Chicago Filipino American Theatre Festival at Rizal Center

Weekend one of CIRCA Pintig’s third Chicago Filipino American Theatre Festival is already in the books. Weekend two still has room on the calendar.

The festival opened September 10 and closes Sunday, September 27 at the Little Theatre inside Jose Rizal Center, 1332 West Irving Park Road in Lakeview. Performances split across September 10–13 and September 24–27. Weeknight and Saturday curtains are listed at 7:00 p.m. Sundays run 2:00–3:30 p.m. Each evening clocks about seventy-five minutes.

This year’s theme is PASABOG, Filipino slang for something showstopping or brilliantly extra. For the first time the festival stages original Filipino plays.

Weekend one, directed by Noella Bonsol, included We Will Ride by Conrad A. Panganiban, The Karaoke Stress Test by Tim Pintado, and The Missing Sister by Annemarie Andaleon. Weekend two, directed by Rusty Allen, brings Boy Bawang by Allison E. Crisostomo, Intermission Number by Angel Salvador, and Chiuteña Criers for Hire (sa Chicago) by Giovanni Ortega.

Tickets range from about $16 to $60 on circapintig.org and the linked Zeffy page. Treat each date as its own ticket. The house is intimate storefront scale. Arrive early enough to find street parking or a short walk from the Irving Park Red Line corridor. Rizal Center has long been a Filipino American community landmark on the North Side, which makes the Little Theatre a fitting home for a diaspora play festival.

Filipino American theatre fans and Lakeview regulars who want a seated Pinoy cultural night will get the most here. PARA SA KULTURA on October 16 is the free night-market lane after the festival closes. Filipinx on October 10 is the 18+ DJ path.

Book a Thursday or Sunday if Friday and Saturday sell first. Student and community pricing sometimes appears closer to curtain. Hold the night you want before walk-up. Seventy-five minutes is a short commitment, which makes a midweek show easy to stack after work if you live near the Red Line.

CIRCA Pintig frames the festival as a push for Filipino stories in Chicago storefront theatre. Artistic director notes around the run talk about bringing more diaspora work to the forefront. That ambition fits a two-weekend original-play slate. PASABOG as a theme also signals the company wants bold, not polite, diaspora writing on the Little Theatre stage.

Our take: if you still have a free night between September 24 and 27, take one weekend-two show. Free History Month nights come later. One midweek curtain is enough if October is already crowded.

When: September 10–13 and September 24–27, 2026 (Thu–Sat 7:00 p.m.; Sun 2:00 p.m.)
Where: Little Theatre, Rizal Center, 1332 W Irving Park Rd, Chicago, IL 60613

Tickets and schedule on CIRCA Pintig.