The October People’s Choice Award goes to…

The people have spoken… The October People’s Choice Award goes to Miles Orduna for their play OFW, presented as a staged reading at Playwrights Horizons and via livestream on October 26, 2026. Congratulations, Miles!

Courtesy of Miles, we’re pleased to share the first few pages from the award-winning script. Enjoy!

OFW
by Miles Orduna

Ruby – 30’s. Filipina Nurse. A nurturer. Exhausted.

Time – The height of the Covid Pandemic
Place – A bus stop in Queens.

NOTE: Although filipinos only accounted for around 4% of all nurses in the U.S. during covid, they accounted for nearly 30% of covid-related nursing deaths. Overseas Filipino nurses have routinely been on the frontline of the nursing/health/care services in the U.S. and across the world, at the expense of being with their families in the Philippines, raising their children, caring for their elderly.

(Ruby sits at a Woodside bus stop in her nurse scrubs and a winter jacket. A lowered KN-95 around her neck. Her ear buds are in.)

(She sings “Sa Ugoy Ng Duyan” – a Filipino lullaby – as she juggles a purse, a gym bag, and a plastic bag from a bodega. She focuses on the plastic bag. She takes out a paper bag from it, and then a breakfast sandwich wrapped in tin foil from that.)

RUBY
“Sana’y di nagmaliw ang dati kong araw
Nang munti pang bata sa piling ni nanay
Nais kong maulit ang awit ni inang mahal
Awit ng pag-ibig habang ako’y nasa duyan”

(She’s about to take a bite when she notices: cheese on the sandwich. She stops, opens the sandwich.)

RUBY
Putang Ina!

(With the help of a bodega napkin she tries to scrape the cheese off of the sandwich. It’s a mess.)

RUBY

This son of a bitch, put Cheese…I told not to put…I am. I am trying to…

(Ruby wipes the the cheese off to her liking.)

RUBY
Ok, sorry – yes, close your eyes.

(Ruby continues the lullaby as she eats the breakfast sandwich.)

RUBY
(while eating)
“Sana’y di nagmaliw ang dati kong araw
Nang munti pang bata sa piling ni nanay
Nais kong maulit ang awit ni inang mahal”
– huh – what?…Well I am eating…because it is morning time here – I have to eat…breakfast, yes…you will have breakfast, what will you have?…Champorado huh?…Eggs too, yes?…Promise?…good…ok.
“Sa aking pagtulog na labis ang himbing
Ang bantay ko’y tala, ang tanod ko’y bituin-”

What did I say? I said, close your eyes and try to sleep…because you have school!…I will when I come back, ok? I will take you and I will pick you up, yeah?…Ok-…well only if you are good and do your homework…all of it…yes, even the maths…what?……what is wrong?……I told you, very soon… “very soon” is very soon…

(Ruby tightens her jacket – the cold sneaking through.)

When they do not need me…Tssk, hoy, you like school yeah? You like your computer games, yeah? How do you think we afford?…Because I come here, that’s right…if I am still here, I will send…I don’t know, I might be. It depends…On if there are still sick people…That’s right, I have to help…You want me to send early? (laughs)…Because Balikbayan boxes are for Christmas…maybe…if you close your eyes, and hush, and go to sleep now, maybe I will send early, how about that?…huh?…(Laughing) oh, you are “hushing”, ok, that is very good…I will keep singing?…You can answer, it is ok…No it doesn’t count…ok, now close your eyes.

“Sa piling ni nanay, langit ay buhay
Puso kong may dusa sabik sa ugoy ng duyan.”

…What is wrong?… Kiloy……No, honey, no I will not get sick…I promise…because I know. Because I am a nurse. You remember, I went to school? Yeah?…You know what I learned there?…How to not get sick…Yes. I am wearing the mask…always. And you are too, yes?…Tight-tight?…ok, good. And you are washing your hands too, yes?…And you sing “happy birthday”?…yes, I do too…I do it so much I have to put on lotion! That is how much I wash my hands…Mmm…Yes?…what is what like?…The sick people?…Well,  hey are sick. They have coughing and…they have a fever, and…they are sick, like a flu…sometimes worse, not always…blood?…No, it is notzombies, there is not blood like that…because I know!

TO BE CONTINUED…

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