Friday, September 19, 2025

9:00 PM | Salome, Agnes, and All the Anguish in the World

Over the past few weekends, those who love the Dumaguete theatre scene—and it has been quite a bountiful season so far—found themselves confronted with drama at its most essential: bare, unflinching, and alive with questions that cut to the bone.” To begin with, Artista Sillimaniana presented two plays over two weekends in succession, dubbed Double Take, with the conceit that their titles were not to be revealed in any of its publicity, inviting their potential audiences to trust the theatre artists with just the promise of great stories performed to their best expressions by some of Dumaguete’s mightiest thespians. I called it “secret theatre,” with the reveal of the titles only happening at the very start of each show. It was experiment, and by the time Double Take took its last bow last September 13, that experiment proved to be a grand success—the audiences growing with each performance, brought on by fantastic word of mouth.

But now that it’s over, we can reveal the titles in this review. First up was M/ark St. G/ermain’s F/reud’s L/ast S/ession, directed by Jaime del Mundo, and featuring Del Mundo himself as the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud opposite Nelsito Gomez as C.S. Lewis, the famous author behind The Chronicles of Narnia and other tomes which have become classics of Christian literature. Both came to Dumaguete from Manila under the modest billing of a live reading. But modest is the last word one would use to describe what unfolded on the Woodward Little Theatre stage in the first weekend of September. What we were given was theatre distilled to its most essential, its most dangerous, and its most rewarding: two actors, two chairs, a script, and the raw electricity of performance.

The absence of theatrical spectacle—no elaborate set, no special lights, almost no blocking—was never a lack. In fact, it heightened the evening I saw the play in, forcing the audience to lean in, to listen, to wrestle with the very same questions the play poses: belief or unbelief, faith or despair, the stubborn human spirit against the inevitability of death. Del Mundo’s Freud was masterful: here was the old man, frail and dying, yet still wielding wit like a scalpel, each phrase honed with the authority of a mind refusing to surrender. Gomez’s Lewis was a supple counterpoint, all luminous conviction and trembling vulnerability, his belief not naïve but hard-won, tender, and full of ache.

What followed was no mere dialogue but a duel, ideas clashing and dancing in equal measure. And yet, in the pauses, in the shared quiet, there bloomed an intimacy that was profoundly moving. In that intimate space, Dumaguete was gifted not spectacle, but essence: words made flesh, thought turned theatre, performance stripped to its soul—and it was glorious.

These are nights in local theatre when we can see that spectacle can be unnecessary, when the simplest act of reading becomes revelation. Such was the case with the second play of Double Take—J/ohn P/ielmeier’s A/gnes of G/od, again directed by Jaime del Mundo, this time orchestrating a trio of actresses who are rightfully considered as among the finest of three generations of Dumaguete theatre—Dessa Quesada-Palm as Dr. M/artha Livingstone, Belen Calingacion as Mother M/iriam Ruth, and Anna del Prado as Sister A/gnes. What unfolded that second weekend of September was theatre in its most concentrated, unflinching form: three women, three chairs, and a story that dared to wound and enlighten at the same time.

The brilliance of the live reading lay in how these actresses localized the story, rendering its conflicts of faith, truth, and madness into something that felt disturbingly intimate for Dumaguete audiences. Dessa’s Livingstone was a force of skepticism wrapped in vulnerability, her lines haunted by betrayals of faith. Belen’s Miriam Ruth was fierce and evasive, her contradictions dangerous in their evasions. And Anna’s Agnes was astonishing—innocence curdled into menace, her fragile voice laced with something monstrous.

The clash of these three women unfolded like a storm, all of them armed with questions about divinity, about sexuality, about truth colliding in a crucible of pain and wonder. The silence of the appreciative audience spoke volumes, broken only by applause in the end rising like benediction. I noticed that among the crowd I saw the evening in were seminarians from nearby St. Joseph, a reminder of how close this story cut to lived lives of faith in our city. They loved the play.



And then, that same second weekend of September, came Salome, this time at the Luce Auditorium.

Oscar Wilde’s curious one-act tragedy, presented by the Silliman University Culture and Arts Council and staged Andrew Alvarez in Benjie Kitay’s brilliant Bisaya translation, plunged us into blood and desire with startling intimacy. Performed in the round, the audience encircling the stage like conspirators, this Salome found its full flowering in the precise lighting design by Keith Delgado, in the sensual choreography by Fionabelle Marie Cabe, in the hypnotic music by Jules Steven Josol, in the delightfully decadent costuming by Josip Tumapa, and in the minimalist set design by Eazel Savellino. I mention these members of the creative team, because their contributions truly heightened a masterful rendering of the play—an astonishing feat by first-time director Alvarez.

What unfolded for us on the Luce stage was as inevitable as it was shocking, the fantastic unfolding really the result of beautiful performances. Jade Mary Cornelia embodied Salome with revelatory nuance—playful innocence transforming into terrifying obsession. In the way she lilts her voice, we get childish, almost innocent, petulance curdling into corrupted desire for Jokanaan [John the Baptist], the prophet who spurns her, and who pushes her to make her fateful demand for his head in exchange for her dance for King Herod. Surrounding Cornelia’s tour de force performance are three veteran Dumaguete stage actors—Hope Tinambacan, Onna Rhea Quizo, and Benjie Kitay [all senior mentors from Youth Advocates Through Theatre Arts]—who gave the staging a much-needed gravitas: Hope’s Jokanaan was a force thundering with sanctity; Onna’s Herodias was deliciously imperious, commanding disdain in every gesture, in every line reading; and Benjie’s Herod was a different marvel altogether—witty, clownish, sinister, fully inhabiting Wilde’s paradox of depravity laced with comedy. [He also got the best lines, perhaps owing to the fact that the entire play is his fantastic translation effort.] On the other hand, Fort Narciso’s Naraboth, a new face in Dumaguete theatre, lent a handsome and tragic yearning in the play, which completed the fin de siecle tableau.

For me, what makes this Salome astonishing is its “completeness,” embodied by the efforts of the cast and the creative team, the daring use of the arena stage, and the pulse of Wilde’s words rendered in our own tongue. It’s just a different beast, seeing this play rendered in beautiful Binisaya. [Gorgeous lines like, “Gigutom ko sa imong katahum; nangala ko sa imong lawas; og bisan ang bino ug mga mansanas, dili makapawala sa akong tinguha,” sent shivers down my spine.] It feels like a perfect production—confident, sensual, unsettling, and absolutely alive. Wilde’s play, Alvarez tells us in his director’s notes, is about victims of circumstance making choices that define their becoming. I get that. Also, on the Dumaguete stage, Salome becomes more than revival of a classic play: it is revelation of current tribulations, a mirror of modern obsession and its terrible costs.

Taken together, these three plays—F/reud’s Last Session, A/gnes of God, and Salome—for me formed a triptych of anguish and faith that Dumaguete audiences were so very privileged to witness. Each play in its own way wrestled with belief and despair: men circling questions of mortality with reasoned eloquence, women clawing through madness and doctrine toward fragile truths, and a young princess spiraling from innocence into monstrous obsession.

They were plays that confronted the fragility of conviction, the dangers of desire, and the necessity of doubt. Staged with minimal spectacle or with ritualistic grandeur, they shared one thing: an unrelenting interrogation of what it means to be human, to believe, and to suffer. Theatre in Dumaguete, in these productions, became a crucible, where anguish was not hidden but laid bare, and where faith, whether affirmed, denied, or corrupted, became the trembling heart of drama itself.

Labels: art and culture, city of literature, dumaguete, theater

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Friday, March 17, 2023

9:35 PM | Nibisita Ko sa “Usa Ka Isla”

I caught the premiere of the play Usa Ka Isla at the Luce Auditorium tonight. It's a Kasing Sining production, which is under the guidance of the great Lutgardo Luza Labad and the artistic direction of Jerrey David Aguilar, and tackles the travails and the aftermath of Typhoon Odette in Bohol, when it came and ravaged Central Visayas in December 2021. The story, in glorious Binisaya, is a chorus of voices from ordinary people as they prepare to face the incoming typhoon, not knowing the devastation that would eventually happen, and then showing the hardship and resilience of these people in the wake of the tragedy — questioning God, questioning authority, questioning fate, questioning the very idea of “resilience.” They have two more shows slated for Saturday. Here I am with Gardy, and with the cast and crew! For tickets, go to the Silliman University Culture and Arts Council website.

Labels: art and culture, bohol, cultural affairs committee, disasters, dumaguete, theater

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Tuesday, March 07, 2023

5:33 PM | In Dumaguete, The Arts Flourish Part 9: A Nest of Theatricality

It was perhaps inevitable that theatre in the pandemic—at least in Dumaguete—would be so intimate, and so closely collaborative with the other art forms that seemed to have an awakening under the full weight of social distancing, face masks, and unease. It was not without challenges.

How does one exactly stage a dramatic work that needed bodies in place and the close communion of audience members in a time that demanded restrictions in all of those considerations, and more?

Theatre in Dumaguete was probably the first type of cultural production to feel the swift and brutal changes the emerging COVID-19 demanded. [Back then, we were still calling it “nCOV-19.”] Rent, the acclaimed Broadway musical by Jonathan Larson, was about to make its first bow at the Luce Auditorium on 21 February 2020, directed by Miren Sofia Jordana—when its premiere was hastily cancelled by Silliman University authorities because of growing pandemic fears, only to be permitted a one-night-only staging a few days later, just to accommodate irate ticket holders and the producers. The show did go on—but you could feel the stress on the cast [which included theatre luminaries such as Ima Castro and local ones such as Hope Tinambacan] and the jitters of the audience members. When the company sang “Seasons of Love,” the show’s paean to counting a year in the life at the end of the first act, it brought up unintended existential considerations: Will there still be us a year later? What if the world was truly ending? It was not an ideal atmosphere for an immersive play like Rent, and after that show, the Luce would go dark for many, many months.

Still, we believed the pandemic would be over by June—so we bid our time. We began pouring into our social media, and virtually performing for each other. We discovered Zoom. But plays performed on Zoom just couldn’t hack it, and I’m not sure anyone in Dumaguete ever did try to do a form of pandemic theatre using that route, save perhaps for the Silliman University Culture and Arts Council mounting a presentation of The Story of Dumpawa’s Lullaby, a musical revue I wrote based on the works of ethnomusicologist Priscilla Magdamo, in October 2020. But it wasn’t through Zoom; it was a videotaped presentation that felt like a throwback to Aawitan Kita, the Armida Siguion-Reyna musical television special that aired for over 30 years in the country. [There was another videotaped presentation in June 2022 during Pride Month, with YATTA doing a dramatic reading of Dean Francis Alfar’s one-act play Short Time.]

There were some valiant attempts at doing theatre the old way but with new health restrictions established. I remember attending a November 2020 performance of Karen Schiff’s Breakfast with Willy, directed by Daisy Hannah Catacutan, and starring Andrew Alvarez as an elderly Polish grocery stocker with a painful past and Malka Shaver as a bored graphic designer with an unsure grasp of what she wanted—a nice blend of comedy with something important to say about the horrors of war, immigration, identity, life choices, and breakfast cereal. The performance space was an open-air affair in a small events venue somewhere near the Sibulan Airport—a place I didn’t know existed until the pandemic happened; the stage crew was kept to a bare minimum; and the audience—just a handful of people—were invitees. A few months later, D Salag Collective—composed of Hope Tinambacan, Nikki Cimafranca, Benjie Kitay, and Karen Silva, all co-directors, co-stars, and co-writers—staged Fighting the Invisible on two May weekend in 2021 at the Sidlakang Negros Village Function Hall, with similar health restrictions, and minimal production crew and audience capacity.



Pandemic theatre was small and intimate, and catered to a select few who were hungering for these kinds of performances in a time of utter lack. But it imploded the long-held notion that we needed proper performance spaces—like the Luce—to stage proper drama. The pandemic somehow democratized the artform, gave it a looser structure, allowed it infusion of all kinds of influences.

Sometime in 2022, the writer Daniella Ureta-Spontak decided to put a performance spin to the poetry she had been writing while in Dumaguete. An American with Filipino roots, she had moved to Dumaguete at the tail-end of 2019, hoping to teach at a university and pursue something creative—not knowing that her stay would soon be marked by a very long lockdown. She had earned a BA in English at the University of San Diego in the United States and an MFA in creative writing at the University of Kent in the United Kingdom, and she had already been published in multiple literary magazines and had won screenwriting contests [including at Sundance]. Dumaguete felt like a place to grow in creatively before she embarked on something else. Unfortunately, the university job fell through—and then the lockdown commenced, and she found herself concentrating on her creative pursuits full time and hosting a weekly writers workshop in Dauin to help others hone their craft with constructive feedback.

She also turned to poetry: “I didn’t take an interest in poetry until I was 20 when a professor showed us a 13th-century poem about a guy complaining about his STD. I was so amused I started reading more. Then I found myself stuck in a class I loathed with a professor I loathed even more, so I started writing poems to pass the time. I’d written a dozen by the time the semester ended. The following semester, I had the chance to stay in Barcelona and visited countless art museums, but I noticed an urge to do more than simply look at the inspiring paintings. I began to bring a pen and paper. Fast forward ten years, and I’m still writing poems whenever I visit an art museum or gallery.”

That inclination to write poetry in art spaces brought her to MUGNA Gallery in Bong-ao, Valencia, where she would find herself penning poem after poem, prompted by the art she saw. Something was brewing in her mind. She began by hosting a body painting event at Shelter Gallery in Tabuctubig on 2 June 2022, using visiting actor Luka Cvitković as human canvas for local artist Hersley-Ven Casero, Faye Mandi, Dyck Cediño, and Cil Flores. In a sense, that was already a kind of theatre—a performance by four visual artists in a kinetic drama of putting color and shade to the human skin.



By the following month, July 2022, Ms. Spontak was ready to take the next step: use her poetry as the prompt to performance in an art gallery, an ekphratic experiment. Over two nights, she presided over Poetry in Motion, a theatrical piece essayed by Hope Tinambacan, Fionabelle Marie Cabe, Jo Camille, and Mayumi Maghuyop—all of them bringing to life pieces of Ms. Spontak’s poetry using the various spaces of MUGNA Gallery as platform to play out the resonances of the pieces, each performer interacting organically with audience members who were free to roam around the space, often interacting with the performers themselves. The magic of the piece could only be made possible with the intimacy of the venue, and the restricted number of spectators.



The success of Poetry in Motion would lead to its “sequel,” Poetry in Motion II, held at the same gallery three months later, in October 2022—this time with the performers [which included two returnees Hope Tinambacan and Jo Camille, and two new cast members Anna del Prado and Tonya Alviola] interacting with the art of Babbu Wenceslao, who was then exhibiting a kind of retrospective of his works in “Asanamo.”

If you care to notice, one common name threads throughout most of these dramatic presentations in the whole of the pandemic in Dumaguete: Hope Tinambacan—someone who has become a household name considering everything he has done, culture-wise, in Dumaguete. And known to many as poet, singer, composer, teacher, actor, director, lead singer of Hopia, co-founder of the Belltower Project, and co-founder of D Salag Collective. Originally from Oroquieta City [but with Negros Oriental roots], he came to Dumaguete in 2001 to study at Silliman University, where he finished with a degree in mass communication—which might come as a surprise to many, since his collegiate and post-collegiate life revolved extensively around theatre and music. [He would cement his academic ties to theatre eventually by finishing a three-year professional diploma program in acting at the famous Intercultural Theatre Institute (ITI) in Singapore, graduating in 2019.]

Coming to Dumaguete as a youngster was really a homecoming. “I’ve never left,” he says. “I’ve been here for 23 years. I’ve moved around more than thirty times already in that interim. My first impression of Dumaguete was really good, I was very impressed. It was intimidating but it also felt light and happy. I felt that the art scene was very active.” He would go on to join the glee club and various theatre productions while in college, which soon led to more serious headways into the local artistic life.

He has garnered a considerable following as the lead singer of Hopia and the primary instigator of the whole musical community experiment called the Belltower Project—now celebrating its tenth anniversary in 2023—but his heart remains steadfast in the theatre arts. He came into his own with various productions under the rubric of the Youth Advocates Through Theatre Arts [YATTA], the foremost community theatre company in Dumaguete, but after graduating from ITI, he felt that he had to go beyond YATTA and make his own mark in the local theatre scene.

Cue D’Salag Collective.

“I just wanted to add to the theatre scene in Dumaguete,” he says. “The idea came to me when I turned 31. That was always the dream, to create a company that was not youth-based, because I was no longer exactly a ‘youth.’ I learned so much when I went to ITI, and I wanted to go home because I just wanted to create and create theatre. So this was really the offspring of what I learned in Singapore. I wanted to apply what I learned.”

When he returned to the Philippines, the first thing he did was stage HauntXHunt at The Oasis in Florentina Homes on 21 June 2019, a two-act performance with fellow ITI graduate Ted Tac-an, where they essayed a surreal dramatization of people’s secret wants. [Before the performance, Mr. Tinambacan solicited confessional “wants” from the attendees, threading all these into a haunting monologue.] It was supposed to be the opening salvo for what he had planned to do theatre-wise—but not in Dumaguete: “When I came back, I decided, together with Ted, that we would create a theatre group in Oroquieta. Not in Dumaguete, since there was still no theatre group in Oroquieta.”

And then the pandemic happened.

“So the pandemic really affected my plans,” he continued. “I was still so fresh from theatre school, and I really wanted to do something. So I told my friends, like Nikki Cimafranca, that I really wanted to do something, because I really wanted to create—and they really liked the idea.”

The next step involved figuring out what to do: how to exactly start a theatre group, how big it would be, what its name would be, how to put it together. Mr. Tinambacan focused on the idea of a nest, a word that also constituted his first name, “Earnest.” For him, it was a symbol for safety, haven, creativity, industry, nesting, “pag-aalaga,” a safe space for artists to explore, an awakening, a birth. They soon focused on the Bisaya word, “salag,” and since he wanted to make the group a collective, the name became “Salag Collective.” He also put the “D” in there, because he wanted to indicate “Dumaguete” or “drama.”



“What matters to us,” Mr. Tinambacan says, “is what the artist has to say, what he feels, what he can create, and what he can envision. That’s why most of our performances are all about what we know and what we feel, and what we are driven. We really want to give life to local stories, personal stories, stories of people who matter to us, stories of people whose stories are not told, those who cannot speak for themselves, or who are not heard.”

He continued: “What is important to us is ‘animal energy.’ Our group specialize in using the human body, maximizing the capacity of the animal energy of the human being to create, to convey a story, to communicate. This is why we do everything: our music, sound effects, our props, our lighting, and others. This does not mean we don’t embrace technology, but we use technology to support our stories, and not the other way around.”

The members wanted to call it a collective, because they wanted the decision-making to be done by the individuals together as a group, not just having an administrator deciding on everything. “What we want to emphasize is that the artist has to have a say in the decisions of the group,” Mr. Tinambacan says. The group’s growth was also vital: “We also do reading sessions and discussions, to enhance not just our skills but also our philosophy and theory.”

Armed with all these, D’ Salag Collective first performed “Tianggue Laments,” a research performance they did at the local public market. “We went around the tianggue to observe people and happenings, and maximize our senses to hear, to feel, to touch, to see,” Mr. Tinambacan said.

Their first big production was Fighting the Invisible, where they felt they had to showcase that the group was born in the middle of the pandemic, and thus “was an expression of us and the people around us. It described how we started, and described who we are, and showcased what we can do as a group.”

It wasn’t easy to stage the play in 2022. “Dako kayo ang impact sa pandemic,” Mr. Tinambacan said. “But first, there was the impact on our drive—the want, the need, the cravings, the urge to create. Second, when we started, we couldn’t find a venue, and people were not welcoming of us. We went to the park, to the market, to Silliman Beach, to practice, anywhere na lang. Third, in our first performance, we incorporated the mask and the face shield as props. So these became part of our history.”

I asked Mr. Tinambacan what D’Salag Collective hopes to contribute to the artistic life of Dumaguete, and how they plan to reach out to the larger community beyond just the artists. He responded: “We follow this principle we learned from Tadashi Suzuki: ‘To counter this debilitating modernization of the actor’s craft, I have strived to restore the wholeness of the human body in performance, not simply by creating variants of such forms as the Noh and kabuki, but by employing the universal virtues of these and other pre-modern traditions. By harnessing and developing these enduring virtues, we create an opportunity to re-consolidate our currently dismembered physical faculties and revive the body’s perceptive and expressive capacity. Only by committing to do so can we ensure the flourishing of culture within civilization.’ We believe that beyond the spectacle and entertainment, theater should be about the human capacity to communicate, affect, and create change through creative expression and storytelling. Mao na ang among gusto na dalhon sa Dumaguete. Performances and training that would emphasize and maximize the human body’s perceptive and expressive capacity.”

And what’s in the future of the D’Salag Collective? A regular annual calendar of performances and trainings. A capacity to do research-based studies, especially of the traditional forms of performance. A studio. And international performances. “The ultimate goals,” Mr. Tinambacan continues, “is to really be helpful and useful to local theatre. Researching, understanding, and promoting what’s local and traditional, and sharing it with international platforms. I also hope to create a community.”

The group continues to do its part in building community-responsive theatre, hoping that its fledgling beginning in the pandemic gets strengthened as normalcy returns—and theatre, as we have always known it in Dumaguete, thrives again. But this time with groups like D’Salag Collective firmly in its embrace.

Labels: art, art and culture, dumaguete, pandemic, theater

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Tuesday, July 19, 2016

11:50 PM | Bangbangin and the Mango of Heartbreak

Here's Bangbangin and the very mailbog and mahiwagang manga!

I love this mango -- I even made it the cover image of Heartbreak and Magic (Anvil, 2012). I honestly thought I'd never live to see this story come to life in some other form -- but here we are, all thanks to Alexandra May Cardoso who skilfully adapted it for the Virgin Labfest stage, and Charles Yee who directed it with such imagination. [That's Paul Cedric Juan as Bangbangin in the photo.] I remember giggling a lot while writing "The Sugilanon of Epefania's Heartbreak" in 2007, but also struggling how to exactly get the tone right and the mythology outlandish but also believable. (At one point, I had to ask myself: "How do I get the heavens to rain, and yet still make the ground dry and sizzling from immense heat -- and still make it sound plausible?" Because Epefania's heartbreak demanded it.) Rosario Cruz Lucero inspired its writing, but I wrote this for Dean Francis Alfar, and Ma'am Jing Hidalgo later included it in her anthology of Filipino fantasy. Here's to stories and the enchanted well they come from!

[Photo by Alvin I. Dacanay]

Labels: fiction, life, myths, philippine literature, theater, theatre, virgin labfest, writers, writing

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Thursday, June 18, 2015

1:19 PM | Old Cat, Pimp With Swag, Brother Among Puppets

To be able to be different characters of vastly different lives is the lure for many thespians. Junix Inocian has proven to be in the first rank of those who have heeded and succumbed to this temptation—and the world has the better for it. With his untimely passing this week, the world has also lost a great light in theatre, in film, in television. For many of us, we have also lost a great friend.

I don’t know how I came to know Junix Inocian, only that one day we just did. Perhaps being both Silliman University alumni helped. But I have always been an avid fan of the theatre, and one of my best remembered pleasures in following this particular scene was actually knowing that one of the stalwarts of Miss Saigon, the original cast that dominated London when it opened at Theatre Royal in Drury Lane in 1989, was a Sillimanian. For a child enamored by musicals, that seemed like a beacon: someone from Dumaguete made it all the way to London’s West End. Perhaps one’s wildest dreams are reachable, after all, even with the chasms of geography one has to overcome. Junix was dream personified. He deserved the loftiness of that ideal. Primarily because, he wasn’t just a talented person, he was also an extremely good human being.

Rufino Duran Inocian Jr. starred in various plays such as Miss Saigon, Cats, Fiddler on the Roof, and the movie version of the Swedish crime novel Tatuerad Torso. On television, he starred in the series Sinbad which aired over at Sky in the United Kingdom.

But he started his acting career in Silliman where he appeared in a number of plays during the so-called Golden Years of Dumaguete Theatre in the 1970s. His beginnings in theatre was sparked by a curiosity that came over him one day when he happened to pass by the Theatre Department on his way to the Silliman library. The drama group was rehearsing, and mesmerized by what he saw, he stopped to watch as the actors took charge of the mock stage. At the center was the entrancing figure of writer Rowena Tiempo (now Torrevillas), one of the leads of the play being rehearsed that day. He joined the theatre group quickly the very next day, and soon shifted to a major in Theatre Arts.

That soon led to a lead role in a production of Fiddler on the Roof, the first and only musical directed by Prof. Amiel Leonardia, with musical direction by Miriam Palmore. The production was for the Luce Auditorium in 1974, the year it was inaugurated. It was a big production that took 18 weeks of rehearsals and preparation, with a cast that brimmed with talent—Mr. Inocian as Teyve, Evelyn Aldecoa (who would direct the 1995 production of the same play) as Golde, and Ephraim Bejar as the Constable, among others.

Upon obtaining his degree in Theatre Arts, he proceeded to take further studies at the University of Michigan where he obtained a degree in Acting in 1978. He trained with Mary Hutchinson, an acting coach from Syracuse University, New York, and with Paul Palmore, an acting coach from the University of Michigan—both prominent figures in Dumaguete theatre scene.

Subsequent to his studies in the U.S., Junix joined Repertory Philippines where he starred in at least sixty productions. His stage appearances include leading roles in Little Shop of Horrors as Audrey 2, Mass Appeal as Father Tim Farley, Man of La Mancha as Sancho, The Government Inspector as the Mayor, The Pirates of Penzance as Major-General Stanley, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum as Pseudolus, Fiddler on the Roof (again) as Tevye, Sweeney Todd: the Demon Barber of Fleet Street as Sweeney Todd, and Children of a Lesser God as James Leeds.

On television, Junix also appeared in various shows such as in Batibot, the Filipino version of Sesame Street, where he was the much-beloved Kuya Mario, friend to all kids and to puppets Pong Pagong and Kiko Matsing; Sitak ni Jack, a top-rated sitcom; and the show A Dangerous Life, a six-hour docu-drama series based on the EDSA People Power Revolution. He also starred in movies such as in Silk and Greed.

Junix joined the original cast of the play Miss Saigon where, from 1992 to 1994, he played the lead role of The Engineer, the half-Vietnamese half-French pimp with swaggr and big dreams. Some time after playing the role of Old Deuteronomy in the play Cats, the one who dreams of going to the Heavenly Layer, at the New London Theatre, Junix returned to Miss Saigon.

His son Jon Michael Inocian once wrote of his father in Handulantaw: “Now I am not saying this just because he is my father, but he is the best actor in the world! I know this for a fact because I have shared the stage with him twice: once as a little baby in Fiddler on the Roof, and most recently in Jekyll and Hyde. Growing up I would always hear stories of how much fun it is to work with him and how he would be one of the kings of ‘playtime’ during shows. I have come to realize that my Titos and Titas were not exaggerating! But laughter and fun aside, Dad is definitely a pro. Even with all the years of experiences he’s had onstage, you can see that he loves his craft—rehearsing despite jet lag, running lines with me while waiting for food and giving me little notes for improvement.”

His passing is a shock to many of his friends in theatre, from Lea Salonga to his ex-wofe and manager Luna Griño-Inocian. Legendary Miss Saigon, Cats, Phantom of the Opera, and Les Miserable producer Cameron Macintosh issued this statement on his passing: “The sudden shock of Junix's premature departure from us is not just because we have lost a wonderfully talented actor but also because of his great spirit. He was truly a leading man in being both the leading actor and the father of the company for several of my productions. Ever since I first met Junix in 1988 in Manila there was no doubt that he was special. It is a great credit to his country that he became the first Asian actor to play the role of the Engineer in Miss Saigon and through his considerable talent he carved himself a significant career in the British Theatre as well as in the Philippines. We will all miss him hugely and I consider it a great privilege to have known him . Junix leaves us all with many happy memories it is just so sad that he has gone to the heavy side layer far too soon. God bless you, Junix. With much love, Cameron.”

In behalf of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, its Artistic Director Chris Millado also noted Philippine theatre’s significant loss: “The CCP joins the theater community in mourning the passing of an exceptional stage actor Junix Inocian. Junix’s musical theater prowess brought brilliance and bravado to several productions at the Silliman University, Repertory Philippines, the Cultural Centre of the Philippines and the international stages in West End and Europe. Friends and family fondly remember his easy demeanour on and offstage. We join everyone in celebrating your life and art, Mr. Inocian, and yes, in ‘goodnighting’ to you.”

And goodnighting to you, too, Junix.

Labels: actors, art and culture, dumaguete, negros, obituary, people, silliman, theater

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Thursday, June 11, 2015

8:00 AM | You Are Invited to Watch Ampalaya the Musical at the Cultural Center Of The Philippines on July 15!

You are invited to watch a special presentation by the Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee at the Cultural Center of the Philippines! The Dumaguete-based cultural institution is bringing to Manila Ampalaya the Musical, based on the popular children's book by Augie Rivera Jr. The musical, with music by legendary guitarist and composer Michael Dadap and with lyrics by Mr. Dadap and Patty Yusah, is directed by Dessa Quesada-Palm, with musical direction by Elizabeth Susan Vista-Suarez.

This rare Manila engagement by a team of Dumaguete theatrical talents also features choreography by Angelo Sayson, with production design by Lex Marcos, costume design by Carlo Villafuerte-Pagunaling, and technical direction by Loren Rivera.

15 JULY 2015
Wednesday
Matinee at 3:00 PM
Gala at 8:00 PM
Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo
Cultural Center of the Philippines
Roxas Boulevard, Manila

Tickets now available at TicketWorld.

Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental has long been known as the Cultural Center of Southern Philippines, and for the first time ever, the Silliman University Cultural Affairs Committee, the city’s unofficial cultural arm, brings to Manila audiences an original new musical that will delight and educate, with a performance on 15 July 2015 at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, which is part of Silliman University’s commitment as the official regional cultural hub of the CCP.

The musical began as a short play, which debuted in 2000 in Boston. The full-length version debuted on 19 September 2014 at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium in Silliman University. It is presented by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Dumaguete City Tourism Office, CocoGrande Hotel, Philippine Airlines, Lorenzo Shipping Corporation, Bayview Park Hotel Manila, and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, contact us at (035) 422-4365 or 0917 323 5953. Or email us at cac@su.edu.ph or silliman.cac@gmail.com.

Labels: art and culture, cultural affairs committee, music, silliman, theater

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Wednesday, March 11, 2015

1:29 PM | Maria and the Birdman

Alejandro González Iñárritu's Birdman and Oliver Assayas' Clouds of Sils Maria are practically the same kind of film but made with different sensibilities. Both are about aging actors (Michael Keaton in one, and Juliette Binoche in the other) preparing for plays that promise to redefine their careers, but are unsettled by the ghosts of old roles that defined them in the first place. Assayas' film is the better movie, I think -- it feels like a sturdier study of being human rather than a prolonged technical gimmick, but guess which one had traction last year? The one about the male actor.

Labels: feminism, film, theater

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Friday, February 13, 2015

11:56 AM | Men and Women Rising

Every year, around this time of the year, this column turns to one constant that has been there for so long, I might as well call this annual space the “vagina’s turn.”

Looking back to all my old columns, it struck me that I have written about VDay every single year since 2001, after having been inspired by the example set by writer/activist Eve Ensler and her groundbreaking play, The Vagina Monologues, which was first staged at the Luce to much controversy in 2001. This also means that, together with Bing Valbuena and Margie Udarbe-Alvarez, I have been part of the movement for thirteen years now, skipping that one year—2002—when things were just coming together, and which led to that big jump in 2003 when Bing started the campaign in Dumaguete.

Reflecting back, I can very much say, with the power of that eternal cliché, many things have since changed, and many things have remained the same. There is change, because we don’t have to fight too much anymore a small-mindedness that prevailed in 2001 and 2003, when the very mention of the word “vagina” proved too much for many in Dumaguete. We couldn’t even put streamers up, and someone threatened to record the whole play in order to serve as evidence of our “depravity.” In 2006, when we unveiled Usaping Puki, the Filipino version of The Vagina Monologues, we received virulent negative feedback—for one, it was considered so inappropriate for us to put up our banner with the word “puki,” in a place that fronted the elementary school.

Now, of course, The Vagina Monologues—and sometimes the alternate play, A Memory, A Monologue, A Rant, and A Prayer—comes with such annual regularity to our February slate, and no one even questions its staging anymore. In fact, every year, we have no shortage of volunteers to be part of the cast. And we have many more volunteers asking to be part of the whole VDay campaign, and now, since 2013, with the One Billion Rising campaign.

“When I looked through my file of VDay pictures for my VDay Pechakucha presentation [last February 12],” Bing told me, “I realized how I’ve grown with the movement. With its many challenges came many beautiful memories. The challenges were not simple. Many were heartbreaking. A few times I felt like I wanted to quit but every time, there was always one person who would come up to me and ask me about VDay. I would realize that we have come very far on the world we want to create through VDay. Even when unsupportive people continue to come, our VDay volunteers come in multiple numbers. I used to approach friends to ask them to help me in our V-events. Today, both friends and strangers come to me and ask if they can help. More and more men and women come out as vagina warriors!”

And yes, much has yet to be done. Last year, after staging Usaping Puki, an up-and-coming baker in town joined our celebration by giving the cast vagina-shaped cupcakes. When pictures of these cupcakes hit social media—instigated by the Hulagway ug Kasikas sa Dumaguete Facebook page—the comments that came from the locals were vehement in their hatred of the whole day. Which made us think that, twelve years onwards, the battle has yet to be won. There are still many others in the community we have to reach out to.

This year, in honor of the many men who have been part of the VDay campaign in Dumaguete, we are unveiling a new play, The V Manologues. This one, directed by Hope Tinambacan, gathers together monologues by Eve Ensler, as well as a slew of other pieces where men talk about being men in a patriarchal society, where men talk about their lives with women, and where men confront issues that talk about violence against women and children.

Because, in the light of many continuing atrocities, they need to be talked about. And not just by women. Men, too, are part of the solution. That has always been the magic of VDay.

Mr. Tinambacan, who has directed The Vagina Monologues before, and is now directing the new play, reflects: “With the old play, I had to keep reminding myself that I have no vagina, therefore I couldn’t judge the characters of their feelings and emotions based on my experience as a man because the violence they experienced were basically gender-based. To be able to direct Usaping Puki I had to allow myself to feel vulnerable and to empathize with the brokenness of each of the characters, and I knew that in the end it has made me a real person who would continue to stand firmly beside all women and girls who are rising and demanding an end to violence. This year, directing The V Manologues started off as a confirmation that I am not the lone guy who is true to this fight against gender-based violence. This production allowed me to immerse myself in the many emotions and experiences of other men and made me reflect on my own stories and experiences with women. The V Manologues is an affirmation that we men and women, together as one, can win this battle. This show will bring you stories of men and their experiences with women, and how we recognize the fact that indeed men are capable of inflicting harm towards women and that we are also instrumental in ending violence and achieving gender equality.”

And all these now for the One Billion Rising challenge, which is currently in its third year. J Marie Maxino writes: “Another difference is our One Billion Rising campaign. We still visited different academic and government institutions, and taught their members to dance for themselves, their loved ones, and their communities. With nearly 30 schools and organizations participating in OBR Negros Oriental, we will still join 207 countries rise for those one billion women who have been or will be abused in their lifetimes. We will still aim to increase the number of V-Warriors and OBR supporters. We will still dance and rise to stop the violence. This year, however, we made the decision to highlight the involvement of men in the advocacy of VDay and OBR. Using the tagline: #MenRising, we hope to encourage men of all ages and from all backgrounds to be more aware and supportive, to step up and speak up to stop violence against women and girls.

“VDay may have come a long way, with so many changes, but something remains the same: violence still exists. Violence still happens to people regardless of their race, age, religion, sexual orientation, and social and economic status. Violence, in all its forms, still poisons the humanity of both the abuser and the abused. Violence, in its many disguises, still threatens to destroy hope…

“But, that is what we have and hold on to: hope. We hope and believe that things will be better and that equality is possible. We hope and believe that there are always people who will keep fighting for those who have yet to find the courage to fight. We hope and believe that our cause will empower more people to become advocates for a better community and a better world.

“VDay embraces its 17th year with the theme ‘Rise for Revolution,’ and, with these changes to the campaign, we aim to inspire current and future Vagina Warriors and VMen to begin the revolution within—in how they see themselves, each other, and the world. This is a revolution to stop neglecting the responsibility to speak out against violence. This is a revolution to strip ourselves of labels and inhibitions, and see ourselves for who we really are—not as men, not as women, but as humans—humans who are capable of incredible change and exceptional love.”

Indeed, the VDay movement has grown bigger.

It is now in its 17th year, with Dumaguete celebrating it for the 13th year in a row. Last year, we rose for justice. This year, we rise for revolution. Every day, we should finally rise for love.



The V Manologues is directed by Earnest Hope Tinambacan, with monologues adapted from the writings of Eve Ensler, Ian Rosales Casocot, Howard Zinn, L.T. Goto, Mark Matousek, Kris Dave Austero, Nicholas D. Kristof, Sarah Kay and Phil Kaye, Robert Thurman, Kelvin Wu, and Rocky Magaña. The cast include Ian Rosales Casocot, Rey Dote, Warlito S. Caturay Jr., Andrew Marc Alvarez, Nikki Cimafranca, Ron Jacob Calumpang, Kris Dave Austero, Tyler Hoisington, Lee Verdoguillo, Hanz Denzil Villahermosa, Shadid Rodriguez Sidri, Lydio Mangao Jr., Ra’zcel Jan Salvarita, Kelvin Wu, Manolito Saldivar, Rocky Magaña, and J Marie Maxino. Ramon del Prado provides a video monologue. The play opens 14 FEBRUARY 2015, Saturday at 8 PM at the Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium. Tickets available at the Silliman University Psychology Department at P175.

Labels: dumaguete, gender, issues, negros, silliman, theater, vday

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Sunday, February 01, 2015

11:46 AM | Your Quick Guide to Arts Month in Dumaguete | February 2015

Labels: art and culture, bellower project, cultural affairs committee, dumaguete, exhibits, film, foundation university, literature, music, painting, silliman, theater

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Sunday, September 21, 2014

1:33 PM | A Musical Theatre of Vegetables

[A shorter version of this article appears in the Philippine Daily Inquirer, here.]



The musicalization of a beloved tale has always been par for the course for theatre—think of the reinvention of fairy tales in Into the Woods, or the seemingly endless parade of old movies redone for Broadway—but Alamat ng Ampalaya, Augie Rivera’s beloved children’s book which won much-acclaim, and many hearts, when it was first published by Adarna House 19 years ago, seems particularly suited for a theatrical adaptation.

The story has a feisty heart, it has a subtle moral (“Eat your vegetables!”) dressed up with much color, and it has, at its center, a complex protagonist who needs redemption—qualities that make the material a double-edged entertainment that plays well for both children and adults.

“I wrote the story in 1995 when I was working as head writer for Batibot,” Mr. Rivera recalls. “While I was singing ‘Bahay Kubo’—I can’t recall for what reason—I realized that the ampalaya was not included in the quintessential song about Philippine vegetables. I did some research and found out that there was also no existing old legend about the ampalaya. So I decided that I will write my own ‘original alamat’ about this often hated vegetable.”



Publicity officer Ian Rosales Casocot, author Augie Rivera, director Dessa Quesada-Palm, lighting designer Loren Rivera, and costume designer Carlo Pagunaling.

What resulted was a well-crafted tale about Ampalaya, a charming but envious resident of Sariwa, who coveted the color, the texture, and the aroma of other fruits and vegetables, and proceeds to steal these very qualities, turning the little community upside-down. Drama, of course, ensues. There’s a trial, too.

And the response from the public for the public has been phenomenal: “Many great things have happened to my life since the publication of my first book,” Mr. Rivera remembers. “Parents and kids would email me their comments about the book. One time a parent came up to me at the mall and said: ‘Dahil sa book mo, kumakain na ng ampalaya ang anak ko!’ And I’d reply: ‘Talaga po? Buti pa siya!’ I was only joking of course, but actually, I only learned how to eat ampalaya in college. I also hated it as a kid! But I am thankful that after 19 years, the book is still in print, and is still being read and enjoyed by a new generation of readers, both children and young parents.” And this may be so because the story Mr. Rivera concocted is so universal it could withstand reimagination. Like musicals.

Meanwhile, in New York, the much-awarded guitarist Michael Dadap—husband of the violinist Yo Cheng Ma and brother-in-law of the celebrated cellist Yo-Yo Ma—was contemplating what musical program to present for an educational organization he was part of, which was celebrating its 25th anniversary in 2000. Mr. Dadap ran into a good friend, who gave him a copy of Mr. Rivera’s children’s book. “I thought it was a very witty and creative story,” he said. “I began thinking of songs that fit the story, and what inspired me to write the melodies and some of the dialogues and song lyrics were the distinctive flavors, tastes, colors, textures, and even the sensitive nature of the vegetables.”

Together with Patty Yusah, who helped Mr. Dadap write the libretto, they hammered out a short musical program that played off the many characteristics of the vegetables in the story. “The more I thought about this idea,” Mr. Dadap said, “the more I became drawn to it. Inasmuch as the story deals with many contemporary issues, I also felt like I was being transported back to the time of my growing up years, when making friends and losing them seemed to be a daily occurrence. The whole project allowed me to rediscover my inner self through the lens of my childhood years.” For Mr. Dadap, that meant rekindling the youthful vigor and energy that he he said were lost in the process of growing up with different struggles and challenges.

