9 Works Theatrical Reveals Full Cast of YEMAYA, Led by Bituin Escalante
For an archipelago, the sea is never neutral.
It separates, carries, feeds, remembers, and returns. That is why YEMAYA already feels like a story with a Filipino pulse, even before the first wave reaches the stage.
9 Works Theatrical has revealed the full cast of YEMAYA, its Filipino staging of Yemaya’s Belly by Quiara Alegría Hudes. With Filipino text by Eljay Castro Deldoc and direction by Ed Lacson Jr., who also serves as set designer, the production will run on weekends from June 13 to July 5, 2026 at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Makati.
YEMAYA 2026 Quick Facts
- Production
- YEMAYA by 9 Works Theatrical
- Source
- Yemaya’s Belly by Quiara Alegría Hudes
- Direction
- Ed Lacson Jr.
- Filipino Text
- Eljay Castro Deldoc
- Venue
- The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Makati
- Run
- June 13 to July 5, 2026
- Tickets
- Available through Ticket2Me.net
The source itself already carries significance. Hudes is the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright who also wrote the book for the Tony Award-winning musical In the Heights. With Deldoc bringing the work into Filipino, YEMAYA becomes more than a local staging of an international text. It becomes an act of re-voicing, asking how Hudes’ lyrical world might move when carried by a language closer to Filipino memory, myth, and longing.
YEMAYA Cast
Leading the cast is Bituin Escalante, who takes on the titular role of Yemaya/Inay.
Escalante’s casting gives the production a formidable emotional anchor. With a career spanning nearly three decades, she remains one of Philippine theater’s most commanding stage presences. Her work in Himala: Isang Musikal, Priscilla Queen of the Desert, and Pingkian: Isang Musikal has shown how fully she can inhabit roles that demand both vocal force and emotional depth. In a story shaped by motherhood, destiny, and the pull of the unknown, her presence suggests a figure who can feel both mythic and deeply human.
Sharing the role of Jesus/Mulo are Tommy Alejandrino and Benedix Ramos, two performers coming from different but complementary performance backgrounds.
Alejandrino brings the precision of an actor trained across film and theater. Known for The Baseball Player, Mallari, GomBurZa, Salome, and Her Locket, he also trained in acting, directing, and dramaturgy at the Philippine High School for the Arts. Ramos, on the other hand, brings the visibility of television, music, hosting, content creation, and musical theater. Managed by Star Hunt and Star Magic ABS-CBN, he became known to a wider audience through Pinoy Big Brother Kumunity Season 10: Celebrity Edition and Better Days, with stage credits including Next to Normal, Bar Boys: The Musical, and Tabing Ilog: The Musical.
The role of Maya will be shared by Sheena Belarmino and Ness Roque, another pairing that gives the production room for contrast.
Belarmino, a Star Magic artist, singer, dancer, actress, and host, first gained public attention through Dance Kids, Tawag ng Tanghalan Kids, and Your Face Sounds Familiar Kids. Her theater profile has continued to grow through productions such as One More Chance: The Musical, Spring Awakening, Next to Normal, Tabing Ilog: The Musical, and Bar Boys: The Musical.
Roque brings a different artistic vocabulary. A theater and film actor, performance dramaturg, educator, and co-founder of Salikhain Kolektib, she is currently pursuing a doctorate degree in Global Arts, Arts Studies, and Curatorial Practices at the Tokyo University of the Arts under the MEXT Scholarship. Her work moves across performance, research, film, and touring productions, including Traveling Tongues and The Window of Spaceship In-Between.
Also joining the ensemble is veteran actor and director Herbie Go as Tico. Go’s long relationship with Philippine theater includes acting, directing, teaching, and co-founding the Virgin Labfest in 2005 during his time as artistic director of Tanghalang Pilipino. His recent acting credits include About Us But Not About Us, Climate in Crazies, Shooting Stars, and Lamay in Malaya.
Rounding out the cast are Sheenly Gener as Lila, Anthony Falcon as Jelin, and Wenah Nagales as cover for Yemaya/Inay.
