PTC is very excited to have Artistic Producer and Dramaturg, Davey Samuel Calderon work with playwright Justin Neal of Holy Crow Arts as a Company Collaboration on his new play in development, Aunties. Aunties is a new work inspired by Justin’s familial history connected to his grandmother’s life, Dorothy Almojuela (nee Nahanee) and the Coast Salish women of Bainbridge Island, Washington, working as migrant berry workers and establishing families with Filipino men. 

During Justin’s time at the Deer Lake Artist Residency, they’ve been delving deep into research of Bainbridge Island’s “Indipino” community, the American Indian Movement of the 60s/70s, and other relevant history.

About Aunties:

The play follows the lives of three generations of women of this “Indipino” family beginning with Coast Salish matriarch Rose and centring on her daughter Lizzy, who searches for her place in the community on both sides of the border. At an early age Lizzy finds her voice as a champion for justice, fighting for her relatives’ rights over a span of decades, whilst raising a son and her niece, Rita. We follow Lizzy through the volatile 1960s and the American Indian Movement to the right-wing backlash happening across present-day Turtle Island.