i'm interested in catching debbie tan's MGA BABAENG TOO BRIGHT (pahaging niya sa fulbright heheh) at saka yung LAS MENTIRAS DE GLORIA ni layeta bucoy. saka yung ELLAS INOCENTES kasi may slight sapphic angling to the tune of SISTER MY SISTER baga (remember that film? creepy sha, pero sad).
haha biased ako kasi i did an article about them, along with liza magtoto. hihihi. women playwrights baga. di ko pa sure kelan lalabas yun so plug ko na lang dito if ever.
ninakaw ko lang to sa site ni liza. for more!
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Stellar roster of artists in VIRGIN LABFEST 4 at the CCP (June 25- July 6)
The Virgin Labfest 4, the most awaited theater festival in the country today, will be held once again at the Cultural Center of the Philippines from June 25 until July 6, 2008, with a stellar roster of writers, directors and actors headlining the performances of 18 one-act plays and staged readings of six other works. Now on its fourth year, the Virgin Labfest, has earned a solid reputation for its exciting and provocative line-up of "untried, untested, unpublished and unstaged" plays from playwrights both young and old. Complementing these are a workshop for high school students who wish to learn more about the craft of playwriting, a contest for owners of blogs (web logs or online journals), the launching of Ma-Yi Theater Company’s anthology Savage Stage, and a public interview with National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose by journalist Howie Severino.
FEATURED WRITERS
The line-up for Virgin Labfest 4 includes plays by National Artist F. Sionil Jose, award-winning playwrights Layeta Bucoy, Tim Dacanay, George de Jesus III, George Vail Kabristante, Allan Lopez, Job Pagsibigan, Floy Quintos, Debbie Tan, J. Dennis Teodosio and Argel Tuazon, as well as newcomers to the Festival such as Carlo Garcia, Anna Maria Gonzales, Jovi Miroy, Khavn de la Cruz and Malaysian writer Koh Jun Eiow.
DIRECTORS
Returning to direct the plays are Virgin Labfest “veterans” Jose Estrella, Njel de Mesa, George de Jesus III, Ana Valdez Lim, Nick Olanka Cats Racsag, Tuxqs Rutaquio, Roobak Valle, J. Victor Villareal and Toshiisa Yoshida, and festival first-timers Krystal Banzon, Jeff Camanag, Mayen Estañero, Hazel Gutierrez, Chris Millado, Floy Quintos, Paolo O’Hara and Leo Rialp. Rody Vera is the Festival’s Artistic Director.
ACTORS
Among the over one hundred actors participating in the performances and readings are Tommy Abuel, Irma Adlawan Marasigan, Kalila Aguilos, JK Anicoche, Lovely Balili, Ian Bautista, Riki Benedicto, MacDonnel Bolaños, Nonie Buencamino, Shamaine Buencamino, Tara Cabaero, Paolo Cabañero, Nar Cabico, Bong Cabrera, Kathlyn Castillo, Ricci Chan, Chrome Cosio, Dido de la Paz, Abner Delina, Anna Deroca, Bituin Escalante, Gigi Escalante, Mica Froilan, Bart Guingona, Jef-Henson Dy, Tess Jamias, Nanding Josef, Mailes Kanapi, Skyzx Labastilla, Monica Llamas, Russell Legaspi, Lorna Lopez, Clottie Lucero, Nicco Manalo, Missy Maramara, Juliene Mendoza, Wenah Nagales, Jerald Napoles, Madeleine Nicolas, Phil Noble, Peewee O’Hara, Gem Padilla, Joey Paras, Leo Ponseca, Cheryl Ramos, Arnold Reyes. Bembol Roco, Ness Roque, Amihan Ruiz, Tuxqs Rutaquio, Katherine Sabate, Carme Sanchez, Gilleth Sandico, Jonathan Tadioan, Noel Taylo, Joel Torre, Onyl Torres, Lou
Veloso and Randy Villarama.
