A Life in the Theater

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...

“OROSMAN at Zafira,” the 2008 reimagined dance theater production directed by Dexter Santos for Dulaang UP, based on the original text by Francisco Baltazar. Deviating from the standard komedya where the conflict is between theMoros and the Cristianos, this verse play is about warring kingdoms in the Middle East. A recent list by Entertainment Weekly of the best plays of the last 100 years prompted a timely question from the Script Analysis class I am conducting for the Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company: Why is there no such list for Philippine theater? As a response, I hereby proffer a list of what I believe to be a representative sampling of 25 plays that can be considered as landmarks of Philippine theater. The list is arranged chronologically, and includes plays which were and are considered to have broken ground in local theater history, and/or plays which best represent particular theater movements or dramatic styles. I do not offer this as a definitive list, but...

Here is the final installment of theater productions I have watched that have stayed with me through the years, inspired by Guelan Luarca’s own list of productions that stuck with him. Excluded are those where I was a member of the cast or the production staff, or later became involved in subsequent stagings (which, definitely, will be material for another list). 11.    Fili  by Floy Quintos (Dulaang U.P., Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, directed by Tony Mabesa, 1992) Floy Quintos reimagines Jose Rizal’s second novel as it is being told by Pepe to his friend Tunying, and the actor who plays this then goes on to play Simoun.  That’s just the beginning.  Add students on roller skates, the Governor General and his mistress as sado-masochist lovers, and other eye-popping theatrical devices  (e.g. tarot-card inspired periaktoi panels) that only serve to remind audiences that the novel might as well be about us in the present day.  Oh, and I have not tou...

Behn Cervantes had been part of our family conversations even while I was a schoolboy about to graduate from secondary school in Lipa City.  He had directed a film called “Sakada” that was banned and confiscated by the Marcos regime; it had not been reported widely but somehow my parents had heard about it.  When I was about to enrol in U.P., one of themore specific instructions they had given me was not to be involved in any anti-government activity or organization, lest I become like Behn Cervantes. It was not long after enrolment that I got to watch U.P.Repertory Company’s production of Bonifacio Ilagan’s “Pagsambang Bayan”, directed by Behn, with film actor Orestes Ojeda as the priest.  It was an eye-opener, so different it was from all other plays that I had been in or seen up to that point (which was not that many).  The “fourth wall” was non-existent; the cast literally and figuratively gets the audience to stand up and join in the actio...

Ricky Davao is a multi-awarded film, television and theater actor who would really rather be known as a singer who can act. He will jump at every opportunity to show off his singing voice and whose plans for the future not only include directing a film version of Rene Villanueva's "Hiblang Abo" but also an album of salinawits, or standards transliterated into Filipino. Which is not to say that he will also not take advantage of every chance to perform on stage. This week, he resurrects his role as Dado in the Mario O'Hara's adaptation of his own screenplay for Lino Brocka's "Insiang." Directed by Chris Millado (who, like Ricky, also won an Aliw Award for his work on the play), Ricky plays opposite Sheenly Vee Gener (as Insiang) and Mailes Kanapi (as Pacing). As he normally would, Ricky set aside time to do Insiang, making sure that he can devote all his attention and time for the project. Ricky once said in an interview that we have known each other ...

When I go back to Silliman next week with Tanghalang Pilipino's productions of GEE GEE AT WATERINA and WELCOME TO INTELSTAR, it will be my third time to visit the place. I have been to Silliman University and Luce Auditorium twice before : the first was in 1978 when U.P. and PNB brought Tony Mabesa's production of Nick Joaquin's "Tatarin" back to back with Isagani Cruz' "Josephine"; the second was with Repertory Philippines' "The Gingerbread Lady" by Neil Simon in 1983. I have very fond memories of both trips. In 1978, Amiel Leonardia was still the Luce Auditorium's Technical Director. His assistant was a graduate student named Junix Inocian. I recall that Luce Auditorium was comparable with the best theaters in the country, probably next only to Philamlife Auditorium in terms of acoustics. Among the company in that 1978 tour (which was also memorable because I lost my entire bag when we were dropped off by a C-130 cargo plane at...