DULAANG U.P.: The First Forty Years

Note: DULAANG UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS (or Dulaang U.P.) is now presenting its 40^th Season.  Founding Artistic Director Tony Mabesa, who directed its first play in 1976, is now directing King Lear/Haring Lear, opening on Wednesday, 7 October 2015.  He has announced that the production will be his last for Dulaang U.P. as a director.

Upon his return to the Philippines in 1975 after studying and teaching in the United States, Antonio O. Mabesa initiated the formation of a campus-based theater season at the University of the Philippines.  With the help of Dr. Leticia H. Tison, then Chair of the Department of Speech and Drama, the first season of Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas, or Dulaang U.P. as it has come to be known, was launched in 1976 with the production of Shakespeare’s “Much Ado About Nothing”, translated into Filipino by Lilia Antonio as “Pagkahaba-haba man ng Prusisyon”, at the Abelardo Theater.   The next production in the opening season was Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio’s modern sarswela “Ang Bundok”, with music by Fabian Obispo, at the newly refurbished AS Theater, which had been named after the acknowledged dean of Philippine Theater, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero.

The initial productions would set the tenor of the typical Dulaang U.P season, a combination of masterpieces from the world’s dramatic literature as well as original plays. The first season included, along with Shakespeare and Lapeña-Bonifacio, works by Pirandello and Domingo Landicho and an adaptation of George Orwell’s “Animal Farm.” The actors and most of the production staff were culled from the students taking up Speech and Drama or had drama classes as electives. 

The years that followed were marked by productions that would be considered as landmarks of Philippine theater.  Ang Pabilog na Guhit ng Tisa, Bertolt Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle as translated by Leopoldo Cacnio and directed by Tony Mabesa, would be praised for its production design by Salvador Bernal that used native materials such as bamboo and jute sacks for costumes. Director Anton Juan Jr. transformed the theater into a boxing ring for Reuel Aguila’s In Dis Korner,  which would later be adapted into a film by Lino Brocka.  Guerrero was able to watch his own play, Close-up,  in an adaptation by Jesus Fer. Ramos, as the first of his works to be staged in the theater named in his honor.

Later on, plays from every major period in theater history  would be presented by Dulaang U.P., including Greek and Roman classics, Jacobean dramas, Restoration comedies, French farces,  plays by European dramatists like Racine, Ibsen, Chekhov, Gorky, Strindberg, Schiller, Durenmatt, Lorca, Brecht, Wilde and Beckett, American playwrights like O’Neill, Williams and Miller, and Japanese kabuki and works by Shudraka.  These were interspersed with works by National Artists Wilfrido Ma.Guerrero, Severino Montano, Nick Joaquin, and Bienvenido Lumbera, and other Filipino playwrights like Domingo Landicho, Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio, Bonifacio Ilagan, Bienvenido Noriega, Jose Dalisay Jr, Edna May Landicho, Isagani Cruz, Rene Villanueva, Reuel Aguila, Floy Quintos, Edna Mae Landicho, Anton Juan, Jr., and Rody Vera.

Dulaang U.P. productions had been customarily directed by U.P Faculty members which included, aside from Mabesa and Cervantes, Jonas Sebastian, Anton Juan Jr., Cris Vertido, Amiel Leonardia, Alexander Cortez, Ogie Juliano, Antee Bass-Hernandez, Jose Estrella, Edna Mae Landicho, Tuxqs Rutaquio, and Dexter Santos.  Guest directors have included Edgardo de la Cruz, Peter Kern, Jorge Ledesma and Floy Quintos.  Productions have been designed by a variety of artists led by National Artist Salvador Bernal, Monino Duque, Katsch Catoy, Leo Abaya, Amiel Leonardia, Ludendorffo Decenteceo and Gino Gonzales, along with those who started designing when they were students like Nicolas de Ocampo, Ogie Juliano, Dennis Marasigan, Eric Pineda, Jimmy Villanueva, Bat Fajardo, Jay Aranda, John Batalla, Shakira Villa,Clint Ramos, Faust Peneyra, Tuxqs Rutaquio, Voltaire de Jesus, Jethro Joaquin, Ohm David and Meliton Roxas.  Through their works, the Guerrero stage has been transformed into such places as rice terraces, the mountains of the Caucasus, a boxing ring, the forest of Arden, a preparatory school for boys, the dead-end Camino Real, a Japanese temple, a kabuki theatre, Russian dachas, and the beaches of Guam, among many others.

It has been common practice to invite professional actors to work with students in Dulaang U.P. productions, and the list of guest artists includes Mario O’Hara, Angie Ferro, Laurice Guillen, Lou Veloso, Ray Ventura, Pen Medina, Vic Vargas, Gloria Diaz, Imee Marcos, Orestes Ojeda, Alicia Alonzo, Dindo Fernando, Fernando Josef, Sonia Valenciano, Juan Rodrigo, Barbara Perez, Susan Valdez, National Artists Ishmael Bernal and Rolando Tinio, Bodjie Pascua, Roderick Paulate, Joel Lamangan, Teroy Guzman, Jackie Lou Blanco, Romnick Sarmenta, Cris Villonco, Leo Rialp and Cesar Montano.   Some of the actors, writers and directors who started their careers as students with Dulaang U.P. include Jun Farin, Chito Roño, Cris Michelena, Douglas Nierras, Dennis Marasigan, Chris Millado, Jorge Ledesma, Jorge Ledesma, Betty Mae Piccio, Malu de Duzman, Ces Mangay-Quesada, Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino, Tess Dumpit, Irma Adlawan, Joi Barrios, Nicolas Pichay, Floy Quintos, Eugene Domingo, Paul Alexander Morales, Auraeus Solito, Tess Jamias, Andoy Ranay, Rico Gutierrez, Candy Pangilinan, Frances Makil-Ignacio, Harlene Bautista, Ayen Munji-Laurel, Stella Cañete, Juliene Mendoza, Dolly de Leon, Banaue Miclat, Mario Magallona, Neil Ryan Sese, and Tuxqs Rutaquio.

Antonio Mabesa served as Dulaang U.P.’s Artistic Director from 1976 to 2001 , sometimes jointly with Behn Cervantes and Anton Juan Jr.  In  2001 , Jose Estrella was named Artistic Director with Mabesa being conferred Artistic Director emeritus status.  She was succeeded by Alexander Cortez in   2009.  In its fortieth year, Dexter Santos has been named as Dulaang U.P. Artistic Director.

In its first forty years, Dulaang U.P. has become known for the quality of its productions and the practitioners that is has trained, some of them becoming Artistic Directors of leading Philippine theater companies and cultural organizations, and even more now already considered as outstanding artists in their field.  The Filipino theater audience can only expect that the next forty years will become even more noteworthy, with Dulaang U.P. asserting its eminence as the premier university theater season in the country.