LINE-UP OF PLAYS
“This year, there will be five sets of one-act trilogies, each dealing with a central topic or unifying theme ranging from comedies to political commentaries to gender issues to ghost stories, and a program consisting of three productions from Virgin Labfest 3.” says Vera. One of these is a program especially geared for children, consisting of plays commissioned by the Philippine Board on Books for Young People, based on published children’s stories. (full schedule below)
OTHER EVENTS
National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose will share his thoughts with Howie Severino in a forum titled “From Page to Stage: The Novelist in Front of the Footlights” on July 5.
Staged readings of six other “virgin” plays will also be presented every night from June 25 to 29. On July 3, there will be a reading of selected excerpts from Ma-Yi Theater Company’s anthology Savage Stage, most of which have been performed by the company.
The Labfest Blogfest offers active bloggers to win prizes. All they have to do is attend the first weekend performances and write a web blog or online journal within 48 hours after watching the program they saw. Winners will be chosen for each set of Labfest plays and receive gift certificates and other merchandise.
In the Virgin Labfest Lab, high-school students who are interested in theater and playwriting will be mentored throughout the festival by writer-director Njel de Mesa, after which the students are expected to write short plays to be presented in a staged reading on the last day of the Festival.
The Virgin Labfest 4 runs from June 25 to July 6 and is presented by the Writers Bloc and Tanghalang Pilipino with the
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Virgin Labfest 4
PLAYS
(Tanghalang Huseng Batute/ CCP Studio Theater)
VIRGIN LABFEST 3 REVISITED
June 25 (W) – 3PM/8PM / July 4 (F) – 8PM / July 5 (Sat) – 3PM
Njel de Mesa‘s Mga Obra ni Maestra
Directed by Njel de Mesa
Featuring Abby Gonzales, Nympha Gonzales and Cashlyn Cuarez
A hilarious and biting play about three young children with superpowers and are heavily conflicted between saving the world or fulfilling the grueling, tedious domestic duties that their parents have ordered them to do.
Layeta Bucoy‘s Ellas Inocentes
Directed by Tuxqs Rutaquio
Featuring Janessa Roque and Lovely Balili
Two sisters, whose innocent conversation and unmalicious observations of a household not quite their own, reveals the violence and inhumanity of the adults around them.
Yoji Sakate‘s Three Sisters
Directed by Jose Estrella
Featuring Mailes Kanapi, Marj Lorico, Cheryl Ramos, Bong Cabrera, Joel Garcia and Lowell Conales
A moving ghost story and a touching memorial to the ravages of war and the significant resonance of war in theater.
KAPAMILYA, KAPUSO, KABISYO
June 26 (TH) – 3PM/8PM / July 5 (SAT) – 8PM / July 6 (SUN) – 3PM
Hase Hiroichi’s Amoy ng Langit
Directed by Toshiisa Yoshida
Featuring Mailes Kanapi, Martha Comia, Ana Deroca,Mica Froilan and Tara Cabaero
Ghosts are known to roam the world of the living because of unfinished business. This small and simple play about suicide, leaving and death happens on the rooftop of a school where no one is allowed to loiter. Yet a spirit manages to reconnect before finally heading “home.”
Layeta Bucoy’s Las Mentiras de Gloria
Directed by Tuxqs Rutaquio
Featuring Bart Guingona and May Bayot
Gloria, whose cancer kills her, appeals to her fraternal twin Utoy, to whom she appears as a bleeding ghost, to maintain the lies that she has been spreading to her faculty colleagues in the university. Utoy is compelled to obey by forced guilt and a macabre 'umbilical' connection. But beneath these secrets and lies are more secrets and lies and it seems the death of Gloria, no matter how sanitized, would only leak their foul stench even more.
