Dennis Gupa

Dennis Gupa is a theatre director and performance maker/researcher. He is an Assistant
Professor at the Department of Theatre and Film University of Winnipeg. He obtained his PhD
in Applied Theatre at the University of Victoria as a Vanier scholar, a graduate fellow of the
UVic’c Center for Society and Religion Studies, University of the Philippines Center for
International Studies, and artist-in-residence at the Ocean Networks Canada. He received his
MFA Theatre (Directing) degree at the University of British Columbia and MA Theatre Arts at
the University of the Philippines. The Asian Cultural Council’s Rockefeller Brothers Fund
awarded him a fellowship to undertake a 6-month director-in-residence program in New York
City where he participated in and observed contemporary theatre directing processes with Ma-Yi
Theatre Co., National Asian American Theatre Co., and The Juilliard Drama School. Aside from
contemporary diasporic theatre and community-based performances, he also directs Western
dramatic texts adapted, translated, and informed from Philippine and Southeast Asian critical
history and aesthetics. He received awards from Performance Studies International (PSi), Ada
Slaight Foundation-Young People’s Theatre-Toronto, and the National Commission for Culture
and the Arts. He is included in The Cultural Centre of the Philippines’ Encyclopedia of
Philippine Arts (Theatre Volume) for his contribution to the contemporary theatrical heritage of
the Philippines. He is an Associate Artist of Co.ERASGA, Board Member of Canadian Council
for Southeast Asian Studies, and The Only Animal Theatre Company, Artistic Principal of the
National Pilipino Canadian Cultural Center and an Ex Officio member of the The Canadian
Association for Theatre Research/L’Association canadienne de la recherche théâtrale Executive.
He is grateful to be given opportunity to write, think, work, and create theatre at the Treaty 1
territory, traditional territory of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota, and Dene Peoples,
and on the homeland of the Métis Nation. As an im(migrant) from an archipelagic nation he
finds healing and peace to drink water from the Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.