November 1, 2026 — Theatre Group Asia (TGA) announces the eight actresses joining Tony Award winner Lea Salonga in Ang Tahanan ni Bernarda Alba, its upcoming staging of Chay Yew’s adaptation of Federico García Lorca’s classic drama, translated by Guelan Varela-Luarca. The production opens in February 2027 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater in Circuit Makati.

Salonga takes on the title role of Bernarda Alba, a formidable matriarch whose iron rule over her household sets the stage for a tense struggle between tradition and the desire for freedom. Joining her is an ensemble of accomplished stage and screen performers, and a new generation of artists making their mark in Philippine theater, film, and television.

Veteran performer Sheila Francisco plays María Josefa, Bernarda’s elderly mother, whose words reveal truths the rest of the household struggles to articulate. A celebrated stage and screen actress, Francisco received a Gawad Buhay Award for Best Featured Actress for her portrayal of Justice Hernandez in Bar Boys: A New Musical and played Tiya Dely in Ang Huling El Bimbo. Her screen credits include Leonor Will Never Die, while her international theater work includes becoming the first Filipina to perform at London’s National Theatre in South Pacific, later joining its UK tour as Bloody Mary.

For Francisco, María Josefa is particularly compelling because, as she puts it, “She’s the only one who can actually verbalize exactly what the other women are feeling.” Francisco also sees the play’s resonance in its portrayal of Filipino family dynamics, particularly the influence of matriarchs. Recalling her first encounter with the story, she says, “Akala ko, dito talaga story na ’yan sa mga Pilipino, because it’s so relatable to us with how strong the matriarch is here in the Philippines.”

Bernarda’s five daughters each embody a different response to the expectations imposed on them.

Maita Ponce, a renowned musical theater performer, plays Angustias, the eldest daughter. Her extensive credits include Orosman at Zafira, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Avenue Q in California. She received the 2025 Manila Society of Theater Reviewers Award for Best Performance of a Lead Actor in a Musical for Si Faust! After Goethe and spent six years performing in Cirque du Soleil’s X: The Land of Fantasy in Hangzhou.

Ponce is drawn to the complexities beneath Angustias’s conventional characterization, questioning whether she is simply the plain, bitter eldest sister. “Maybe she’s a lot more complex than that,” she quips. She also points to a troubling contradiction in a society where women may lead households while continuing to uphold patriarchal expectations. “What makes it scary is even if we’re a matriarchal society, the standards women impose on one another are fundamentally patriarchal,” she explains.

Toni Go-Yadao plays Magdalena, the second daughter. A senior member of Tanghalang Pilipino’s Actors Company, Go-Yadao also serves as co-festival director of Virgin Labfest XXI. Her performance work has earned recognition for Balete and Kisapmata, and she received a 2024 Asian Cultural Council fellowship for theater directing and devising.

Go-Yadao sees Magdalena as a woman who supports her sisters while navigating her own place within the household. The role offers an opportunity to explore how women find and assert their voices within restrictive environments. “Magdalena offers an interesting perspective on the family because she is both part of the sisters’ world and someone who must find her own place within it. I look forward to exploring her relationships with the other women and how she navigates the expectations placed upon her.”

Maronne Cruz, an IT girl and stage performer, takes on Amelia, whose reserved nature contrasts with the stronger personalities she often portrays. Her theater credits include Hair, Waitress, The Band’s Visit, Ang Huling El Bimbo, and Ako si Josephine. She has also lent her voice to the Filipino-language versions of KPop Demon Hunters, Work Later, Drink Now, and Blind.

For Cruz, Amelia offers an opportunity to explore the inner world of a quieter character while taking on the challenge of performing a Filipino classic. “Amelia is more reserved than the strong characters I usually portray, so I’m excited to explore her inner world and bring that side of her to the stage,” she shares. The role also marks her first performance in a Filipino classic, allowing her to engage with the work’s layered Filipino text.

Mikaela Regis plays Martirio, approaching the character with an emphasis on empathy rather than judgment. Regis has appeared in A Chorus Line, Shrek The Musical, Delia D, Mula sa Buwan, and Bar Boys. She holds degrees in Creative Writing and English Literature from Ateneo de Manila University and received a Gawad Buhay nomination for Best Original Script for Unica Hijas.

Rather than portraying Martirio simply as a difficult figure, Regis hopes to illuminate the circumstances and emotions that shape her. “I want to understand Martirio without judging her and portray her as a human being who is struggling, rather than simply as a villain,” she says.

