Giselle Garcia
Giselle Garcia (she/her) is a UK-based Filipino British dramaturg, researcher, and educator. She is a Senior Lecturer in Dramaturgy and Performance Studies at the London College of Music (University of West London) and is currently studying psychotherapy to deepen her dramaturgical practice in developing personal stories. Her expertise focuses heavily on spatial dramaturgy, specializing in contemporary Filipino theater and performance across both local and transnational contexts.
Broadly capturing her research through the lenses of space, place, and performance, her doctoral work at the University of Exeter—funded by a prestigious Global Excellence Studentship—contributed an original dramaturgical method for interpreting performance through walking and place. She has extensive higher education teaching experience in both the UK and the Philippines, delivering undergraduate and postgraduate modules spanning literature, theater, theory, criticism, and dramaturgy. Prior to her academic career, she worked dynamically across arts programming, curation, management, and advertising. Notably, she served as the Resident Dramaturg and Senior Culture and Arts Officer at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), where she curated artistic programs for the Intertextual Division and served as Deputy Festival Director to inaugurate Performatura, the CCP’s national performed poetry festival. Her extensive portfolio includes the development of over 250 new plays by both established and emerging playwrights across New York and Manila, collaborating with institutions such as the Lark Play Development Center, Ma-Yi Theater Company and its Writers Lab, the CCP, Virgin Labfest, and Writers Bloc. Having studied and worked across Manila, New York, and Exeter, she views the practice of locating oneself as constantly in flux—a perspective that inevitably informs her dramaturgy, research, and teaching. Born and raised in Manila, she now lives between London and Totnes, where views are beautifully obscured by trains whizzing past the English countryside.
What kind of plays are you excited to read?
I would love to read plays exploring any of the following: personal narrative (autobiographical or autoethnographic), coming of age, family, healing and mental health, neurodiversity and women, motherhood, matrescence, identity, belonging, and historical retellings.* I am especially drawn to works that center Asian, Global Majority, and hybrid sociocultural identities.
I welcome various forms, styles, and structures—I will collaborate closely with the playwright to discover and develop the absolute right form for their specific story.
*This is not an exhaustive list. My interests shift over time, and sometimes a story or idea I didn’t even know I’d connect with arrives at exactly the right place and time… kismet!
Website/Socials
giselleggarcia.com and lifedramaturgy.substack.com
How would you describe your process?
Our early conversations are about mapping your play’s landscape: your driving force, how the story emerged, and where you stand in the process. I always ask about your goals, as well as your personal and relational needs.
My dramaturgy is rooted in relationality and care, and I will do my best to meet your needs while being open, honest, and accountable to my own capacity, understanding, and subjectivity. Because working with personal stories often requires a specialized toolkit to safely navigate complex emotional terrain, my ongoing training in psychotherapy allows me to offer a supportive, therapeutic framework to help you process and shape personal narratives without losing your creative footing. I would need you to be open and clear about your expectations and desires, depending on the stage of writing you are in. I am happy to do further research and explore new ideas and concepts together. I don’t see my dramaturgy role as a hierarchy, lecture, or prescriptive ‘script-doctoring’. I aim to develop a trusting partnership, and I am keen to work with self-starters who are proactive about shaping their own goals.
Location/Time Zone
UK (GMT in the winter / BST in the summer)
The Match Communication Preference
I prefer using email for scheduling, logistics, and sending files or documents ahead of our sessions. I am usually at my desk during standard working hours, which is when I catch up on emails and respond to messages. While I can be flexible if our agreed meeting times need to change, I do ask for a week’s notice whenever possible. I work best with structure rather than impromptu sessions, so I like to organise and plan my tasks and interactions for the day, week, and month.