Oceanside playwright’s show to be performed in Island Park

This weekend, the Island Park Jewish Center will be the scene of the culmination of 10 years of Dr. Timothy Mailloux’s work.
But the event has nothing to do with medicine. It is the performance of Mailloux’s original musical, “South of the Border,” which he spent the last decade writing.
“In my spare time, which was roughly 9 p.m. to midnight for the 10 years, I would go downstairs to my basement and think up melodies,” Mailloux said. “You could probably say that it would take about six months from start to finish for a song ... And there are 18 major songs in the show.”
Music has always been something that Mailloux loved, even though he decided to pursue a career in medicine. Having learned piano and guitar, he played in various rock bands when he was a kid in the 1960s before going off to medical school in Rome.
“And then, in the late 1980s, I revived my musical hobby, again playing for bands and finally getting into being the musical director for the school district of Oceanside, for example, and the Long Beach Theater Guild and other theater guilds,” Mailloux explained. “But I wanted to go the next stage after that.”
That next stage was writing a show of his own. Mailloux said he had the ambition, and was just waiting for the inspiration. What eventually wound up inspiring Mailloux was his own history.
“My grandfather came through Ellis Island back in the 1920s,” he said. “And my father arrived here from Canada and did not speak a word of English. And I myself, in the 1970s — I wasn’t accepted to any of the medical schools in the United States, but I was accepted to the University of Rome, so I lived for five years in a foreign country, and appreciated the acceptance that foreigners could receive. So I felt very sympathetic to know what it’s like to live in a country outside your home.”
Mailloux’s story deals with undocumented Mexican immigrants living on Long Island. The story revolves around the characters’ interactions and difficulties with society, reconciling their traditions with those of their new home.