For multidisciplinary artist AP Bautista, Crossroads Theatre’s Through the Bamboo offers a kind of homecoming.
On its surface, the family-friendly musical is an adventure through Philippine mythology and magical creatures. Beneath its fantastical world, however, lies a deeply universal story about intergenerational family, grief, memory and the people who continue to guide us even after they are gone. Bautista, who plays Lola and Ipakita the duende (a folkloric creature) in the play, finds that these themes resonate professionally, as well as personally.
The craft the show required her to demonstrate is also a welcome return: “This adaptation of this show involves a lot of puppetry, so all of us are doubling up. … [It] piqued my interest because I was always interested in puppetry and shadow work, which I’ve done in a lot of youth theatre in the past.” And the fact that Through the Bamboo is a Filipino play? That “was just the cherry on top”.
Through the Bamboo
Created by Byron Abalos and Andrea Mapili (read Sesaya Arts’ previous feature on the creators here), Through the Bamboo follows twelve-year-old Philly (Olivia Sgambelluri) after the death of her beloved Lola (grandmother). When she opens an old book, she is swept into the magical land of Uwi, where she must rescue Lola, save a fantastical world, and ultimately discover the strength to find her way home. Drawing on Philippine myth and folklore, the production combines object puppetry, audience participation and immersive storytelling to explore family, belonging and the wisdom passed between generations.
In addition to Bautista and Sgambelluri, the ensemble cast features Jainee Fernandez, Jude Baris, and Neil-Erine Palmaria. And with just these five performers bringing the show’s expansive world to life, Bautista rarely leaves the stage. Along with her two named roles, she also helps to animate many of the show’s puppet characters, designed by Olivia Wheeler, in a dynamic fusion of collaboration and performance.
The evolution of AP Bautista
Bautista relishes this kind of challenge. Audiences who recently saw her command the stage as young Lucy van Pelt in the Capitol Theatre’s You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown (read Sesaya Arts’ review here) may be surprised to find her inhabiting an elderly grandmother. For Bautista, “that’s the beauty of theatre: getting to explore these different characters and different personalities and different archetypes.”
Her reflections on Lucy reveal as much about her as an actor as they do about Lucy as a character. A few years back, Bautista performed in a high-school production of Charlie Brown in the role of Sally Brown, and the production confirmed her path to professional acting. Returning to this show as Lucy yielded an unexpected personal revelation: “Lucy takes up a LOT of space. I’ve always struggled with that, as a woman of colour: just going into a room and not feeling like I could take up as much space, or say what I want to say. Lucy literally just says it, and takes up as much space as she likes. I’ve learned a lot by playing that little seven-year-old!”
The lesson reverberates through Bautista’s broader career. Whether she is portraying Lucy’s unapologetic confidence, the warm wisdom of Lola, or the exuberance of the diverse women she creates with sketch comedy ensemble Tita Collective (watch our interview with the company below), she is drawn to characters who make themselves seen … and in doing so, invite others to feel seen.
But Through the Bamboo requires of Bautista a most un-Lucy-like balancing act. Rather than boldly commanding every room, Lola is the embodiment of memory itself. Meanwhile, Ipakita is a mischievous presence. In these two roles, Bautista must move between stillness and exuberance, and grief and joy—grounding the production’s emotional terrain, while helping bring its vivid magical world to life.
Filipino stories and culture
This blend of fantasy and emotion reflects something larger that Bautista has spent much of her career searching for: the chance to tell Filipino stories that don’t have to pause to explain themselves. It’s been a journey.
Although Bautista trained classically as an actor, she struggled early on to find where she fit: “I went to theatre school and did the whole thing, but never really found a place in the theatre that was out there.” Creating work with musical sketch comedy troupe the Tita Collective changed that. Over nearly a decade, this Filipino-Canadian band of merry women has built a devoted following by celebrating shared experiences and cultural insights with humour and affection. And the theatrical world has started to catch up. Productions such as Prison Dancer (read the Sesaya Arts feature here), Mabuhay, The Musical and now Through the Bamboo are bringing Filipino stories to Canadian stages.
