Two Hidden Stories: Being Biracial

Writer: Emily Martinez

I used to believe every brown skinned Hispanic was Mexican, but I didn’t take the time to look in the mirror. I’m not even brown or full Mexican, so what make it okay for me to judge by the color of someone’s skin or a physical characteristic? Considering different cultures, I came upon biracialism. I’ve known what it is, but I never took the time to ask a biracial person their experience within their communities or life.

Jessica Bonilla

Half Asian, Half Hispanic
*Tia means aunt in Spanish.
    Jessica Bonilla and her brother were raised by their mother while their father worked hard to get by. Her mother is from Thailand, while her father was born in El Salvador.
    “When I was younger, I mostly identified as Asian…up until the 5th grade when I moved to a different school is when I started embracing my Hispanic side. Right now, when people ask me for my race, I say I am mixed.”
    Bonilla has gone to both El Salvador and Thailand, most recently Thailand. She says both countries are completely different, not just within the culture, but economically and socially. She noticed that in El Salvador they didn’t have a lot of necessities that she has easy access to in America. Compared to El Salvador, in Thailand she does feel like it’s a higher class within her family specifically.
    “In El Salvador we didn’t have Wi-Fi – we didn’t need it. We didn’t have hot water, or running water. In my tia’s neighborhood, we only had running water during certain times throughout the day. My other tia had a rural lifestyle. She lived on a farm with chickens and stuff, and we didn’t have electricity there. I experience two different lifestyles in El Salvador. In Thailand, I have an aunt who lives a rural lifestyle, but compared to my tia in El Salvador, she had running water and electricity. In Thailand, I felt more of a tourist. We’d go to different parts of the country, and in El Salvador, I’d mostly stay home with my tias and the rest of my family.”

   Being biracial, Bonilla further explained the struggle of being two races, and why it can be difficult to balance both roots.
    “Sometimes I feel like I’m not Asian enough, other times I feel like I’m not Hispanic enough, so I must be Asian enough for the Asians, and Hispanic enough for the Hispanics,” Bonilla said.
    Bonilla is trilingual. She describes how tough it is to learn a third language since she was not raised speaking Spanish fluently.

 
    “I do speak both Spanish and Thai. I learned Thai from my mom, obviously. As I mentioned earlier, she was the one who raised me. I learned most of my Spanish in high school…I will say that it was harder to learn, but I did know general Spanish from my dad,” she said.
     Bonilla attends the University of North Texas and plans to major in Biology and minor in Chemistry.

Michelle Hill


Half White, Half Hispanic

   Hill’s mother moved from Peru at eighteen years old to help support her family financially, eventually her siblings and parents came to America as well.
   “I haven’t gone to Peru, but I will make sure that I will go one day. I’ve always wanted to visit where my mom my mom grew up and other sites like Machu Picchu, and just to experience the culture.”
   Hill explains that she is exposed to her Peruvian culture and speaks both Spanish and English.
  “When we had parties at my grandma’s house, they’d play Peruvian music and we’d have Peruvian food. When my mom gets off work and she cooks, it’s always something Peruvian. I do speak Spanish. I think she taught us Spanish first. If she didn’t teach us Spanish first, she taught us both English and Spanish at the same time.”
   Hill describes her and her younger brother’s experience being biracial. She mentioned that all her mother’s siblings married a Hispanic person, and her mother was the only one to marry a white person. Hill further described that as a child, she couldn’t grasp why her and her brother were treated differently among her cousins.
   “As a child, you can’t comprehend why your family treats you differently just because your dad is a different race. My brother and I were always singled out by my cousins. We didn’t have a bond with them like they had with one another,” Hill said. “We were outsiders. They treated us like we were neighbors, not family. They’d say mean things, not racial things, but mean things because of our race. I never understood where it came from. That was really hard to go through growing up.”
    Hill describes her parents proudly going around telling their friends her accomplishments. She says that her parents are hopeful that she will carry a successful life. Hill states that her mom was always worried about how Hill would be able to attend college. If it weren’t for Hill’s full ride, college would have not been an option for her.
    “I’m making a difference in my household. Getting this opportunity has helped my family see that when things seem impossible, there’s always a way to go around it. I didn’t think I was going to be able to go to school. All my senior year, I was worried on how I was going to pay for it. This scholarship has also motivated my brother as well – he opens emails about colleges, I see him open letters he receives in the mail from colleges, and he reads college guidebooks. He takes it seriously. It makes me happy to know what I have done has not only impacted my parents, but my little brother as well, and he can be just as great or even greater than I am right now.”
    Hill attends the University of North Texas and is majoring in Sociology and minoring in Criminal Justice, she will receive a bachelors and master degree in the span of five years.

