Fil-Am theater critic wins George Jean Nathan Award

The George Jean Nathan Award, named after the preeminent American drama critic of the early 20th century, is the most prestigious award for theater criticism in the United States. Past winners have included the greatest practitioners of the craft: Stanley Kauffman, Walter Kerr, Robert Brustein, John Lahr, Hilton Als, Harold Clurman, Elizabeth Hardwick, Eric Bentley, Ben Brantley, Michael Feingold, Charles Isherwood...

Now, Fil-Am critic, playwright, visual artist and senior editor of American Theater Magazine Randy Gener is joining that distinguished company. From Ralph Pena's blog:

“The heads of the English departments of Cornell, Princeton, and Yale Universities have chosen Randy Gener, Senior Editor of American Theatre magazine, to receive the annual George Jean Nathan Award for Dramatic Criticism. The honor is reserved for 'the American who has written the best piece of drama criticism during the theatrical year (July 1 to June 30), whether it is an article, an essay, treatise or book.'

“The Awards Committee citation for Gener reads, 'He has used that venue [America Theatre Magazine] and others to draw our attention to largely ignored voices and visions on the international theatrical scene, to the work of Filipino-American playwright Jessica Hagedorn, to a small but lively Tennessee Williams Festival in Provincetown, and to the future of theatrical criticism itself in essays that wed critical intelligence with a beat reporter's love of the telling and unruly fact.'

“The citation continues, 'In one piece, Gener argues that, at its best, criticism is ‘a cultural asset, one of the bases on which democracy and community are built.' He fulfills that lofty goal by implicitly reminding us of how much that is excellent in theater here and abroad is ignored by a critical fraternity which, during this age of globalization, seems more parochial than ever.'


“In addition to being the Senior Editor of American Theatre, [Mr. Gener] is a writer, critic, editor, playwright, and visual artist based in New York City. He is the author of the plays Love Seats for Virginia Woolf and What Remains of a Rembrandt Torn into Four Pieces, among other plays, as well as scholarly essays, articles and reviews in The Village Voice, The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Star Ledger, Time Out New York, and other publications.

“The Nathan Award is considered the highest accolade in the U.S. for dramatic criticism. When George Jean Nathan provided for it in his will, he explained that it was his 'object and desire to encourage and assist in developing the art of drama criticism and the stimulation of intelligent playgoing.'

“The prize for the Nathan Award consists of the annual net income of half of Mr. Nathan's estate. The annual award now amounts to $10,000, making it the richest as well as one of the most distinguished in the American theater. In addition, the winner receives a trophy symbolic of the award. Ellis Hanson, Chair of the Cornell English Department, will present the award to Gener at a March 9 celebration at the Kalayaan Hall (Freedom Hall) of the Philippine Center near Rockefeller Center in New York City.” [More details here.]

Bravo, Mr. Gener! And congratulations!

PLUS: Reading Randy--Mr. Gener's “Picks for the Best of the 1997-98 Theatrical Season in New York,” including a rave for the Ma-Yi Theater Company's production of Nick Joaquin's A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, here.

[Photo 2: From Orthocomics, Randy Gener featured in Instinct Magazine]

Some kind of wonderful

People watch a partial solar eclipse in Manila Bay, Philippines. (Time Magazine spells it “Phillipines.” Et tu, Time?)

[Photo: Gil Nartea/AFP/Getty/Time-Today in Pictures]

They have nothing on our old Sexmoan, in Pampanga

“In the scale of embarrassing place names, Crapstone ranks pretty high. But Britain is full of them. Some are mostly amusing, like Ugley, Essex; East Breast, in western Scotland; North Piddle, in Worcestershire; and Spanker Lane, in Derbyshire.

“Others evoke images that may conflict with residents’ efforts to appear dignified when, for example, applying for jobs.

“These include Crotch Crescent, Oxford; Titty Ho, Northamptonshire; Wetwang, East Yorkshire; Slutshole Lane, Norfolk; and Thong, Kent. And, in a country that delights in lavatory humor, particularly if the word “bottom” is involved, there is Pratts Bottom, in Kent, doubly cursed because “prat” is slang for buffoon.

“As for Penistone, a thriving South Yorkshire town, just stop that sophomoric snickering.

“'It’s pronounced ‘PENNIS-tun,’' Fiona Moran, manager of the Old Vicarage Hotel in Penistone, said over the telephone, rather sharply. When forced to spell her address for outsiders, she uses misdirection, separating the tricky section into two blameless parts: 'p-e-n'--pause--'i-s-t-o-n-e.'”

-- “No Snickering: That Road Sign Means Something Else”

The town of Sexmoan in Pampanga, by the way, has changed its name to Sasmuan.

