Dick and Digong dare to rock

By JC Nigado

                                                                                  

Herculean is the master task:

To right the wrongs of the past.

Danger lurks rife, the system’s set

To build dynamics and dynasties,

For tradition politics to keep.

At the city hall of narrows

Or by the river of wide meanings

Games play dirty all the while.

Now come Dick and Digong, marching

Life’s changing tide begins.

Obloquies big and bold beware:

Flee or engage, weapons charged

To stem the alert order of fight,

Arranging low and up state --

Shame high and hit the mark!                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

Digong shoots drugs and corruption,

Dick digs into abuses and malpractice

To lay the dust, laying them open;

Boosting morale and people of a rule

That promises justice and fairness.

Quezon, you should be living

At this hour of blame and reckoning.

Behold, your dream city and country!

Clamored of crime and corrupt boats

That Dick and Digong dare to rock.

                                                                                               

Late meditation, 9:05 am, Tuesday, 23 August 2016

Tagurabong City

BURY MARCOS! BURY DUTERTE!

Bury Marcos, Mr. Mayor!

By JC Nigado

Mr. Mayor, you say

You detest crime and corruption,

And yet you honor blind

The Godfather of corruption and crime;

Against the altar of heroes, grave

Travesty and injustice to country and people

He and his cabal have plundered to this very day,

Building houses, roads and bridges 
To build up tombs, wars and debts.

Mr. Mayor, you say

You loathe criminals and liars,

And yet you embrace all

The congenital liar and criminal;

Of the heaps highest order

A decorated record of universal infamy,

From fake, parochial war medals

To the Dead and Disappeared,

Devoured by the dictator’s hand.

Mr. Mayor, you say

You hate addicts and drugs,

And yet you condone fit

The top dog and power addict;

Who menaced an entire nation,

Disgraced for twenty years, and still abject,

With his legacy of institutional corruption,

A system of routine abuse

That has spawned more Marcoses.

Mr. Mayor, I say

I detest, loathe and hate

All what you condemn foul

An open mind calibrates howl;

Self-preferred mayor to the state:

The corrupt, the criminal, the liar

And the addict you summarily dismiss,

Marcos is all these; bury him

And let Outrage bury in nightmare.

Before dawn, Thursday, 11 August 2016

Tagurabong City, Philippines

Where one belongs, Between sense and senseless

By JC Nigado

Where one belongs

Tells the person’s state,

In a nation divided

By the memory of Betrayal.

There are only two types                                        All religions are false

Who root for Marcos:                                               By JC Nigado

Those who don’t know

Or knowing narrow;                                                

And those who advantaged.                                  All religions are false

                                                                                   When one claims true

But there are all kinds                                             And all others untrue

Who rout out Marcos:

Those who know                                                     Truth is fundamental, if

Or knowing wide;                                                    Universal within and cosmic

And those who remember.                                    Without, we save ourselves

All else deeming silence                                       All are of God

Are such midnight flies                                          One is just an example,

Denying  light and wake,                                       A face in time and space

Until they’re dashed!                                              

                                                                                 There’s something true

Why sit and sleep?                                                 In all religions

When our stand defines us                                    Made by man

Better to submit than                                                

Be stubborn and broken,                                        In his image and likeness

Like Solzhenitsyn?                                                  God persists,

                                                                                  Like the Devil

But then again, a warming:          

“We are all criminals

If we remain silent…”

Aptly said Zweig, the Austrian

Amok boy in Brazil.

Where one belongs

Is a thing of choice,

Of a self asunder

Between sense and senseless.

After noon, Tuesday, 9 August 2016

Tagurabong City, Philippines

Adelle Ibarrientos: Actress on any stage

By JC Nigado

IT’S amazing how an actress can effectively translate her performance from a small stage at the studio to the sprawling boards of a huge cinema or coliseum. Where many others fail the transition, Adele at once mounts the stage, any stage, with her usual verve and finality, putting many pretenders to prim.

            Adele is one of the premier actresses of the Philippine Stagers Foundation.

She has essayed various lead roles in several PSF productions such as Dolores in “Chi-Noi,” Saishin in “Pinoy Samurai,” Helen in “Troy Avenue,” Sarin in “Namaste, Ang Makulay na  Buhay ni Gandhi,” thus proving her talent and versatility as a performer.

            She also did excellent supporting roles as Elsie in “Cory ng EDSA,”

Julia in “Joe, A Filipino Rockssical” and Hilaria in “Bonifacio, Isang Sarsuwela,” but none is too small to diminish her lead status.

