Guelan Varela-Luarca is a playwright, translator, actor, and director for the stage. He has been awarded First Prize in the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards, a prestigious literary award-giving body in the Philippines. He teaches Art Appreciation, Shakespearean Performance, and Theater Theory in the Fine Arts Department, Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila University. He is the current artistic director of Tanghalang Ateneo, the longest-running college theater company in the Ateneo.