FIFTEEN THEATER PRODUCTIONS THAT HAVE STAYED WITH ME, Part 2

Inspired by Guelan Luarca’s own list of theater productions that stuck with him, I have come up with own list of productions I have watched that have stayed with me over the years. Excluded are productions where I was a member of the cast or the production staff, or later became involved in a subsequent staging (that may be material for another list).

A word of introduction to this second list. The first part comprising five productions were mainly about those I saw in my early years as a student and theater wannabe at the University of the Philippines. From 1979 to 1981, I worked in mainstream cinema and saw only a few productions, though I took part in some. Going back to school in 1981, this time as a Theater major, I got involved in many productions that outnumbered those that I saw merely as a member of the audience. I went back to films in 1984, and my theater viewing opportunities again diminished.  It was only when I began working with the Cultural Center of the Philippines in 1987 that my viewing fare increased and expanded, more so with the travels I took thereafter through various grants, scholarships, and participation in conferences and festivals. Hence, the following list is predominantly about productions I saw outside of CCP and the country.

6.         Man of La Mancha by Dale Wasserman, Lyrics by Joe Darion and Music by Mitch Leigh(Repertory Philippines, Insular LifeTheater, Directed by Zeneida Amador and Baby Barredo, 1987) – This was not the first Rep production I had seen, nor the first production of the musical I had witnessed.  But the post-EDSA production was particularly memorable because of the outstanding cast (led by Miguel Faustmannas Cervantes/Quijana/Don Quixote, Baby Barredo herself as Aldonza/Dulcinea,Junix Inocian as Sancho Panza, Joy Virata as the Housekeeper, Monique Wilson as Antonia, Michael Williams as Carrasco and a young Nonie Buencamino as the Padre who intones the “De Profundis”) and the functional set that maximized the limited space of the theater.  We sat through the SRO performance production in the bleachers at back of the hall, aware that the production could only have happened after the EDSA revolution, what with the musical having “Impossible Dream” as its anthem.

7.         The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov (Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, Directed by Oleg Yefremov, 1989)  - Monino Duque and I were lucky during our Cultural Exchange visit to Moscow that a recent production of this play was in the repertoire of the Moscow Art Theatre and that as guests, we were accorded front row seats.  The set design included a miniature of the house and the surrounding orchard placed in the orchestra pit between the audience and the stage.  This miniature rose to the level of the stage in-between acts and then went down again to disappear while the action was taking place.  Before the third act, the miniature house was lit from the inside, prefiguring the party that was to take place onstage.  In the fourth act, the miniature was on display, and when Dunyasha begins covering all the furniture in preparation for the family’s departure, she also covers the miniature with white sheets, breaking the fourth wall.  Lopakhin was made-up as a Lenin look-alike, and his scenes with Varya were tear-inducing.  By the fourth act, I looked around to see and hear that almost everyone among the thousand-or-so viewers were in various stages of tears. Truly an unforgettable moment of theatre.  And need I say that the performance was, of course, in Russian?

          (Another productionwe saw during this trip that was quite striking was one about a troop of femalesoldiers fighting the Germans during World War II that was being performed at the Taganka Theatre.  I discovered a copy of the English translation of script at the CCP Library and learned that the play was “And the Dawns Here are Quiet” by Boris Basilyev. The production we saw was directed by Yuri Lyubimov.)

With Monino Duque in front of Anton Chekhov's Moscow residence

8.         RichardIII by William Shakespeare (RoyalNational Theatre Lyttleton, directed by Richard Eyre, 1991) -  While I was on attachment with the Royal National Theatre on a British Council grant, I was fortunately required to watch as many of its plays in repertory at the time.  One of these was a production of this Shakespearean war horse that had gone on a national tour and was back for a limited run.  Set in Britain in the1930s, the warring houses of Lancaster and York were rendered as stand-ins for Britain and Nazi Germany. The production has many unforgettable moments, beginning with a lonely toy train that meandered onto an empty stage and the hunchback Richard III changing into his Nazi-inspired uniform using his one healthy hand while delivering the immortal monologue “Now is the winter of our discontent...”.  The title character was an actor I had had the occasion of sharing elevators with several times, but knew very little about.  I later found out he had recently been knighted for his work in the theater and his advocacies, and from there on would be known as Sir Ian McKellen.

            (I also got to watch Ian McKellen in Eduardo de Filippo’s Napoli Milionaria under the direction of Richard Eyre, running at the same time at the National.  Of the many other memorable performances I saw on this trip  – where I watched 42 productions in 42 days – another unforgettable one was Phantom of the Opera.  This is because I had a backstage tour before the show courtesy of Assistant Stage Manager Mark Bond and therefore knew all the stage tricks to be employed, yet I still couldn’t help but marvel at all the magic that was happening onstage.)

from the Stratford Festival 1994 Season Guide

9.         Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand (Stratford Shakespeare Festival Ontario, translated and adapted by Anthony Burgess, directed by Derek Goldby, 1994)  ­- Tony Mabesa had directed a wonderful and engaging production and a subsequent restaging of this play using Soc Rodrigo’s translation for Tanghalang Pilipino, with Jose Mari Avellana and Jonas Sebastian playing the title role opposite JackieLou Blanco and Shamaine Centenera as Roxanne, and Monsour del Rosario and Nonie Buencamino as Christian.  The production I saw one weekend in Stratford, Ontario, presented by the largest repertory company in North America, had Colm Feore playing Cyrano. Director Derek Goldby had earlier staged another version of it for the Shaw Festival which is considered a landmark production of the latter company. What made viewing this performance (which even had cannons firedonstage) very significant was the fact that the Stratford Festival Theatre is a thrust stage, designed by Tanya Moiseiwitsch upon the direction of Sir Tyrone Guthrie during the Festival’s inaugural season in 1953.  The thrust stage meant that no member of the 800+ audience is farther than twenty meters from the stage, an arrangement that I think more theater companies should explore.

Stratford Shakespeare Festival Theatre

10.       Master Class by Terence McNally(Philadelphia Theater Company and the Mark Taper Forum, John Golden Theatre, directed by Leonard Foglia, 1997) – No, I did not get to see the Tony Award-winning performances of Zoe Caldwell and Audra McDonald, but when I saw this production on Broadway, it was THE Patti Lupone who had stepped into the role of Maria Callas.  As the theater was very intimate for a Broadway house – it was among the smallest, I learned later --, LuPone’s performance envelopes the theater, with the scenography actually giving one the impression of being in La Scala at one point in the play.  Watching a straight play (albeit with music) in Broadway was also a whiff of respite from all the big musicals. After the performance, I grabbed a copy of the playscript , hoping to put up a local production when I can, but others have had the opportunity of producing it in Manila since then.  I have settled for having a set of recordings of arias by Maria Callas.

(tobe continued)

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