            In 2014, Adelle was nominated as the year’s Best Actress in a Musical for her moving performance as Sofia in the historical “faction” (fact and fiction),”Filipinas 1941.” She has crossed over, doing films Otso and Esoterika Maynila, both directed by Elwood Perez.

            Adelle always brings a certain depth and maturity to her roles, and her commitment to the pivotal character of Alet in “Katips: Ang mga Bagong Katipunero” is probably unmatched hereabouts, she roundly deserves this year’s nomination and honors.

3.There’s more business like Showbiz

    By JC Nigado

    There’s more business like Showbiz

                That smiles and frowns,

     Like a queen,

     A king, a pimp

     Or a clown.

                Peddling dreams and bodies

    Good, bad and

                Anything in between,         

                In cash or in kind,   

    Like Religion and Politics.

                Tagurabong City, Philippines

2. Spratlys rain

                 By JC Nigado

          The rain starts soft and small

Drop by long drop they fall,

To ease the hard of day

Heavy with idle clouds at bay.

There’s nothing like waiting to work

Or working to wait, like a stork;

Days pass, the food disappears,

With nothing to fill the fears.

Then the steady flow turns sudden,

Falling flood, a Red ocean

Stern, direful, rampaging in the air,

In a world where nothing’s fair.

Who’ll stop the rain raging?

A faithless God pushing Beijing;

Who cries in the midnight rain

Must measure joy with pain.

Thunders roll power high,

As browbeat tears go by

Rocks of steel, vertical wind,

To whip, weaking a little friend.

Rain wakes random sleep

A Giant, a wimp in bed to keep,

Listening, feeling, unthinking

Stream thoughts of islands passing.

Or mountains of virgin memories,

When life was free, like diaries,

And then it grew weary, heavy,

Like an unwelcome rain – dreary, maybe.

For the nonce, deviating Donne

Man is an island, a shark?

The One Judgment has come

And it’s raining mean, after dark.

Rain drops like bombs of cloud,

Heralding dark threats, and loud!

Direct, determined, damned,

On the wretched ground building sand.

But the rain starts soft and small

Drop by fast drop they fall,

To cease the ravings of day,

Heavy with nimble clouds at bay.

Tagurabong City, Philippines

Midnight/Dawn, Friday, 15 July 2016

1.This Tarzan thinks King

      By JC Nigado

            A film review in free verse: The Legend of Tarzan (2016),

directed by David Yates, and starring Alexander Skarsgard and

Margot Robbie (Village Roadshow Pictures/Warner Bros.).

           This Tarzan thinks King

           And walks fast with rightful fury,

Of genius abs, a hunk on feet, 

Where Nature feels first                                                                     

And might thrives high,

According to the gospel of David.

The care of the Congo vast,

Of dear land and Blixen’s natives

That she and Alexander call home.

Jungle mad, gravely savaged,

Slaved by the Belgian Thief

And his industry of greed and death.

Stones may gen forever,                                 

And love may last, but whence?                   

A royalty swings to the divine                  

His treasure beginnings and kin,                           

Brooding farm, forest and friends                                     

King of the wild, Lord of the world.                     

                                                                            

From trees to flying trees                               

They shoot the graphic invaders blank,                        

To their shameless grave and sail.                                                                                                                                        

A Lady on par brave

Margot’s Jane delivers an heir

An Africa image of three continents,

To fit the continuing legend,

Of a continuous creation in film

Far greater than First Great.

Tarzan or John Clayton or Skarsgard

Lord Greystoke fair and true, just and loving

He climbs, and his Mother was an Ape.

Tagurabong City, Philippines

The Philippine Stagers Foundation: A brief history

          By JC Nigado  

THE Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF or PhilStagers) is a trailblazing and critically acclaimed theater company, duly organized and registered under the laws of the Securities and Exchange Commission. It was founded in 2002 by Atty. Vince M. Tañada, writer and director, Jeffrey T. Ambrosio, interior and set designer, and Hans Christian H. Lim,  graphics designer and computer analyst.

            Even at the outset, the PSF saw and felt the need not only to professionalize community/campus-based theater  but  also  to transform Philippine theater  in general, by bringing the stage to as many people as possible, especially the students and the masses nationwide. In less than a decade, the PSF has realized and achieved that objective when its shows went on national tour, growing by leaps and bounds, and breaking theater box-office records everywhere in the country, with (not) a little help from some friends in the Department of Education, private and public schools, public officials and others who believe in the PSF talent and advocacy. And it’s no mean feat to maintain it in an artists’ company of 60 or more.