Carlo Garcia’s Ang Mga Halimaw
Directed by Paolo O'Hara
Featuring JK Anicoche, Amihan Ruiz, Kristine Balmes, Alvin Obillo, Nar Cabico, Isab Martinez, Mara Marasigan,Philip Evangelista and Oscar Garcia and the Dulaang Sipat Lawin
Small time criminals think big like their bosses. In this car scene, drama effectively unfolds with strange bedfellows for characters and a wonderful poetic wit that speaks the language of the damned. These murderers, who include an Operadang Bakla, a Taxi Drayber and a Lalaking May Pakpak make for one short glimpse of surreo-realism.
KATOTOHANAN, KATARUNGAN, KAPATIRAN
June 27(F) – 3PM/8PM / July 2 (W) – 3PM / July 6 (SUN) – 8PM
F. Sionil Jose’s Dong-Ao
Translated by Rody Vera
Directed by Chris Millado
Featuring Carme Sanchez, Nanding Josef, Tommy Abuel, Bembol Roco, Dido de la Paz, Gigi Escalante and Monica Llamas
Dong-ao is a traditional Ilokano funeral ceremony where relatives and friends pay tribute to the deceased. In this short play, Pepe Samson, the lead character in F. Sionil Jose’s novel Mass is dead. Several characters speak in front of his coffin, before he is laid to rest: Senator Reyes, Pepe’s Aunt Bettina, his college professor-mentor Badong Hortenso, his parish priest friend Father Jess, Colonel White Sidewall, and an old woman Tia Nena who served in the parish where Pepe once stayed. The divergent views uttered by the characters depict a fragmented nation, teetering between complete collapse and newfound hope and direction.
Allan Lopez’s Masaganang Ekonomiya
Directed by J. Victor Villareal
Featuring Katherine Sabate and Abner Delina
Framed by an unfinished game of chess between Vera, a highly decorated military
officer, and Guzman, an esteemed activist, the play unfolds as an interrogation of Gomez, a younger militant. In layered scenes that shift from intense examinations to harrowing scenes of humor, budding fascism, and brutish attacks on human sensibility, ‘Masaganang Ekonomiya’ offers an emasculated contemporary look on the age-old conflict between the establishment and the insurgents, in the context of a globalization- obsessed nation.
Tim Dacanay‘s Pamantasang Hirang
Directed by Hazel Gutierez
Featuring Jonathan Tadioan, Ian Bautista, Nicco Manalo, Ryan Guzman, Nicole Andrew Guila, Russell Legaspi, Alexis Dorola, Jay del Rosario, Jonathan Cabrera and Jacqueline Amper.
At a fraternity initiation in the state university, ambitious Congressman Chok Villanueva, an alumnus interfering with the proceedings, uses everything at his disposal to win back his friend, Dan, an advertising man who went back to the university to revive his literary talents. No institution is sacred, and everything is subverted, as persuasion fails and spirals downward to an orgy of brutality and excess.
PAGBABAGO, PAGHAHANAP, PAGKAKATAON
June 28 (SAT) – 3PM/8PM / July 2 (W) – 8PM / July 3 (TH) – 3PM
George Vail Kabristante’s Ang Kuwento ng Menginga ng New York City na Kamukha ng Bee-Stung Lips ni Julia Roberts
Directed by George de Jesus III
Featuring Ricci Chan, Jojo Riguera, Xeno Alejandro, Jef-Henson Dee and Gem Padilla
Denise fulfills the almost impossible condition given him by Victor, his sole object of obsession. He undergoes a sex change operation hoping that Victor’s promise of love will finally be requited. To Denise’s utter dismay, the condition turns out to be a half-forgotten joke. This melodramatic (and literal) reversal of fortune becomes black hilarity in the hands of George Kabristante. More like his reprise and variation on a theme that he started in last year’s Labfest, My Padir is an OCW.
