Artwork illustrations by Steve Bermundo, designed by Jenny S. Lee. Pictured: Elijah Punzal; photo by Christian Ruiz.
learning how to read by moonlight
A CHUANG Stage & Company One Theatre co-production
A new play by Gaven D. Trinidad
Directed by Natsu Onoda Power
May 16 - Jun 1, 2025
BCA Plaza Theatre (May 16 – 24) | Pao Arts Center (May 29 – June 1)
While his mother struggles to earn money in New York City and his father waits alone in Manila for their daily phone calls, six-year-old Eddie learns English from his imaginary friend. Between the War on Drugs in the Philippines and the anti-immigrant movement in the United States threatening their humanity, will this undocumented family be able to pursue their dreams and address unspoken truths? A musical and multilingual journey of childlike wonder, Gaven D. Trinidad’s Learning How to Read by Moonlight is equal parts playful, poignant, and hella Pinoy.
To spotlight Boston’s own community leaders and activism, a new narrator (a fellow artist, community organizer, or elected official) joins the storytelling every night. Learning How to Read by Moonlight is spoken in English and Tagalog with subtitles.
At CHUANG Stage, tickets are "Pay-As-You-Are" to provide radical access to theatre for those who identify as working-class immigrants of Asian American descent, a population in Boston underrepresented in arts and culture patrons. When you "Pay-As-You-Are," we empower you to select the ticket price that best reflects your socio-economic status and take action in community accountability to make arts accessible for all.
Co-Produced with
Founded in 1998, Company One has situated itself as a home for social justice and artistic excellence by connecting Boston’s diverse communities through live performance, the development of new plays and playwrights, arts education, and public engagement programming. By establishing a dedicated space for marginalized and alternative narratives to thrive and working with partners and collaborators across the city, Company One has become a local leader in the ongoing conversations that continue to define the era of social change in contemporary America.
Company One Theatre’s work falls into four main areas: Productions, Education, New Play Development, and Connectivity. Over its 20+ year history Company One has produced over 80 productions, employed over 1500 local artists, and has been awarded over 30 Boston theatre awards. We have served over 100,000 audience members and 15,000 students.
Producing Partners
Pao Arts Center
Boston Center for the Arts
Iskwelahang Pilipino of Boston
Leviathan Lab
ENSEMBLE CAST
Elijah Punzal (they/he/siya) - Player 1/Eddie
Jude Torres* (he/him) - Player 2/Jimmy
Christine Armenion (she/her) - Player 3/Nanay
Alfredo Reyes (He/Him) - Player 4/Tatay
Nicholas Papayoanou (he/they) - Player 5/Misc.
Jenine Florence Jacinto (they/them) - Understudy for Player 1/Eddie, Player 2/Jimmy
CREATIVE TEAM
Lighting Designer: Ashley Yung (she/her)
Sound Designer: Anna Drummond (they/she)
Props Designer: Kelly Smith (she/her)
Projection Designer: Grace Kroeger (she/they)
Costume Designer: Yao Kuang Lee (she/her)
Playwright: Gaven D. Trinidad (they/he/siya)
Director & Scenic Designer: Natsu Onoda Power (she/her)
Dramaturg & Tour Director: Michelle M. Aguillon (she/her)
Music Direction: Jeffrey Song (he/him)
Production Stage Manager: Becca Cottrell (they/them)
CAST AND CREATIVE TEAM BIOS
PLAYWRIGHT - Gaven D. Trinidad (they/he/siya) is a first-generation Filipinx American dramaturgy, playwright, director, and educator from NYC. Their artistic work examines the intersections of race, language, immigration, queerness, ritual, community, and futurity. They taught undergraduate courses on the work of contemporary BIPOC playwrights at the University of Massachusetts Amherst under the mentorship of Dr. Priscilla Page. They’ve had the privilege to collaborate with folx in various artistic and administrative positions at places such as New York Theatre Workshop, The Juilliard Drama Division, Musical Theatre Factory, Ma-Yi Theatre Company, Jacob's Pillow Dance Festival, Roundabout Theatre Company, 2nd Stage, and National Queer Theater. Selected plays: Learning How to Read by Moonlight (BAPF Finalist 2021), novena (Eugene O’Neill Playwrights Conference Semi-Finalist 2024), Mercury Makes the Skin Glow. Selected dramaturgy credits: The Duat (The Philadelphia Theatre Company, PlayPenn), PreP Play, or Blue Parachute (National Queer Theater, NCTC), June is the First Fall (Yantze Repertory Theater), Collidescope 2.0 (Ping Chong + Company). Selected directing credits: Joker (National Queer Theater), Are You There Truman? (Pride Plays, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, The Parsnip Ship, Leviathan Lab), Sa Aming Puso (Global Forms Theatre Festival, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater, New York Theatre Salon). B.A. American Studies, Dickinson College; M.F.A. Dramaturgy, UMass Amherst. Proud former public-school teacher in Memphis, TN with Teach for America. Theatre Communications Group named them a 2021 Rising Leader of Color. Playwriting Groups/Fellowships: Orchard Project Greenhouse Lab; The Shelter NYC; Playground NYC; Ma-Yi Writers Lab; The Parsnip Ship Play Club. As someone living with bipolar disorder, they are an advocate for Mental Health Awareness. www.gaventrinidadtheatre.com
DIRECTOR & SCENIC DESIGNER - Natsu Onoda Power (she/her) specializes in adapting texts into new works of visual theatre, using techniques of comics/graphic novels, animation, and kamishibai (Japanese paper-placard storytelling form). Original works include Postcards from Ihatov (1StStage Tysons), Thumbelina (Imagination Stage), The Lathe of Heaven (Spooky Action Theater, Helen Hayes Awards for Best New Adaptation and Best Scenic Design), The T Party (writer/ director, Forum Theatre/ Company One), Astro Boy and the God of Comics (writer/ director, The Studio Theatre; Company One Theatre; Elliot Norton Award for Outstanding Director and Outstanding Production Design). Favorite directing credits include Qui Nguyen’s Vietgone (The Studio Theater), David Henry Hwang’s Yellow Face (Theatre J) and Mary Zimmerman’s The White Snake (Baltimore Center Stage), and the world premiere of Tennessee Williams’s lost play The Lady from the Village of Falling Flowers at Provincetown Tennessee Williams Festival.
Natsu holds a Ph.D. in Performance Studies from Northwestern University, and is the author of God of Comics: Osamu Tezuka and the Creation of Post World War II Manga (The University Press of Mississippi, 2009).
DRAMATURG & TOUR DIRECTOR - Michelle M. Aguillon (she/her) has directed, acted, designed, and produced in the Boston area for over 25 years. She is thrilled to be collaborating with the Learning How to Read by Moonlight production team and ensemble. Michelle has worked with Plays in Place, Footlight Club, Hope Rep Company, The Umbrella Stage Company, Chuang Stage, Company One, Central Square Theater, Emerson College, and Theater Uncorked, among others. Directing credits include The Kittie Knox Plays, Yellow Face, Natural Shocks, Middleton Heights (World Premiere), Dracula - A Feminist Revenge Fantasy, Fences, The Joy Luck Club, Disgraced, Passion, Augusta and Noble, Vietgone, and Proof, among others. Michelle is a playwright/producer/director for the Annual Asian-American Playwright Collective Annual Play Festivals (2020-2025). Michelle is the Executive Director at the Creative Arts School in Reading. She studied acting and theatre at San Francisco State University and the National Theater of London.