            Of course, there’s the PSF brand of aggressive and massive marketing and always putting up a real good performance any old time. In a sense, the headmaster Vince Tañada has found a Formula of stage success that has sent all pretenders of so-called People’s Theater falling by the wayside, grasping green with envy.

            Indeed, what the ancient state-sponsored culture arms and other subsidized bodies have failed to do in almost half a century of continuous annual funding and government

(plus private) support, the PSF has succeeded almost all by its lonesome, from its humble beginnings in Balic-balic, Sampaloc, Manila, a place plain and simple and very unlikely, from the view of the standard rule of the culturati and literati emperors at the center.

            Well, the shadow clothing has been shed, in a manner of speaking, and nowadays, the PSF’s hands are full, “keep(ing) off envy’s stinging,/ And find(ing)/ What wind/ Serves to advance the honest mind.” John Donne (1572-1631), England’s metaphysical poet, wrote these lines more than 400 years ago but they still sound fresh and current, ringing loud and clear, in the halls and walls of our technology existence.

            As Don Quixote’s Cervantes would say, “Hunger is the best sauce.”

And cultural workers on welfare, subsisting on a steady diet of dole outs and public alms, sans aim and ambition to be self-sustaining and free, know no hunger, to really get the drift.

            In all, the PSF has mounted stage plays, ranging theater from the classics (“Troy Avenue”) to the biblical (“O’ Moises”) to the historical (“Mactan 1521,” “Filipinas 1941”) to the biographical (“Namaste… Ang Makulay na Buhay ni Gandhi,” ”Bonifacio : Isang Sarswela,”

“Joe :A Filipino Rock’sical”) to the religious (“Enzo… Santo,” “San Vicente, A Zarzuela”) to the topical (“#popepular: Pa’no Kung Pinoy si Kiko?”) and to the radically political “Desaparecidos,” the forerunner of “Katips: Ang mga Bagong Katipunero.”

            Like Robert Frost (1874-1963), the American Naturalist, we will continue to take the road less traveled, to make all the difference. In poetry, in theater, on the streets, in the sky, under the sea, or elsewhere everyone is a legitimate performer of Life, all life as we know it. With more than 500 shows nationwide in a season of nine months, who can argue with such?

            One Wonder of the World said it ages ago: ”All the world’s a stage…”

            And the Philippine Stagers Foundation is here to stay.

            Time to hit the boards, folks!

            (JC NIGADO)

Vince Tañada: Actor, writer, director, producer

VINCE Tañada is a critically acclaimed and multi-awarded playwright,

actor, director and producer. He turns his passion for theater and drama into an instrument to reach out to everyone, especially the marginalized sectors of our society, and rekindle their appreciation of the value of culture and the arts.

            Vince writes all the librettos for the various musicals of the Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF), guided by the principle of utilizing theater as a medium to entertain, educate and inspire its audience. He believes that theater, or generally the arts as the soul of the nation, for that matter, is a necessary tool for nation-building, just like education.

            Vince went to La Salle-Greenhills for elementary and high school (a member of Kundirana) and San Beda College for his undergraduate and law studies. At once, he took and passed the bar, and litigated for a living, so to speak, while putting his artistic career on hold due to familial duties, being the grandson of the Grand Old Man Lorenzo of the lawyerly and political clan from Quezon or Southern Luzon.

            In time, theater beckoned, and in 2009, Vince was cited by the Aliw Awards as Best Director for “Ako si Ninoy, A Filipino Musical,” which also won as the year’s Best Musical. The following year, he got his second Best Director award for the Musical “Enzo… Santo.” In 2011, he bagged the Best Director honors in the Broadway World Awards for his work in “Cory ng EDSA.”

            A lawyer by profession, Vince heads the PSF or the PhilStagers as president and artistic director. The PSF holds the distinction as the most successful theater company in the country today, breaking box-office records for many years now. His leadership has brought recognition to the group as one of the Ten Most Accomplished Youth Organizations in the Philippines (2010), conferred by former President Benigno Simeon Aquino III. Because of his work and contribution to the cultivation of culture and the arts, he was awarded the honor Dangal ng Bansa (also in 2010), by the Komisyon ng Wikang Filipino.

