Fil-Am actor Daniel Velasco lands lead role in a gripping play

Funfare readers should know by now who Daniel Velasco is. The Fil-Am teen from New York was featured in this corner two months ago when he graduated as a scholar of Oscar-winning actor Denzel Washington at Fordham University in Manhattan.

The good news is that Daniel has landed a theater acting gig — a lead role and his biggest break to date — just a few months after he finished his theater performance studies in May. 

According to Edmund Silvestre, Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent, Daniel stars in a comedic drama called Year Zero for Merrimack Repertory Theater (MRT) in Lowell, Massachusetts, one of 74 prestigious regional theaters outside of New York City and one of three in the state of Massachusetts. (Lowell is a 30-minute drive from Boston.)

“Daniel has been receiving a standing ovation every night,” reported Edmund. “He’s good as the central character Vuthy Vichea, a 16-year-old Cambodian-American living in Long Beach, California, in the early 2000s. With other young Cambodians like him, he struggles with the death of his mother as he finds his place in a community that doesn’t accept him.”

The gripping, yet surprisingly funny, play went on previews on Sept. 11, and formally opened on Sept. 14 and will run through Oct. 5 at the Nancy L. Donahue Theater.

Added Edmund, “It was an overnight sensation primarily because the city of Lowell has the second largest Cambodian-American population in the US (next to Long Beach, California).”

The heart-wrenching play reflects the challenges young Cambodians have to go through making their way to America. Year Zero is inspired by the exodus of many Cambodians when Khmer Rouge took over their country in 1975 intending to eradicate all existing Cambodian culture and traditions resulting in the genocide of 1.7 million people.

“Most Cambodian families in Lowell witnessed the genocide and are refugees to a world in which they were forced to start over back to ‘year zero’,” Sochenda Uch, youth leadership program coordinator for Lowell Community Health Center and vice president of the board of directors of the Angkor Dance Troupe, told the Lowell Sun newspaper.

“The play reminds us that we have a past that we should never forget,” Uch said.

Based on the acclaimed 2009 novel of the same title by playwright and screenwriter Michael Golamco (who is of Filipino-Chinese descent and who writes for NBC’s horror series Grimm), the two-hour play is directed by Kyle Fabel.

Daniel’s teen geek and friendless character Vuthy is viewed as a weird kid (primarily because of his looks and thick glasses) in a place like Long Beach “where weirdness can be fatal.” And since his bestfriend moved and his mother died, the only thing he secretly talks to is a human skull he keeps in a cookie jar.

Cathy Uy, a former Fil-Am community leader in the New York tri-state area, who has moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her family a few years ago, was among those who caught the play she described as “the most relatable Asian play I have ever seen in my life.”

“We went to see it just for curiosity’s sake, but what we saw was an extraordinary play with a spectacle of emotions that pushed everyone to tears and laughter,” Cathy told Edmund. Year Zero which has been seen by about 300 people, more than half of them Caucasians, who attended the Sept. 14 opening night.

“It focuses on the Cambodian-American community but any member of the Asian-American community will be able to relate,” Cathy added. “The play depicts what many immigrants have to go through — discrimination, bullying, intolerance. “I just kept crying in many of the scenes that accurately reflect an immigrant’s life in a new place. I didn’t expect to be touched this way by a play.”

Like many in the audience, Cathy was equally thrilled about Daniel’s sterling performance. 

“Daniel is an amazing, amazing actor,” gushed Cathy. “He gave a performance that will be hard to forget. He reminds me of Lea Salonga who played a Vietnamese with much aplomb in Miss Saigon. He nailed the role.”

In glowing reviews, Boston Events Insider says Daniel gave “a low-key, intelligent performance that involves sympathy yet exhibits wonderful comedic timing in quick, sly bursts.”

“Daniel Velasco captures Vuthy’s struggle to find an authentic voice, fusing the dialects of comic books, fantasy, hip hop and urban culture with a satisfying fluency,” according to Howl Magazine.

Daniel, who also studied at London Dramatic Academy, has been a member of the Screen Actors Guild (now known as SAG-AFTRA) since he was 10. He has had several US TV appearances and print /TV commercial credits.

He and his mom, Vivian Velasco, (a long-time Fil-Am community leader in New York) have invited Denzel through his people to catch Year Zero and critique Daniel’s acting.

Wrote Edmund, “But the respected and well-loved Hollywood star was traveling all over, promoting his latest crime and action thriller, The Equalizer, which premiered on Sept. 26. The movie is directed by Antoine Fuqua, who also directed Training Day in 2001, the movie that won Denzel his first Best Actor Oscar. He previously won Best Supporting Actor for Glory in 1990.”

During their last meeting in Manhattan in June, Denzel asked Daniel, “So when are we finally working together?” Daniel responded, “Anytime when you are ready!”

When that happens, you will read it first in this corner. Promise.

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