Lasa Ng Imperyo
Part of the Micro Performance Series
In a surprising fusion of theatre and gastronomy, this adaptation of A Taste of Empire reimagines Jovanni Sy’s acclaimed play about the effects of global imperialism on how we produce, prepare and consume food. Presented in Tagalog with English surtitles, the performance guides audiences across the layered history of Philippine cultural heritage through a live cooking demonstration.
This new version brings a fresh female perspective to the piece by replacing the original Sous-Chef Jovanni with the witty and intrepid Sous-Chef Mela. Her task? To cook rellenong bangus, or stuffed milkfish, a dish whose intricate preparation process takes its roots from the country’s culinary traditions and colonial past.
As the dish is brought to life, so too are the stories embedded within its ingredients. Sous-Chef Mela’s insights connect the flavors and techniques to broader themes around globalization, cultural identity and resource exploitation, inviting viewers to consider how the global food market continues to be shaped by imperialist legacies.
Lasa Ng Imperyo performs as part of the Micro Performance Series, presented with PuSh Festival.
Performance Times:
- 7:00pm, January 30
- 6:00pm, January 31
- 7:00pm, February 4
- 7:00pm, February 5
- 7:00pm, February 6
- 2:00pm, February 8
Performances at The NEST 1398 Cartwright St. Vancouver BC
Boca del Lupo’s History with Lasa Ng Imperyo
Jay Dodge, Co-Artistic Director, Boca del Lupo
Sherry and I met Jovanni Sy decades ago around the time that he created A Taste of Empire and was performing it at the iconic St. Lawrence Market in Toronto. He was the AD at Cahoots Theatre at the time and we met at a national conference of some kind… I can’t remember what the conference was about, but I remember we had an immediate affinity for each other’s work. Fast forward to 2012 when Jovanni was named AD at the Gateway Theatre in Richmond – Sherry and I invited Leanna and Jovanni to our house and before the meal was over, we were scheming to find a way to bring A Taste of Empire back to life for Vancouver audiences. Over the next few years, we presented the A Taste of Empire four times due to its popularity, ingenuity and insight; on Granville Island, at UBC Farms, at the Liu Institute for Global Issues and at the Gateway Theatre. We brought Pedro Chamale onto to those productions as a production assistant and to perform the walk on roll of The Assistant. It was great to see Jovanni and Pedro’s chemistry and it was exciting to see Rice and Beans work with the Gateway Theatre to produce Derek Chan’s Cantonese translation of the project for Richmond audiences. We lent some set pieces and tech to that production but it was a few years later still that the project emerged into our sphere again here at Boca del Lupo.
Carmela Sison was working with us at the time as our Communications Associate and through a series of lateral associations Carmela pulled together this fantastic group of collaborators including Nina Lee Aquino who I was sitting on the PACT board with at the time. We were thrilled to be able to support Carmela, Nina and Jovanni’s vision for this iteration of A Taste of Empire through our SLaM Program, bringing it home and grounding it in the language and culture of the Philippines. And now coming full circle, it is with great pleasure that we partner with PuSh to present this Rice and Beans production (Pedro and Derek’s company) of Carmela’s reimagined version of A Taste of Empire: Lasa Ng Imperyo.
Presented with PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Creative Team
Carmela Sison
Carmela Sison (she/her) is a Filipina-Canadian artist living and working on the stolen territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. A graduate of the University of Alberta’s BFA in Acting program, she has been working in theatre and film for 15 years. Select theatre credits include Kamila Sediego’s Homecoming (Urban Ink), Miss Bennett: Christmas in Pemberley (Arts Club), Two Gentlemen of Verona, The Merchant of Venice (Bard on the Beach), Much Ado About Nothing (Theatre Calgary), Are We There Yet?, Consent, Under Cover (Concrete Theatre), Cowboy Vs. Samurai (Chromatic Theatre). Beyond acting she has also taken on producing, arts administration, and coaching for young actors. Lasa ng Imperyo has been developed through Workshop Theatre Montreal’s Glassco Translation residency in Taddousac, Quebec and rice & beans theatre’s DBLPSK. She is so grateful for her friends’ and family’s love and support and to all the artist who have been a part of this process. Maraming salamat sa inyong lahat!
Jovanni Sy
Jovanni Sy is a Montreal-based playwright, director, and actor. He is the former Artistic Director of Gateway Theatre (Vancouver) and Cahoots Theatre (Toronto). Since his professional career began in 1992, Jovanni’s artistic mission has been to create bridges across cultures with a particular interest in reimagining Western classics through an Asian Canadian lens. Jovanni’s plays include: Salesman in China (co-written with Leanna Brodie); The Five Vengeances, a comic kung-fu adaptation of The Revengers Tragedy; Nine Dragons, a detective story set in 1920s Hong Kong; and A Taste of Empire. His plays have received a Jessie Richardson Award, a Quebec Writers’ Federation Playwriting Prize, and two Tom Hendry Awards. A Taste of Empire and Nine Dragons have been published by Talonbooks; Salesman in China will be published by Playwrights Canada Press in Spring 2025. A Taste of Empire has been translated into Cantonese by Derek Chan as well. Jovanni is currently developing several new works: The Tao of the World, Kowloon Bay (a prequel to Nine Dragons), a farce for the Arts Club Theatre, and a new interdisciplinary piece as the Resident Artist at Bishop’s University.
