Friday, February 27, 2015

‘Filipinas 1941’ goes to Zamboanga

Wednesday, 25 February 2015

‘Filipinas 1941’ goes to Zamboanga
By JC Nigado

THE “warning” is ancient, coming as it does from the early American occupation of the Philippines,
but still it strikes fear in the hearts and minds of some people. And to think it was immortalized in a racist, colonial song: “Don’t you go, don’t you go to far Zamboanga...”
            Recently, a Metro Manila-based photographer was invited by the Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF) to cover its performances in the said premier city in the south; but when he asked permission to go on leave for a week in Zamboanga, his American employer in Quezon City promptly denied his request mainly for “security” reason.
            “Isn’t it too dangerous there?” the clueless foreigner wondered aloud, as though referring to something “fly-by-night” and “destiny manifest.” Small wonder because both the American employer and the Filipino photographer have never been to the place; hence, they’re only informed and influenced by the chilling power of hearsay. What a pity!
            However, the knowing cast and crew of PSF are flying to the same fabled city, on March 1, for several performances of the award winning and hit musical, Filipinas 1941, at the Zamboanga City Coliseum. The scheduled staging in Mindanao is not their first, and it runs until March 5. Then they’ll proceed to its next stop: Bacolod and Iloilo, like a second home on the western road.
            PSF president and artistic director Vincent Tañada continues undaunted with his mission in spreading the word: that Philippine theater is alive and kicking.  Well, at least PSF is, really, and it’s doing very good on its own. Credit it to what film and theater veteran Frank Rivera calls “the Renaissance Man” of the local performing arts. Anybody who disagrees must find someone else who can hold a candle to the talent and work of this marketing genius (in collaboration with marketing director Chris Lim) with “legal” sense. And yes, Virginia, he may be “full of himself” but the more important thing is he cares and shares rather generously – himself and what he has.
            As for the play itself, I’ve watched Filipinas 1941, on several occasions, always on invitation, in several places, and with diverse viewers, to see how each performance impacts a particular audience. From SM North EDSA, Quezon City, to St. Scholastic and Adamson University in Manila to Tanghalang Pasigueño in Pasig City to the huge Centennial Arena in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, each mounting of Filipinas 1941 takes a different form, and sometimes function, to serve certain demographics.  The director and performers improvise, or revise, as the case may be, and as called for by the situation. A show for college students is different from the one that’s for a high school audience; also, the same show is further revised for elementary pupils in attendance.
            Indeed, a PSF play is never the same in any staging. Obviously, Tañada knows his demographics and he recognizes the need to play or to not play to the gallery, as it were.  More than the form, what concerns or worries him is the function of the play, as performed. The page is alive and dynamic on the stage, as it transforms and connects with the audience, especially in relating the present to the past. Most often, it’s a rousing performance every time, with the usual ring of success, a rare mix of artful craft and commerce.
            For the series of shows in far Zamboanga, PSF executive director and resident set designer Jeffrey Ambrosio has decided to redesign the stage setting by utilizing indigenous materials such as bamboos and palm thatches (pawid). Such creative resourcefulness to replace the more convenient, if expensive, fiberglass moldings and painted walls used in Metro Manila and the Bicol and Ilocos shows, since the cost of transporting these materials have become quite prohibitive. Nevertheless, the layered terrain onstage remains, to reflect the levels on which the play operates.
            Some say Filipinas 1941 is not the best musical in the PSF repertoire – that boasts of other award-winning plays such as Cory ng EDSA and Ako si Ninoy, but it is a worthy addition, and testament, to the best repertory theater in the country today. For instance, can you name another theater company in town whose currency includes revisiting any old play on the stage, barely on a day or a week’s notice?
            It’s no mean feat, I know, and not even the 48-year-old PETA or the CCP can pull it through. Talk about being “legitimate”...



JC Nigado
Tagurabong City, Philippines

25 Feb. 2015

No comments:

Post a Comment