Jose Rizal's love letters inspire Fil-Am musical play

CHICAGO, Illinois — Philippine national hero Dr. Jose Rizal’s 100 love letters and poems have inspired a Filipino-American group in Chicago to put up a musical play titled Sweet Stranger: Untold Stories of Mrs. Jose Rizal. The group, called the "SamaSama Project," will hold the musical play in August this year in Chicago, where Rizal happened to stop by over 120 years ago while taking a transcontinental train across the US mainland en route to Europe. Rizal was in Chicago for about 10 hours only 123 years ago on May 11, 1888. He took the trip upon the advice of Spanish Governor-General Emilio Terrero to leave the Philippines or be persecuted in his homeland for exposing the abuses of Spanish friars through his book, Noli Me Tangere. As Rizal’s 150th birth anniversary on June 19, 2011 draws near, SamaSama Project's musical play will delve into Rizal’s 100 letters and poems. The play will focus on his relationships with different women, including Josephine Bracken, an Irish woman, whom Rizal lived with during his exile in Dapitan in southern Philippines. Rizal was married to Josephine Bracken a few hours before his execution at Luneta in Manila on December 30, 1896. Historian Floro Quibuyen describes Bracken as an important personality in the 1986 Philippine revolution. According to excerpts from the book, Filipinos in History (Volume 1), a publication of the National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP), Rizal was also linked to Gertrude Beckett, Susanne Jacoby of Belgium, O Sei-san of Japan, Nellie Bousted of France, Consuelo Ortega of Madrid, Leonora Valenzuela of Intramuros, Leonor Rivera of Tarlac and Segundina Katigbak of Batangas. Rizal’s birth anniversary The Consulate General of the Philippines in Chicago is calling on the Fil-Am community to support activities in honoring Rizal. Early this month, on May 6, the Philippine Consulate General in Chicago donated copies of the original manuscripts of Rizal’s novels — Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo to the Northern Illinois University in Chicago. The organizers of Samasama include Louella Maningas, a musical theater and TV actress from Manila and a mainstay of Chicago Philippine Reports TV, and Baron Cabalona, a Filipino American musician and multi-instrumentalists from Tacloban City. According to the organizers, the auditions for the musical will be held at Akira Operation Office, 1837 West North Avenue in Chicago, IL 60622 on: