A Life in the Theater

Every year, the Virgin Labfest assembles an outstanding assortment of DIRECTORS and PERFORMERS, coming from various groups and persuasion, brought together by a shared desire to do theater. I have always been awed by the suprises I find in the Labfest, and I should like to think that the playwrights whose works are being performed for the first time as well as the audiences that watch the performances should only be too eager to rush to the CCP from June 25 to July 6, 2014. The names of the playwrights are in all of the posters and collaterals, but those who will be trooping to the Cultural Center of the Philippines for the Virgin Labfest 10:The Harvest will also be seeing the works of any of the following Directors and Actors.     DIRECTORS JK Anicoche  Emman Dela Cruz  Law Fajardo  Audie Gemora  Rolando Inocencio  Jenny Jamora  Ed Lacson Jr.  Melvin Lee  Joshua Lim So   Dennis Marasigan  Chris Martinez ...

The 2nd and final weekend performances for Virgin Labfest 3 take place at the CCP beginning today until Sunday, July 8. Do not be like those who wait until the last day to come, only to find out that there are no longer any tickets left. Call the CCP Box-Office (832-3704) or the Tanghalang Pilipino office (832-3661) for schedules and tickets. (Look up Gibbs Cadiz' blog at http://www.gibbscadiz.blogspot.com/ to read more about some of the plays being staged this year. He also has links to other bloggers who have seen some of the plays.)

Two of the outstanding productions featured in last year's Virgin Labfest 2 return for a limited run in the 2007 Virgin Labfest 3, the annual festival of untried, untested, unpublished and unstaged plays. Writing about these plays, the Philippine Daily Inquirer's Gibbs Cadiz wrote that Job Pagsibigan’s “The Palanca in My Mind” directed Roobak Valle Valle "offered a diverting (if sitcom-ish) stab at the stuffed, geriatric image of the Palanca Awards, the country’s premier literary competition." Heading the cast is Wenah Nagales, who "virtually gobbled up the scenery as the starry-eyed writer Dory, supported by a shape-shifting cast of talented Tanghalang Pilipino actors." "Hubad" features Irma Adlawan and Nonie Buencamino who play a husband and wife who’ve taken to playing sexual games to spice up their marriage. According to Cadiz, the two actors "were a wonder to watch—nothing less than master classes on the use of body, voice, mind and exper...