Join us at the Push International Performing Arts Festival for our production of
Lasa Ng Imperyo
A Taste of Empire by Jovanni Si
Translated, Adapted, Performed by Carmela Sison
Directed by Marcus Youssef
In a surprising fusion of theatre and gastronomy, this Tagalog adaptation of A Taste of Empire guides audiences across the layered history of Philippine cultural heritage through a live cooking demonstration. As a dish of stuffed milkfish comes to life, so do the stories within its ingredients, prompting reflections on how colonial legacies shape today’s global food market.
Sa tambalang ito ng teatro at gastronomiya, ginagabayan ang mga manonood sa kumplikadong kasaysayan ng Pilipinas sa pamamagitan ng isang live cooking demonstration, nagbibigay-paanyaya na pagnilayan kung paanong patuloy na hinuhubog ng imperyalismo ang "global food markets" o ang pandaigdigang kalakalan ng pagkain.
Seating is limited, so book today!
January 30th - February 8th, 2025
Lasa Ng Imperyo is presented by the Push International Performing Arts Festival and co-presented by Boca Del Lupo through their Micro Performance Series. It is produced with the support of our community partners: Kasama Chocolates and NPC3. Lasa would not be possible without funding from the Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, Hamber Foundation and Metro Vancouver grant.
DBLSPK: Draw Me a Home
Join us on December 4th for a work-in-progress reading of Draw Me a Home by elika mojtabaei, followed by a community discussion. Draw Me a Home is a poetic retelling of memories of a war, surrealist stories of lives lived elsewhere, a peeling away of the dust blanketing a shared history. Based on interviews with people who experienced the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988) as children, the piece explores themes of displacement, survival, and the echoes of a fractured homeland. Through fragmented narratives swaying between English and Farsi, Draw Me a Home evokes the resilience of a people caught between the violence of history and the tenderness of personal remembrance with moments of joy buried just beneath the rubble—an invitation to witness, imagine, and feel the weight of a past that is both distant and ever-present.
Date: December 4th, 2024 at 6pm
Location: The Montalbano Family Theatre (Level 8)
of the Vancouver Public Library, 350 W Georgia St, Vancouver.
Please note that this event will be ASL interpreted!
Donate Today & Double Your Impact!
Join us in celebrating our monumental 15th anniversary! Thanks to the generosity of Bonnie Mah, we will be doing a “15K for 15K” matching campaign. Every dollar up to $15,000 donated to rice & beans theatre between November 1st and December 7th, 2024 will be doubled!
We are a leader in the creation and development of new work in Vancouver. We continue to offer unique, boundary-pushing productions, and spotlight incredible IBPOC and multilingual theatre creators.
Be a part of strengthening the next phase of rice & beans’ growth today.
Welcome to our 2024/25 season!
New Website, New Season And A New Milestone
This season marks a huge accomplishment for us at rice & beans theatre: our 15th year! This is so exciting for a small, scrappy and resourceful company like ours and we couldn’t have done it without you, our amazing community.
Coming up, we have our DBLSPK program featuring in-process showings of two innovative, new multilingual projects:
Draw Me A Home by elika mojtabaei
Tomboy (Chłopczyca) by Anais West
Our DBLSPK mainstage this year sees us premiering Carmela Sison’s Lasa Ng Imperyo: a Filipino reimagining of A Taste of Empire by Jovanni Sy. (For those of you who have followed us over the years, you might remember Carmela’s DBLSPK workshopping this piece, or when co-founder Derek Chan translated the original play into Cantonese - 食盡天下/Sik Zeon Tin Haa!)
Finally, we will be wrapping up the whole year with a big 15th birthday, where we will not only celebrate the stellar season, but take time to reflect and highlight rice & beans’ last 15 years. It will be a blast with food, music and great company. We can’t wait to celebrate with you!
What a year this is going to be. We are so pleased to have you join us this season and to be working with these amazing creatives. Happy 15th!
-Anjela, Heather, Karla and Pedro