You might think me childish, but I think that when one loves, one must love greatly. [Letter no. 5]
0874
A Filipino-American Love Story
It started with a grocery bag filled to the brim.
0874 (Eight hundred seventy-four) is named for the number of letters my grandparents wrote each other over the three years after my Lolo, Jun, moved to the US and my Lola, Paz, was still at home in Manila. My Lola gave me the letters (in a plastic bag from Giant) as a source of encouragement when my boyfriend, now husband, moved 3,000 miles away and we began a five year long distance relationship. At the beginning of letter one, Paz wanted to be a nun. By the eight hundred and seventy-fourth letter, she moved across the world to start a new life with Jun.
The story oscillates between the world of the letters and the present day, and explores questions of whether truth is bound to time and place, and what one’s truth has to do with distance and intimacy within the context of family. The script is taken from the couple’s letters, and the music draws from my collaborators’ and my artistic influences spanning contemporary singer-songwriter, indigenous Filipino music, Western classical music, musical theatre, and American jazz.
0874 has been developed at The Kennedy Center's Page-to-Stage Residency and presented as a workshop at The Kennedy Center. This project employed a predominantly female and predominantly BIPOC team of artists during a time when the pandemic was still ravaging the professional theatre community. 0874 has a history of performances at The Lincoln Theatre, Merriweather Post Pavilion, and Olney Theatre Center, and was a finalist in the BMI Musical Theatre Writers Workshop.
Meet the Creative Team
Alexandra Palting
Creator | Writer | Composer
Baz King
Arranger | Composer
Aria Velz
Director
Isaiah Shim
Piano
Filipino-American Fashion Partnerships
0874 is a love story, but it’s also a Filipino immigrant story. And it felt wrong to tell it wearing an $8 piece of clothing global fast-fashion brand with tag that says “Made in the Philippines.”
That’s why I’m proud to collaborate with Filipino-American designers with Fil/Am soft-serve-swirl in their threads, environmental sustainability on their minds, and creative dignity for their workers at their core.
Past Performances
