Some theater companies have launched a blitz this Arts Month of February, and we do hope that entertainment-loving Pinoys will swarm the stage production venues when the shows are up.
The Philippine Educational Theaters Association, better known as PETA, may be credited with having pulled off the opening salvo right on Valentine’s night, 14 February. The company premiered to the press, theater patrons, and showbuyers its “comeback” production, Walang Aray, whose first 12 evening shows are topbilled by the well-followed ABS-CBN loveteam of Alexa Ilacad and KD Estrada.
Walang Aray is a rousing musical whose regular run began 17 February and will go all the way to 14 May. The play’s other lead stars are the pairs of Marynor Madamesila-Gio Gahol, and Shaira Opsimar-Jon Abella.
Walang Aray is a reimagination of Severino Reyes’ Walang Sugat, which has been presented at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in at least two seasons in its original form as a sarswela. Its last two stagings in 2012 and 2017 were both directed by Carlitos Siguion Reyna.
Walang Sugat has a love story at its core, but set during the Philippine Revolution in 1898. The iniquitous Spanish friars jail Temyong’s father, eventually causing the old man’s death and that of his wife. The dual tragedy prompts Temyong to join the revolutionary forces, thus disrupting his romance with Julia, a popular sarswela actress in their town.
Rody Vera wrote the script of Walang Aray for the current generation. Thus, despite its 1890s setting, the libretto uses mostly Tagalog, English, Taglish, and a smattering of Spanish. Vera’s script is also peppered with current pop-culture references as well as gayspeak, TikTok dance steps, and the political jargon of the GMA 7 series Maria Clara at Ibarra.
The songs and the music were created by PETA actor Vincent Lim with so much eclecticism in tempo and style. PETA actor Ian Segarra directs the production with choreography by Gahol himself.
ALEXA Ilacad and KD Estrada in ‘Walang Aray.’
Tanghalang Pilipino’s ‘Ang Pag-uusig’
It was also on the 17th of this month that CCP’s Tanghalang Pilipino opened its new run of the play Ang Pag-uusig, with a cast that’s almost totally different from the company’s Filipino adaptation of Arthur Miller’s The Crucible first presented in 2017, with a rerun the following year.
The current staging is directed by Dennis Marasigan who also directed the first two. The new staging just has to be different from the first two which were mounted at the compact Tanghalang Huseng Batute. This time, the show is set up at the CCP’s new Black Box theater some 30 or so meters away from the main CCP building, which is being refurbished and can’t be used for productions for about a year. The performance area of the Black Box doesn’t have the same dimensions and shape as those of THB.
This latest staging also has four senior actors from the cast of the previous mountings: Marco Viana, Jonathan Tadioan, Lhorvie Nuevo, and Antonette Go. The rest are all would-be members of the company of actors after they complete their training as TP scholars.
Ang Pag-uusig, as translated to Filipino by award-winning multimedia writer Jerry Respeto, remains loyal to Miller’s story — about the witch hunt in Salem, Massachusetts, that happened from February 1692 to May 1693.
The Crucible in the 1950s was an allegory of the US government’s massive “red-tagging” known historically as the McCarthy communist witch hunt.
The play dramatizes how the establishment is used as a tool of the powerful few, exerting its power on the many and preventing any sense of community and collectivity from being formed.
Marasigan believes the witch hunt that occurred in Ang Pag-uusig can serve as an allegory not only for the McCarthyist years in the US, but also for the current political and social state of the country.
Ang Pag-uusig has 8 p.m. shows and 3 p.m. runs on Saturdays and Sundays. For tickets, reservations, and show-buying inquiries, email
tanghalangpilipinomarketing@gmail.com, call 09479709618 or 09276035913 or go to www.ticket2me.net.
TANGHALANG Pilipino’s ‘Ang Pag-uusig,’ a Filipino translation of Arthur Miller’s ‘The Crucible.’
