Lani T. Montreal Anak ni Tapia: (Child of Tapia) Leaving Mother goes on a World Tour!

Anak ni Tapia (“Child of Tapia”): Leaving Mother by Lani T. Montreal is a deeply personal, moving one-woman show currently making waves in the Chicago theater scene and is slated to reach audiences in theaters around the world. Montreal explores the complexities of growing up in the shadows of a famous mother while forging her own identity as a queer feminist immigrant woman, migrating from the Philippines to Canada and ultimately to Chicago, IL.

Lani T. Montreal is a playwright, singer, actor, educator, and community organizer born in the Philippines and now based in Chicago. Lani’s mother, Mely Tagasa, affectionately known as “Miss Tapia,” rose to fame through her iconic role as a stern yet comical teacher in the long-running sitcoms Iskul Bukol and Baltic & Co. Tagasa’s sharp wit and distinct presence as a writer, voice actor, and character actress made her a household name in Filipino pop culture from the 1970s through the early 2000s.

In Anak ni Tapia, Montreal processes grief following her mother’s stroke in 2018. This intimate immersive journey blends storytelling, acoustic guitar, video projection, and song with memory, identity, and reconciliation. Montreal incorporates kundiman, traditional Filipino love songs, often melancholic and poetic, into her performance to reflect the complicated love, expectations, and distance that shaped her relationship with her mother.

Structured into two acts, the performance first traces how Tagasa’s celebrity status within a deeply Catholic and patriarchal culture impacted Montreal’s formative moments in her childhood as she reckoned with the tensions between confining cultural expectations and the desire for a stronger mother-daughter bond. The second half shifts focus to Montreal’s own journey and the courage required for her to live a liberated life while continuing to negotiate her relationship with her mother. Montreal begins to understand the full scope of her mother’s love while grieving her loss. Overall, Montreal’s personal narrative in Anak ni Tapia: Leaving Mother invites the audience into a space into a layered and lyrical celebration of heritage where she honors her mother’s legacy while boldly claiming her own.