Spring Break
Nationally touring play hits campus
Yael Reed Wachspress
Issue date: 4/4/07 Section: News
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The live three-man performance called, "N*gger, Wetb*ck, Ch*nk", stunned an audience of about 300 San Jose State University students, on Thursday March 22, 2007 in the Barrett Ballroom at the Student Union.
The performance is a collection of personal experiences based the lives of Allen Axibal, Miles Gregley and Rafael Agustin, who came to SJSU to share their stories and the satire surrounding stereotypes and issues pertaining to race.
"We travel the country a lot and I love coming back to California and all its diversity," said Rafael Agustin the performer representing for the Hispanic culture.
The show, directed by Steven T. Seagle and his wife Liesel Reinhart, has been on a two-year national tour.
"It is about breaking down the stereotypes and that race is biological," said Allen Axibal, the performer representing for the Asian culture in the audience.
The performance is initially about race, but it is presented in a comedic way that is relatable to everyone said Seagle.
"Instead of taking these words so serious, we can learn to laugh at ourselves and each other," said Brian Williams, a junior majoring in occupational therapy.
"It was different from that perspective, I thought it was going to be stand up," said Alan Cheng, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering. "I really liked it."
"They felt like they wrote this show for their age," Seagle said. "It's about the intersection of the human race. Race is not about similarities but differences."
Seagle, was out front of the ballroom selling T-shirts with popular quotes from the show.
"There is only one race, the human race," one of the T-shirts read.
The three racial words were brought to reality during the show and Axibal takes the time to give the audience some history of those words.
According to the play, chink, is a derogatory word used to put down an Asian person; it was misinterpreted from the word for China.
Wetback was a term derived from a 1954 project called Operation Wetback, to remove illegal Mexican immigrants from the United States.
The performance is a collection of personal experiences based the lives of Allen Axibal, Miles Gregley and Rafael Agustin, who came to SJSU to share their stories and the satire surrounding stereotypes and issues pertaining to race.
"We travel the country a lot and I love coming back to California and all its diversity," said Rafael Agustin the performer representing for the Hispanic culture.
The show, directed by Steven T. Seagle and his wife Liesel Reinhart, has been on a two-year national tour.
"It is about breaking down the stereotypes and that race is biological," said Allen Axibal, the performer representing for the Asian culture in the audience.
The performance is initially about race, but it is presented in a comedic way that is relatable to everyone said Seagle.
"Instead of taking these words so serious, we can learn to laugh at ourselves and each other," said Brian Williams, a junior majoring in occupational therapy.
"It was different from that perspective, I thought it was going to be stand up," said Alan Cheng, a junior majoring in mechanical engineering. "I really liked it."
"They felt like they wrote this show for their age," Seagle said. "It's about the intersection of the human race. Race is not about similarities but differences."
Seagle, was out front of the ballroom selling T-shirts with popular quotes from the show.
"There is only one race, the human race," one of the T-shirts read.
The three racial words were brought to reality during the show and Axibal takes the time to give the audience some history of those words.
According to the play, chink, is a derogatory word used to put down an Asian person; it was misinterpreted from the word for China.
Wetback was a term derived from a 1954 project called Operation Wetback, to remove illegal Mexican immigrants from the United States.
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