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THE PLAY
Filipinos love love. Filipinos love beauty. Filipinos love pageants.
Former Beauty Queen Carmelita returns to Queens, New York, to start a new circuit of beauty pageants for the community in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of Filipino Independence Day. Her daughter, Jesca, is against the practice, and tries to stop them. As a way to prevent Jesca from doing so, Carmelita coerces her seven-year-old grandson, Ernesto, to participate, which then unearths troubling questions of race, identity, colorism, and the Global South’s obsession with the multi-billion-dollar industry of skin whitening. Part unhinged teleserye, part beauty pageant, and part historical reckoning, the play begs the question whether mercury truly does make the skin glow.
Former Beauty Queen Carmelita returns to Queens, New York, to start a new circuit of beauty pageants for the community in celebration of the 125th Anniversary of Filipino Independence Day. Her daughter, Jesca, is against the practice, and tries to stop them. As a way to prevent Jesca from doing so, Carmelita coerces her seven-year-old grandson, Ernesto, to participate, which then unearths troubling questions of race, identity, colorism, and the Global South’s obsession with the multi-billion-dollar industry of skin whitening. Part unhinged teleserye, part beauty pageant, and part historical reckoning, the play begs the question whether mercury truly does make the skin glow.
DEVELOPMENT HISTORY
Internal Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab, New York, NY 2025
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab, Manila House, & Nacho Tambunting, Manila, PH 2026
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab (Ariel Estrada), Nacho Tambunting, New York, NY 2026
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab, Manila House, & Nacho Tambunting, Manila, PH 2026
Public Reading, produced by Leviathan Lab (Ariel Estrada), Nacho Tambunting, New York, NY 2026
AWARDS & RECOGNITIONS
Semi-Finalist - 2025 Irons in the Fire
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant 2025
Finalist - 2025 O'Neill Playwrights Conference
Finalist - 2025 Bay Area Playwrights Festival
New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant 2025
Finalist - 2025 O'Neill Playwrights Conference
Finalist - 2025 Bay Area Playwrights Festival