Playwriting
Isabel originally started writing plays because of the lack of roles available to her as a young Filipina-American actor. She has expanded her exploration to gun violence, gender and sexuality, and simply being a young person in the 21st century. She is always writing something new and always finds it hard to describe what she's working on, so please just read about it here. Select scripts can be read on New Play Exchange.
As of summer of 2025, Isabel is an alumni of the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center National Theatre Institute. Through this program, she is a Miranda Family Fund Fellow.
Droplets Pellets Bullets
Alex, Suma, and Lee hide from a monster that ravages their fantasy world home, when in reality, Alex conjures false memories of a fantastical setting to cope with the trauma of a school shooting. The play explores the phenomenon of false memories as often experienced by students and teachers who witness school shootings and recall vivid memories of the event that conflict with evidentiary accounts.
A White Girl's Understudy
Lyn Talaga has achieved her childhood dream. She is an off-stage understudy in the new Broadway play Speakeasy Love and covers the principal female role. However, her greatest love is the show's leading man and dating the leading woman. During a performance of Speakeasy Love, Lyn is forced to confront the reality of her job, recalling memories of how she attained what she thought was success in an industry that does not cater to her and reflects on how her work has changed her identity. As the drama of Speakeasy Love bleeds into her reality and Lyn attains more than she bartered for, she must ask herself if her greatest desires are truly what she wants.
Morningside Song
In 1912 New York City, Ana–a Filipina violinist and Caleb–a half-Irish English student are torn between worlds as they find their identities as unprecedented first-generation immigrants. Ana pursues her dream of being a violinist at the cost of knowing her heritage. Caleb attempts to find the unknown half of his ethnicity despite the disapproval of his family. Burdened with the responsibility of a better life for future generations, they must choose whether to sacrifice their lives for those yet to come or fight to better their own lives now. Morningside Song is a play dedicated to those who dare to dream in a society that does not cater to them.​
Time Waisted
In an alternate history where the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory did not burn down, Ruth, Helen, and Ida relish in the victory of factory workers' rights but realize the American patriarchy still encroaches on their everyday lives. They must also face their internalized misogyny as they grapple for control over society's view of themselves and their desires. Ruth wants to live her life as a modern spinster with Helen, Helen wants to be married without giving up her independence, and Ida must face the abusive nature of her marriage, using the little freedoms she is granted as a coping mechanism.
A House With a Broken Swing
Vee has lived in a haunted house her entire life and craves freedom, while Chris is a supernatural nerd. When they meet on a randomized video-call platform, Chris attempts to help Vee escape a house with a mind of its own.
A House With a Broken Swing was originally produced in 2021 as a part of the Blank Theater's 29th Annual Young Playwrights Festival Hosted in Los Angeles, California. The play was awarded a Regional Gold Key for Dramatic Script by the Scholastic Art & Writing Association in 2021. In 2022, A House With a Broken Swing was produced by the MD Virtual Ensemble as a part of their Playground One- Act Festival.
Coming soon...
Isabel is never really done with a play, but these are the ones she's most actively working on!
Stud Country Shuffle
When the House of Donna— a queer line dancing hall in Atlanta, Georgia— runs into financial trouble, it is up to the newest generation of queer line dancers to save the hall from shutting down. It will only take 50,000 dollars... When a group of traditional line dancers seek to buy the hall for themselves, both groups must confront what acceptance, inclusion, and the true spirit of line dancing mean to them. Can these line dancers get along or will they watch the line dancing way of life slip away before their eyes? After all, this is the House of Donna, and all are welcome here.
a new country musical
Conceived at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center National Theatre Institute. Book and Lyrics by Isabel Beatriz Tongson. Music devised by Michael O'Dell with José Ruiz-González, Nate B Smith, Loki Saldivar, Jasmine Richards, Olivia Dower, Jack Hagan, Maria Sirigos, and Michael DeFilippis.
Photo by Emma Brown/Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
Photo by Emma Brown/Eugene O'Neill Theater Center
Met Cute
Trey and Maya are on a first date. It's going well! Sort of... In the MET where relics of their cultures are kept behind glass, these two young people connect with their heritages and histories in spite of the white plaster walls that house them. The magic from within themselves comes alive when Trey and Maya are as desperate to connect with these objects, as these objects are desperate to be held. This rom-com asks– what is it to have your culture dangled before you, just out of reach? Will Maya and Trey find what they are looking for at the MET? Will they be up for the second date?
Conceived at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center National Theatre Institute.
Orlando & Wilde
Orlandos quietly shape history. Living above all constructs of humanity, Orlandos are the embodiment of the divine and scour their respective times for how they can leave their mark on the world. One Orlando has found their purpose at a women’s college advocating for women’s suffrage in the early 20th century. When a poet and fellow student who calls herself Wilde enters the picture, Orlando instantly falls for her, putting their heavenly ambitions in jeopardy. In spite of the world denying their true desires, Orlando and Wilde must realize the divinity of love and discovering one’s most authentic self.
Olivia
What is it to be a precedent? A very loose adaptation of Shakespeare's Othello, Olivia looks at what it means to be a person of color at an elite, white educational institution while grappling with the unique supression of sexuality that women faced in the early 20th century. Olivia is about yearning, sensuality, sexuality, loneliness, and power. It is about an outsider and her anguish as well as love and betrayal, with the smashing of fruit and fencing in a dark academia setting.