            Recently, Vince was recognized by the City of Manila as one of the Ten Outstanding Manilans of 2015, for his invaluable contribution to the field of culture and the arts, courtesy of former president and incumbent Mayor Joseph Ejercito Estrada.

            The foundation, for its outreach program, helps the poor, the sick, the elderly and the abandoned by sharing goods and services in different depressed areas in the metropolis and the provinces. It also engages in certain activities which benefit the PSF beneficiaries.

            To train and develop talents, the PSF offers the annual free summer workshop and festival, an intensive six-to-seven-week theater school in acting, dancing, singing and holistic personality development for any ages, at its own studio in Balic-balic, Sampaloc, Manila. It also has a scholarship program, with 200 high school and college students currently enrolled in some schools. In fact, the PSF has tie-up arrangements with the National Center for Mental Health, Golden Acres, PGH Pediatric Cancer Ward and others not only to promote its cause but also to realize its advocacies as well. Life is theater made real offstage.

            Vince is an educator, too. For a while, he taught humanities and labor laws at San Beda College-Manila, College of Arts and Sciences. He is currently the Dean of the College of Law of Bestlink Colleges of the Philippines, in Quezon City.

            For a lawyer-artist, Vince walks in some tall stage: he won in 2012 the Don Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature, full-length play category, for his gruesome tragedy, “Ang Bangkay”; was chosen twice in the Best Book and Lyrics category in the Broadway World Awards for “Filipinas 1941“ (2014 ) and “#popepular: Pa’no Kung Pinoy si Kiko?” (2015); and was cited Best New Actor in the Philippine Movie Press Club (PMPC) Star Awards for Movies for the film Otso (2013).

            A single father of two, Vince Tañada is father-in-fact of all the Stagers (as members of the PSF are called) past and present, and it figures every day. The dictum “the show must go on” rules, even as the unique PSF Family culture holds sway.

(JC NIGADO)

                                                        Vince Tañada as Panyong

SYNOPSIS/STATEMENT

Katips: Ang Mga Bagong Katipunero

A rock musical on the evil and horrors of martial law

                  By JC Nigado

KATIPS: Ang mga Bagong Katipunero”  is a musical that charts a subversive tale of love – of one’s self, of another, of country -- and sacrifice amidst the turbulence and massive desolation of an oppressed people under a martial law regime. It uses history to explore a seemingly forgotten, yet unforgettable, landscape, where tragedy looms all around, and the depth of a nation’s feelings.

The plot follows the lives of distinct, albeit kindred, individuals during the dark era of Philippine

history in the 1970s, a reprise of the oppressive Spanish rule that engendered the Philippine revolution of 1896. Hence, KATIPS: Ang mga Bagong Katipunero.

The main charaters are Greg, an editor of a school paper; Lara a Filipino-American balikbayan student; Panyong, an activist writer; and Alet, tagged as the “new Tandang Sora.” They are among the young activists who openly protest against the practices and abuses of the Marcos dictatorship, until fear overwhelms them when three of their comrades are abducted and disappeared. In a cruel turn, Alet’s body is found in the Payatas garbage dump, violently savaged and trashed to the bones.

However, once they regain their bearing they continue to fight, especially Lara, the person least expected to carry on and live the struggle, since she was born and raised in the U.S. With utmost concern and dedication, Lara proves to all and sundry that love of country starts with an honest acceptance of one’s self, and her political awakening radically transforms her into a true patriot, heartily owning her native country and birthright. Against all odds and at great cost, the bloody story unfolds in a relatively bloodless victory of the so-called People Power at EDSA, banishing the puppet dictator into the waiting arms of his imperialist master.

But the fight goes on. The year of living dangerously marches on even in the best of times, as it were. Death and disappearances remain the “unofficial option“ of the powers that be up to this very day. How many had disappeared and were killed during Cory, Fidel, Erap, Gloria and Noynoy’s administrations? And now?...

Katips also depicts the language, fashion and culture in vogue during the 1970s. But more important than the superficial factors, the play dramatizes the people’s passion to effect change in society during that time. This murky period is, wittingly or unwittingly, barely covered in our history books or rarely discussed in the classroom.

But it is a big blunder to ignore the past and disregard its lesson. Thus, Katips aims to entertain and educate young and old audiences using dance, drama and music, the universal language that binds all of us. Marcos and martial law may be gone but their legacy of institutionalized corruption and exploitative system live on.

