unSAULicited

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) has restaged its award-winning musical Walang Aray at the PETA Theater Center from August 29 to October 12, 2025 , as the centerpiece of its 58th season themed Love and Power . On paper, it is a revival of a crowd favorite. Onstage, it is something far more urgent. This staging proves that revisiting a work can be more than nostalgia. It can be a reinvention. It can be a way forward. For someone who has seen Walang Aray multiple times, this new version almost felt like watching it for the very first time. Updates in movement, sharper integration of social issues, trending jokes slipped into dialogue, minor changes in blocking, and richer music have refreshed the show’s pulse. The result is a production that feels simultaneously familiar and alive with new electricity. Characters who might have become predictable instead feel like reintroduced classics, ready to be reinterpreted by new audiences with fresh nuances while still del...

Adapted for the stage with music and lyrics by Janet Yates Vogt and Mark Friedman, this RTYA production brings together all the colorful characters from Lewis Carroll’s cherished books, including: the ever-curious Alice, the eccentric Mad Hatter, the frantic White Rabbit, and the domineering Queen of Hearts. Some stories feel like childhood itself—etched into the corners of memory with the wonder of nonsense rhymes, tea parties that never end, and the riddle of who we might grow up to be. Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland is one of those tales, and beginning August 23 until December 14 , Repertory Philippines invites us to tumble down the rabbit hole once more—this time into a brand-new musical that promises spectacle, wit, and enchantment for the whole family. At the REP Eastwood Theater , the Repertory Theater for Young Audiences (RTYA) unfurls a world where tap-dancing playing cards leap to life, croquet matches are played with flamingos, and curiosity refuses to be silenced. Wi...

There are seasons when the stage lies still, waiting. Then there are seasons like this—when the lights rise, the sound of guitars hums in the air, and a new generation of voices is summoned to step forward. In February 2026 , The Sandbox Collective begins its season at a brand-new home— The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center, Makati City —with Spring Awakening , the landmark Tony Award-winning rock musical. And from the very start, the company has made one thing clear: this production belongs to the young, the brave, the curious. The Call to Audition The doors are opening wide. The Sandbox Collective will hold open auditions for Spring Awakening on August 31 and September 1, 2025 . This is not just a casting notice. It is an invitation for artists who have felt the restlessness of youth, the sting of silence, and the urgency of expression. It calls for performers unafraid of vulnerability, ready to embody characters navigating desire, repression, and self-discov...

Just last night, the curtain rose on Kaliwaan , the Filipino translation of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal , and audiences at The Mirror Studio Theatre were left hushed and shaken. For ninety uninterrupted minutes, they sat inside the wreckage of longing, deceit, and memory—bearing witness to a triangle where love and silence cut as deep as betrayal itself. Translated with sharp precision by Guelan Varela-Luarca and directed with surgical restraint by Loy Arcenas, Kaliwaan does what Pinter does best: it lingers in silence, it slices through civility, it makes desire feel both tender and treacherous. Here, filtered through the rhythms of the Filipino tongue and the intimacy of a black box space, the play takes on a new resonance—familiar yet unsettlingly close. The Triangle That Cuts Deep At the center of Kaliwaan are three of Philippine theater’s finest: Missy Maramara as Emma, fierce yet fragile, her every glance carrying the weight of a truth half-buried. Nor Domingo as Jerry...

I’ll never know the full extent of Missy Maramara’s artistry, but from the ocean that I have witnessed, I am satisfied to be fully in the deep—savoring the full pressure of each stroke of nuance. As Emma, she is at once delicate and sharp, like a hand brushing the surface of water only to reveal the undertow. The other two, Nor Domingo and Ron Capinding, match her with excellent restraint and intensity, weaving through the truths that unravel in front of us with a control that is all the more devastating for its quietness. Kaliwaan , Guelan Varela-Luarca’s Filipino translation of Harold Pinter’s Betrayal , under the direction of Loy Arcenas, is a study in clarity. Non-pretentious even in its choice of language, it allows the Filipino tongue to carry Pinter’s infamous silences with ease—not always colloquial, but never alienating. The language itself provides nuance and comfort, as though we are invited to know the whole story from different vantage points: Emma’s, Robert’s, Jerry’s. E...