“I almost forgot that once upon a time, there was this innocent spirit that wanted to share, to smile, to trust. I was once free-spirited, and quite easy to forgive other’s mistakes, and my own as well. The vegetables reminded me of these,” Mr. Dadap said. “They exist because they have a purpose to serve other than themselves, like healing hunger, curing wounds, and making someone smile by their scent, colors, and natural beauty, which we sometimes take for granted. They are a part of our nature. They are seemingly simple, but are incredibly meaningful. We’ve lost these as we grow up. I guess so do the vegetables: they wither when fully grown. But writing the songs and creating the lyrics reminded me of the friends I grew up with. That made me smile. I hope the musical will make others smile, too.”

The students of Iskwelahang Pilipino staged the first performance of Ampalaya the Musical at Regis College in Boston. The original play was shorter, and the orchestration was set to the school’s rondalla ensemble. By 2006, Dumaguete’s Ating Pamana, a performing group led by Elizabeth Susan Vista-Suarez of Silliman University, also staged a performance while on tour in the U.S. “It was during that performance in New York that I got to hear the score in a different setting. Ampalaya took a new musical life. I realized that it could be developed into a full musical play,” Mr. Dadap said.

The full treatment he dreamed for so long will finally come to play with a production set to open in Dumaguete City on September 19, with shows running until the 22nd,at the famed Claire Isabel McGill Luce Auditorium, which is touted as the Cultural Center of Southern Philippines.



Orkestra Sin Arco director Mathilda Limbaga-Erojo and composer Michael Dadap.



Musical director Elizabeth Susan Vista-Suarez, stage managers Andrew Alvarez and Bethel Abigail Almirol, and director Dessa Quesada-Palm.



Cultural Officer Diomar Abrio. It was his idea to stage Ampalaya at the Luce in an expanded form.



Some of the production crew for Ampalaya with Onna Quizo as Ubodman sa Saging.

For this production, Mr. Dadap added around eleven new songs, and wrote incidental music and a few scenes more scenes to expand the original material he made. From a 40-minute mini-musical, the Ampalaya the Luce will witness “has sprouted taller, and longer,” says the composer. Produced by Silliman’s Cultural Affairs Committee, the new musical will be directed by PETA’s Dessa Quesada-Palm, with musical direction by Ms. Vista-Suarez and set design by Lex Marcos.

But it was also a practical master-class in play production by seasoned theatre veterans with students of Silliman. “As a member of this university theater, I’ve always found it inspiring to have more experienced artists working with our students and young local talents,” Ms. Palm said. “So to see Michael Dadap teaching and conducting our orchestra, musical director Susan Suarez working on the singing of non-music students, choreographer Angelo Sayson weaving his movements with the actors, set designer Lex Marcos instructing local artists on the rendering of the sets, costume designer John Carlo Pagunaling explaining his design and exhibiting his cloth palettes, technical director Barbie Tan-Tiongco showing a detailed ground plan—and more to expect with lighting designer Loren Rivera and animation artist Ramon del Prado—I feel that the artistic collaboration is already nurturing so much of our next generation’s aesthetics, discipline and strive for excellence.”

For Ms. Palm, the greatest challenge she encountered in staging the musical was essentially expand the material, considering that like many children’s stories, the plot was quite simple and necessarily predictable. “We are also exploring the use of three languages for this musical. Let’s see how the audience will take it,” she said.







The play’s message is paramount: “Personally I want people to experience the ugliness of envy and greed, what it can do to people especially if it remains as a blind spot. The other side of that would be to be more cognizant of your own gifts and strengths and to embrace, and nurture that,” Ms. Palm said. “But I also want children to get to know and fall in love with the Filipino vegetables. How many children still know, moreso have eaten, the vegetables mentioned in the folk song ‘Bahay Kubo’?”

Not many, one could guess. And perhaps with some dramatic delight provided by this play, the healthy acquaintance could start. Plus the songs are quite hummable, too.

“I hope it will give people joy and laughter,” Mr. Dadap said. “I am also hoping that it will take them back to a happy journey revisiting their childhood days. Seeing friends through the vegetables, forgiving, hoping and loving. As the last line of the song in this musical says, ‘Lets stay awake to see the morning sun, bringing hope, giving love.’ I hope this message is contagious to all audiences wherever their life’s journey may be.”




Ampalaya the Musical opens on September 19, with shows until September 22. Tickets are available at P200, P300, and P500. All tickets and season passes for Luce Auditorium shows are available for sale at the CAC Office at the College of Performing and Visual Arts Building II, and at the theater lobby before the show begins. For ticket reservations and other inquiries, call (035) 422-4365 or 09173235953.

Photos by Urich Calumpang.

Labels: art and culture, cultural affairs committee, dumaguete, life, music, negros, philippine literature, silliman, theater, writers

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Friday, August 22, 2014

2:21 PM | Broadway Bound

I have no idea what got into my head last summer when, before the start of the current cultural season of Silliman University—we’re now enjoying our 52nd year—I told our Cultural Officer, Prof. Diomar Abrio, about my dream for this year’s Silliman Performs, which is our annual revue featuring the best performing talents in campus.

“I want Broadway,” I think I must have said. “I want the lights, I want the sass, I want the tunes that wash over like no other kind of popular music can—it gets your body moving with drama. And I want to direct the segment on Rent!”

“I like that,” fellow Cultural Affairs Committee member Leo Mamicpic chimed in. “And why don’t we feature songs from musicals that don’t readily get performed in showcases like this?”

Like how it usually happens when we do our “mugna” about things cultural, the dream of a Broadway revue eventually started rolling out into slow fruition, and it fell on Mark Ian Caballes to become the overall director of the show, putting together what pieces to perform, and painstakingly finding, arranging, and transcribing with a group of musicians from the College of Performing and Visual Arts the Broadway tunes we wanted to finally perform. Angelo Sayson choreographs the dance numbers of the show.

And so finally, on August 22 and then 26, we will pay tribute to the music of the stage and film, in time for the 113th Founders Day celebration of Silliman University.

And why Broadway for this show? Our show’s writer, Warlito Caturay Jr., mused over that question as well, and he wrote: “Since the 19th century, Broadway musicals have been an integral part of the American cultural life. Trips to New York would not be complete if one did not see the bright lights of Broadway, or watch and experience stories come alive on stage, or suspend disbelief just to accept for a brief moment that life could happen in between musical numbers. The whole world has embraced Broadway, but a question must be asked: why do we, Filipinos, living in a country geographically removed from Broadway, have also fallen head over heels in love with musicals, be it on stage or films? Silliman Performs Broadway attempts to answer this question.”

The show will feature excerpts from such beloved musicals as The Sound of Music, Porgy and Bess, West Side Story, Jesus Christ Superstar, La Cage Aux Folles, Chicago, The King and I, Showboat, Wicked, Dreamgirls, Rent, The Fantasticks, Les Miserables, and Carousel.

Its performers include both veterans of the Luce stage, as well as newly-discovered talents set to soon make names for themselves, hopefully, in local theatre.

