Mayari is definitely straight. When summer comes around and she fools around with a boy from school at a party, Mayari ends up skipping her period—three days, seven days, two weeks. Maybe it’s the stress of her cousin Chloe staying over amidst Tito Boy and Tita Queenie’s divorce, or the pressure to fit in with her peers. Mayari finds an ally in Glorianne, a Goth girl from school with a big heart and even bigger winged liner, and the two girls grow closer as the heat turns up in the Palm Desert summer. When Tito Boy catches wind that Mayari has had an abortion, he convinces himself that Glorianne is a manananggal preying on his niece. Mayari reckons with her newfound feelings for Glorianne, and must dissuade her uncle from his monster hunt.

Filipino creatures meets Jennifer’s Body in this staged reading to support CIRCA Pintig, Chicago’s Filipino American theatre organization.

Content warnings: implied sexual assault, abortion, death