J. Dennis C. Teodosio’sGumamela
Directed by Roobak Valle
Featuring Phil Noble, Chrome Cosio,, Riki Benedicto and Russell Legaspi
"Gumamela" is more than just about hibiscus rosa sinensis or its botanical characteristics and pharmacological effects. It tells the bitter-sweet- campy story of man who contemplates
what's there in 40 missed calls, in 40 minutes of waiting, and in 40 years of loneliness, love, and
life, between serious bouts of suicide attempts and the desire to eat a sumptuous slice of chocolate cake.
Rogelio Braga’s Ang Bayot, Ang Meranao,at ang Habal Habal sa isang Nakababagot na Paghihintay sa Kanto ng
Lanao del Norte
Directed by Nick Olanka
Featuring Joey Paras and Arnold Reyes
An unusual rendezvous of two beautiful and sharp-tongue outspoken creatures living at the margins of our society. Take a peak on their engagement as they courageously travel— devoid of any inhibitions, political correctness, and social graces—that rough and ‘older than history’ roads of discrimination, hypocrisy, bigotry, social divides, corruption and unspoken violence to arrive in a decent friendship. The play is a bitter yet funky peppered with a Radio Active Sago Project kick-ass take on the cruelties of our society that condones discrimination which is definitely not so cool.
PAGKAGAHAMAN, PANLILINLANG, PANANAMPALATAYA
June 29 (SUN) – 3PM/9PM / July 3 (TH) – 8PM / July 4 (F) – 3PM
Floy Quintos’ Ang Kalungkutan ng mga Reyna
Directed by Floy Quintos
Featuring Shamaine Buencamino, Tuxqs Rutaquio, Nar Cabico, Jonathan Tadioan, Riki Benedicto and Jerald Napoles
Megalomania is witnessed by Marcel, a hairdresser who accedes to the leader of the land’s Yolanda Cadiz. The empty, vacuous preoccupation with hair and beauty is after all, the most important ingredient to governance. The elegance of decadence and its inevitable slide into self-destruction introduces one of this year’s Labfest’s most endearing/terrifyin g characters.
Debbie Ann Tan’s Mga Babaeng Too Bright
Directed by Ana Valdez-Lim
Featuring Peewee O'Hara, Mailes Kanapi, Kathlyn Castillo, Charissa Litton and Wenah Nagales
To settle who among the two is stronger in a woman, Harmony and Discord was given a scenario where their counterparts Ms. Ferra and Georgia Oh influence the lives of Porcelaine and Virni. Porcelaine is an egoistic woman who got a Toobright Scholarship. Virni is a manipulator, but when she met Porcelaine, they somehow agreed on what constitutes art. The interplay of the women and the "Goddesses" results in a battle where no one is the winner and the loser. The
politics of women are hard to define, they can betray each other and they can come together. In this world of faux art, what is real and what is unreal?
Koh Jun Eiow’s Ang Dalawa Niyang Libing
Translated by Terrence Co
Directed by Leo Rialp
Featuring Noel Taylo, Billy Parjan, Tina de Guzman,Sherwin Sozon, Mc Do Bolanos, Alexis Dorola, Jeffrey Ramos, Jorge Walter Ladera, Paul Domine, Cara Mercado and Ailen Mojica
This play is based on a true story that happened inMalaysia. An old Malaysian Chinese businessman diesleaving his wife and son the beginning of theirtroubles. In the middle of funeral, following thetraditional Chinese ceremony, two Muslims come toclaim the body of their brother Muslim insisting thatthe dead man should be buried in proper Muslimcemetery. They have proof that the deceased Lin Shunfuhas converted to Islam. His official I.D. bears thename of a Muslim. Thus begins the travails of a familycaught in between two faiths and a government unableto address the problem that has turned into a nationalissue.
MGA PREMYADONG KUWENTONG PAMBATA
July 5 (S) – 10AM/3PM / July 6 (SUN) – 10AM/3PM
(Bulwagang Amado Hernandez)
Njel de Mesa’s adaptation of Terangati by Victoria Anonuevo
Directed by Njel de Mesa
Featuring Bong Cabrera, Nar Cabico and the Koine Theater Foundation
This is a retelling of the Manobo version of the sky maiden who marries a mortal lad. Terengati, the protagonist whose name means bird hunter, does exactly that – he hunts birds for a living. Like other folktales, this story is rich in fantasy and has a touch of romance. Terengati’s search for his wife is as an adventure that may be hard to believe but its resolution is realistic and is drawn from actual family experience.
