Fresh Ground Pepper Presents Process Sharing of America Is in the Heart

As the culmination of its annual PlayGround PlayGroup, Fresh Ground Pepper will present a process sharing of Luz’s play America Is in the Heart, directed by Ralph Peña on Tuesday, June 25th at 3pm. RSVPs can be made through FGP here. America Is in the Heart is an adaptation of the first Filipino American novel by Carlos Bulosan and poses as both a case study and a coming-to-social-consciousness of a migrant Filipino laborer.

A young Filipino immigrant wandering the rural California landscape stumbles into the burgeoning labor rights movement amidst the agricultural boom of the 1930s. Against the backdrop of rampant exploitation and growing fascism at home and abroad, one Filipino grapples with his hyphenated identity and what it means to belong to American soil.

What is a process sharing? For this year’s PGPG writers’ group, it’s the first time the piece will be heard aloud with collaborators in the room! Come and meet and get to know these amazing writers, hear their latest, hot-off-the-presses drafts, and celebrate the playwriting process with us.

The PlayGround PlayGroup is a small, process-focused collective of makers gathered to celebrate the creation of new work. The group, now in its 14th season, welcomes artists of all creative disciplines to develop and support new projects within the structure of an engaged, curious, and uplifting cohort of colleagues. This year we are particularly excited to support projects which are mid-development on a first draft and could use a final push of support towards a completed first draft.