A Life in the Theater

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...

This is the third and final part of an article based on a Keynote Address I delivered during the First General Assembly of the Association of Cultural Offices of Philippine Educational Institutions (ACOPEI). Comments are welcome. What challenges do we face in audience development?  First, there is the question of the here and now.  Undoubtedly, we must fill our spaces –whether they be theaters or galleries -- now, and we must ensure that we will have audiences in the future.   According to former CCP President Nestor O. Jardin, short term strategies that could be employed to ensure our audiences for today will have to be directed primarily at addressing such limiting factors as lack of awareness, pricing, competition, scheduling, accessibility, environment for the delivery of programs and programming.  Necessarily, we will have to focus on the youth whose minds arestill impressionable and whose preferences are just being formed. ...

This is the second part of an article based on a Keynote Address I delivered during the First General Assembly of the Association of Cultural Offices of Philippine Educational Institutions (ACOPEI). Comments are welcome. How do we develop the youth as arts audiences? First, let us take a look at a typical ladder of attendance.              An arts audience begins by first becoming aware of the arts and arts activities.  This may lead him to bea part of an arts activity on a trial basis. Thereafter, he may consider re-attendance in similar activities, until he or she becomes a regular user or attender.             This being the case, a formula for developing life-long learning through arts participation may be done through a basic audience development process, as below: 1.     POINT OF ENTRY - Introducing new p...