THE DRAGON CYCLE

WRITTEN AND PERFORMED BY SARA PORKALOB

The Dragon Cycle is a trilogy of matrilineal musicals about Sara’s Filipino American gangster family; one for each generation built around a central female protagonist and her specific hero’s journey.

PART

1: Dragon Lady

Dragon Lady is a two act cabaret musical with a three-person band centering the story of Maria Porkalob Sr., the matriarch of the clan. On the eve of her 60th birthday, faced with her crumbling legacy and apathetic children, Grandma Maria decides to share the dark secrets of her fantastical life with one lucky grandchild and discovers that it is never to late to atone for the pain we inflict on the ones we love most and to forgive ourselves for past regrets. Intergenerational trauma an healing, lots of karaoke, and a couple of murders: this is Dragon Lady.

2: Dragon Mama

PART

Dragon Mama is a two act solo-show with music bout Maria Porkalob Jr,. the eldest of the second generation. Born to an immigrant mother with lost dreams, an absent father, and a society that fails immigrant families, Maria Porkalob Jr. is forced to grow up too soon, acting as surrogate mother to her 4 siblings while trying to balance her intersectional identity--poor, queer, brown, an immigrant. She yearns for a gayer, more POC-filled life than Bremerton, WA can offer her. When the opportunity to earn a lot of money in a short time presents itself, Maria must make an important decision. Leave her debt-ridden mother, four young siblings, and newborn daughter for the wild unknown of Alaska, or stay close to home, family, and intergenerational ghosts?

Dragon Mama traverses 25 years of her mother’s life filled with queer love in a barren land, a dope 90’s R&B soundtrack, Filipino gangsters, and ghosts.