Performing Labor Migration in Philippine Theatre: Narratives, Affects, Ideologies

This book pioneers a systematic inquiry into the link between theatrical performances and histories of Philippine labor migration in the late-20th and early-21st centuries. Focusing on plays mounted by Tanghalang Pilipino of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Philippine Educational Theater Association, and the Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, it argues that Filipino theatre-makers have rendered migration-related issues and figures of overseas Filipino workers available for circulation, comprehension, and critique through their stage and dramatic productions. Deploying different aesthetic and spectacular modes, they have represented labor migration as a complex phenomenon implicated in various ideological formations and generative of a range of affective states. This book emphasizes the role of drama, theatre, and performance in reframing discourses on labor migration and refocusing the narrative of the Philippine nation on the figure of the Filipino migrant.

Oscar T. Serquiña, Jr. is associate professor of the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts at the University of the Philippines Diliman. He has received research fellowships from the Asia Research Institute of the National University of Singapore (2013), the National Library of Australia (2018), and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies of the University of Michigan (2019). He holds a doctoral degree in theatre studies from the University of Melbourne. His essays have appeared in TDR: The Drama Review, Performance Research, Theatre Research International, Kritika Kultura, Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints, and Humanities Diliman.