In the Umbrella Stage Company’s production, Middleton Heights, playwright Hortense Gerardo illuminates the story of a Filipino family in the Midwest and their dinner table discussions over the span of forty years.

Summer was not any cooler because of the Sacramento River flowing past Locke, California. If it were the 1940s I could slip into the river and swim with salmon larger than a child as my grandfather did when he was a boy. Now it’s only good for boats and birdwatching, not fishing. But that doesn’t stop me from coming to see the small town nestled against the river banks just shy of Walnut Grove.

…Concepts in K-pop are usually only put side by side with a singular song, like the summer concept with TWICE’s “Dance The Night Away” or the retro concept with T-ARA’s “Roly Poly.” Concepts usually do not apply to groups of songs. While some songs by the same artist might share a similar concept, they do not follow a similar theme or storyline–they are all individualistic in that way. Enter: Wings by BTS.

In 2002, Matt Gatchalian, a four-year-old Filipino-American, was dragged to a theater in rural Connecticut by his parents. At the time, the theatrical experience was bigger than it had ever been, albeit broken seats and watered-down soda machines. In a damaged world, it was also the easiest way to escape. In that auditorium the lights dim to the visual splendor of web-slinging, goblin gliders, and pumpkin bombs; To the record books, Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man was the biggest movie of the year. To Matt, it was the movie that changed his life.