Buhing Kalbaryo: My own climb through Calvary

On Good Friday, March 29, the Buhing Pasko Association presents its 16th  production of Buhing Kalbaryo (Live Calvary), an annual reenactment of the Crucifixion of Christ that began in 1997. The presentation takes place at the San Nicolas Parish Grounds at 10:30 a.m. and proceeds all the way up through V. Rama Avenue, until the Guadalupe Church Plaza where the reenactment is to conclude at 3 p.m., right before the Good Friday Mass. It is expected of this Lenten event to once again draw a huge crowd, as always in the past.

Buhing Kalbaryo is an enormous undertaking. The cost of each production is very big; this even if almost all of the people involved – from support staff to actors – are volunteers. It’s a good thing that there are loyal sponsors who commit to shoulder some of the major production requirements. Dakay Construction, for example, has been providing the massive performance platforms (both in San Nicolas and Guadalupe) all the years since the start of the project.

Other sponsors provide anything from bottled water to breads for snacks to, at times, packed meals. Even these seemingly small contributions are significant, considering that each has to provide for about 150 persons every night of rehearsals that run for a month. What happens is, sponsors commit to give only for a certain number of nights; in between sponsorships, the Buhing Pasko Association takes care of everything.

Those familiar with theatrical productions know that the costs I mention here are only the “tip of the iceberg”, so to speak. There are other costs that amount to a hefty sum, as well, when put together: costumes and sets and props and makeup and the technical set etc. And, not to forget, the nightly transportation to fetch everyone to and from the rehearsals.

These are all only as far as the general production burden is concerned. As director of the play, I have a special cross to carry. My struggle is particularly in terms of the human resource component of the production.

All my actors are raw talents.  By “talent” I mean anyone available. They don’t have definite training in the craft of acting, no experience except in the past Buhing Kalbaryo productions. Some have been in the project for a good number of years already and, thus, have become overconfident and over-familiar with the play to such a point that makes them either lax orimperious, or both.  

It’s quite comical – and yet very sad â€“ to witness my actors blurtout dialogue to each other, without a clue of what their lines are trying to say. Many times their movements are unnatural, even weird. It’s difficult to get them to focus; their eyes wander as werun their scenes.

Then they give you excuses, like “It’s only rehearsals anyway; we’ll get it right in the actual performance.” Such crap oftendrives me crazy at rehearsals. But I cannot just go wild at them, or else I won’t have actors the following night.

At times when I insist that they try something else in their interpretation of the roles, there’s resistance. They don’t want to re-learn the play. No matter how much I try to explain that we have to keep experimenting on new approaches to the script at every production, every year, because that’s the way to keepBuhing Kalbaryo fresh and exciting.

There’s a general attitude among the cast to keep everything in exactly the same way it was in the years before. That’s easier and more convenient for them, I understand. But, at the same time, that’s also a sure way for Buhing Kalbaryo to stagnate, and then collapse.

I’ve been asking Buhing Pasko officers to reorganize the group, to intensify recruitment of new members, conduct continuing training. So far, these have not been done. And it’s been three years already since I first articulated my concerns to them.

Even the support staff needs to reorient themselves with theproject. The majority of them seems to be just taking BuhingKalbaryo as a side task, showing no real effort to achieve anything significant with the project. It is, of course, impossiblefor people with main jobs to do to devote their whole days in this volunteer undertaking. Yet perhaps everybody can get their act together so that their little individual contributions will matter more.

There are other problems still. The Cebu City Council has just reportedly dawdled on its financial assistance to the project this year, after years of consistently supporting it. I’m afraid this will have an effect on the morale of the group.

It seems that Buhing Kalbaryo will always have problems to tackle – people, funding, anything. Maybe this is all meant to keep everyone on their toes always. Maybe the difficulties are there to strengthen our commitment even more.

In the end, Buhing Kalbaryo will go on as scheduled. The problems I cite here will not make this current production any less. The play will definitely be as heartrending as in the previous years. I’m even hoping for it to be better this year.

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