The Sandbox Collective brings Spring Awakening back to Metro Manila in February 2027. Photo from the 2026 production by Loreta Arroyo, courtesy of The Sandbox Collective. If you missed The Sandbox Collective’s Spring Awakening this year, you’ll have another chance in February 2027. The company has announced a limited rerun to open its 2027 season at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Center, Makati City. There’s reason to be curious about a return. In my February 2026 review of Spring Awakening , I wrote about a production that grew steadier as it unfolded, with early vocal roughness giving way to an ensemble that found its footing. “Left Behind” made me cry. I also had reservations about some sightlines and lighting choices. A rerun gives us a chance to see how the staging develops. The adults have answers. They just won’t give them. Set in late 19th-century Germany, Spring Awakening follows teenagers trying to understand sex and their changing bodies w...

The ribbon cutting at Gourdo’s Dream Oasis at The Podium on September 5, 2026. Video still: Saul de Jesus / Unsaulicited. It had been a while since I last went to The Podium. I came back for Gourdo’s Dream Oasis media event and went home with two pillows and new pillowcases. I would blame the special prices, but I did make those decisions myself. Gourdo’s Dream Oasis: Sleepcare x Healthguard , in collaboration with A-Fontane, brought pillows, bedding and a few reasons to rethink bedtime to The Podium. I attended the media event on September 5, 2026 , part of the September 4 to 6 pop-up. Before the program even started, though, I had a reunion. A familiar face at The Podium Hosting the event was Cerah Hernandez Co , a friend I have known since college. It was lovely catching up before the program, then watching her do what she does so well. Cerah kept things moving, filled the afternoon with useful information and made sure there was no dead ai...

Guests gather beneath falling artificial snow at Harry Potter: A Yule Ball Celebration. Photo courtesy of GMG Productions. Harry Potter: A Yule Ball Celebration is staying in Manila longer than first announced. The interactive Wizarding World event, whose first sessions began on September 3 at The Space at Solaire, will now run through December 13, 2026. Presented by Warner Bros. Discovery Global Experiences and Fever in collaboration with GMG Productions, the Yule Ball brings guests into a winter ballroom built around the familiar formal-night setting from Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire . The immediate news is practical: people who could not make the opening weeks now have additional dates to choose from as the city moves into the final stretch of the year. The Yule Ball now has a December finish The extension gives the event a place in Manila's holiday calendar, which suits an experience already built around formal dress, Christmas trees, music from the films, and a ball...

The FEU Theater Guild is opening its 93rd season with MORYON , a Filipino adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s Mother Sauvage that moves the story to Japanese-occupied Marinduque and places the Moriones tradition at the center of its world. Written and directed by Dudz Teraña, MORYON runs at the FEU Center for the Arts Studio from October 1 to November 28, 2026 , with performances scheduled throughout the two-month run. It is a fascinating choice of setting for a story built around grief, violence and the complicated line between justice and revenge. MORYON takes place on Holy Thursday in Mogpog, Marinduque, during the Japanese occupation, while the Moriones tradition continues around its characters and masked devotees take to the streets in acts of faith and penance even as war changes the lives of the people living behind those traditions. At the center of the play is Caridad, a mother waiting for her son Joaquin. Joaquin is a young guerrilla who wants t...

For Filipino playwrights with a script sitting unfinished on their laptop, Puregold Teatro Panalo is offering a solid reason to open it again. The new theater festival is now accepting original one-act plays and musicals for its inaugural run in 2027, with only 12 works making the final lineup: eight straight plays and four musicals. Each selected playwright will receive a ₱100,000 fee, while the festival will shoulder production costs, including the professional fees of the cast and crew. The bigger opportunity, though, is that the chosen scripts will actually be staged before an audience during the festival, which is currently set for sometime between February and March 2027. The venue has yet to be announced. You do not need to be an established playwright Puregold Teatro Panalo is open to both amateur and professional playwrights aged 18 and above, so this is not limited to writers who already have a long list of productions or credits behind them. The call is a...