Marcus Youssef
A playwright, actor and theatremaker, Marcus’ fifteen or so plays have been produced in multiple languages in twenty countries across North America, Europe and Asia. They include Winners and Losers, King Arthur’s Night, How Has My Love Affected You?, Adrift, The In-Between, Ali and Ali and the aXes of Evil, Jabber and A Line in the Sand. Marcus is the recipient of Canada’s largest theatre award, the Siminovitch Prize for Theatre, for his body of work as a playwright and mentor, as well as Berlin, Germany’s Ikarus Prize, the Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award, the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award, the Chalmers’ Canadian Play Award, the Seattle Times Footlight award, the Vancouver Critics’ Innovation award (three times), the Canada Council Staunch-Lynton Award, and an Honorary Fellowship from Douglas College. Marcus’ directing credits include Charlie Demers’ Leftovers (Neworld/PuSh), Porno Death Cult (Tara Cheyenne Performance/High Performance Rodeo) and Sultans of the Street (Carousel). Marcus is thrilled to be working on his friend Jovanni’s play with such a great team. He is also a bit surprised to be working in Tagalog 🙂
Andie Lloyd
Andie Lloyd is a queer interdisciplinary artist and community advocate, raised and currently living on unceded Qayqayt Territory. She works as a lighting designer and media artist, and is a co-founder of HK House 香港屋 (@hkhouseofficial), a local non-profit dedicated to the love and preservation of Hong Kong culture. Some notable design involvements include: Fat Joke (Neworld Theatre) — Projection Design, SmartSmart (SpiderwebShow) — Interaction Design, Residuals(住み・墨) (Shion Skye Carter) — Lighting Design, Peace Country (rice & beans theatre) — Projection Design, Happy Valley 馬照跑．舞照跳 (rice & beans theatre) — Projection Design, Clean/Espejos (Neworld Theatre) — Surtitle Design. Andie is a member of the Associated Designers of Canada. GFHG SDGM. Free Palestine.
Jenn Stewart
Jenn is a multi-disciplinary theatre artist who lives on the unceded lands of the the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples. Selected credits include: Blond Eckbert (Vancouver Opera YAP, Set & Costumes), Kuroko (VACT, Props), Wet (Itsazoo, Set & Props), (Seizieme, Set & Costumes). Jenn studied at Studio 58 and UBC. She is a member of CAEA and the Associated Designers of Canada. www.jenniferannstewart.com.
Karla Comanda
Karla Comanda (they/she) is a poet, playwright, editor, translator, educator, and arts administrator. Their poems have appeared in Contemporary Verse 2, filling station, decomp, Poetry is Dead, Room Magazine, and others. She has taught writing workshops for the UBC Philippine Studies Series, Vancouver Public Library, Migrante BC, La Salle University – Ozamiz, Western Mindanao State University, Co.ERASGA, and other organizations and institutions. In 2019, Karla hosted the Sinag-Araw Writing Workshop, a poetry workshop series created for Filipino youth in the diaspora.
Oswald Gabriel Pingol
Oswald Pingol (he/him) is a queer emerging artist and a first-generation immigrant from the Philippines. He has a background in choral singing, musical theatre, poetry, as well as community engagements and outreach work. His most recent engagements include “buto/buto : bones are seeds” and “The Addams Family, A New Musical Comedy”. He is known as Cyrus Mulan in the Vancouver ballroom scene, and is part of the International Legendary Imperial House of Hua Mulan. He is also part of The internationally acclaimed Vancouver Youth Choir and has performed in different concert halls in Istanbul, New York and Newfoundland among others. He is currently working on his bachelor’s degree, majoring in Psychology. He loves working with youth and exploring art as a medium to create social change.
Jethelo Espaldon Cabilete
A graduate of Theatre Humber’s Technical and Production program, with an extensive repertoire in stage management and stagehand work. Twenty-four years of industry work with Directors/Choreographers such as: Lois Anderson, Donna Spencer, Crystal Pite, Richard Wolfe, Diane Roberts, Stephen Drover, Corey Payette. Notable productions: CHILD-ish, Revisor, The Shipment, Reflections on Crooked Walking 2023, Cedar Woman, The Invisible Hand, God’s Lake, The Whipping Man, Children of God, Long Division, Annapurna, Skydive, Falling In Time. Headshot photo courtesy of Four Eyes. To Keith for his love and support. Dedicated to my Mother.
Christian Ching
Christian Ching is a scenographer, lighting designer, and production manager with a love for design and nature. They are a graduate of Simon Fraser University (2021) with a double degree in Theatre Production and Design and in the Biological Sciences. Originally from the Philippines, they are currently based in the unceded Coast Salish territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) nations (also known as Vancouver). Their practice aims to revolve around playful collaboration and the consideration of ecological aspects of design. In their free time, they like to write and run RPGs, draw, and make music.
Nina Lee Aquino
Nina Lee Aquino, a Filipino Canadian, is a renowned director, dramaturge, and artistic leader. Her journey began as the inaugural Artistic Director of fu-GEN Asian Canadian theatre company (2002-2009), where she organized the first Asian Canadian theatre conference and edited a seminal anthology of Asian Canadian plays, alongside co-editing an award-winning book on the subject. She became Artistic Director at Cahoots Theatre Company (2009-2012) and Factory Theatre (2012-2022, leading to her current role as Artistic Director of English Theatre at the National Arts Centre. Aquino’s directorial work has garnered prestigious awards, including the Ken McDougall Award, John Hirsch Prize, Toronto Theatre Critics Award for Best Director, and three Dora Awards for Outstanding Direction. She co-authored the play Miss Orient(ed) and serves as an Adjunct Professor at York University. Additionally, Aquino was the President of the Professional Association of Canadian Theatre from 2018-2024. In 2019, she was honored with the Toronto Arts Foundation’s Margo Bindhart and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award.
Lasa Ng Imperyo is supported by
