Guelan Varela-Luarca's 3 Upuan Returns With New Cast
After three intimate runs starring Jojit Lorenzo, JC Santos, and Martha Comia, Guelan Varela-Luarca's 3 Upuan returns to the stage with a new cast. Paolo O’Hara, Cris Pasturan, and Jasmine Curtis-Smith are all set to give their own artistic rendition to the 90-minute production that is billed as "a play about time and grief." It runs from October 17 to 19 and from October 24 to 26 at the Ateneo Art Gallery.
Cris Pasturan, Jasmine Curtis-Smith, and Paolo O'Hara for '3 Upuan'
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3 Upuan: A Play About Time and Grief
3 Upuan was first staged for a five-day limited run on the second-floor dressing room of Arete's Hyundai Hall in September 2024, then a seven-day run in a teaching laboratory still at Ateneo De Manila University's Arete, and a two-weekend staging at Archive 1984 in Makati. All small spaces, the size of these venues was integral in trying to contain—literally and metaphorically, in a box—the complex emotions of three siblings: the journalist, Jai (previously played by Comia, to be played by Curtis-Smith); the artist, Jack (previously Santos, now Pasturan); and the professor, Jers (previously Lorenzo, now O'Hara).
It is produced by Scene Change, a newly launched theater company by Giancarlo Abrahan, Guelan Varela-Luarca, Jojit Lorenzo, JC Santos, Martha Comia, and D Cortezano. They were also behind the staging of Dagitab, which is Varela-Luarca's theatrical adaptation of Abrahan's 2014 Cinemalaya film of the same title.
3 Upuan runs from October 17 to 19 and from October 24 to 26 at The Foyer, Ateneo Art Gallery, Arete, Ateneo de Manila University. Tickets, priced at P1,600, are available through their Google Form. Undergraduate students can avail discounted tickets for P1,000. Seating is limited with only 60 slots per show.
