#NothingStopsTheTHEATRE Premieres BROKEN EMMA Tonight, 7 p.m.

Manila, Philippines - New theater group #NothingStopsTheTHEATRE invites you to the virtual premiere of its short play Broken Emma: An Online Play About Absurd Reality on Facebook and YouTube tonight, 7 p.m.

"Broken Emma stemmed from the stage reading production of Odeon Productions' Breaking Free: A Trilogy of One-Act Plays last year. Its scheduled physical staging was supposed to be this year, but it was postponed due to the outbreak of the coronavirus and the community quarantine imposed by the government," said Rayne Jarabo, the play's writer and director.

Emma, who's always running late, meets her friends in the evening through an online video call. Her unexpected excuse pulls back the curtain on what living in a rape culture could mean.

Broken Emma is a short [online] play that shows the absurd reality about a situation of any despoiled woman because of rape.

"I've applied and used the principles of 'Theatre of the Absurd' to the play to achieve the aim of bringing it face to face with the harsh facts of the human situation as I see it. The challenge here, however, behind the message of the play is anything but one of despair," Jarabo said.

Though the play's online premiere is due to the spread of the coronavirus and quarantine measures, its virtual staging can connect viewers who feel isolated; also, for the audience to take a serious look at rape culture and discourage the telling or rape jokes.

Broken Emma features actresses Alexa Prats San Diego (Lea), CJ Sebastian (Christine), and Jhudiel Clare Sosa (Emma).

San Diego is from Ateneo Blue Repertory. She has played Ilse in Spring Awakening, Maureen in Rent, and Alice in The Addams Family.

Sebastian is a music theater student at the University of Santo Tomas and an actress at Tanghalan at Obra (TAO).

Sosa, on the other hand, is a writer and an alumna of Artistang Artlets of The Faculty of Arts and Letters at the University of Santo Tomas.