For Bautista, the most meaningful change is that these stories no longer need to begin by stopping to translate themselves. “We, as Philippine artists, don’t really have to explain as much of what ‘Lola’ means, what ‘Tita’ means, or the words that we use in our daily lives and our vocabulary. We’re able to just express them, and people understand. It has been very comforting.” This is the case with Through the Bamboo, which is completely accessible, and beneath its mythology presents an experience audiences of all backgrounds will recognize. “Everyone deals with grief,” she notes simply. “Everyone learns about growing up with people that we love, who are no longer there.”Those themes hit unexpectedly close to home before rehearsals for the show even began. “I personally
Getting personal
“I was dealing with grief right before this contract started, so it was quite fresh” admits Bautista. Rather than ask her to leave that experience outside the rehearsal hall, Crossroads Theatre embraced her situation with compassion. They “were so accommodating in letting me know that—whatever I needed in the process of where I was—I could come just as I was.”
Portraying Lola ultimately became a kind of therapy: “To kind of be the person that Lola is—the person that was lost—and to find the joy in the life of that person has been very healing.” Her second role provided a different therapeutic value: “Ipakita, the Duende, is this energetic, bubbly personality. That allows me to play two different sides… two different personalities, but still the same kind of soul.”
And Bautista has found these emotional contrasts are intensified by Crossroads Theatre’s outdoor staging at Little Avenue Memorial Park. Surrounded by trees, open sky and neighbourhood families, nature itself becomes part of the storytelling. “We talk a lot about the weather, and the folklore is very nature-based in the play. So being able to do it outdoors has really been a plus.” Sometimes, nature even answers back. “We talk about the wind blowing, and the wind blows! It’s the kind of theatre magic you really can’t plan.”
Generosity, joy, heart and story
The openness of every open-air performance reflects Crossroads Theatre’s broader mission. As the company’s first full-scale production under its new identity, Through the Bamboo is provided to audiences free, with the option to donate what they can. This encourages audiences who might never purchase a theatre ticket to wander into the park and discover a story together. Bautista enjoys watching company members greet passersby, “talk to them about the show and welcome” them in, building a sense of community before the show even begins.
This generosity reflects Bautista’s own philosophy about the work she chooses. “I really think about whether it sparks joy,” she says. The phrase may sound like a cliché, but it is her practical artistic compass: “If the project doesn’t spark joy for me, and if I can’t connect with it even at just a first-glance level, it usually isn’t something that I’ll be excited about.” And so she will pass on it.
Part of what sparks joy for her is work that helps people to recognize themselves—whether through laughter or shared cultural experience. Especially as she balances performing with writing, producing and creating her own work, Bautista has become intentional about saying ‘yes’ only to projects that matter: to her and to the communities they serve:“That’s really all I really hope for in the world, and with my career.”
Even before looking ahead to future projects—including another run of Alan Doyle’s Telltale Harbour (in which she performed as Maria last season) and the Tita Collective’s upcoming trip to the Edmonton Fringe—Bautista is eager to recognize director Chantelle Han as a collaborator who has fostered a rehearsal room grounded in both artistic excellence and genuine care. “She really has such a strong vision and kindness in the way that she has led the room. She truly understands the needs of all artists involved in this process,” she enthuses. “Learning from her and being guided by her has been such a pleasure.”
And Through the Bamboo, she adds with a laugh, has demanded almost everything she has. “It’s one of the hardest shows I’ve done—but in a different way. Lucy was cardio. Telltale Harbour was pushing sets and running around and being fifty million people. But this one is really challenging physically and emotionally… The show has so much heart and so much story!”
Through the Bamboo runs July 10–19, 2026 at Little Avenue Memorial Park (22 Little Avenue) in Toronto as part of Crossroads Theatre’s Summer in the Park season. Performances are free or pay what you can, with tickets available through Eventbrite.
© Arpita Ghosal, Sesaya Arts Magazine 2026