Gener adds another strong stage and screen presence, with recognized work in Dormitoryo (Mga Walang Katapusang Kwarto) and Insiang. Falcon brings his own film and performance pedigree, including a Berlinale Talents Acting Studio background, a Young Critics Circle Film Desk Best Performance award for Mga Gabing Kasing Haba Ng Hair Ko, and Gawad Urian Best Actor nominations for Requieme and Anino Sa Likod Ng Buwan. Nagales, a co-founder of KOLABorador, has worked across theater, film, education, hospitality, and advertising for more than two decades, with recent credits including Lamay in Malaya.
Taken together, the YEMAYA cast feels deliberately layered. It is not built from one kind of star power alone. It brings together theater veterans, screen actors, musical theater performers, artist-scholars, and younger names whose careers are still unfolding in public view.
What YEMAYA Is About
Based on Hudes’ Yemaya’s Belly, YEMAYA follows a young boy’s epic journey across lands and seas as he searches for his true place in the world. What begins as a wondering of “what if” becomes an adventure of “what could be,” shaped by perseverance, hope, and the pull of the tides.
That premise feels especially potent in a Filipino context. Here, water is not only scenery. It is border, road, livelihood, danger, memory, and return. It separates families, carries labor, keeps myths alive, and turns home into something both physical and imagined.
This is where Deldoc’s version becomes especially interesting. Hudes’ story carries Latin American roots, but its journey through water, family, myth, and belonging finds a natural resonance in the Philippines. In Filipino, YEMAYA can become more than a translated text. It can become a story heard through another shoreline.
Creative and Production Team
Behind the production is a creative team that suggests a strong visual, sonic, and movement-driven world.
The creative team includes Ed Lacson Jr. as director and set designer, Eljay Castro Deldoc for the Filipino text, Teresa Barrozo as music and sound designer, Wika Nadera as assistant set designer and art director, JM Cabling as movement director, Ericson Navarro as costume and prop designer, Jethro Nibaten as lighting designer, Sheik Completado as technical director, Elliza Aurelio as hair and makeup designer, and Lee Morale as photographer.
The 9 Works Theatrical production team is led by managing director and executive producer Santi Santamaria, with artistic director Robbie Guevara, associate artistic director Mio Infante, operations and finance director Anna Santamaria, production manager Charyl De Guzman, PR managers Jonjon Martin and Loreta Arroyo, marketing managers GM Hernandez and Mariella Laurel, marketing and digital content head Vinz Cantillo, and production stage managers Mara Agleham and Pat Gascon.
For 9 Works Theatrical, YEMAYA also signals a turn toward something more intimate and atmospheric. A boy crossing land and sea. A mother figure shaped by myth. A familiar language carrying the work into a new rhythm. A cast that brings together different generations and disciplines.
It is the kind of material that asks not only what a journey costs, but what it means to arrive.
YEMAYA Schedule and Tickets
YEMAYA will run on all weekends from June 13 to July 5, 2026 at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Makati.
- Fridays: 8:00 PM
- Saturdays: 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM
- Sundays: 3:00 PM and 7:30 PM
Tickets are now available through Ticket2Me.net.
For updates, follow 9 Works Theatrical on Facebook and Instagram at @9WorksTheatrical, and on Twitter/X at @9WorksOfficial.
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YEMAYA 2026 FAQ
What is YEMAYA by 9 Works Theatrical?
YEMAYA is 9 Works Theatrical’s Filipino staging of Yemaya’s Belly by Quiara Alegría Hudes, with Filipino text by Eljay Castro Deldoc and direction by Ed Lacson Jr.
Who leads the cast of YEMAYA?
The cast is led by Bituin Escalante as Yemaya/Inay. The announced cast also includes Tommy Alejandrino, Benedix Ramos, Sheena Belarmino, Ness Roque, Herbie Go, Sheenly Gener, Anthony Falcon, and Wenah Nagales as cover for Yemaya/Inay.
When and where will YEMAYA run?
YEMAYA runs on weekends from June 13 to July 5, 2026 at The Black Box at The Proscenium Theater, Rockwell Makati.
Where can audiences buy tickets?
Tickets are available through Ticket2Me.net.