CIRCA Pintig's 35th Season
CP 35: Kwento, Kain, Kostume
Join us for CP 35: Kwento, Kain, Kostume, a special celebration in honor of our 35th anniversary season and a playful walk through Circa Pintig history. Come in era inspired looks from any decade you love or from a time period featured in our productions.
Channel the 1930s of Bulosan, the St. Louis Exposition world of Alamat, or any of the decades and stories that have come alive on the CP stage. Think classic Pinoy Sunday best in the city, World’s Fair glam, community organizers’ everyday wear, or your own playful take on a CP inspired outfit. Go all out. Go campy. Go tita, tito, lola, lolo realness.
We’ll gather on April 25 at the Elston Place Market Mix Community Room (next to Seafood City) for dinner, kuwentuhan, and a mini reunion, reconnecting with longtime collaborators and welcoming new friends as we celebrate 35 years of art, activism, and community. Your $25 donation includes dinner and helps support our 35th anniversary season programming.
Big thanks to the KOI Institute for helping sponsor this event and standing with us in community.
Come as you are, come as your favorite CP era, and come ready to eat, laugh, and celebrate 35 years of Circa Pintig at CP 35: Kwento, Kain, Kostume.
Pink Ribbon Plays
Presented by CIRCA-Pintig and Nothing Without a Company
Dates: April 18, 206
Pink Ribbon Plays presented by CIRCA-Pintig and Nothing Without a Company is fast-paced 24-Hour Play Festival bringing together 30 AANHPI artists to create six original short plays in just one day, centering community storytelling around breast cancer, healing, and collective care, supported by the SCREEN Project and the Asian Health Coalition.
What is a 24-Hour Play Festival?
A 24-Hour Play Festival at the Rizal Center brings together six playwrights, six directors, and eighteen actors who are randomly sorted into six teams composed of a writer, director, and three actors. Every team is assigned a specific location within the building and given 24 hours to devise a brand-new ten-minute play inspired by their space. The festival celebrates collaboration, site-responsive storytelling, and the excitement of creating live theatre under a shared deadline.
Accessible Theatre
Pay-What-You-Can tickets will be available at the box office on the day of the event, subject to availability. If the performance sells out, a Pay-What-You-Can waitlist will be offered.
What is the SCREEN Project?
The SCREEN Project (Screening for Cancer, Reducing Inequity, and Engaging Asian Neighborhoods) is a community health initiative led by the Asian Health Coalition that works to reduce cancer disparities across Asian neighborhoods in Chicagoland. At its core, SCREEN combines culturally and linguistically appropriate breast health education with community-centered storytelling to address stigma, shame, fear, and misinformation, while also increasing access to screening and strengthening pathways to timely follow-up care.
Panther in the Sky
- The Impact of Gun Violence in our Communities, and its Intersection with Mental Health and Disabilities
Chicago, IL [April 2026] — The University of Illinois Chicago’s (UIC) Department of Disability and Human Development (DHD in partnership with other UIC units and community, will host a two-day event that will feature conversations and a theater play about gun violence and its effects on the community, and its intersection with mental health and disability. On April 13 from 2–4 p.m., representatives from advocacy and service provider organizations, researchers, and survivors will be sharing insights and perspectives on gun violence and its impact on communities.
Panelists include Alexander Garcia, Tim Pagani, and Stephanie Santana from Access Living; Nana Ahmed, founder of Agents of Hope, Jonas Hart Ginsburg, filmmaker, from Digital Tapestries Screening, Artinese Myrick from Live Free Illinois, Hibiki Sakai and Georgia Tankard from CORNERS Northwestern University, Ashley Taylor from Striving Together Elevating Perspectives, and Jamia Taylor, CIRCA Pintig actor. Audience anchor speakers include Randy Kim, podcaster, and Radhika Sharma from Apna Ghar and on-campus mental health supports. The panel will be moderated by Jae Jin Pak from Chicagoland Disabled People of Color Coalition (DPOCC) and Litany Esguerra from CORNERS Northwestern University.
On April 14, CIRCA Pintig Theatre will perform Lani T. Montreal’s Panther in the Sky during two shows with talk-backs, from 2–4 p.m. and 6–8 p.m. All events will take place at the UIC Richard J. Daley Library.
A finalist for Chicago Reader’s Best New Play of 2024, Panther in the Sky tells the story of three mothers from working-class neighborhoods who lost their sons to gun violence. Their mourning becomes metaphoric and metaphysical as their sons join the grieving mothers onstage as spectral onlookers from the afterlife.
The play premiered at the Chicago Danztheatre in May 2024 to sold-out houses. Theatre critic Wesley David notes, “With exquisite sensitivity and profound insight, Montreal crafts each character with depth and authenticity, allowing their voices to resonate with universal truths while honoring the specificity of their individual experiences.”
The Art of Belonging
Dates: Feb 11-21
Location: Jose Rizal Center
Theatre Performance + Archival Film Presentation + Talk back
The Art of Belonging celebrates Filipino immigrant experiences in the Midwest through theater, archival film, and community dialogue. The project presents three stage adaptations of short stories by Bienvenido Santos alongside restored 16mm home movies by Nicholas “Uncle Nick” Viernes, documenting Filipino American life from the 1930s–1970s.
Together, these works illuminate themes of longing, humor, resilience, and the ongoing search for home—bridging literary heritage with living memory.
Dates
Wed–Fri, Feb 11–13, 2026 — 7:00 PM
Sat, Feb 14, 2026 — 2:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Sun, Feb 15, 2026 — 2:00 PM
Thu, Feb 19, 2026 — 7:00 PM
Sat, Feb 21, 2026 — 2:00 PM & 7:00 PM
Location
Rizal Center
1332 W. Irving Park Rd., Chicago
Filipino Nurse Exhibit - Artifact Call
Dates: May 1-31, 2026
Location:
International Museum of Surgical Science
1524 N. Lake Shore Drive
Chicago, Illinois
One of the country’s largest migration stories stands hidden in plain sight. It’s the tangled legacy of American colonialism, economic inequity and feminine norms that laid the foundation for an undeniable yet unspoken stereotype: Filipino nurses. The notion that every U.S. hospital has Filipino nurses or that every Filipino living here is either a nurse or involved in healthcare seems hyperbolic. But is it true?
A new exhibit of photos, documents, uniforms, medical devices and family mementos from nurses newly arrived or native-born citizens descendant from the Philippines, delves into an overlooked but significant demographic.
SCREENED and Seen
with Asian Health Interest Form Open Now
SCREEN is a partnership between Asian Health Coalition and Circa Pintig, supported by Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois (2025–2026 Community Grant Initiative). Our goal is to support cancer screening, reduce inequities in care, and engage Asian communities in Chicagoland through culturally grounded breast health education and community storytelling.
The Center for Immigrant Resources and Community Arts, also known as CIRCA Pintig is a Chicago-based
organization whose mission is to engage community members in addressing the critical needs of immigrant and
marginalized communities in theatrical, creative, and empowering ways. A proud new member of the League of
Chicago Theatres
CIRCA Pintig is supported in part by the Asian Giving Circle, Crossroads Fund, DCASE City Arts and
Neighborhood Access Program Grant, Illinois Arts Council, an agency of the National Endowment for the
Arts, and RESIST. For more information, visit www.circapintig.org.
Coming Soon
Illinois Humanities Series
More Information Soon…
Collaborations
More Information Soon…
Summer Lab Incubator
More Information Soon…
Third Annual Chicago Filipino American Theater Festival
More Information Soon…
Pinoys in Chicago
More Information Soon…
