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: