A Life in the Theater

Productions by Tanghalang Pilipino (TP), Ballet Philippines and the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) dominated the third quarterly citations of Gawad BUHAY!, the performing arts awards program organized by the Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group (PHILSTAGE). Tanghalang Pilipino's Golden Child romped off with a total of twelve citations while Ballet Philippines' La Revolucion Filipina and PETA's Batang Rizal tied with seven citations each. An Obie Award-winner in the United States, Golden Child tells the story of a traditional Chinese family on the cusp of jarring change. It merited jury citations for outstanding play, stage direction (Loy Arcenas), ensemble performance for its cast, female lead performance in a play (Liesl Batucan, Tina Chilip, Irma Adlawan Maasigan), male lead performance (Arthur Acuna), translation (Dennis Marasigan), lighting design (Barbara Tan-Tiongco), sound design (J. Victor Villareal), set design (Loy Arcenas) and costume desi

The Philippine Daily Inquirer's GIBBS CADIZ wrote about PHILSTAGE's Gawad Buhay: "Finally, the PHILSTAGE Awards for the performing arts" " AS DENNIS Marasigan recalls it, the first time the idea of performing arts awards to be given by Philstage was brought up, the officers of the organization of professional theater groups were lukewarm. " The entire article can be viewed in his blog here:

Productions by Tanghalang Pilipino (TP), Repertory Philippines (Rep) and the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and Ballet Philippines dominated the first and second quarterly citations of GAWAD BUHAY!, the performing arts awards program organized by the Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group (PHILSTAGE). Tanghalang Pilipino’s Kudeta romped off with a total of nine citations while Rep's Hamlet and PETA's Skin Deep tied with six citations each. A Filipino translation of Mustapha Matura's black comedy about a coup that toppled a country's president, Kudeta romped off with citations for outstanding play, stage direction (Floy Quintos); ensemble performance (cast of Kudeta); male lead in a play (Mario O Hara); featured performance in a play (Bong Cabrera and Riki Benedicto); adaptation/translation (George De Jesus III); sound design (Janice Dee); lighting design (Dennis Marasigan); and set design (Tuxqs Rutaquio).

I have not been able to update this blog as often as I wanted to during the last month, particularly because of Tanghalang Pilipino's production that completes its 21st Theater Season. EJ: ANG PINAGDAANANG BUHAY NINA EVELIO JAVIER AT EDGAR JOPSON is new work, one that is not without its share of harrrowing moments leading to opening night. The play still has two more weekends to go, but if you're one of those who would rather wait until the last minute to view it, be warned that typically, performances this weekend and the next have limited tickets left. Why not catch it this weekend? The Dawn and Jett Pangan will be playing. See you all at the theater!

Evelio Javier and Edgar Jopson never met in real life, but they have much in common. Both men experienced the beginnings of social consciousness early in their lives and, with their Ateneo education, felt compelled to speak out for their countrymen during the years of the Marcos Regime. While they differed in the manner with which they sought change -- Evelio taking the side of gradualist, enlightened reformist politics, as the way forward for the country, and Edjop believing in violent struggle due to the futility of reforms in the political culture and class structure of Filipino society – they both met violent deaths that turned shocked the Filipino people. Edjop became president of the National Union of Students of the Philippines and led student demonstrations that would later form part of the First Quarter Storm—the most intense period of student activism in Philippine history. Under Martial law, he engaged in a new level of militancy. He joined a labor union as an organizer a

Every fan has his anecdote about one's favorite actor, and I have one about Mario O'Hara. Many moons ago when I was a Technical Director for the Cultural Center of the Philippines and assigned to oversee Tanghalang Pilipino's production of Shusaku Endo's Ang Ginintuang Bayan, then TP Artistic Director Nonon Padilla and the play's director Jonas Sebastian asked me to understudy the part being played by Nonie Buencamino in the production. Nonie's wife Shamaine was due to give birth anytime during the course of the production, and since the couple were prepared to deliver the baby through lamaze, Nonie just had to be with his wife when she did. Hence, the need for an understudy. Since the most part of my acting career had been made up of filling in for other actors at the last minute, I had the temerity to accept the assignment. Memorizing the lines and the blocking came rather easy for me since I had been watching the rehearsals for quite some time by then anyway.

Following is an article I wrote which was published by the Philippine Daily Inquirer about the performances of Tanghalang Pilipino's "HIMALA, The Musical" in Shanghai. Miracle in Shanghai By Dennis N. Marasigan Philippine Daily InquirerFirst Posted 00:03:00 01/07/2008 MANILA, Philippines - “Why are Filipinos very good performers, especially in music?” “Maybe because we are blessed with it.” This was the answer given by choreographer Jose Jay Cruz to a question from a Chinese member of the audience at the talkback following the last performance of Tanghalang Pilipino’s production of “Himala, The Musical” at the 2007 Asian Contemporary Festival in Shanghai, China. Afterwards, some other audience members shyly admitted they were moved to tears by the performance. Others were more openly ecstatic. The Festival, which originated in Osaka, Japan but has been organized by the Shanghai Dramatic Arts Center for the last three years, finally got a Filipino theater group to particip