QUEZON CITY, Philippines—With a decades-long commitment to telling Filipino stories, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) is once again redefining the power of People’s Theater. This April, PETA’s Control + Shift: Changing Narratives returns to the PETA Studio Theater from April 10 to 19, 2026. Featuring a “StudioLab” of fresh stories and restaging productions, the showcase invites audiences to reclaim the Filipino narrative.

Since its successful 2024 debut, followed by a month-long festival in 2025, Control + Shift: Changing Narratives has been pushing the boundaries of what theater can be. Through a unique collaboration between PETA artists, students, and community partners, this year’s StudioLab continues to tackle the tough questions of our time. It’s a creative space designed for crafting stories that confront the present, hold space for healing, and envision more humane and democratic futures.

This year, Control + Shift: Changing Narratives StudioLab presents two new works, a product of the PETA Artist-Teacher Training, alongside two returning pieces from last year’s festival, including one developed with a theater group from a community partner. The lineup includes:

Set A: When Power Falls into our Hands

In a classroom and a workplace, people discover how easily violence, corruption, and silence can become normalized. But when power falls into our hands, we also face a choice: to comply with the system or to interrupt it.

CLEANERS

Playwright: Jhudiel Clare Sosa

Director: Julio Garcia

A group of senior high students discovers that their graduation depends not just on cleaning classrooms but on how far they’re willing to go when violence, power, and truth land in their hands.

MONIT-OH! MONIT-AH! (Restaging)

Playwright: Herlyn Alegre

Director: Norbs Portales

A forum theatre piece that follows Jaylord, a rookie waiter hoping to win his boss’s favor through a Christmas monito-monita gift, only to uncover how seemingly harmless acts can feed into the larger, corrupt palakasan system—until one brave decision challenges the cycle.

Set B: When Care Becomes Survival

In war-torn landscapes and communities living at the edge of disaster, care becomes something embodied… shared through faith, ritual, play, and collective endurance.

Tanghalang Bagong Sibol’s AT NAGKATAWANG-TAO ANG VERBO (Restaging)

Playwright: Mikaela Regis

Director: Anthony Cruz

In a small urban fishing community along Ilog Tullahan, religious icons and biblical imagery come alive—not as distant saints, but as reflections of the people themselves—revealing how faith becomes flesh in the daily struggle for dignity, livelihood, and hope.

BAGA NG GUMUGUHONG LANGIT

Playwright: Anj Heruela

Director: Ian Segarra

Amid the chaos of war, orphaned children fight to survive in a world that has forgotten them, begging for care from communities pushed to the fragile edges of survival.

BE PART OF THE SHIFT!

Tickets are now available via Ticket2Me or bit.ly/CS2026Tickets. Rates are at Php 700 per set.

For more updates, follow @petatheater on social media.

Control + Shift: Changing Narratives StudioLab 2026 Committee

Control + Shift Artistic Director                  J-mee Katanyag

Managing Producer                                      Icee Po

Production Manager                                     Eko Baquial

Set A Prod. Manager                        Jason Barcial

Set B Prod. Manager                        Mikaundre Santos

Lights Designer                                            Rafa Sumilong

Technical Director                                        Lora Kate Batomalaque

Set A Asst. Technical Director                    Leigh Adarlo

Set B Asst. Technical Director                    John Lee David

Set A: When Power Fall Into Our Hands

CLEANERS

Director                                                          Julio Garcia

Playwright                                                     Jhudiel Clare Sosa

Musical Director/Sound Design                  Kabaitan Bautista

Set & Props                                                   Julio Garcia

Casts                                                              James Pe Lim

                                                                        James Lanante

                                                                        Eli Namoc

Nyla Festejo

Meg Guiang

Csairus Habla

Nickea Covar

MONIT-OH! MONIT-AH!

Director                                                          Norbs Portales

Playwright                                                     Herlyn Alegre

Musical Director/Sound Design                  Abigail Taniegra

Choreographer                                             Gio Gahol

Set & Props                                                   Patrick Jusay

Casts                                                              Roi Calilong

Zoe Damag

Pia Viola

Reggie Ondevilla

Gino Ramirez

Ash Nicanor

Moi Gealogo

Set B: When Care Becomes Survival

Baga ng Gumuguhong Langit

Director                                                          Ian Segarra

Playwright                                                     Anj Heruela

Musical Director/Sound Design                  Ada Tayao

Set & Props                                                   Patrick Jusay

Casts                                                              Ada Tayao

Rona Manio

Rei Albert Milette

Wade Robson

Tanghalang Bagong Sibo’s At Nagkatawang Tao Ang Verbo

Director                                                          Anthony Cruz

Playwright                                                     Mikaela Regis

                Casts                                                             Tanghalang Bagong Sibol

Complete Show Dates

Set A

Fri, 10 Apr. 2026 – 2:00 PM

Fri, 10 Apr. 2026 – 7:00 PM

Sun, 12 Apr. 2026 – 2:00 PM

Sat, 18 Apr. 2026 – 7:00 PM

Sun, 19 Apr. 2026 – 7:00 PM

Set B

Sat, 11 Apr. 2026 – 2:00 PM

Sat, 11 Apr. 2026 – 7:00 PM

Sun, 12 Apr. 2026 – 7:00 PM

Sat, 18 Apr. 2026 – 2:00 PM

Sun, 19 Apr. 2026 – 2:00 PM