Star Powerhouse

After intensive deliberation, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) proudly announces the eight (8) aspiring playwrights selected for the Virgin Labfest XX Writing Fellowship Program (VLF XX WFP), which will be held both online and onsite at the CCP Complex from June 17 to 29, 2025. This year’s Writing Fellows are: Ace Abu Aldrine Anzures Princess Joy Buenafe Mark Joseph Briones Laurence Miguel De Vera Maleah Rae Frange Bradley Jason Pantajo Qashrina Musa The VLF XX WFP is an intensive two-week mentorship initiative on the study and practice of dramatic writing for the stage. Under the guidance of multi-awarded playwright Glenn Sevilla Mas, the program offers a platform for selected writing fellows to engage in lectures, workshops, and discussions on playwriting and script critiquing.  Fellows will also be granted access to this year’s festival plays and take part in talkbacks and interactions with known playwrights and directors. The Virgin Labfest Writing Fellowship Progra...

The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), through its Visual Arts and Museum Division, has loaned five significant artworks from its collection to the National Gallery Singapore (NGS), reinforcing its ongoing efforts to bring Philippine art to a wider international audience. This initiative not only showcases the depth of Filipino creativity but also helps strengthen cultural ties across Southeast Asia, fostering greater appreciation and collaboration in the region’s vibrant arts scene. The artworks from the CCP 21st Century Art Museum (21AM) Collection — Painting No. 1 by National Artist Jose Joya; Portrait of Fernando Zóbel and Fernando Zóbel Lecturing on Art and a Student Listening II , both by David Cortez Medalla; Calligraphic Oracle by Manuel Rodriguez Sr.; and Ku III by Fernando Zóbel — are featured in NGS’s first-ever solo exhibition dedicated to transcontinental abstract artist Fernando Zóbel (1924–1984). Born in the Philippines to a prominent Spanish family, Zóbel was...

  The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), in collaboration with Penguin Random House US, hosts an author event with esteemed Filipino writer F.H. Batacan on June 24, 2025 to spark curiosity for crime fiction in Philippine literature among Filipino readers as well as to inspire aspiring writers to explore the potential of crime fiction as a genre. The seminar-workshop is free to everyone who will submit their crime story pitch until June 10, 2025. Submit your crime story pitch here: https://forms.gle/BmgcezLS14Fh6bt29 F.H. Batacan (Maria Felisa H. Batacan) is a journalist and a writer of crime and mystery fiction currently based in Singapore. Her debut novel, Smaller and Smaller Circles , was originally published by the University of the Philippines Press in 1999, which later won the National Book Award for Best Novel in 2002. Her novel was later acquired and republished by renowned New York independent publisher and Penguin Random House client Soho Press in 2015. A movie bas...

  As the ‘ilaw ng tahanan’, mothers and nurturers are the heart and foundation of Filipino families. Being a mother is all about the deep commitment to nurturing, protecting, and guiding another life. This Mother’s Day, we celebrate the strength, grace, and quiet resilience of mothers and women through the vibrant world of Philippine visual arts.  From the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Arts (CCP EPA), here are some Filipino artworks that immortalized on canvas the importance of women as a mother figure: CHILDBIRTH Childbirth by visual artist Romeo Tabuena is an unusual genre of work that captures the folk quality in situation and settings. The painting centers on the mythological being of the underworld, and a woman in the agony of parturition. As the woman felt the tension to release the baby in her womb, her heaving stomach was massaged by a manghihilot (midwife) while surrounded by an aswang (a mythological creature in Philippine folklore) waiting for the newborn baby. ...

  Celebrating two decades of nurturing emerging and established playwrights, directors, actors, and designers, the Virgin Labfest (VLF) continues to foster its garden of brave narratives with 12 new scripts ripe for the picking. The country’s theater festival of untried, untested, and unstaged one-act plays returns from June 11 to June 29, 2025, at the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez (CCP Black Box Theater).  NEW SCRIPTS, NEW CONVERSATIONS Featuring 12 new scripts by 8 virgin male and female playwrights and 4 returning playwrights in its milestone year, VLFXX: HINOG blooms into a passionate community of unheard voices and untold stories, bringing people closer through truthful and compelling storytelling. A group of friends makes the most of their summer vacation with a mystery game in YOJ’s TBT: TAKBO, BATANG TONDO . Albin, the policeman in their little world, is baffled when the real “suspect” isn’t punished. Liane Carlo Suelan’s ANG BATA KAG ANG ILAGA is set in St. Jerome’s H...