Ateneo Blue Repertory’s ‘Zsazsa Zaturnnah’
The last day (17 March) of TP’s Ang Pag-uusig is the opening night of Ateneo Blue Repertory’s Zsazsa Zaturnnah the Musical… ‘Yun Lang! at the Doreen Fernandez Black Box Theater, Areté, Ateneo de Manila University. It will play all the way to 2 April.
Presented by Rizal Library and Areté, ZZTM is a cult classic comedy adapted for the stage by Chris Martinez based on the graphic novel by Carlo Vergara. The adaptation’s music and lyrics are by Vincent A. De Jesus. The musical was first presented in various venues at the CCP during the first decade of the 2000s. It was even adapted into a movie by Regal Films, megged by Joel Lamangan.
The show deals with what it means to be queer in the Philippines. The cast is headed by award-winning performer, singer, actor, entrepreneur, and social media influencer Kim Molina as the the queer superheroine Zsazsa Zaturnah. Phi Palmos, Adrian Lindayag, and Shaun Ocrisma alternate as Ada, the male gay human personality of Zsazsa who is a beauty parlor owner in a small town.
Joshua Cabiladas, Almond Bolante, and Robert Bradley Hao take turns as Didi, the gay best friend of Ada. Juan Carlos Galiano, Jude Matthew Sevilla, and Elian Dominguez alternate as Dodong, Ada’s love interest.
Kakki Teodoro and Anyah de Guzman take turns as Queen Femina Suarestellar Baroux, Zsazsa’s arch enemy from another planet, while Kyla Rivera is Aling Britney. All other cast members are from the Ateneo Blue Repertory.
Philippine Theater Actors Guild president Missy Maramara (of Ateneo) directs ZZTM. For ticket inquiries, please contact Dani Villa (09171394640), or send an email to bluerep.house@gmail.com.
JAKE Cuenca heads the cast of ‘DickTalk.’
Jake Cuenca’s ‘DickTalk’
On 15 April begins the only 10 stagings of DickTalk at the RCBC Theater in Makati. Daring and sexy film-TV actor Jake Cuenca heads the cast of only five that include indie actors Gold Aceron, Mikoy Morales, Archie Alemania, and trans-man Nil Nodalo.
Yes, the five actors, in varying characters and degrees of skin exposure, will talk about the role of their genitalia in their lives and in society. A bunch of media people was treated to a sneak peek (an excerpt) of the production last Wednesday, 22 February, at the pint-sized Dengcar Theater at Mowelfund Plaza, QC.
The production is a series of monologues that begin with the youngest character portrayed by Aceron and climaxes with the sex worker played by Cuenca. At the preview, Aceron pulled down his shorts and sat down on a chair with his back to the audience to commit a very private act. Cuenca took off his shirt and pulled down his pants while facing the audience, but the lights went off in a split second.
Director Phil Noble, a PETA veteran, assured the media audience that the cast will be safe at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater at RCBC Plaza because the audience sits several meters away from the stage.
DickTalk will run only up to 23 April, after which it may find a venue more intimate than the theater at RCBC Plaza. It may even be toured in key cities of the country.
The show is produced by V-Roll Media Ventures and Trifecta Brand Lab. The main producer is Edwin Vinarao, a son of former film director Edgardo “Boy” Vinarao. The script is by Ara Vicencio and Benj Cruz Garcia.
Tickets to the show are now available thru premier.ticketworld.com.ph/, with prices ranging from P2,000 for Balcony, P2,500 for Lodge, P3,050 for Orchestra Side, to P3,650 for Orchestra Center.
Happily, there’s variety in the genres and themes of the plays being presented after two years of lockdowns imposed by the overstaying Covid-19 pandemic. Some of the theater companies mentioned above had no choice in the past two years but to put up their productions online to keep their names alive in the public consciousness and find artistic fulfillment in what they love to do. February of this Year of the Rabbit is the time to produce and re-produce live acts in front of warm bodies (pun not intended).