‘Flipzoids’ star Becca Godinez talks shop, arc building and character relations

"Flip" is a word rarely heard in polite conversation nowadays, and "zoids" unheard of outside science and pop culture. Hearing it mashed together in the word "Flipzoids" is naturally alienating, and invites criticism to what seems like an insult or a racial slur.

But "FlipZoids" is nothing but sympathetic. Created by Ralph B. Pena, the current Artistic Director of Ma-Yi Theater Company, it features different kinds of Filipinos who "uproot themselves completely" from their country or origins and try to belong in different contexts.

Set in 80's Anaheim, California, the play follows 70-year-old Aying, the mother of a nurse who wishes to leave her heritage behind, as she tries to recall her hometown of Pagudpud, Ilocos even as 20-something Redford attempts to anchor himself onto something solid.

"Ralph Peña wanted to show, culturally, how different kinds of people react to being in a foreign land that they now have to call their own," Becca Godinez, a well-known theater actress and recording artist in the 80's, explained in a press roundtable Friday.

Godinez plays Aying, a nearly-senile 72-year-old woman from Pagudpud, Ilocos who "has absolutely no love for Anaheim, California."

For her character, Godinez built an arc rooted in history and research. Aying, she explained, never mentions her husband in the play, but Godinez believes he is one of the "Manongs" or Filipino farmers exported to the US since the 1920's.

"Kasi siguro, nahihiya yung family, she cannot go out to work, bumili sila ng Singer sewing machine so she could learn," said Godinez.

Arc-building, she said, was completely necessary in acting since it makes a performance credible and creates a real person the audience can believe in.

"You have to build an arc because when you say a certain line, it has to be credible, you believe that that's really your past," Godinez explained.

Perfecting a genuine Ilocano accent was also important for the actor, who had lived in the US since the 80's.

A singer in the era of New Wave and Europop, Godinez attributed her ease in mimicking the cadence and speech patterns of Ilocanos to her training, and the Ilocano couple who allowed her to record their conversations for her study.

"They never say 'she', they always say 'si'. 'Si is very, very good, my daughter ha. And she live hir.' Those are little things that you add to the character to make her credible," Godinez related.

Aying's rootedness in her identity as an Ilocana creates fiction between her and Evangeline, her daughter, but attracts Redford, a lost young man with Filipino roots.

"Vangie's whole purpose is to belong to this more intelligent culture; kaya siya nagbabasa ng diksyonaryo. [Meanwhile] Redford is so lost kasi wala siyang roots. He bleaches his hair to [appear like] an American, but he's looking to connect," explained Godinez.

While Aying tries to retain memories of her homeland, her daughter Evangeline does everything in her power to leave it all behind.

MP3s filled with English vocabulary and dictionaries occupy Evangeline, who tries to make her mother's last days enjoyable despite the woman rejecting Anaheim as their new homeland.

Redford, on the other hand, stalks the bathroom stalls of a beach in Anaheim not for sex, but to connect with another human being.

"He is so lost kasi wala siyang roots. He's looking to connect, so when he sees me on the beach, wearing baro't-saya, he goes 'You there!'. He goes down there because she's something familiar," Godinez said.

Regardless of either characters' feelings on their heritage, the veteran entertainer said her co-actors are excited to go on their first trip to the Philippines.

"The girl who plays my daughter, Ellen D. Williams, has been here only when she was eight, so she's totally American. The guy who plays [Redford] was born there and this is his first time to the Philippines, so it's a homecoming of sorts," Godinez related.

Playwright John Lawrence Rivera, who directed the 2012 production of "Flipzoids", will also return as the director of this iteration. Stage design was re-adjusted to the Music Museum's dimensions by then-set designer John H. Binkley, now the associate dean of Tseng College at the California State University, Northridge.

Though American audiences were thrilled with its revival in Los Angeles, the subtler pieces of Filipino humor and sensibilities were lost on them. By bringing it to the Philippines, Godinez hopes it would find the audience it truly seeks. — BM, GMA News
 
"Flipzoids" will run at the Music Museum from July 17 to 19.