There's Caleb Santos ostensibly counselling (and yet really flirting with) Jessa Cabading about the intricacies of love at a tender age in the courtship song from The Sound of Music. From the same musical, there's Cheryl Lyn Sitoy-Antonio as Maria, essaying its iconic musical education song. There's Katrina Tiongson Saga, now with the Philippine Madrigal Singers, who returns to Dumaguete to sing the gorgeous ballad from Porgy and Bess. There's Dessa Quesada-Palm as West Side Story's Anita, grappling with Melody Enero's about the tumultuous demands of first love that defy social expectation. There's Manolito Saldivar and Maria Elcon Cabasag ruminating about love in the excerpt from The Fantasticks. There's Warlito Caturay Jr. coming to terms with a fabulous identity in La Cage aux Folles. There're the Alphabet City bohemians from 1989 New York -- composed of Earnest Hope Tinambacan, Louise Remata-Villanueva, Onna Rhea Quizo, Jia de la Cruz, Manuel Jarabe Jr., Ian Lester Gue, Yeshhua Quizo, James Milan, Shamah Bulangis, James Alkene Lamuna, Anna Katrina Espino, and yours truly -- singing about the measures of a life in Rent. There's Japheth Babanto and Renna Dedal's duet about highs and lows of friendship in Wicked. There's Glenn Magdura's anguished Jesus contemplating the gathering darkness from Jesus Christ Superstar. There's Elana Joy Bartlett getting to know her charge in The King and I with the Silliman University Dance Trope. There's Nierru Cabilao leading the carnal and jazzy charge in dance with selected students from the Speech and Theatre Department in Chicago. There's Lemoine Poligrates bemoaning love and its consequences in Show Boat. There's Fritz Figueras belting out a song about transformation in Dreamgirls. And then there're Rigel Suarez, Frankie Cardona, Cristiani Rebada, Novie Lyne Flores, Calvin Klein Galbinez, James Alkene Lamuna, Japheth Babanto, and Renna Dedal in their electrifying chorus with the Silliman University Campus Choristers singing of a hopeful tomorrow from Les Miserables.





























I love show tunes. They’re a different breed of musical expression that seems to transcend culture. I love the spectacle of light and sound, and the idea that there is a way for ordinary people to just break into song and dance. Silliman University has had a rich tradition of staging musical plays in campus, and this revue promises to be a distillation of that long line of theatrical productions. And hopefully, maybe one of these segments will translate into a full-blown musical after 2011’s Godspell and 2012’s Into the Woods. Who knows, maybe we can do Jesus Christ Superstar soon? Or perhaps Rent? Such promises, such possibilities…



Silliman Performs Broadway is a special Founders Day presentation of the Cultural Affairs Committee, and no season passes will be honored. Tickets are available at P200, P300, and P500. All tickets and season passes for Luce Auditorium shows are available for sale at the CAC Office at the College of Performing and Visual Arts Building II, and at the theater lobby before the show begins. For ticket reservations and other inquiries, call (035) 422-4365 or 0917-513-3312.

Labels: art and culture, life, music, people, silliman, theater

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Sunday, July 13, 2014

5:14 PM | Exhibiting Badong's Stage Designs

In 2003 and for the first time in the history of the awards, the National Artist Award was given in the field of theater design, and, fittingly, it was presented to Salvador F. Bernal, not because he pioneered theater design in the country, but because he was the first to develop it as a profession and to elevate it to the level of an art form. Born in 1945 to a family that ran a terno shop, Bernal was exposed to the rudiments of fabric, cut, and silhouette early in life. At the Ateneo de Manila (BS 1966), he honed his talent as a poet and philosopher, acquiring the ability to read a text and imagine its theme as a visual conceit. At the Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois (MFA 1972), he studied, practiced, and handled courses in the art and craft of theater design. After his return in 1973, Bernal taught briefly at the Ateneo and the University of the Philippines, but soon plunged headlong and full-time into a life of design, which until then was largely unchartered territory.



In the beginning it was difficult to earn a living from design, since the production budgets of most performing arts companies were often just barely sufficient and sometimes even less than adequate. But with his discipline, resourcefulness, and industry, Bernal’s exceptional talent began to be noticed. After a decade, he was acclaimed as the foremost theater designer of the country and directors were lining up for his services. After four decades of intense work, he had designed more than 250 productions in ballet, opera, theater, and film, mentored two generations of production designers, trained a pool of artisans (seamstresses, carpenters, metal workers, painters, among others), initiated and supervised the building of the country’s first Production Design Center at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), and founded the first and only professional organization of production designers in the Philippines. For all this, Bernal has earned the title “Father of Theater Design in the Philippines.”

ABOUT THE EXHIBIT

The art of theater design remains largely unknown or unappreciated because most people are unaware of what it is, what it requires, and how crucial it is to a theater production. The exhibit aims to introduce and explain this rising art form through some of the most expressive and impressive works of Salvador F. Bernal.

In the four main alcoves of the gallery, seventeen maquettes and fifteen photos illustrate the four major aspects in Bernal’s process of design: under SYMBOL, the selection of the key metaphor that crystallized the director’s interpretation of the dance or theater production; under SOURCES, the range of sources from which Bernal drew his design concepts and styles; under SURFACES, the local and inexpensive materials that Bernal discovered and developed for the stage; under SPACE, Bernal’s successful experimentation with theater space and successful solution to stage limitations.

Opposite these four alcoves are four sections under the title SILHOUETTES, where extant Bernal costumes are displayed. Opposite the alcove on SPACE are the costumes of The Magic Flute, whose budget allowed Bernal’s imagination free rein. Opposite the alcove on SURFACES are the attires from Orosman at Zafira, which used indigenous materials as costume décor. Opposite the alcove on SOURCES are the Asian-inspired ensembles created for Realizing Rama. Opposite the alcove on SYMBOL are the ternos with fish-motif designed for Sa Bunganga ng Pating. Outside the gallery, a timeline traces the patterns of Bernal’s creativity on one wall, while the opposite wall showcases the sketches he himself made for selected productions.



Ang Pagpapatay Kay Luna, Set and Costume Design, 2001, Musical, Nonon Padilla (Director), Tanghalang Pilipino. Photo from the CCP Collection.



Realizing Rama, Set and Costume Design, 1998-2001, Ballet, Denisa Reyes (Choreographer), ASEAN COCI Project. Photo from the Salvador Bernal Collection.



Engkantada, Set and Costume Design, 1992, Ballet, Agnes Locsin (Choreographer), Ballet Philippines. Photo from the CCP Collection.



Scale model of Paglipas ng Dilim, CCP Collection. Photo by Ricardo Cruz.



Scene from the Court of Rajah Humabon. From Lapu-Lapu, Set and Costume Design, 1997, Musical, Behn Cervantes (Director), Dimitri Productions. Photo from the Salvador Bernal Collection.

[Text from the exhibit catalogue]

The exhibit Badong: Salvador Bernal Designs the Stage opens on 18 JULY 2014, Friday at 5 PM. It will run until August 6. The exhibit is brought to Silliman University by the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts, and 2Go.

Labels: art and culture, dumaguete, negros, people, silliman, theater

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