PLUS: Graffiti I saw along Heritage Street in Penang, Malaysia, right across the house where Dr. Sun Yat Sen lived. I don't think it means what we think it does--or does it? Calling Eve Ensler!

Sarsuwela Festival this February in UP

In line with the University of the Philippines' centennial festivities, the Office of the Chancellor of UP Diliman, through the College of Arts and Letters and the Office for Initiatives in Culture and the Arts (OICA), is organizing the Sarsuwela Festival in February 2009.

The Festival aims to create more awareness of the sarsuwela as a theatrical tradition and allow audiences to witness sarsuwela productions, view exhibitions, watch films, attend the conference and participate in other festival activities.

Sarsuwela Festival 2009 is a multi-faceted project that will feature a conference, exhibit, lecture-series, research, film showing, performances, educational opening parades and other special activities, all to promote understanding and a deeper sense of appreciation of the sarsuwela. It also hopes to generate heightened enthusiasm and commitment among theater practitioners, scholars, students and the general public for sarsuwela and other Philippine performance traditions.

Opening parade. The opening parade, featuring scenes from sarsuwela productions that will be presented during the festival, will be on February 4, 2009, 2 p.m. at the UP Academic Oval.

Sarsuwela performances. Four groups have been selected to mount four classic sarsuwela productions ("Paglipas ng Dilim," "Walang Sugat," "Sa Bunganga ng Pating" and "Ang Kiri"). Performances are on Feb. 4-6; 11-13; 18-20 and 25-27 at the UP Theater, 6 p.m. Ilonggo sarsuwela performances on Feb. 23 and 24 will be at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater. Tickets (P75 each) are available at the Sarsuwela Office, UP-CAL Dean's Office (9287508).

Film showing. It is significant to note that the early films made in the Philippines were sarsuwelas, including "Dalagang Bukid" in 1919, which starred Atang de la Rama and was produced and directed by Jose Nepomuceno, the father of Philippine Cinema.

This activity hopes to illustrate how the plots, characters and theme of early films were patterned after and/or reminiscent of sarsuwela forms. Screenings are scheduled on Feb 18, 19, 25 and 26, 2009 at the UP Film Institute. Tickets (P50 each) are available at the Sarsuwela Office, UP CAL Dean's Office (9287508).

Exhibition. The exhibition entitled "Ang Mundo ng Sarsuwela" seeks to replicate the sarsuwela culture at the turn of the 20th century, allowing the viewer to situate him- or herself in the social milieu of the time through sound, image and performance. The exhibit, at the UP Vargas Museum, will open on February 11 and will run until April 5, 2009.

For more details on the festival, call (02) 928-7508, 981-8500 local 2105, 0917-9633490; e-mail sarsuwelafestival2009@gmail.com, or visit the Sarsuwela Office: 2F CAL Dean's Office, Bulwagang Rizal, College of Arts and Letters, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. Visit www.sarsuwela2009.multiply.com

'Eleven a.m. is the hour for optimists'

“At eleven in the morning, the day is young but not too young. It is on its feet; its coltish wobbles and blinks are outgrown. This is the hour, if ever, for getting down to business. In my own work rhythms, it is when, breakfast absorbed, the mail answered, all procrastinatory maneuvers executed, I am at last covering blank paper with words that matter, at least to me and perhaps to others eventually. If one is a tourist, it is the hour when everything is open; the fresco, the pyramid, the museum, the cathedral, the expensive shops are delightfully receptive to investigation. The first time I came to England, it was on a British liner. How surprising and welcome were the bells to elevenses--hot bouillon and soda crackers served on the tipping deck, high sun gleaming on the polished brass and spray-wet rails! Eleven a.m. is the hour for optimists, when much remains to be done, yet a healthy bite has been taken from the day.”

-- John Updike's response to the London Observer's request that “it would be lovely if you could choose an hour of day and write about it in some way.” God, could the man write. Mr. Updike once described his art as giving “the mundane its beautiful due.” Or, as Michiko Kakutani rephrased it, an act of “memorializing the everyday mysteries of love and faith and domesticity with extraordinary nuance and precision.”

PLUS: George Saunders--“A John Updike is a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, if that generation is lucky: so comfortable in so many genres, the same lively, generous intelligence suffusing all he did. I never had the pleasure of meeting him, but, as I expect is the case with many readers, I internalized him, and am a better person for the urbane, hopeful, articulate voice he put in my head.”

More tributes and memories here, by Julian Barnes, T. Coraghessan Boyle and John Cheever, among others.

[Photo: Robert Spencer/The New York Times]

John Updike, 76

“John Updike, the kaleidoscopically gifted writer whose quartet of Rabbit Angstrom novels highlighted so vast and protean a body of fiction, verse, essays and criticism as to earn him comparisons with Henry James and Edmund Wilson among American men of letters, died today at a hospice outside Boston. He was 76 and lived in Beverly Farms, Mass...

