About How We Love Play

How We Love Play is a vignette play about Maria, a young Filipina-American growing up constantly around romance and romantic singers in her life, navigating her curiosity about love. How We Love will unravel three generational love stories told and sung by her family and friends. How We Love is the first letter in Maria’s Lovesick Archives, a series containing love letters to specific people in her life. Maria never knew how to fully express her admiration to the people she loves, so why not put it in a letter?

The play follows three love stories and consists of 10 characters in total. 6 main scene pairs alongside 3 side characters – all stories being navigated by main character Maria.

This is more than a performance, this is a passion project and love letter to community and culture, a space where we can see ourselves reflected on stage through music, laughter, tears and storytelling.

Playwright Statement

Playwright Coza Joy always wanted her first play that goes into production to be about that loving and warm feeling from karaoke sessions at my family parties – she wanted to spread that love to the communities she grew up in and the audience that watches How We Love. It was hard to put that feeling into words, so why not into a play? A vignette play that includes music and the stories representing Harana, a traditional Filipino serenade and courtship practice.

Coza Joy is a Creative & Organizer based on unceded Kumeyaay land, known as San Diego, CA. When developing this play and its production journey, she kept the intention of it being activated and fueled by community. At the core of her work, she hopes to show the intersections of art being a form of expression and love being a root of creation. Through How We Love, she explores themes of vulnerability, Filipino culture, laughter, playfulness, queer experience, and transparent conversations.

About the Director

Bianca Nialani is a Filipino-American actor and director, for both stage and screen. In her directorial debut with How We Love, Bianca brings both whimsical and dreamy character work, as well as grounding and straightforward instruction to the rehearsal space. Her experience as an actor in combination with her thoughtfulness as a director, is what drives these actors into sustainable success for this production journey. Bianca looks forward to a future in the world of acting, writing, and directing, particularly as the craft of storytelling lends itself as a voice for untold stories, opens and invites conversations, and builds bridges for healing.

So much gratitude and love to the following journey supporters: UniTEA Cafe for fueling us, Aris Elijah Pugal Foundation for their belief in our vision, Pacific Arts Movement for their support, PCC Studios and The FILAM FILM Collective for letting Coza Joy have the first table read at their space, Mendoza Family for being the roots, GoFundMe Supporters for their love, Asian Solidarity Collective for their space for our rehearsals, Three Point Studios for their documentation of our journey, Christian Hocson, Albert Vu, Peter Moua, Chzan Ocampo and Zach Manalo for capturing our magical moments, and many more to add that will probably fill the rest of this event page.

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We can’t wait for you all to meet our wonderful characters. See you soon!

Website - Tag us on Instagram! @rootedinhowwelove

How We Love Play

Independent Production, rooted in community love.