According to the US Census Bureau, around 24 percent of American children are living in a household with a mother but no father. Where's Papi?, a new solo show by actor and improv performer Miguel Morales (which has a matinee today) is a simple account, in brief snapshot scenes, of what it was like to grow up in one.
Morales was born in Puerto Rico, but we first meet him as a kid in Chicago, crawling around on his hands and knees, scrutinizing the floor. The family vacuum cleaner is broken, he tells us, and Papi has offered to pay him and his siblings a few cents for each thing they pick out of the carpet. "I got 33 things," he says in an eager little-kid voice, but one of them is pretty big, so he figures he can break it into two things for a few extra pennies. He then plots his trip to the corner store and the candy he's going to buy. The lights go down, the lights come up, and it's later in the day, when he tells us he and his sister fought over some of the candy. Papi got involved—"You never want Papi to get involved," he informs us sagaciously—and gave them each a few bofetadas (smacks). The lights go down again.
Morales continues the tour through his upbringing in this quick-cut style...
