It was quite a treat last Wednesday to sit through a dress rehearsal of a play I had written several years ago, and which is being staged for the first time as a local production. Luto, Linis, Laba won the top Palanca prize for a full-act play in Filipino in 2001, I think. Our fellow awardee that year, Remy Grefalda for one-act play in English, asked for a copy and wrote weeks later that she would stage it in the US where she had a community theater group.
Remy was our confrere in the early PETA days under Cecile Guidote Alvarez. You don’t say no to old buddies. Besides, it was intriguing to see how Fil-Am amateur actors would fare in filling up the roles of a gaggle of domestic helpers in the homeland, which is what the play sought to honor.
Remy got funding support from her own octogenarian mother, while friends in the tri-state area of Maryland, Virginia and Washington pitched in with their talents, time and patronage.
I had provided the lyrics for the sung parts that end certain scenes. Remy tapped lawyer-musician-writer Rodney Garcia, who did more than a creditable job in setting the pieces to music. He had already written a musicale, Hacienda, which Remy had also staged and directed.
Rodney and I met about a year later when he visited Manila and I helped arrange to launch his first book, The Right Place & Other Stories, at the then newly-started Mag:net Gallery & Bookstore on Katipunan Avenue, Q.C.
It was during that event, with Ces Drilon and Butch Dalisay as ceremonial ribbon-cutters and an overflow crowd in attendance, when Rock Drilon drew up the notion to expand the place and transform his upper-floor studio into a cafe-bar. It has since turned into one of the most dynamic creative expression venue-centers in the country — particularly for young artists, poets, musicians, filmmakers, and what-have-you.
Now I’m not saying: See what a play can lead to? It’s just that — and our fellow impresario Rock knows this only too well — what goes around comes around, if you build it they will come, synchronicity’s assured by selective affinities, blah-blah-blah and all that.
In any case, back to the future before Barack Obama, Luto, Linis, Laba was staged over several weekends at the Bethesda Center in Baltimore, with Remy taking full credit as producer and director. Unfortunately, no full video posterized the proceedings, although I did receive photos and video clips as well as the music composed by Rodney — who kept returning to Manila, this time with a band and his 18-year-old daughter as vocalist, with the song Luto, Linis, Laba as one of her signature renditions.
It’s a jaunty tune as rendered by Rodney. Last Wednesday, I became witness to another version, this time quite somnolent, stately, just a tad bit sad, as featured in the Banaag theater group’s high school production at Miriam College.
Maria Cecilia Lacap or “Marcee” serves as nearly a one-woman crew, as director and composer while also supervising the scenic and light design. And what she and the Miriam high-school girls have come up with proved thoroughly enjoyable.
The teachers who formed the audience gave full-blown comments that praised the choice of material, the staging, the vitality of the cast, while also pointing out certain elements that could still be enhanced, mostly those having to do with clearer articulation and the possible use of digital projection on the backdrop for the final scenes. Oh, and the lighting was rather simplistic, sans dimmers and colored lights.
But everyone was happy and proud over the production, which evidently had already raised itself beyond amateur levels. This playwright looks forward to the actual performances, which could begin as early as this weekend.
The showdates before the Christmas school break tentatively cover Dec. 4 to 6, with varied playtimes at 3 to 5 p.m., 3:30 to 5:30 p.m., 9 to 11 a.m., 12 noon to 2 p.m., and 2 to 4 p.m. All the girls who took to the stage promised to treat their domestic help to the show, and thus further honor the often “heroic” service rendered in their respective domiciles.
For next month, meaning next year, several playdates have been arranged: January 7 to 10, 12 to 17, 19 to 20, and 24 (9 to 11 a.m. for the “Alumni Show”; 12 noon to 2 p.m. for the gala cast 1; and 2 to 4 p.m. for the gala cast 2), with as many as three performances on some of those days. All told, it will have a run of 25 stagings at the Sinag Tala Room in Miriam College.
Quite a run. The venue may have something to do with it, as it can only hold an audience of some 60 to 80 people at a time. Still and all, it’s rather flattering to be assured that it’s no one-night stand, and that these talented, energetic girls can ensure themselves of an audience turnover of that magnitude.