North Texas Raising the Roof

Writer: Kyle Pearson

When passing through Denton Texas, it’s hard to miss the University of North Texas campus. An increasingly growing student population has forced the campus to start growing to accommodate the new wave of students. With the campus growing the surrounding city is having to adjust to these changes as well. Over this past 2017 homecoming weekend many events transpired but one specifically caught the attention of seemingly everyone.

It is no shock that in a college town such as Denton there will be numerous students throwing numerous parties. Typically, Denton PD shuts down the large parties before they can become dangerous to anyone attending. However, over this homecoming weekend a particular party literally went too hard. The Ridge at North Texas was the apartment complex where the party took place, at about 1:45am on Sunday morning a group of students were partying, jumping up and down only to find themselves crashing through the floor, falling into the apartment below. For the complete floor to fall through there must have been hundreds of people attending the party, videos on social media show the entire function jumping up and down only to come to a complete stop when the floor collapsed. Although there was extensive damage to all surrounding apartments there were no reported casualties from the incident and injuries were limited and not extreme.

It is obvious that the apartment with the collapsed floor is not in livable conditions and neither is the apartment with the newly added sun roof. However, this incident is not only affecting the surrounding apartments but the entire apartment complex as well. When the floor collapsed many pipes needed for water supply or sewage disposal were broke leaving many apartments without water or with too much, causing flooding. The incident, although put many students out of their homes, caught the attention of national news.

Social Media has assisted in spreading the news of the incident providing much comic relief to what could have been a tragic incident. In a world where ‘Raising the roof’ isn’t good enough, young adults are crashing parties in a new literal sense. Having the floor go out from under you can change your perspective on life, it is a relief that no one was killed in what could have been a terrible turn of events. Only time will tell how the damages will be repaired but one can only wonder what kind of consequences the owner of the apartment will face for putting so many students out of their homes.

At the end of the day this incident costed no one their lives but many their homes. Hopefully a valuable lesson was learned and a new appreciation for ‘Maximum Capacity’ was obtained.

Fabulation Review

Writer: Kyle Pearson

Larger than life characters, sliding set pieces, and a protagonist that can’t seem to catch a break, the University of North Texas production of “Fabulation” is one that had my full and undivided attention the entire story. The production took place in the Studio theatre with a thrust stage (where the audience is on three sides of the performance) allowing the audience to be more engaged. The elaborate use of lights on the characters and also the audience created a great suspension of disbelief for all who were watching. Although the production had its own deal of complications and issues it was overall a great experience. Some specific aspects of this production truly made it unique and standout such as breaking of the fourth wall, and a darker comedic sense. Fabulation is a story that follows Undine and her adjustment to some major changes in life as she finds out her husband has left her and taken all of her hard-earned money with him. Although Undine faces major hardships on her journey that would normally not be funny at all, the use of many comedic surrounding characters provided a darker sense of comedy with a “Laughing at you not with you” kind of feel. Throughout this review I will examine the story portrayed, the set design, the acting, and overall what made this production unique and why one should desire to see Fabulation.

The structure of a production can determine how an audience member will react right from the start. Using a thrust stage can be a risky strategy due to those sitting on the side seating areas may miss crucial information or scenes all together. During the beginning of Fabulation a back-wall is up to establish the location is inside of Undine’s public relations office. During this section of the play the thrust stage was absolutely beneficial, the audience was close and engaged with the actors that were no more than five feet away from the audience themselves. As the play goes on and it is revealed that Undine will be losing her office the back-wall parts in the middle and slides to the side revealing an elaborate set with many levels that was hidden behind the office. For those sitting in the middle section of the audience, there were most likely little to no issues with this scene change. However, for the audience members seated on the side, there were many complications. As the characters moved to higher levels on the set it became harder to see them from the side resulting in two thirds of the audience simply listening to the scene. This problem was not one that was massively impactful to the show’s success due to the cast doing a great job at centering the show in the middle of the audience. The set had a great deal with how the show ran so smoothly, the use of platforms at different heights and the use of carefully placed openings to allow entrances and exits was impressive. The use of levels allowed for certain characters to have an exchange in one place seemingly hiding the dialogue from characters on opposite platforms allowing them all to still be in the same scene, such as when the family is all in the same house but Undine is having dialogue with her grandmother. The set was composed of rusted looking metal and wood to create an old run down look almost built to represent the lower class. The use of this allows the audience to understand where Undine comes from.

