Contemporary Filipino theater–between book covers

“One fine day, Nanding Josef, the articulate artistic director of Tanghalang Pilipino (TP), resident drama group of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, called up to announce that TP’s 25th anniversary was fast approaching. And would I like to write a book about the organization and its accomplishments?

Hmm. Definitely I was interested. I hadn’t written a book for several years, and was tired of living in genteel penury like some aging character in a Henry James novel.
So initial meetings were set up, an outline was drafted, a budget was prepared, and the go-ahead signal eventually came from the TP chair, Tonyboy Cojuangco, and its board of trustees.
Immersion

For about a year I would go almost daily to the TP offices located behind the CCP and immerse myself in their archives, which were more or less in good order. I pored over the bound volumes, souvenir programs, historical background, notes from the directors and production designers, press releases, preproduction information, photos and illustrations of set designs, and musical scores.”

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The case of the disappearing audience | Exie Abola (The Philippine Star)

Nonie Buencamino with Agnes Sarreal, Tara Cabaero, Rayna Reyes and Hazel Maranan in
Tanghalang Pilipino’s Stageshow at the CCP

Whenever someone tells me that the market for local theater is limited, and then uses this apparent truth to throw up his hands as if to say, well, we’ve done all we can, we can’t do any more, I think of my students. Almost every year I teach the first year introductory literature courses in Ateneo de Manila, and each year I send them to watch a few plays, whatever I like from the offerings of the various Manila-based theater companies.

Ah, my students. A handful are stereotypically coñotic. Many are ignorant of Pinoy pop culture, sometimes alarmingly so. (I still remember the time I asked, “What if Piolo Pascual were to walk through that door this very minute?” A boy sitting in front asked, “Who’s Piolo Pascual?”) They tote the latest gizmos and gadgets as if they were cheap junk jewelry. They spend free hours studying in the coffee shops across the highway, guzzling frappuccinos while poring over their books. When I ask at the start of the school year how many have seen a play recently that they weren’t required to watch, only one or two hands go up in a class of 30. Inevitably it’s a Broadway musical done here or abroad.

So I usually send them to plays that are distinctly Filipino, exploring some aspect of our people’s experience. Many times these plays are in Filipino, a language my students often don’t love. And of course, there’s the reluctance. They’re not excited to learn that they’ll have to trek to an unfamiliar part of the metropolis on a weekend. (Terra incognita includes the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the PETA Theater Center, and even UP–Diliman’s Palma Hall.)”

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