For a change, Katips is accompanied by a live band onstage, forming part of the set. The costume, props and set design shall approximate to be authentic and relevant to the times, with the usual “theatricals.” It posits to be a social and political act, a cultural event, whose importance and impact cannot be downplayed by any attempts to revise history under any guises -- “of what is past, or passing, or to come,” as Yeats the Nationalist would beat.

Multi-awarded (Aliw, Broadway World, Golden Dove, Dangal ng Bansa and Palanca, among others) Vince Tañada writes, directs and produces the musical play, with Pipo Cifra as musical director. The story and text can be appreciated and understood by all ages (general patronage), with a running time of two hours. Katips runs from July 16, 2016 to March 2017, with more than 500 performances, following the footsteps of last year’s “#popepular: Pa’no kung Pinoy si Kiko?” that packed the record-breaking 535 performances nationwide in one season or nine  months.

 From Bonifacio’s to today’s revolution, the time has come to right the wrongs of the past and demand justice for all. We are the new Katipuneros and the Philippine Stagers Foundation challenges theater to go beyond walls, any walls, by entertaining, educating and inspiring people to act accordingly, as time and space require.

To paraphrase the Bard, the notes of pain and sorrow may be out of tune but worse are the lies of politics and religion.                                                                                                                (JC NIGADO)

Kierwin Larena: Actor, the quintessential leading man

      By JC Nigado

VERY few actors could impression Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson), doing slapstick and contortions, replete with the characteristic silly grin and rolling, bulging eyes, and in a moment, snapping back to a leading man stance. A minute, or two, is all it takes, and voila! Two characters, binary opposites in many ways, are performed at the exhibitionist’s flick of the fingers.

One such actor is senior Stager Kierwin Larena, a comebacking regular taking a leave from his law studies. After several years, Kierwin hits the boards again to play an important role in Vince Tañada’s “Katips: Ang mga Bagong Katipunero.”

Kierwin took a furlough from the PSF a few years ago to finish his degree, BSBA major in operations management, and proceeded to study law in the same school, San Beda College-Manila. However, he returns to roost the PSF stage every now and then, whenever an appropriate role calls for him, such as in “Dilaw at Pula,” during the summer workshop and theater festival in 2014.

Outside the PSF, Kierwin took part in the CCP’s run of Dexter M. Santos’s “Orosman at Zafira.” He crossed over to film and appeared in Bar Boys, directed by Kip Oebanda and featuring Carlo Aquino, Rocco Nacino and Enzo Pineda. He is billed Vance Larena, his screen name, ostensibly to separate his theater identity. (But why is that?)

Kierwin’s PSF credits include his performances as Carter Pryce in “Namaste, Ang Makulay na Buhay ni Grandhi,” Achilles in “Troy Avenue,” Yosef and at the same time alternating for the role of Ninoy Aquino in the multi-awarded “Ako si Ninoy,” Jason in “Cory ng EDSA,” Bimbo in “Joe, A Filipino Rock’sical” and Vincent de Paul in “San Vicente, A Zarzuela.” He was also part of the first three seasons of the PSF’s 4Cs (Four Contemporary One-Act Plays), a side offering during the season.

Kierwin was nominated Best Actor by Aliw Awards, for his performance as San Lorenzo Ruiz in “Enzo… Santo” (2010).

A quintessential leading man, he defines Greg like no other in Katips: his temper is his tempest.

The Voice of Walt Whitman resonates in Kierwin:

There was a child went forth every day;

And the first object he look’d upon, that object he became,

And that object became part of him for the day or a certain part of the day,

Or for many years or stretching cycles of years.

 (JC NIGADO)

                                                 Kierwin Larena as Greg

Pipo Cifra: Musical director

PETER Paul “Pipo” Cifra  graduated with a Bachelor of Music, major in piano and composition from the University of Sto. Tomas Conservatory of Music. He is chief executive officer of the Pipo Cifra Concerts and Events Productions. He is also the current president of the UST Conservatory of Music Alumni Association, Incorporated.

            A composer, teacher, arranger, producer, musical director and business entrepreneur (family publishing), Pipo wears many hats and shoes while singing all the way to the bank, so to say.

Recently, he was awarded by ABS-CBN Channel 2 a gold ring (Loyalty Award) for his 15 years of continued service. Pipo is the musical director of the award-winning and longest-running drama anthology, Maalaala Mo Kaya, for 16 years, and counting. He also scored various programs in ABS, such as Wako-wako, Lovespell, Marina, Kampanerang Kuba, Pangarap na Bituin,Wansapanataym and many others.

