Dolly de Leon to Grace CAST PH Stage Again in 2026
The Golden Globe nominee is part of the staged reading roster.
Published on Dec 14, 2025
Nelsito Gomez, founder of the Company of Actors in Streamlined Theatre (CAST), announced on Sunday night, December 14, their next season of staged readings. The roster of readers includes Golden Globe and BAFTA nominee Dolly de Leon.
The announcement came after the final bows of Patintero sa Ayala Avenue, which had a limited six-performance run that started last December 6 at the Mirror Theatre Studios in Makati. "CAST champions quality theatre, economically created and open to everyone," according to its bio.
"On our sixth season next year, so we've done already six seasons of this, and we're announcing just for you guys tonight what that season is going to be. So, as discussed with the stage readings, we never announce the title of the shows because we do four plays, all under a unifying theme. So we don't announce it just so everybody can experience the entire thing in its totality," announces Gomez.
"The theme of next year is called Reorient: Narratives from Asian Voices. The whole season is written by Asian playwrights. So I can't tell you what the titles are or the playwrights because it's going to be easy to guess, but what I can tell you are the directors and the cast."
CAST PH 2026 Staged Readings
Play # 1, January 11, 2026 - directed by Sarah Facuri, with cast: Mikkie Bradshaw-Volante, Justine Peña, Jordan Andrews, Chaye Mogg, Mayen Bustamante-Cadd
Play # 2, January 18, 2026 - directed by Jaime Del Mundo, with cast: Tarek El Tayech, Nelsto Gomez
Play # 3, January 25, 2026 - directed by Guelan Varela-Luarca, with cast: Jenny Jamora, Zoe Ocampo, Jam Binay, Frances Makil-Ignacio, Dolly de Leon, and Roselyn Perez
Play # 4, February 1, 2026 - directed by Caisa Borromeo, with cast: Jillian Ita-as, Kakki Teodoro, George Schulze, Yanah Laurel, Alfredo Reyes, Miren Alvarez-Fabregas
Dolly de Leon as an Artist
De Leon has previously joined CAST's staged reading of Elegy by Nick Payne last February 2, alongside Roselyn Perez and Naths Everett. It was directed by Topper Fabregas. Prior to this, she was last seen onstage in Request sa Radyo in 2024 at the Samsung Performing Arts Center in Makati.
She's a celebrated alumna of the University of the Philippines' Theater Arts program, where she studied under titans of Philippine theater, including professor of dramaturgy José Estrella and the late National Artist for Theater Director Tony Mabesa. She acted in local productions of The Merchant of Venice, Waiting for Godot, Medea, and Three Sisters.
Her first feature film was Shake, Rattle & Roll III (1991), under the direction of Peque Gallaga. De Leon's local breakthrough film was Verdict (2019), for which she won a FAMAS Award for Best Supporting Actress. She received international acclaim for her performance in Ruben Ostlund's Triangle of Sadness (2022), after winning the Guldbagge Award and the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award for Best Supporting Performance and earning nominations for a Golden Globe Award and for the BAFTA Award for Best Supporting Actress.
In a January 2023 interview with Esquire Philippines, De Leon talked about her values as an artist.
"I think what makes a great actor is the ability to listen. It could be na nag-aral ka, pinag aralan mo ‘yung script tapos planadong-planado mo ang lahat, tapos ang scene partner mo iba ang ginagawa, at di ka naga-adjust. Hindi mo iniiba ang timpla mo, hindi magwo-work ang scene. Treat the situation like it’s real without you planning what your next move is... Actually, it’s a dance, between you and your scene partners, or between you and your camera."
Christa I. De La Cruz is a Palanca Award-winning writer with over 15 years of experience in feature writing for print and digital media. She earned her Sertipiko sa Malikhaing Pagsulat sa Filipino from the University of the Philippines Diliman and holds an MFA in Creative Writing from De La Salle University.
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