“Wasn’t I enough to cross an ocean?”

Three generations of Filipina women converge across time and continents as they attempt to bridge the emotional and physical distances that have kept them apart. Sisters Tess and Vicky are inseparable as children, climbing mango trees and sharing dreams in their small Philippine barangay. But when Tess leaves for Canada, their world fractures, leaving Vicky to shoulder the weight of familial responsibilities. More than thirty years later, a funeral brings Vicky to Vancouver to reunite with Tess and her daughter, Ana. Together, the women grapple with the unspoken tensions of the past, hoping to reconcile—but is it too late?

Weaving seamlessly between dreams and memories, Kamila Sediego’s Homecoming tenderly navigates the ripple effects of immigration on those who leave, those who stay, and the generations that follow. A rich tapestry of culture, language, humour, and food, this soaring and heartbreaking drama reminds us that even across great distances, some bonds can never be broken.

Set in Canada and the Philippines, playing with English, Tagalog, Hiligaynon, and Kinaray-a, Homecoming’s magic reaches into the afterlife to explore cultural identity, familial duty, and the effects of migration.

Published by Playwrights Canada Press, as part of their Fall 2025 catalogue.

Available for PRE-ORDER HERE.

Homecoming was produced by Urban Ink in May 2024. It premiered at The Cultch in Vancouver, BC and toured to The Evergreen Arts Centre in Coquitam, BC.

This production included an art installation called “lagi akong uuwi” (translation: i will always come home) curated by anata.laylay, and featured work from 3 Filipinx artists: Angela Asuncion, Amelia Earhart, and Melissa Barayang. For the cast and community, it also included 3 ancestral healing and connection workshops and 2 Fiestas/Feasts, organized and facilitated by Babette Santos of Kathara Society Pilipino Indigenous Arts Collective.

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Direction: Hazel Venzon
Starring: Rhea Casido, Lissa Neptuno, Carmela Sison, Aura Carcueva
Standby/Understudy: Lisa Goebel
Set Design: David Oro
Light Design: Jonathan Kim
Sound Design: SKRSINTL
Costume Design: Stephanie Kong
Assistant Set and Props Design: Noreen Sajolan
Dramaturgy: Joanna Garfinkel
Associate Director: Sarah Roa

Production Manager/Technical Director: Alistair Wallace
Stage Manager: Melanie Thompson
Assistant Stage Manager: Jennifer Wilson
Community Engagement Lead: Babette Santos
Fight Coordinators: Nathania Bernabe & Jackie T. Hanlin

What becomes of our cultural stories and wisdoms when the elders who hold them are still too haunted by colonization to share them?

An outstretched hand, a dark fairytale, a ritual, and a romp. Engkanto tells of a daughter whose elderly father is haunted by malevolent human-like spirits of the Philippines, and whose long-lost sister is trapped in another realm. Together, a family sprawled across time, continents, and the supernatural collides with the everlasting effects of colonization, the inevitability of death, and the oscillating turnover of legacy.

Pulling from Filipino folklore, first-person accounts, and true family histories, Engkanto is my attempt, my offering of a new hybrid folktale for the Filipinx-Canadian diaspora as an epic for the stage.

It has been developed through PTC’s Associate program (2021-2024), and was possible through the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, and the British Columbia Arts Council. Excerpts have been shared publicly three times:

-Halo-Halo: Filipino-Canadian Theatre In Development (2022)
-PTC’s Unscripted: Engkanto (2023)
-Engkanto: a public sharing (2024)