35th Season · 2026
The Art of Belonging
Combining Bienvenido Santos stories with films of Nicholas Viernes

Performances
About the show
THE ART OF BELONGING is an evocative adaptation of three short stories by acclaimed Filipino American writer Bienvenido Santos, reimagined for the stage by CIRCA Pintig’s own Larry Leopoldo. The production is interwoven with rare home films from the Estrella Alamar Collection, featuring migrant Filipino families in the Midwest from the 1950s through the 1970s; bringing memory, migration, and identity into vivid dialogue.
This project is fiscally sponsored by an Illinois Humanities Grant, supporting CIRCA Pintig’s mission to preserve and uplift Filipino American history and storytelling in the Midwest.
Cast
Credits
Production sponsors
What people are saying
“Nostalgic, gut-wrenching, beautiful.”
Production photos

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