The alternate casts are composed of the following: Melay Yaranon, Chia Ruby, Nina Gerodias, Isabella Agustin, Joyce Abesamis, Angela Racoma, Miriam Estrada, Celine Cruz, Ericka Oyales, Ana Vargas, Mela Diaz, Danielle Pineda, Mela Diaz, Isay Aurellado, Bianca Rafanan, Samantaha Mercado, Celina Crisanto, Charmaine Valdez, Angela Liwanag, Isabella Agustin, Jaya Orotea, Jaxine Orotea and Jomel Viray.
There are actually only 11 speaking parts, but Banaag doubled the cast, presumably to involve more students in the challenges and delights of theater work.
Banaag or “ray of light” was formed way back in 1979 as Miriam College High School’s official theater group. Having served as a pool of creative energy providing entertainment to the community for nearly 30 years now, it has touched the hearts of fellow students through memorable productions (both classics and originals) such as Antigone, Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio, Rosas, Tau-tauhan, Ligaw, Taming of the Shrew, Silid, Rent, RPS: Ito Ang Laro ng Buhay, and PEDXING: Tatawid Ka Ba?.
Banaag has helped produce successful young women who are now recognized and respected in the pursuit of their own craft. One of these is my former student Missy Maramara, now a colleague in the Ateneo School of Humanities, and who is a member of the improvisatory theater group SPIT headed by Gabe Mercado that regularly performs in Mag:net and other clubs.
Joining Marcee Lacap in the artistic staff for the Luto, Linis, Laba production are costumedesigner Celina Crisanto, stage managers Vanessa Gail Marie, Natividad Jaxine and Flor Orotea. Maria Katrina Isabel Suarez helps Direk Marcee with the sounds design while actor Melay Yaranon doubles as production manager.
Luto, Linis, Laba was published by the University of Santo Tomas Publishing House in 2006. Maybe some copies can be made available at the performance venue. So, consider this a double-barreled plug. For inquiries re tickets and exact playtimes, try Marcee at 0917-8149452, Issa Agustin at 0905-3591868 or Melay Yaranon at 0921-8061166.
Another kind of performance, actually a set of them, also enthralled us on Nov. 20 with the launch of Maxine Syjuco’s first poetry book at Fully Booked on Bonifacio High St. A Secret Life is published and distributed by Art Quest World Wide, Inc., which may be reached at artquestworldwide@gmail.com
Maxine rendered her signature reading before a jampacked venue full of students and camp followers, with her sister Trix also conducting another memorable number that had the crowd agape. Friends Danny Sillada, Bobby Balingit and Yanna Verbo Acosta also did their thing. We’ll find future time soon to discuss the book itself in this space.
Then last Monday, Vim Nadera’s usual motley assembly for the O.M.G. (Open Mic Gig) readings at Mag:net mounted a tribute for Huseng Batute, with master Balagtasero Teo Antonio, performance poet Tata Funilas, and the deliciously witty, techno-narrative, stand-up poet Yol Jamendang among those who held court. Other outstanding readers that night included our dear poet emeritus Jimmy Abad, impresario Joel Toledo, performance poetry pambato Gelo Suarez, G.P. Abrajano, Seige Malvar, and a group called U.P. Speca.
Featured reader was visiting Australian poet Jayne Fenton Keane, who was intro-ed to us by e-mail by the novelist Michael Wilding of Sydney. Jayne or “JFK” turned out to be an exemplary “performer” who transforms poetry well beyond the page. We also had the privilege of interviewing her in our Monday-night TV talk show on Destiny Cable’s GNN Channel 3, where she expounded on “Three-Dimensional Poetry” and served up a sample of a poem chanted to musical accompaniment. She did the same at Mag:net and had us all wowed, especially with the number where she was accompanied on kubing or Jews’ harp by our own visiting poet from San Francisco, Oscar Peñaranda, who also read his scintillating poetry.
Jayne’s bio-note describes her as “a poet, new media artist and composer who takes poetry to different spaces with her poetry-sound fusions, installations and performances.” She has authored three books and won awards in several genres. She also completed a doctorate on embodiment and spatial poetics and became founding director of National Poetry Week in Australia.
You’d do well to check out Jayne’s “flash poetry” at www.poetinresidence.com.