Sapience

PlayGround Zoom Fest
SAPIENCE by Diana Burbano (a Zoom Premiere Presentation)
Directed by Katja Rivera
May 22 & May 23 7pm PT via Zoom Live Stream
On-Demand Registration available through June 13
Admission-Free (donations gratefully accepted)

TICKETS PLAYBILL PLAYWRIGHT INTERVIEW READ THE PRESS RELEASE

NOTE: Zoom access information will be distributed on the day of the performance. If you haven’t received your Zoom link at least one hour before the performance, email boxoffice@playground-sf.org. On-Demand access is available through May 30 for all pre-registered guests. For extended on-demand access, purchase a Potrero Stagers membership.

Written for Center Theatre Group’s Writers Workshop 18-19 and originally developed by PlayGround, Sapience was further developed in San Diego Repertory’s Latinx Play Festival. Diana Burbano’s Sapience follows Elsa, a doctor of primatology on the autism spectrum, who has hidden this fact from the world. She is currently working with an orangutan named Wookie, who Elsa hopes to prove is capable of learning human speech. Elsa’s 12-year-old nephew, AJ, is also on the Autism spectrum. He is “locked-in”— completely non-verbal. However, thanks to AJ’s so called “disability,” he and Wookie joyously discover that they can communicate with each other. This explodes Elsa’s carefully constructed, science-based worldview and forces her to drop the mask of normality she has worn her whole life.

Sapience is an exploration of communication gaps and the meaning of “Normal.” Elsa is Latinx, an immigrant, and undiagnosed autistic. Among the immigrant community it is imperative to fit in with American norms. Immigrants who don’t remain on the outside and have little access to the avenues of excellence that allow some Americans to succeed based on the myth of “up by your bootstraps.” Both Elsa, who has the ability to “pass” for normal, and AJ who is nonverbal and whose behavior can be seen as disruptive, have difficulty communicating in any spoken language. 

Diana Burbano, a Colombian immigrant, is an Equity actor, a playwright focusing on female protagonists and social issues, and a teaching artist at South Coast Repertory and Breath of Fire Latina Theatre Ensemble. Directed by Katja Rivera, Sapience features Jen Anaya as “Elsa”, Franco Martinez as “AJ”, Livia Gomes Demarchi as “Miri”, Christian Haines as “Jason”, and Julia Belanova as “Wookie”. Sapience is presented with producing partners Theatre Cultura and Latinx Mafia and runs Saturday the 22nd and Sunday the 23rd of May at 7pm PST.