About
Founded in 2020, The Chikahan Company (ChikaCo for short) is a Filipinx American theatre company based in the San Francisco Bay Area. ChikaCo was founded by Ely Sonny Orquiza, Krystle Piamonte, and Alan S. Quismorio. They have a long standing history of relationships rooted in community theatre and all come with various degrees of experiences on and off stage. Together, they merge years of administrative and creative experiences as well as intergenerational and institutional knowledge to inaugurate a contemporary enterprise.
Mission
Our mission is to explore Filipinx history, politics, psychology, and diaspora through the craft of theater and the performing arts. The Chikahan Company strives to develop the unique voice of and uplift the robust Filipinx narratives and artistries, and advocate its influence to the American theater.
What does Chikahan mean?
Vision
Reclaiming and revealing the multifaceted experiences of the Filipinx community is a fundamental vision of The Chikahan Company in order to amplify the complex and dynamic narratives that have long been pushed to the margins and to actively challenge the stereotypes about our kababayan (people), our kuwento (story), and our kasaysayan (history).
Chika is Filipino slang for either something that is not entirely true (gossip, rumors, etc.) or new information that friends are expecting to hear from you. Chikahan is the term for the conversation or chit-chat involving the chika.
Through our work, ChikaCo invites audiences and artists to conversations about the perceptions and issues of the Filipinx experience, to dispel what’s not entirely true and to present authenticity as a way to introduce our languages, culture, history, and stories into the mainstream.