At the ripe age of 27, actor and playwright Brian Quijada has turned his personal experiences growing up as a Latino kid in suburban Chicago into an autobiographical play with his own twist. Where Did We Sit on the Bus? explores the important questions about finding one’s place in America and how our ancestry contributes to our story. We spoke with Quijada about the New York premiere of his play at Ensemble Studio Theatre.
Tell me a little bit about your vision and why your story is so important to share?
Brian Quijada: It’s my first play that’s autobiographical and it’s really fantastic that I’m able to tell my story. As an actor, I’m always portraying other characters, so it’s very refreshing and scary to be telling my own personal tale.
Where in Chicago did you grow up?
I grew up in the north burbs of Chicago -- about 30 minutes north -- an area known as the North Shore, right on the lake. We first lived in a neighborhood called Glenview – and our first neighborhood was a trailer home. Then we moved to Highwood – this Italian town surrounded by the city of Highland Park – a really nice, affluent city. Michael Jordan used to live there. It was a great place to grow up – we were one of the first waves of Latinos moving into Highwood – I go back home now and it really has changed so much!
What are some of the personal experiences you are going to be drawing from?
I’m actually getting married in a few weeks and this story begins right after I propose. I took her on a surprise trip to Mexico and when I came back I started to think about how this is the beginning – we’re going to be getting married and starting a family! We started having serious conversations about our upbringings and how we plan to raise our future children. It’s a real coming-of-age story and how I grew to discover my own roots and connecting to my ancestry. It makes me think about what I am going to tell my future children one day. It’s some serious adulting! These were real adult thoughts and that’s how the story begins and then goes back to my experience finding my cultural/racial/familial identity – starting from birth and when we moved out of the trailer parks to the suburbs and leads to the question I asked my third grade teacher during a civil rights lesson.
What question was that and how did it impact your story?
I asked where did we [Latinos] sit on the bus during a civil rights lesson. She couldn’t answer the question and I’m sure it was a bit surprising coming from an 8-year-old. I’m so thankful I got that answer because it made me go home and really start pondering this and asking the questions that led to bigger questions about where I came from and what it took for my parents to get here. It’s a moment that sticks out as a metaphor for all Americans and how we fit into this spectrum.
It’s so important to know and tell these stories because so many people have experienced that and have worked to make a go of it in America. People are relating and I don’t feel so alone. It’s still an under told story, but it’s nice that it’s so relatable. I’m so thankful that it’s now happening here in New York.
I’m sure it’s such an emotional journey for you…
With the marriage coming up, it’s really cool for me to go back through all of my memories and the type of friends I surrounded myself with. As the play progresses, I’m getting closer and closer to my own age and the serious questions I’m asking myself now. It’s great to go back into those memories. What makes it extra fun that it’s told in this spoken-word, hip-hop medium. I loop in the show – looping is when you lay down a track, a beat-box or a ukeule or piano track, and you record it and it goes on a loop and then you add on extra layers building on that initial loop. I create the soundtrack to my story live on stage – it’s not a musical, but it is musical.
How was the show received back in your hometown earlier this year?
It was great to be home with my parents and brothers and having real characters from my play, including my third grade teacher, come check it out -- it was such a trip! It’s also cool because they know all the references to Chicago and the places I speak about.
Anything else you want to add about your hope for the New York run?
My hope for the show is that people hear this story. It’s important in this current political climate and these times of trying to take a step in the right direction and having a little hope. It’ll be the story I tell my child of how we fit into this America that we are building – so it has to be something positive! We need to bring a little humanity and compassion to this world and the populations that don’t always receive it.
Where Did We Sit on the Bus? runs through Oct. 9th at the Ensemble Studio Theatre.
