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Traditional Philippine Theater: the Sarsuwela and Komedya and the Bikol Dotok and Tanggal

Featuring Nikki Carsi Cruz & Fr. Andrew Recepcion

Philippine Pavilion Event

Theater scholar Nikki Carsi-Cruz will talk about two theater forms Spanish colonization brought to us: the sarsuwela and the komedya, indigenized as forms of resistance. Fr. Andrew Recepcion, in turn, will discuss the Bikol religious dramas of the Santacruzan and the Pasyon as theater of resistance and renewal.

19 October 2025, Sunday 13:00-14:00

Forum 1 Philippine Pavilion – Proscenium, Messe Frankfurt, Frankfurt am Main

Philippine Pavilion

Meet the Speakers:

Nikki B. Carsi Cruz

Dr. Nikki B. Carsi Cruz currently serves as Chair of the Department of Interdisciplinary Studies at Ateneo de Manila University and was Editor of Perspectives in the Arts and Humanities Asia, a Journal of the School of Humanities.  Her dissertation on Moro-Moro Theater won the Wang Gungwu Medal and Prize for Best Thesis in the Arts and Social Sciences at the National University of Singapore where she completed her PhD in Southeast Asian Studies under the supervision of renowned historian Reynaldo Ileto. Her interdisciplinary research examines connections among various art forms, from vernacular literature, theater, dance, music, martial arts, and folk devotions, as well as history, politics, cultural heritage, aesthetics, peace studies, and performance studies, and spans broad periods from pre-colonial to contemporary times.