For rising Bikol playwright Helena Francine H. Ebio, the road to the stage began somewhere unexpected: in the middle of a night duty at a public hospital.

During a vacant moment, she began writing down an idea. That idea would eventually become Mama, Mama, Papáno Ka Mamuya?!—a play that would earn a place in Set A of the inaugural Virgin Labfest Bikol 2026 and introduce more audiences to a young playwright whose creative voice is deeply shaped by the realities she encounters outside the theatre.

Now, the story is preparing for another chapter.

Following its Virgin Labfest Bikol staging, Mama, Mama, Papáno Ka Mamuya?! is coming to Naga City as part of DALAN Theatre & Events Collaborative’s ALAB Season: Edition 3, produced by Something Creative.

The Naga staging gives Helena’s work a new stage, a new audience, and another opportunity to continue the conversation it began at VLF Bikol.

A Playwright Between Healthcare and Theatre

Helena’s emergence through Virgin Labfest Bikol may be introducing her work to a wider theatre audience, but writing has been part of her life for years.

A graduate of Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology, Helena has been writing since elementary school. She found in writing a way to express her thoughts, emotions, observations, and aspirations.

Her interest in theatre grew in high school after seeing schoolmates perform Shakespeare. Soon, she began writing plays herself, creating school productions that ranged from her own interpretations of Severino Reyes’ Walang Sugat and Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to original works performed for classmates and teachers.

She would later become a member and one of the founders of Something Creative, continuing her creative work alongside her studies and professional path in Medical Technology.

For Helena, those two worlds—healthcare and storytelling—would eventually meet.

From the Hospital Ward to Mama, Mama

The experiences that shaped Mama, Mama, Papáno Ka Mamuya?! came partly from Helena’s time as a medical technology intern in a public hospital.

There, she witnessed mothers and families navigating difficult realities surrounding childbirth, healthcare, and financial hardship. These encounters led her to think more deeply about parenthood—not simply as an expectation or milestone, but as a decision shaped by health, economics, career, family, and the circumstances surrounding a woman’s life.

At the heart of the play is Narra, a woman whose personal dreams and plans collide with questions of family, motherhood, and the expectations placed upon women.

Through her story, Helena examines something larger: What happens when the life a woman is expected to choose comes into conflict with the life she has imagined for herself?

The play explores reproductive health, healthcare, economic realities, career aspirations, family, and the pressures surrounding adulthood and parenthood. But despite the weight of these subjects, Helena deliberately refuses to make the experience relentlessly heavy.

Humor is part of the storytelling.

Drawing from the Filipino tendency to laugh through difficult circumstances, she uses comedy to make the characters and their conflicts more familiar—allowing serious questions to emerge through moments audiences can recognize, enjoy, and perhaps see themselves in.

Finding Her Place at Virgin Labfest Bikol 2026

Even after years of writing, Helena remained highly critical of her own work.

When the opportunity to submit a script to Virgin Labfest Bikol 2026 arrived, she was uncertain whether the stories she wanted to tell would connect with other people.

Her colleagues encouraged her to submit, particularly Nyl Ferrer, who repeatedly pushed her to take the chance.

She eventually did.

Mama, Mama, Papáno Ka Mamuya?! was selected and became part of the first Virgin Labfest Bikol, held from July 22 to 25, 2026. The regional festival brought new Bikolano works and playwrights before audiences, creating another platform for emerging voices in Philippine theatre.

For Helena, seeing the play move beyond the written page changed something.

Working with director Jaira B. Esperida and the larger creative team meant allowing other artists to interpret, question, and shape the world she had created. Helena herself had worried about whether the story would resonate and whether its healthcare and diagnostic details would translate accurately onstage.

Then the audience arrived.

They laughed during its lighter moments. They responded emotionally when the story turned heavier.

What had once existed as an idea written during a hospital shift had become an experience shared with a room full of people.

The experience strengthened Helena’s confidence as a playwright and deepened her interest in theatre’s ability to open conversations around subjects that can be difficult to discuss directly—including women’s experiences, parenthood, healthcare, and personal choice.

From VLF Bikol to the Naga City Stage

Virgin Labfest Bikol was not the end of Mama, Mama, Papáno Ka Mamuya?!.

It became the beginning of its next life.

This October 16–17, 2026, the play comes to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Hall in Naga City, produced by Something Creative and presented as part of DALAN Theatre & Events Collaborative’s ALAB Season: Edition 3.

The new staging brings a work first introduced through Virgin Labfest Bikol closer to audiences in Naga while continuing DALAN’s effort to create spaces where Bikolano works can live beyond a single festival appearance.

For Helena, it also marks another step forward in a writing journey that began long before VLF Bikol—and one that she intends to continue.

She is already developing another play, this time exploring environmental issues through a post-apocalyptic setting. At the same time, she plans to continue pursuing her work in Medical Technology, carrying with her the people, situations, and realities she encounters in healthcare as possible starting points for future stories.

Perhaps that is what makes Helena Francine Ebio one of the emerging playwrights worth watching from Virgin Labfest Bikol 2026.

Her theatre does not begin by looking for subjects far removed from everyday life.

It begins by paying attention.

To the hospital ward. To women making difficult decisions. To families. To careers and aspirations. To the expectations people inherit. To the things we laugh about because sometimes laughter is how we survive what is difficult to say.

Then she turns those observations into theatre.

And after finding its first audiences at Virgin Labfest Bikol, Mama, Mama, Papáno Ka Mamuya?! is ready to meet Naga City.

Get your tickets now at tickets.dalankita.com