Natal/National: Three Plays

The family is the foundation of a nation.

Playwright, translator, and director Guelan Varela-Luarca’s three plays in Natal/National echo an undeniable truth: nationhood is rooted in family. In these three plays, the intersections of family dynamics and nation-building take center stage.

Dogsblood

Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards - First Prize, Full-Length Play, 2023

After executing a 70-year-old lady for alleged drug use, an officer adopts the eighteen dogs she left behind.

Corridors

Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards - First Prize, Full-length Play and Hall of Fame, 2024

Following her father’s death, Anj returns home where her estranged family, led by their National Artist matriarch, falls into the same vicious cycle—feeding the very rot their ancestral home nurtures.

3 Upuan

Speaking in hypotheticals and regrets, siblings Jers, Jack, and Jai make sense of time and existence amidst grief and loss.