PETA puts democracy on stage
In “Gen G: GG na ’to!,” audiences vote, negotiate and make choices that shape the story.
In “Gen G: GG na ’to!,” audiences vote, negotiate and make choices that shape the story.
What happens when a theater audience is asked to make decisions instead of simply watching them unfold?
That is the experiment behind Gen G: GG na ’to!, a new interactive production from the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and Move to Change Foundation, Inc. (M2C), created as part of Project GG: Game Changers for Good Governance.
Set in an alternate Philippines submerged in floodwaters, the play follows young people living in “Balangay Gen Zones,” temporary communities created to protect them while adults search for solutions elsewhere. But when the adults fail to return, the young people are left to figure out how their community will survive. The audience becomes part of that process.
Through votes, choices and negotiations, spectators help determine what happens inside the Balangay. The production turns the theater into a temporary community where participation is not something the characters merely discuss. The audience has to practise it.
That makes Gen G particularly interesting as a piece of theater. Its subject is civic participation, but its method is participation itself. Instead of telling young audiences that their voices matter, the production gives them decisions to make and consequences to consider.
The questions are also more complicated than choosing the “right” answer. Who gets heard? Whose needs take priority? What happens when a decision benefits one group but leaves another behind? And once a vote has been made, who takes responsibility for what follows?
For co-playwright and PETA Artistic Director J-mee Katanyag, the starting point was the seemingly simple question, “G?”
“Every time we say yes to something, we are also making a choice. And whether we realize it or not, our choices reveal what we value, whom we care about, and what kind of community we are helping create.”
Directed by Ian Segarra, Gen G features a creative team that includes co-playwright Jhudiel Sosa, musical director Kabaitan Bautista, set and props designer Julio Garcia, and costume designer Johnnie Moran. The cast includes Lyle Viray, Johnrick Noynay, James Lanante, Camille Fabian, Francheska Andaya, Cb Lagapa, Ada Tayao and Zoe Damag.
The production will tour 12 schools from September to December 2026.
Beyond the play, Project GG will also bring young people into interactive experiences, workshops and community conversations focused on civic participation, critical thinking, collaboration and collective decision-making.
For Gen G, democracy begins somewhere less abstract than a ballot box. It begins in a room full of people who have to decide, together, what happens next.
