Public Sharing and Reading of the Play (Online)

This project consists of a series of interconnected activities designed to foster international artistic exchange and community-engaged theatre practice. On August 11, 2026, artists from Canada, the Philippines, and France will participate in a knowledge-sharing event focused on ecological dramaturgy and community-based theatre practices that engage questions of peacebuilding and social transformation.

The two subsequent events, scheduled for December 5, 2026, and May 1, 2027, will be dedicated to the development and public presentation of a new theatrical work by playwright Pepito Sumaya, whom we have commissioned for this project. These events will provide opportunities for artistic dialogue, community engagement, and the dissemination of creative research emerging from the collaboration.

This event will be in collaboration with PSi Antiracism Advisory Committee and MSU Marawi

Organizer bios:
(1) PSi Antiracism Advisory Committee: Under the direction of the Officer of Antiracist Actions and Practices, the committee collaboratively works on projects, events, and opportunities with the purpose of continuing research and education on issues of race and performance, considering pathways to engage the organization more effectively in antiracist and anticolonialist practices.

(2) Sining Kambayoka: Sining Kambayoka is a university-based theatre company at the Mindanao State University Marawi under the artistic directorship of Pepito Sumayan.

Pepito Sumaya is a folk form theater practitioner and faculty member of e-Turo Dula Online Course Program of National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) – National Committee on Dramatic Arts in Mindanao in 2020 to 2022 and initially trained in performing arts and theater directing at the Sining Kambayoka of the Mindanao State University (MSU), Marawi City. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Public Administration, Diploma in Theater- in-Education, Master of Science in Community Development and master’s in public administration* at the said university, respectively. He obtained his post-graduate course in Anthropology at the Uppsala University, Sweden in 2022 and Heritage Study course at the University of Tartu, Estonia in 2024 being an OCSEAN scholar under the EU-European Commission with Marie Sklodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange Grant. Currently, he is the artistic director of the MSU-Sining Kambayoka Ensemble of the Mindanao State University, Main Campus, Marawi City, Philippines.

Dr. Dennis Gupa is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Theatre and Film. He is also a theatre director and applied theatre practitioner. He received his Master’s degree in theatre at the University of the Philippines Diliman, Masters of Fine Arts in Dircting for Theatre at the University of British Columbia, and his PhD in Applied Theatre at the University of Victoria.

Dominika Laster: Dominika Laster is an interdisciplinary researcher with a vigorous creative and curatorial practice focused on themes of precarity and decoloniality in the context of borderlands and migration. She is Professor of Theatre and Performance Studies at the University of New Mexico and Visiting Professor at the David Geffen School of Drama at Yale University.