With Vince Tañada, Pipo wrote the music for “Ako si Ninoy,” which won the Best Musical Production category in the Aliw Awards in 2009. He also won the Broadway World Awards for Best Musical Director for his work in “#popepular: Pa’no Kung Pinoy si Kiko?” (2015). He composed the music and provided musical direction for a string of PSF musicals: “O’ Moises,” “Cory ng EDSA,” “Enzo… Santo,” “Namaste, ang Makulay na Buhay ni Gandhi,” “Joe, A Filipino Rock’sical,” “Bonifacio: Isang Sarswela” and “Filipinas 1941.”

In 1995, Pipo received an Awit Award for his composition, Nagkataon,Nagkatagpo, which became the Best Movie, TV, Stage Theme Song Recording of the Year for the movie of the same title. He is also a Grand Prix National Winner (junior and senior categories) for his compositions Floodgates and Firebird, respectively. The same compositions became the Philippines’ entry to the Asia-Ocenia Yamaha Electone Festival.

His composition If I have My choice won in the pre-en-banc judging in the

MetroPop Songwriting Contest.

            At present, Pipo works in several capacities as musical director, choral director and arranger for Repertory Philippines, AFP chorale, NFA chorale etc.

            He was musical director and conductor for Pop’era Chorus and Junior Glee Pop Chorus which performed at the CCP, a concert produced by the UST Conservatory of Music billed as 26^th Sampung mga Daliri. He was commissioned twice by the board of the Children’s Museum Library, Incorporated (CMLI) to create original musical arrangements for Nais Ko and Salamat, to be used as contest pieces for Voices and Harmony during its 14^th and 15^th anniversary.

In 2014, Pipo was cited as one of the Distinguished Bedan Awardees by the San Beda College Alumni Association, recognizing his achievements in the field of Arts and Culture, where his work has earned various local and international recognitions. Indeed, his perseverance diligence and humility make him an inspiring model for the youth.

            Such is his faithful embodiment of the Benedictine ideals of prayer, work and peace. Ora et labora, Pipo!

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Philippine Stagers Foundation

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Director’s Note

MABUHAY!

On July 4, 2016 various victims of martial law under the Marcos dictatorship attended the regular rehearsals at our studio to watch the run of “Katips: Ang mga Bagong Katipunero,” a musical on the martial law regime in live rock. The play has intrigued members of the group, Claimants 1081 (the beneficiaries of the class suit filed against the Marcoses that was decided in the U.S., in favor of the martial law victims), after some of them had chanced upon certain postings about the same stage drama in several social media networks.

To the surprise of the Stagers, many of them cried as all of them shared their gruesome and painful experiences during that dark era of Philippine history; thus, giving the performers sufficient source and more inspiration for characterization and story development. Katips grows in many ways.

As for me, after researching and writing the play, I realized some compelling insights that I would like also to share: First, freedom is not a gift that is freely given; it is a prize that should be relentlessly fought for, and if had, should be continuously nurtured.

Second, it is not right to lose trust in the Filipino spirit because I have seen, although not personally but through research, the courage and nationalism of our forefathers that could translate into the possibility of awakening the seeming indifference of the present generation, the so-called “millennials,” if once again pushed to the wall.

Third, I am given the rare opportunity to do what the immediate five presidents of the republic have failed: to educate the youth about the evils and horrors of Marcos’s martial law not through the tedious and costly correction of our textbooks, but by utilizing the arts, a medium which I am at home in. Indeed, freedom provides Life’s wherewithal and is best enjoyed with the attendant responsibility and accountability.

            To quote the loved and beloved Elizabeth Barrett Browning: ”What is genius but the power of expressing a new individuality?”

            This enormous effort is made possible because of the unyielding spirit of the men and women behind the Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF), in taking up my Trojan thoughts and unconventional ways, if only to prove my profound love for theater. I therefore thank all of them and many others whose presence has touched us and whom we have also touched in return.

            My fervent wish is that the love and work ethic which all of us have shared as Family and colleagues would manifest at the sacred stage on which we perform, and would be warmly felt by all of you, our dear audience.

            Enjoy the experience then, even as we embrace a sad reality that turned into a triumph of our people, in disposing a dictator.

            Again, Mabuhay!

Atty. Vincent M. Tañada

President and Artistic Director

Philippine Stagers Foundation

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