BISAYA ENGLISH: PROSE AND POEMS EVERY DAY

ARIAN GOLONDRINA: The actress sings to life                 

By JC Nigado                                                                                                                                                                                              

EVERY TIME I see or think about Arian I always recall how she covered Gloria Gaynor’s

“I will survive” on videoke, and claimed it for three minutes. Three minutes are all it takes to press a song and groove it to life once more. Covers can be precarious,

they can make or unmake copies, depending on their take of the material. The moment the song turns carbon, the singer is doomed to disappear--perhaps, into the oblivion of the original. But not Arian.

            First time I saw Arian onstage, in a workshop’s immersion piece,

“Sa Bubungan,” I knew an actress was at hand. She was honed to theater, by gut or game, maybe, and she played already well at the onset. She fit the role and roled the character, as it were, like a real addict drugging the scene.

            In the end, Arian was tagged a Stager hands down, no doubt about it. The “doubt” came much later, during the season, when she displayed her own world, a solitude in a crowd that others couldn’t inhabit. That’s when the talk began; and that’s when I noticed her even more.

            Now, Arian’s part of my days in or out of the PSF.

They say she’s not leading-lady material, but for me she leads

everyone in many ways. Onstage she morphs like a chameleon, or a caterpillar transforming into a butterfly – for that effect. And if some people don’t get it, it’s their problem.

            Arian performs not to please people, anyway. In fact, she does best when she keeps things to herself, sharing only her art and soul. 

                                                                After morning afters, Monday, 29 August 2016

                                                                 Tagurabong City, Philippines