Broke

Desipina & Co. present a workshop staging of Vishakan Jeyakumar’s Broke, directed by Abigail Marateck.

Broke explores day to day life in a Queens autoshop run by two African American brothers, Derrick and Kevin, and their employee Neelan, a Sri Lankan refugee. When temperamental and elusive Vince joins the team, it becomes difficult to tell what needs fixing more – the cars or the mechanics.

Desipina & Co. is a South Asian and Asian American theatre and film company firmly dedicated to promoting cross-pollinations of artistic, political, and cultural dialogues. The mission is to acknowledge the unique differences that exist within Asian American communities, which in itself is divided by race, religion, social and economic status. Desipina & Co. wishes to use these differences to promote understanding and to blur the self-imposed boundaries placed upon the vastly diverse minority group that makes up a growing percentage of the current population. Through the use of self-definition, they wish to nurture the works of underrepresented multi-ethnic individuals, as well as empower female artists to tell their stories.

This production is a part of the Performing Ethnicity International Conference and Arts Festival, organized by Ma-Yi Theater Company, The City College of New York, the University of the Philippines System, and Philippine Forum. Major support provided by The Ford Foundation.