Going into this theatre with no past knowledge of the production allowed me to have a clean slate with no biases, I have always been a lover of theatre and feel that I have an eye for productions that truly go above and beyond what the playwright planned. As I saw this production unfold I couldn’t help but fall in love with the dark comedy the show provided. In the same way, I couldn’t help but think about if this is what the playwright, Lynn Nottage, intended. Perhaps Undine’s mismanagement of her life was to be seen as a tragic turn of events causing the audience to crave a happy ending. The director of this specific production, Vickie Washington, took this seemingly serious turn of events and provided many forms of comedic relief allowing the audience to slowly develop a relation and a sense of pity for Undine. The way Washington uses this connection causes the audience to root for Undine, although we laugh at the seemingly downward spiral of her life, we crave to see her get back on her feet which is expressed deeply in act two. Washington was able to involve the audience even further with the extensive use of lighting, whether it be on the cast or the audience themselves, each illumination seemed to involve everyone into the production. The point of the director’s production was to portray the story as realistically as possible. An interpretation Washington used for Fabulation as originally intended from the playwright is the use of a predominantly black cast. The use of realistic dialect and casting caused an informal feel of the play allowing it to run smoother and connect more deeply with the audience. An additional way the director created a close connection between the audience and the characters by positioning the show among the audience. For example, many characters entered from the side or even behind the audience, the incorporation of the tech crew as “movers” when Undine loses her office allowed for a set change to occur with the audience not even being aware it was happening, keeping the audience focused on the story.

A key element to Fabulation’s success is owed to the phenomenal acting displayed. Undine, who was played by Jenna Davis-Jones, delivered a beautiful performance showing a true range of comedic and dramatic capabilities. Although, one person cannot make a show such as Fabulation, the supporting cast surrounding Undine was one of the most entertaining and supporting ensembles I have witnessed. The relation created between the characters and the audience was due to the incredible amount of talent displayed on the stage. The interactions between the characters was natural allowing for the story to flow smoothly. For instance, the relationship between Undine and the counselor she meets created a certain feeling of care that allowed the ending of the play to deliver great emotion.

Many aspects of this production made it unique and contribute to the understanding of theatre as a whole. Fabulation is a prime example at how different theatrical aspects such as elaborate set and light design, a specifically placed production venue, and careful choice of actors and music, can amplify how a show would have originally been performed. However, there is one aspect of the play that carried the most weight and truly resonated. The use of inter-racial casting to provide a predominantly black cast was intentional and is essential to the play’s success. Using a black cast with this specific story represents how black lives are built in this systematic oppression where even Undine who has built her company up from nothing seems to be pinned against the system failing to ever catch a break. I am not sure if it was the way the director altered the show or if it was how the playwright intended; the use of inter-racial casting allowed the show’s hardships to reflect current events in society. Another way Fabulation stood out as a show to remember was how Undine would casually break the fourth wall and address the audience directly. This further advanced the audience involvement and developed a personal connection with the protagonist creating a link between them and the audience. This break of the fourth wall also allowed for comedic relief in what were some dark situations, in addition, it allowed for Undine’s inner thoughts to be clearly expressed to the audience without characters on stage aware of the information.

Twitter: @UNTDanceTheatre

The show Fabulation is one I will not soon forget, the seemingly tragic downfall of Undine relieved through comedic characters and events was wonderfully put together. I found the extensive use of lights and the thrust stage developed a connection with the audience from the start. The cast had a unique connection which allowed the show to flow smoothly and for the audience to enjoy the emotional rollercoaster that is Fabulation. Although there are no more showings from UNT, I highly recommend keeping this show on your watch list and if you ever see a showing scheduled, seize the opportunity. I commend the cast and crew of UNT’s Fabulation as it was a show that seemed to impact the whole crowd and leave them in awe.

Playwright – Lynn Nottage

Directed by Vickie Washington

Scenic Designer – Donna Marquet

Costume Designer – Amanda Hughes

Makeup Designer – Caitlyn Polson

Lighting Designer – Beks Miligan

Principle Cast

Undine – Jenna Davis-Jones

Stephanie – Mariah Fleming

Herve – Cesar Villa

Grandma – Raquel Scaggs