By Alexie Villegas Zotomayor
Variety Features Editor

“Everyone has baggage.”
So claims the play “In Transit”, a production of Voices of the Marianas, as it explores the predicaments of the many ethnic groups on island — their struggles, dreams and fears as they claim the islands as their home away from home.
A special preview of “In Transit” received plaudits from the audience that almost filled the Visitors Center theater to capacity on Saturday evening.
With good feedback from the audience who previewed it, “In Transit” is all set to make its first official run next weekend. Coming on the coattails of the “Vagina Monologues,” “In Transit” attempts to put together representatives of the many “voices” that make up the island community and gathers fresh talents to read the monologues that they themselves wrote or that somebody else did.
“We’re hoping that this is the beginning of a whole series of original pieces and that next time they will be written and performed by some of you,” said Barbara Scher as she welcomed the audience.
In an interview with Variety, Voices of the Marianas founder and “In Transit” director Scher said, “It came up after the Marianas Monologues and we saw how interested everybody was and people were telling their stories.”
Scher said there were a lot of stories on Saipan and that people can do their own stories.
“Because there are so many different nationalities here, we felt that it is a time for accepting diversity in the world. The best way to understand people and accept them is to hear their stories,” said Sher.
Sher also said that the idea for the play began in August last year. “Everybody submitted their monologues. The idea was to have separate monologues like we did with Vagina Monologues. When we looked at all of them, we thought, ‘there is a story here.’ One story leads to the next so we decided to put them together in this,” said Sher.
Compared with the “Vagina Monologues” where there were separate monologue pieces and nobody had to practice with everybody else, Sher said that “In Transit” was a little harder to do. “Here we had to act out all the pieces we’ve done. We had to tie the expressions, words, and movements together,” confessed Sher.
As the “Vagina Monologues” talks about the struggles and joys of womanhood, Sher said that the drawing appeal of “In Transit” lies in its telling stories that affect the lives of the fictitious characters.”
Asked if the production of “In Transit” was aimed at raising funds, Sher told Variety, “This is our first venture as a group. We are not hoping to make any money but we do hope to get enough to pay the rent.”
As they were reading the monologues when they were submitted, Sher said that the Idea for “In Transit” was sort of “a group decision about how we are going to put this together. That’s what we all agreed.”
She also said that the play was akin to the “Canterbury Tales” about people telling stories and that everyone has a different story.
Some monologues, Sher said, were based on real life; however, some were just fictitious.
“We hope a lot of people will come out and see us. It is important to know that this is the beginning of original theater. We are hoping to do a whole lot of them so we want people to submit their stories.”
As for the turnout, Sher said, “I was thrilled. This is almost like a dress rehearsal — for friends and the press. For next Saturday’s (Jan. 26) performance, Sher said that she wants people to see the show and say, “I feel that way.”
She also said that she was glad that a lot of tickets have been sold and she expects a full house.
Commenting on her participation in the play, Dr. Susan Fishman, a veteran stage actress, remarked: “The “Vagina Monologues” dictated what you would say, all of these — In Transit — are individual, original monologues. I thought it was definitely a spearhead. I have never written anything like this.”
She also said that her particular monologue about a woman reminiscing her experience during the heyday of the sexual revolution in the United States, “came from a very old experience of mine. And I try to make it more realistic and give it a character of its own. The original was 15 minutes but as this evolved into a real play instead of an evening of monologues, it is amazing you could see all of the feelings and cultural experiences expressed by people who have never expressed anything like this before. To me, my monologue is very personal. With the starkness of the set, you really had to give everything you could. It’s pretty challenging.”
Meanwhile, Mt. Carmel principal Galvin Guerrero, whose monologues were peppered with controversial statements, “Art needs to reflect life in all its beauty and ugliness. We are committed to the art and that is why we decided to do my piece. A lot of people would dismiss the washed out local guy (Guerrero’s character) as having no depth… as having no story and they might dismiss him as an ignorant local guy. I wanted to show that even people like that have a story… that they have history and that they have a background. Their pain is deeply rooted in things that they don’t understand. And they are trying to come to grips with it.”
“My character may blame everybody, but ultimately, you are going to realize that things happen and that there’s nothing you can do about it. He is the ultimate person to blame and he just doesn’t know what to do about it anymore,” said Guerrero as he talked about his character.
Norma Warwick also talked about her experience portraying the character Lino Olopai’s niece and a woman suffering through a midlife crisis. She said, “For my character, my monologue is kind of based on real life.” As for their performance next week, Warwick said that they are looking forward to doing better. She also encouraged the public to “come and listen to what we have to say. Sometimes we just have to sit and listen to what everybody says and reflect on that.”
Meanwhile, the audience unanimously expressed their approval of “In Transit” saying that the play is “a different perspective” and “enjoyable” and “it is not often that we get to see an original play here”.
Bank of Saipan’s Lee said that the play is an eye-opener for her reminding her of how beautiful the island is.
Marianas Baptist Academy’s Catherine Miller said, “I thought it was excellent. In fact, I am going to use the idea in my classroom which is filled with different cultures.”
Kevin Marshall said, “I really like Barbara’s presentation.”
“I thought it was wonderful. I think that it’s in the tradition of the Vagina Monologues last year, the tradition of people monologuing from the heart, telling stories. It is lovely. It is very nice,” commented Headstart’s Jean Samari.
Rhoda Brown thought the play was “absolutely challenging and inspiring. I think it is great and we really need to get the word out about how wonderful it really was.”
“In Transit” is a play about random people from different cultural and socio-economic backgrounds who are stranded in an airport by a typhoon and where they found through their diverse stories a common thread that binds them all together.”
Directed by Barbara Sher, the actor and actresses who delivered their monologues, in order of their appearance, were Qamar Shuyler, Lindsay Davis, Susan Fishman, Norma Warwich, Yah Marshall, Alma Pasaraba, Nahal Navidar, Susan Book, Mei Demapan, Galvin Guerrero, Yan Marshal, Don Cohen, Ivan Garces, Anne Chase, and Sher.
Except for monologues performed by Davis, and Warwich, which were written by Arin Greenwood, Lino Olopai, and Bobbie, the rest of the monologues were written by the characters themselves.
“In Transit” is Voices of the Marianas maiden theatrical production. Its founder Sher is inviting interested actors to email their monologues to marianasvoices@yahoo.com to be considered for their next production.