MAGNO RUBIO!

Magno Rubio is about five Filipino men who are working as farmers in the United States. Despite of the harsh labor conditions and unffair treatment, they find a way to stick together and take care of each other through the mayhem. The main character named Magno Rubio is a hopeless romantic who is deeply in love with a Southern Bell named Clarybelle. Magno has never seen her in person and their only means of contacting each other is through letters. Clarybelle is seen utterly as a gold digger and completely has no love for Magno, but Magno is blinded by his love for her and a possibilty for a future with her. Working long hours in the field and saving every cent he has is his way of supporting Clarybelle no matter what the physical cost may be on his body. The play provided a large connection between Filipinos immigrating to the United States and having the same hopefullness as Magno. Just like Magno, Filipinos had such high expectations of this "new land" based from stories, but not actually seeing it with their own eyes. The United States (Clarybelle) gave an image of economic, political, and social stability, only to find out that this picture painted in Filipino minds was far from the truth. Just like the treatment Clarybelle gave to Magno, the U.S. tricked, took advantage of, mistreated, abused, and violated Filipino immigrants and Filipinos in the U.S., leaving Filipinos in the early settlement of the U.S. to hard back breaking labor.

Overall I thought the play was well written and very entertaining due to the mass amount of humor with Tagalog phrases. They did several musical numbers using Arnis (Filipino martial art) sticks and used some Arnis moves to demonstrate actions when working in the field. The cast consisted of the prince from "Cinderella" starring Brandy and Whoopi Goldberg and other actors from tvshows like CSI, Brothers and Sisters, One Life to Live, and many more.