CEBU CITY — 2TinCans Philippines Inc. presents Stay a Little Longer, a full-length drama written by Sarah Mae Enclona-Henderson and directed by Shifrah Bouchikhi-Enclona on Aug. 29 and 30 at The Kabilin Center. The play follows a woman whose memory moves fluidly across the many stages of her life — a child grieving the loss...
Category: Theater
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This artist-storyteller is more than her father’s daughter
“Unscripted, intimate, not publicized, not orchestrated. That’s the original form of theater!” says Lynette Carantes Bibal, this year’s Philippine LEAF (Live Entertainment, Arts and Festivals) awardee for Outstanding Performance Art for Heritage Practices for Storytelling. Lynette is a daughter of Geoffrey Carantes, artist, educator, statesman, and the first Ibaloi graduate of the University of the...
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On fringe and found spaces
Last February, enthusiastic ex-members of the Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company banded together to stage a performance in what they have come to call a found space. They called the new troupe Kolaborador Co., or Kolab for short. They chose as performance space a huge lot that bore the remnants of a restaurant later repurposed as...
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‘Man of La Mancha’: Theater as collective meaning-making
The song “The Impossible Dream” captured the national imagination when a man lay dead on the tarmac—a tragedy precipitated by his decision to return to his homeland despite the imminent threat of political persecution. He was, after all, foremost among the fiercest opponents of the dictator who had been in power for 17 years. Days...
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‘Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank 4’ confronts Philippine theater
Film and theater operate on fundamentally different contracts with their audiences. Cinema is more controlled: It is edited, color-graded, scored, and packaged for the screen. Theater, on the other hand, refuses all of that: It is raw, immediate, unrepeatable, and alive in ways that no camera can fully simulate or contain. For “Ang Babae Sa...
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Power and survival take the stage: A review of Peta’s ‘Ctrl + Shift: Changing Narratives’
The Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) once again brought socially engaged storytelling to the stage with “Ctrl + Shift: Changing Narratives,” a four-play production that challenges audiences to confront the realities shaping contemporary Filipino life. Divided into two contrasting sets, the show, held April 12 to April 19, navigated themes of power, corruption, survival, and...
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“Endo”: Precarity in Philippine theater
Most of the trademarks of a Peta play can be gleaned in “Endo,” the company’s latest offering for the second quarter of the year. Snippets of dialogue on the burning issues of the day (fuel prices, flood control projects) slide in every now and then. The koro is in full throttle, signifying the bigger community...
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Dulaang UP’s ‘Ang Kaliitan ng Kasalukuyan’ finds the self we were told to forget
There’s a particular Filipino habit of dressing up sacrifice as virtue. For instance, we call our overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) “bagong bayani,” or modern-day heroes, and mean it sincerely, but the term also makes their leaving feel inevitable—noble, even—rather than the product of a system that has failed to give them any other option. The...
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After a crash landing, stranded students fight to survive in FEU Theater Guild’s ‘Bangaw’
Breadcrumbs lead to the set of “Bangaw,” the new musical production of FEU Theater Guild (FTG) for 2026. The reminders over the speaker sound like flight announcements, and the viewers walking to their seats are welcomed by a cosplaying flight stewardess. Furry masks heaped on a table behind her hint of danger. Inside the small...
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FEU Theater Guild’s gritty tale of survival set to open in March
“Bangaw,” an adventurous reimagining of William Golding’s classic story “Lord of the Flies,” takes the stage starting on March 5 for the 92nd season of the Far Eastern University Theater Guild (FTG). Written by Gold Villar-Lim, with music by Vince Lim, and directed by Peta senior artist-teacher and FTG artistic director Dudz Teraña, “Bangaw” explores...