Carlos Bulosan Theatre (CBT) is the only long-standing professional Filipino-Canadian theatre company in Canada and is based in Toronto, Ontario. It was founded in 1982 by activists Fely Villasin, Martha Ocampo, Voltaire de Leon, Ging Hernandez and Bernie Consul under the name Carlos Bulosan Cultural Workshop (as a cultural wing of the North American-based Coalition Against the Marcos Dictatorship). Now in its 37th year, CBT continues to celebrate its history of artistic activity and service to Filipino-Canadians and their broader community.
Honouring its namesake, Filipino poet Carlos Bulosan, CBT produces theatre that reflects on socio-political issues affecting the Filipino community. CBT aims to focus on the encouragement and development of emerging Filipino-Canadian playwrights/performers/multidisciplinary artists and strives to create innovative work that represents vibrant, artistic voices from both older and newer generations of Filipino-Canadians. CBT also seeks to build a larger audience within the varying diasporas in Canada by using a wide range of story-telling that includes Theatre for Young Audiences, theatre based in realism/naturalism, as well as experimental works and one-act presentations.
CBT is a charitable, not-for-profit organization and a former member of the Canada Council for the Arts' Stand Firm, Toronto Theatre Alliance and an affiliate member of PACT (Professional Association of Canadian Theatres).
Artistic Producers
Leon Aureus (2012–present)
Past Theatre Works
Carding (1984, 1986) - a play following the story of a new Filipino immigrant in Canada.
Inay Kung Alam Mo Lang/If My Mother Could See Me Now (1989, 1990) - a play about domestic workers.
Sampung Mga Daliri/Ten Fingers (1991) - a historical interplay of characters depicting the Philippines past and present.
Carlos Bulosan: A Trilogy (1992) - a play about the life and works of Carlos Bulosan, a Filipino immigrant in North America.
Home Sweet Home (1993-1994) - a play about violence against women in the Filipino-Canadian community.
Noong Kapanahunan Ko... Not On My Time (1994) - a play following the effects of generational gaps in Filipino culture; what we take and what we leave behind from the past traditions, as well as what we choose from the present to incorporate and adapt into our lives today.
No Boundaries (1995) - a play about how current economic changes have affected the lives of Filipino-Canadians.
Walang Sugat (Undefeated) (1996, 1998) - a sarsuela (musical production) set in late 1896 when Filipinos took arms against Spanish rule.
Images of 1896 (1997) - a sarsuela about the resistance to Spanish colonial rule.
Tales from the Flipside - New Works Festival (ongoing) - an annual festival showcasing new works in development by emerging Filipino-Canadian playwrights, and featuring both emerging and established artists within the local theatre community. A number of CBT’s plays have been developed as part of this series.
Miss Orient(ed) (2003) - a play written by CBT artists Nadine Villasin and Nina Lee Aquino examining the politics of cultural identity through the eyes of three young beauty pageant contestants. This play marked CBT’s first professional production, and also Canada’s first professional Filipino-Canadian theatrical production.
The Romance of Magno Rubio (2005) - a multidisciplinary piece about a young Filipino farm labourer’s experience with racism in Depression-era California.
People Power (2006, 2008, 2010) - a collective creation piece by CBT artists Leon Aureus, Nadine Villasin, Nicco Lorenzo Garcia, Rose Cortez and Christine Mangosing with poetry by Len Cervantes telling the story of the 1986 Philippine People Power Revolution through the eyes of different Philippines citizens during that time period. In 2010, CBT embarked on its first tour as a professional theatre company by taking this play to Montreal.
Baggage (2008 Toronto Fringe Festival, Pulan Muleta Collective) - a series of five short plays revolving around the cultural baggage of being Filipino-Canadian.
Shotgun Wedding (2011 Toronto Fringe Festival) - an independent musical written by Len Cervantes.
Sister Mary’s a Dyke?! (2012) - a workshop production of a comedic play that explores issues of religion and sexual orientation in an all-girls Catholic private school. Written by Flerida Pena.
In the Shadow of Elephants (2013) - a collective creation play by CBT artists Leon Aureus, Nadine Villasin, Nicco Lorenzo Garcia, Rose Cortez, Christine Mangosing and Aura Carcueva exploring the history of resistance to colonial powers in the Philippines through the perspectives of different Filipinos from pre-colonial to modern-day Philippines.
Through the Bamboo (2014) - a new play-in-development workshop and public reading by Andrea Mapili & Byron Abalos.
Love by Numbers (2014) - a new play-in development by Celeste Palanca. A public reading of the play was presented as part of Tales from the Flipside/Kultura Philippine Arts Festival.
