Lola
By Miles Orduña
Director: Wai Yim
Dramaturg: Jihye Kim
Synopsis: Middle-aged, Filipino – American Rey is having an identity crisis. He’s stuck on an underwhelming rung in the corporate ladder at his mediocre, Silicon Valley job. His woke teenage son, James, is disappointed in him and his failed marriage – and is now acting out in school. Nora, his aging immigrant Mother, is getting worse. She’s glued to Fox News and EWTN (the Catholic channel) and her hoarding is reaching new heights. And on top of all that he can’t stop dreaming about his Father, whose death 30 years ago upended Rey’s life. However, the comfortable distance between the three is erased when Nora becomes the victim of a violent, anti-Asian hate crime. Both Rey and James put their lives on hold to come back to Rey’s childhood home in Des Moines, IA to help nurse Nora back to health – a process that proves that healing is sometimes more painful than the injuries themselves. In Lola, three generations of a Filipino-American family collide in the name of healing and self-discovery.