What started as a bold, intimate staging of one of Broadway’s most haunting gems has now grown into a phenomenon that Manila audiences refuse to let go. Due to insistent public demand, The Sandbox Collective has announced a one-day-only final extension of Side Show: The Musical on August 24, 2025 , with two last shows at 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM , both at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Black Box Theater in Circuit Makati. This last extension is doubly poignant — it marks not only the closing bow of this celebrated production but also the final directorial outing of Toff de Venecia before his hiatus, making these performances a historic farewell of sorts. Two Shows, Two Distinct Star Pairings For its swan song, Side Show offers audiences the rare chance to see two unique casts take the stage on the same day : Matinee at 3:00 PM Krystal Kane, Molly Langley, CJ Navato, Tim Pavino, and Joshua Cabiladas Evening at 7:30 PM Tanya Manalang, Marynor Madamesila, Reb Atadero, Vien Ki...

  91 Seasons In, and They’re Still Stirring the Pot There’s something simmering in the kitchen—and it’s not just dinner. For its 91st season, the Far Eastern University Theater Guild (FTG) is dishing out Karne , a darkly funny, deeply Filipino reimagining of Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter . Written and directed by Dudz Teraña —Senior Artist-Teacher at PETA and FTG’s own artistic director—this new production invites you to step into the aromatic, tension-filled home of a 1980s couple whose domestic life is equal parts sweet, sour, and a little sinister. Set in Lubotan, Zamboanguita, Negros Oriental , circa 1980, Karne swaps the British sensibilities of the original for a heady blend of Bisaya, Tagalog, and English, seasoned with the everyday humor and quiet dread familiar to rural Filipino households. Here, the kitchen isn’t just where meals are made—it’s where secrets stew and silence simmers louder than boiling broth. “This play holds up a mirror to the lived realities o...

The barricades will stand in Manila a little longer. Cameron Mackintosh’s production of LES MISÉRABLES: THE WORLD TOUR SPECTACULAR has confirmed its final extension—pushing its Manila run from the originally announced February 15, 2026 closing date to March 1, 2026 at The Theatre at Solaire. From the moment the news of its arrival broke, Filipino audiences made their voices heard—tickets sold at lightning speed, waitlists filled, and the demand for seats was undeniable. GMG Productions, in association with Cameron Mackintosh and Nick Grace Management, has now added two more weeks for audiences to experience the acclaimed production. “From the moment we announced Les Misérables: The World Tour Spectacular , it was clear how deeply the show resonated with Filipino audiences,” shares GMG Productions’ CEO Carlos Candal. “This is a version of the show never before seen in Manila, and we’re thrilled more fans will now get the chance to experience it.” This staging isn’t a mere repeat...

Some memories hide in silk. Others in denim. A few, in zippers we haven’t closed in years. But what happens when we give those memories a microphone? This August 16 and 17, inside the Grand Ballroom of Marco Polo Plaza Cebu, the ordinary contents of a woman’s closet will become vessels for something larger: memory, identity, and truth told without embellishment. Love, Loss, and What I Wore isn’t just a play about clothes. It’s a play about what clothes carry. And in a world that rushes too quickly to reinvent itself, this one will pause—and remember. ✨ Where memory hangs on a hanger Written by sisters Nora and Delia Ephron and based on the illustrated memoir by Ilene Beckerman, Love, Loss, and What I Wore is a collection of stories stitched together by fabric, fashion, and feeling. Each monologue, each ensemble moment will serve as a time capsule—tracking the shape of a woman’s life through the dresses she wore to prom, the shoes she left by a door, the purses she clutched thro...

The clock will tick. The bell will ring. And nothing—absolutely nothing—will quite make sense. That’s exactly the point. This August, a brand-new theater company will introduce itself with a play that refuses to explain itself. Sopranong Kalbo , Rolando S. Tinio’s Filipino translation of Eugène Ionesco’s absurdist classic The Bald Soprano , will be Teatro Meron’s inaugural production—and it won’t begin with a bang, but with a broken sentence. The show will run from August 8 to 10, 2025 , at the Rizal Mini Theater inside Ateneo de Manila University . And from the very first line, it will ask: What are we really saying, when we say the things we always say? 🌀 Familiar routines, unfamiliar territory A couple will talk. Another will arrive. There will be small talk, strange coincidences, a maid with a secret, and a Fire Chief with too much to say. It will all feel funny at first—until the laughter starts to stick. Every sentence will loop back on itself. Every phrase will be repea...