Gabby Padilla portrays Adela, the youngest daughter, whose yearning for freedom brings her into direct conflict with her mother’s authority. Known for her performances in films including Gitling, Billie and Emma, and Kono Basho, Padilla won Best Actress at the 2024 Cinemalaya Philippine Independent Film Festival for Kono Basho. Her theater credits include I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change and Tiny Beautiful Things.

Padilla first encountered Bernarda Alba while watching senior theater students rehearse and has long been drawn to the work’s atmosphere, silences, and writing. She sees Adela as both bold and wise beyond her years for recognizing that she need not accept the life prescribed for her.

“I think she is also wise beyond her years to know that she can resist and to know that there is a life beyond what her sisters have already accepted for themselves,” Padilla shares.

The household’s two maids offer perspectives shaped by their proximity to the family and their intimate understanding of its conflicts.

Frances Makil-Ignacio plays Poncia, Bernarda’s longtime servant and confidante, whose familiarity with the household gives her a distinctive understanding of its tensions. One of the Philippines’ most celebrated theater actresses, Makil-Ignacio has built an extensive career across stage and screen. She is known for playing Mama Josie in GMA’s Mundo Mo’y Akin and has worked across productions for ABS-CBN and TV5. She has also performed in a previous staging of Bernarda Alba, bringing valuable familiarity with the play to her portrayal of Poncia.

Describing Poncia as “one of the most human” characters in the play, Makil-Ignacio looks forward to exploring the many layers of her relationships with Bernarda, the daughters, and the other members of the household.

Jam Binay portrays Blanca, the household’s second servant. Her theater credits include Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, and Bar Boys: A New Musical. A graduate of Ateneo de Manila University, where she earned degrees in Theatre Arts and Communication, Binay sees the play’s examination of patriarchy as particularly relevant.

“Expectations can persist even in a household where men are absent,” she observes. “Through Blanca, I look forward to exploring the character’s place within the family and the dynamics that shape the sisters’ relationships.”

Through the women of the Alba household, Ang Tahanan ni Bernarda Alba examines the tensions between authority and independence, tradition and change, and the expectations families and society impose on women. Rooted in Lorca’s original work, the Filipino adaptation brings these enduring questions into a cultural context where strong matriarchs’ influence coexists with persistent patriarchal structures.

The production continues TGA’s commitment to presenting distinctive interpretations of major works to Philippine audiences, following productions including Request sa Radyo, Into the Woods, A Chorus Line, and The Notebook: The Musical.

Ang Tahanan ni Bernarda Alba will be staged in February 2027 at the Power Mac Center Spotlight Blackbox Theater in Circuit Makati. As of this release, only 15% of tickets remain. Tickets are available exclusively through. TicketWorld.

Presented by Ayala Land and Theatre Group Asia, Ang Tahanan ni Bernarda Alba is the second offering of TGA’s 2026–2027 Season of Power, with additional support from BPI and Philippine Airlines.

For more information, visit www.theatregroupasia.com, follow TGA on Instagram at @theatregroupasia, or visit TGA’s Facebook page.

01 October 2026 –The Tony Award-winning actress and Hollywood Walk of Fame star makes a powerful dramatic transformation in TGA’s highly anticipated Philippine staging of Ang Tahanan ni Bernard Alba.

Last seen with TGA as The Witch in the sold-out run of Into the Woods, this season, Lea Salonga steps into one of theater’s most complex and commanding roles as she inhabits the play’s titular character.

Following an extraordinary career that has taken her from Manila to Broadway and beyond, the multiple award-winning actress, singer, and producer now turns her formidable dramatic talents toward this headstrong matriarch, a woman whose determination to protect her family ultimately becomes the very force that threatens to destroy it. This poetic drama by Federico García Lorca, one of the 20th century’s greatest dramatists, permeates this tragic masterpiece of matriarchal despotism and is adapted by celebrated director-playwright Chay Yew and translated into Filipino by Guelan Varela-Luarca.

After the death of her second husband, Bernarda declares eight years of mourning and imposes absolute obedience upon her five daughters. Behind the closed doors of the Alba household, silence, discipline, tradition, and appearances reign supreme. But beneath the carefully maintained order, her daughters’ desires, jealousies, frustrations, and dreams refuse to remain contained. When the arrival of a potential suitor disturbs the household’s fragile equilibrium, tensions begin to mount, forcing each woman to confront what she wants and what she is willing to sacrifice to have it.

At the center of it all stands Bernarda: fiercely protective, uncompromising, and obsessed with respectability. She is both mother and ruler, protector and oppressor, determined to hold her family together even as her methods transform their home into a prison.

