semester begins. This gives the director plenty of time to plan out what they want PCN to look like for the Spring. However, due to unforeseen circumstances, I ended up reaching out to Franky in December, just before we left for Christmas break! We realized that we were going to have to work 10 times as hard, but Franky accepted the challenge and she gathered together the most capable and talented team!

If the event that I took part in planning puts a smile on people’s faces, then the event was successful. Meeting new people and seeing old friends last night, I saw nothing but smiles! Also, the AFIA aunties really showed the students just how important they are to AFIA through the amazing food that they provided. PCN isn’t PCN without food, and we are always grateful to our aunties for being so willing to help feed those who attend every year. Unfortunately, I was not able to watch the musical, but judging from the reactions of people coming out of the chapel afterward, they were blown away! The actors, actresses, and musicians poured their hearts and souls into making the performance as successful as it was. I couldn’t have asked for a better farewell event, as we are currently transitioning into handing down the Presidency from myself to Jaden Leiterman (junior, medical laboratory science) and his new cabinet. I’m excited for what Jaden’s PCN will look like next year and I hope that we see even more smiles!”