TAGSIBOL Artist Incubator Workshop Program (2015, 2016) - With the goal to reconnect and build a new generation of young Filipino-Canadian artists, CBT launched the TAGSIBOL (Springtime, Renewal, Rebirth) Artist Workshops Program, offering Improv, Yoga + Movement, Indigenous Studies, Play Readings and Mentorship Talks. Coming out of these sessions, CBT introduced early collective creation activities.
CBT30: Tayo Na! & Staged Reading of People Power (2016) - a celebration of CBT’s 34 year anniversary.
Respect, Justice, Dignity (2016) - in an effort to reconnect with CBT’s community activist roots, artists developed and performed a short presentation using excerpts from Carlos Bulosan poems for a labour conference organized by the Filipino Workers Network.
Kaldero (2016, 2017) - a new Theatre-for-Young-Audiences play written by Leon Aureus. The play draws upon Filipino folklore and mythology and introduces Filipino dance, music and food/culture to children. The play premiered at St. Leo’s in Etobicoke, and had a successful mini-tour in Spring 2017 throughout several TCDSB (Toronto Catholic District School Board) elementary schools.
‘FAM JAM’ Comedy Night (2016) - spinning-off from the TAGSIBOL - Artist Incubator Program’s Improv sessions, CBT supported the premiere of sister company, FAM JAM, in August 2016.
In the Heart (2016) - CBT artists created a short theatrical presentation for the PIDC (Philippine Independence Day Committee) Mabuhay! Philippine Festival in August 2016, celebrating the history of Filipino immigration in Canada alongside poetry and writings of various Filipino heroes and poets included Jose Rizal and Carlos Bulosan.
Anak (2016 public reading in Tales from the Flipside/Kultura Philippine Arts Festival, 2017 workshop production) - a new play about family — their hopes and dreams, their secrets and lies, and their struggle to stay together in the face of unexpected challenges that uncover deep-seated resentment and tensions. Written by CBT artists Ann Paula Bautista, Belinda Corpuz, Isabel Kanaan, Richard Mojica, Alia Rasul and Anthony Raymond Yu with contributions by Ulysses Valiante and Ray Jacildo.
Our Time of Night (2017) - new play written by CBT artist Richard Mojica that investigates the extrajudicial killings and war-on-drugs occurring in the Philippines under Duterte’s rule. This multidisciplinary piece includes traditional Philippine Kundiman and Harana music, as well as shadow puppetry. A workshop version of the play was broadcast on Montreal radio show ‘Sigaw Ng Bayan’ (CKUT 90.3FM).
Carlos Bulosan Theatre Anthology Project Launch (2017) - an evening of featured readings from CBT's past works, led by Leon Aureus &Belinda Corpuz, and were performed by past and present CBT artists to help raise funds for Carlos Bulosan Theatre's Anthology. Held at Tarragon Theatre
TAGSIBOL Theatre Artist Workshop (2018) - a play-writing workshop series led by dramaturg Ash Knight that helped upcoming Filipino-Canadian artists develop their playwriting skills. Held at Tarragon Theatre through their artist workspace program.
MapasanTu (2019) - a new play-in-development written by Hollie Reamico & Jamiah Tionko that features a collective collaboration from CBT Artists Ranelle Aquino, Leon Aureus and Joy Castro, with movement by Aura Carcueva. The play's title is two Tagalog words combined: Mapasandal, meaning 'to lean against' and Tulog, meaning 'to sleep' and it revolves around the experiences of two young Filipino newcomers to Canada as they navigate the challenges of life in a new country.
Philippine literature is literature associated with the Philippines from prehistory, through its colonial legacies, and on to the present. Pre-Hispanic Philippine literature included epics passed on from generation to generation, originally through an oral tradition.
Carlos Sampayan Bulosan was a Filipino novelist and poet who immigrated to the United States on July 1, 1930. He never returned to the Philippines and he spent most of his life in the United States. His best-known work today is the semi-autobiographical America Is in the Heart, but he first gained fame for his 1943 essay on The Freedom from Want.
Binalonan, officially the Municipality of Binalonan, is a 1st class municipality in the province of Pangasinan, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 56,382 people.
Philippine literature in English has its roots in the efforts of the United States, then engaged in a war with Filipino nationalist forces at the end of the 19th century. By 1901, public education was institutionalized in the Philippines, with English serving as the medium of instruction. That year, around 600 educators in the S.S. Thomas were tasked to replace the soldiers who had been serving as the first teachers. Outside the academe, the wide availability of reading materials, such as books and newspapers in English, helped Filipinos assimilate the language quickly. Today, 78.53% of the population can understand or speak English.