For Salonga, whose career has been defined by some of musical theater’s most demanding roles, Bernarda marks a striking new chapter. Best known internationally for her Tony Award-winning performance in Miss Saigon, Salonga has also received the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Awards. She became the first Asian actress to play Eponine on Broadway in Les Misérables and later returned to the musical as Fantine in its 2006 revival. Her Broadway credits also include Once on This Island, Allegiance, Flower Drum Song, Here Lies Love, and Sondheim’s Old Friends. On TV, she was last seen in Pretty Little Liars and The Cleaning Lady. She is a bona fide Disney legend having lent her singing voice to Princess Jasmine in Aladdin and Fa Mulan in Mulan and Mulan II. Most recently, Salonga voiced the dreaded manananggal in the DreamWorks animation Forgotten Island.

Yet Ang Tahanan ni Bernarda Alba presents audiences with a Lea Salonga they have never seen before.

Salonga says, “To be perfectly honest, I hadn’t encountered this play before, which may work in my favor as I have no preconceived notions or strong opinions. After reading both Chay’s English translation and then Guelan’s translation into Pilipino, despite the literal terror I feel in my soul, this is an absolutely important work to tackle. It fits our culture and is timely given the state of current events in the world.”

The “terror” Salonga speaks of emanates from two fronts: First, the striking difference in her parenting style compared to that of Bernarda’s, and second, because the play will be entirely in Filipino.

The iconic performer shares, “Bernarda is a mother who rules the roost and raises her

children not with love but fear. This kind of parenting still exists, whether for cultural or familial reasons, and getting under the skin of such a mother may give me some empathy for her as well as plenty of sympathy for her children. Figuring out what her backstory is will be fascinating, and what her motivations are for ruling her home with an iron fist. Her rule is law for every person living under her roof, and that house is not a happy place. How does anyone reach that point? It’s definitely going to be, dare I say, fun playing detective and piecing all that out.”

She continues, “To borrow a line from Into the Woods, I’m ‘excited and scared’. My Tagalog, strangely enough, tends to lean towards the ‘matatas’ side. I once

wrote a post on Threads in Pilipino from start to finish, trying not to incorporate either English or Spanish. A few folks might’ve been surprised. As for preparations, I’ve enlisted Guelan’s help in navigating the script, and am ready to ask questionsabout why he chose certain words over others in his translation. His use of the language isn’t justbeautiful but adds so many layers of subtext and meaning. 

With Lea Salonga at its center, Ang Tahanan ni Bernarda Alba promises not merely a performance, but a confrontation and examination of our own Filipino family dynamics and values. For more information, visit TGA’s website www.theatregroupasia.com, Instagram @theatregroupasia, or Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/theatregroupasia

UNDERTALE: The Determination Symphony, the first international concert tour based on the acclaimed indie video game UNDERTALE, is set to make its Philippine debut on Oct. 17 at the Proscenium Theater in Makati City, as part of the game’s 10th anniversary celebration.

Presented by Film Concerts PH in partnership with SOHO Live, the production features the 25-piece Filharmonika Orchestra under the baton of conductor Thanapol Setabrahmana. The concert combines newly arranged orchestral performances with gameplay footage projected on a large screen, allowing audiences to revisit the game’s memorable story, characters, and soundtrack.

The orchestral arrangements were developed by Lambert Jackson in collaboration with Materia Music and feature new compositions by Adam Hoskins created specifically for UNDERTALE‘s 10th anniversary before being expanded for the world tour.

Curated by UNDERTALE creator and composer Toby Fox, the concert traces the game’s emotional journey through the Underground, from the Ruins to its climactic finale. Fox expressed his enthusiasm for the production, saying, “UNDERTALE is a game with a lot of music. It’s good when skilled professionals play the music, and people listen to it.”

Released in 2015, UNDERTALE has become one of the most influential independent video games of its generation, earning widespread acclaim for its storytelling, memorable characters, music, and player-driven choices while selling millions of copies worldwide across multiple platforms.

Fans are also encouraged to attend the concert in cosplay as part of the global anniversary celebration.

Exclusive pre-sale access for members of the Film Concerts PH community begins on Aug. 4 at 10 a.m., while general ticket sales open on Aug. 11 at noon through Ticketmelon.

Founded in 2024, Film Concerts PH specializes in live orchestral productions inspired by films, video games, anime, and television series, bringing popular soundtracks to life through immersive concert experiences. The Manila performance is produced in partnership with Tokyo-based SOHO Live, which has staged video game and anime concerts for audiences across five continents.