Argel Tuazon’s adaptation of Bru-ha-ha-ha- ha-ha, Bru-hi-hi-hi- hi-hi by Ma. Corazon Remigio
Directed by Mayen Estañero
Featuring Eric Sindol, Kat Castillo, Nicco Manalo and Bea Sara Angoba,
Maggie is terrified whenever she sees Mrs. Magalit, an old woman who lives by herself. She laughs like a witch and surely acts like a witch. Her face is wrinkled and looks oh so frightening. And the way she laughs, sends chills down Maggie's spine. But is Maggie just imagining things, or is Mrs. Magalit a real terrible witch?
Job Pagsibigan’s adaptation of Uuwi na ang Nanay Kong si Darna by Edgar Samar
Directed by Catherine Racsag
Featuring Tess Jamias, Paolo Cabañero, Ian Lomongo, Vanessa Liwanag and MarkGil Bacea.
STAGED READINGS
(Bulwagang Amado Hernandez)
June 26 (Th) – 6: 30 P.M.
Jovi Miroy’s Billboard
Directed by Chris Millado
Lovers and loveseekers come together in La Luz Beach resort, unwittingly giving dramatic rendition to Plato's Symposium and his discourses on love.
June 27 (F) - 6:30 P.M.
George de Jesus III Kung Paano Maghiwalay
Directed by George de Jesus III
The myriad variations of breaking up is presented here like a symphony divided into rippling movements; a tribute to the loss of love and the painful confrontations to truth.
June 28 (S) – 6: 30 P.M.
Khavn de la Cruz’s Newtopia
Directed by Khavn de la Cruz
It is 2084. A couple, Bernard and Julia, struggle to fight for freedom, privacy, love and even Unhappiness against this pseudo-perfect society controlled by Mr. Big Boy in Khavn' de la Cruz's anti-rock opera.
June 29 (Sun) – 6:30 P.M.
Anna Gonzales’ Ama Namin
Directed by Krystal Banzon
Daniel and Joseph reverses the classic Odysseus tale into a battle of wits and guts, revealing the horrible face of corruption in the course of this compressed drama between father and son.
J. Dennis Teodosio’s Asunto
Directed by Dennis Marasigan
Brando and George, a rather odd couple, confront a two-faced swindler and learn a thing or two about truth and justice in the
Ogie Braga’s Ang Mga Mananahi
The soft-spoken, otherwise silent weavers of uniforms for the Moro rebels produce not only clothes for their warriors but subtle ideologies for freedom and dignity.
July 3 (Th) – 6:30 P.M.
Excerpts from Savage Stage
Directed by Ralph Peña
Featuring Nonie Buencamino, Shamaine Buencamino, Red Concepcion, JD De Guzman, JJ Ignacio, Irma Adlawan Marasigan, Joel Torre
Selected excerpts from four plays, three of which are included in Ma-Yi Theater Company’s anthology, Savage Stage, edited by Joi Barrios Leblanc: Project Balanggiga by Sung Rno and Ralph Peña, peregriNasyon by Chris Millado and Middle Finger by Han Ong. The fourth play takes scenes from Ma-Yi’s upcoming production of Ralph Peña’s new play
Tickets to the Virgin Labfest are at P200 for main exhibition sets, P100 for the symposium and "Pay What You Can" for play readings.
For more details, please contact Tanghalang Pilipino at 832-3661, or the CCP Box Office at 832-3704.
For details on how to apply for a slot in The Labfest Lab, call Nikki Torres at 8321125 loc. 1607 or 832-2314 or email drama_ccp@yahoo.com.
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