Cecilia Manguerra Brainard is an author and editor of 20 books. She co-founded PAWWA or Philippine American Women Writers and Artists; and also founded Philippine American Literary House. Brainard's works include the World War II novel, When the Rainbow Goddess Wept, The Newspaper Widow, Magdalena, and Woman With Horns and Other Stories. She edited several anthologies including Fiction by Filipinos in America, Contemporary Fiction by Filipinos in America, and two volumes of Growing Up Filipino I and II, books used by educators.
The Romance of Magno Rubio is a play by Lonnie Carter based on a short story by Carlos Bulosan. Developed by the Ma-Yi Theater Company, it had its premiere in October, 2002 in New York City. The production, cast members and writers were the recipients of eight (8) special 2003 Obie Awards, the prestigious off and off-Broadway awards given annually by the Village Voice.
Epifanio San Juan Jr., also known as E. San Juan Jr., is a known Filipino American literary academic, Tagalog writer, Filipino poet, civic intellectual, activist, writer, essayist, video/film maker, editor, and poet whose works related to the Filipino Diaspora in English and Filipino writings have been translated into German, Russian, French, Italian, and Chinese. As an author of books on race and cultural studies, he was a "major influence on the academic world". He was the director of the Philippines Cultural Studies Center in Storrs, Connecticut in the United States. In 1999, San Juan received the Centennial Award for Achievement in Literature from the Cultural Center of the Philippines because of his contributions to Filipino and Filipino American Studies.
Mark Brownell is a Toronto-based playwright and co-artistic director of the Pea Green Theatre Group with his wife, Sue Miner.
Molly Smith is an American theatre director and the artistic director of Arena Stage in Washington, D.C. She was formerly artistic director of the Perseverance Theatre in Juneau, Alaska, which she founded in 1979 and led until 1998.
Nightwood Theatre is Canada's oldest professional women's theatre and is based in Toronto. It was founded in 1979 by Cynthia Grant, Kim Renders, Mary Vingoe, and Maureen White and was originally a collective. Though it was not the founders' original intention, Nightwood Theatre has become known for producing feminist works. Some of Nightwood's most famous productions include This is For You, Anna (1983) and Good Night Desdemona (1988). Nightwood hosts several annual events including FemCab, the Hysteria Festival, and Groundswell Festival which features readings from participants of Nightwood's Write from the Hip playwright development program.
John Iremil Teodoro is a Filipino writer, creative writing and literature teacher, literary critic, translator, and cultural scholar. He is also considered to be a leading pioneer in Philippine gay literature and the most published author in Kinaray-a.
John Paterson is a Canadian director, devisor, dramaturg, translator, actor and theatre creator who works across Canada, the United Kingdom, and internationally. His favourite credits include directing the installation of The List (BoucheWHACKED!), the site-specific The Women of Troy and F. Garcia Lorca’s The Love of Don Perlimplin for Belisa ; production dramaturgy on the English language premiere of H. Muller’s Macbeth: nach Shakespeare; and playing Adolf Hitler and Walt Disney in The Blue Light and Scheffler in The Ugly One.
The A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, known also as "A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino: An Elegy in Three Scenes" is a literary play written in English by Filipino National Artist for Literature Nick Joaquin in 1950. It was described as Joaquin's “most popular play," as the "most important Filipino play in English," and as “probably the best-known Filipino play.” Apart from being regarded also as the “national play of the Philippines” because of its popularity, it also became one of the important reads in English classes in the Philippines. Joaquin's play was described by Anita Gates, a reviewer from The New York Times, as an "engaging, well plotted metaphor for the passing of Old Manila."
Nadine Alexis Paguia Lustre is a Filipina actress and singer. She rose to fame after playing the lead role of Eya Rodriguez in the film Diary ng Panget (2014).
Tawiah Ben M'Carthy is a Ghanaian-born Canadian actor and playwright. He is best known for his 2012 play Obaaberima, a one-man play about growing up gay in Ghana.
Amelia Lirag Lapeña-Bonifacio was a Filipino playwright, puppeteer, and educator known as the "Grande Dame of Southeast Asian Children's Theatre". In 1977, she founded a children's theater troupe, Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas, the official theater company and puppetry troupe of the University of the Philippines. Lapeña-Bonifacio served as the President of the International Association of Theatre for Children and Young People-Philippines (ASSITEJ-Philippines) and Union Internationale de la Marionnette-Philippines (UNIMA-Philippines). She was recognized in 2018 as a National Artist of the Philippines for Theater.
Felicita "Fely" Villasin was a Philippine-born activist most notable in her part in the anti-Marcos movement and domestic workers' rights advocacy.
Carmencita "Ging" Hernandez was a Philippine-born activist most notable in her part in the anti-Marcos movement and women's rights movement in Canada.
Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes is a 2020 play written by Canadian playwright Hannah Moscovitch. It is the winner of the 2021 Governor General's Literary Award for English-language drama. The play was published by Playwrights Canada Press in 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