“From his earliest short stories, set in the fictional town of Olinger, Pa., which he once described as “a square mile of middle-class homes physically distinguished by a bend in the central avenue that compels some side streets to deviate from the grid,” Mr. Updike sought the clash of extremes in everyday dramas of marriage, sex and divorce. The only wealth he bestowed on his subjects lay in the richness of his descriptive language, the detailed fineness of which won him comparisons with painters like Vermeer and Andrew Wyeth.

“'I would write ads for deodorants or labels for catsup bottle, if I had to,' he told The Paris Review in 1967. 'The miracle of turning inklings into thoughts and thoughts into words and words into metal and print and ink never palls for me.'”

-- “John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Ordinary, Is Dead at 76”

PLUS: Updike on death, in a poem called Perfection Wasted--

And another regrettable thing about death
is the ceasing of your own brand of magic,
which took a whole life to develop and market --
the quips, the witticisms, the slant
adjusted to a few, those loved ones nearest
the lip of the stage, their soft faces blanched
in the footlight glow, their laughter close to tears,
their tears confused with their diamond earrings,
their warm pooled breath in and out with your heartbeat,
their response and your performance twinned.
The jokes over the phone. The memories
packed in the rapid-access file. The whole act.
Who will do it again? That's it: no one;
imitators and descendants aren't the same.

[Photo: Caleb Jones/AP]

Portrait of a dramatic highlight in Nick Joaquin's A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino

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By now, with the play getting a do-over every so often and several generations of film and stage actresses having taken a crack at the indelible roles of Candida and Paula in Nick Joaquin's A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, to talk about the scene that closes Act 1 would no longer qualify as a spoiler.

It's a masterfully written moment that strips the two impoverished sisters bare and exposes them to both pity and scorn, terror and tenderness, as much as it leaves the audience discomfited at having to deal with unrestrained, shattering hysteria onstage--and over a matter that any modern observer would shrug off as laughably quaint and trivial. The play's setting, one must know, is 1941 Intramuros--the old Manila, a world ground to dust in the ensuing war and all but unknown to today's Filipinos.

For actresses playing Candida, in particular, the challenge is acute: how to segue, within a beat or so, from hilarity to heartbreak, from squeals of laughter to teacup-rattling sobs of sorrow, as the lights dim and the shadows gather around the fraying Marasigan house. (Celeste Legaspi's roof-busting musical version is here, courtesy of Larawan co-producer Girlie Rodis.)


Portrait's great breakdown scene is jolting the boards once again in Rep's ongoing production of the play, with Irma Adlawan and Anna Abad Santos taking turns applying their considerable dramatic chops to the part of Candida in meltdown, along with Liesl Batucan as a stalwart Paula. (The first reviews are in--here.)


Decades ago, these parts were pioneered by a trio of formidable women--Daisy Hontiveros-Avellana as Candida and Dolly Benavides as Paula, with Naty Crame-Rogers eventually taking over the younger part. The tandem of Ms. Avellana and Ms. Rogers would perform the play hundreds of times, and then bring the parts to the screen in the 1966 film version likewise directed by Ms. Avellana's husband Lamberto.

From an appreciation piece I wrote for the Inquirer on the occasion of Ms. Avellana's 90th birthday in January 2007: “In a documentary that accompanied Avellana’s conferment of National Artist honors in 1999, Bienvenido Lumbera, now a fellow National Artist (for Literature), recalled watching this play as a young man. For him, ‘Daisy Avellana’s Candida in ‘Portrait’ was the highest moment of Philippine theater. She was Philippine theater at a time when there was hardly any Philippine theater.’”

That pinnacle moment is long gone. Fortunately, we have the film--still extant, preserving flickering images of Ms. Avellana and Ms. Rogers in perhaps the greatest roles of their careers. Here is the play's pivotal moment performed for and recorded on celluloid, the black & white cinematography somehow lending an extra tinge of pathos and grace to the tragic scene. This is the first time, incidentally, that this excerpt from the classic film will appear online.

(The clip is from the 1999 CCP documentary on Ms. Avellana's life and art. In an interesting case of prefigurement, the breakdown scene was re-created for the documentary by Olga Natividad as Paula and... Irma Adlawan as Candida.)



PLUS: A historic moment--85-year-old Naty Crame-Rogers joins the cast of Rep's Portrait at curtain call. [Gracias, Lorna, for the video below and the first photo.]



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Pasinaya 2009 kicks off CCP’s 40th-anniversary celebration

On Feb. 1, the Cultural Center of the Philippines will become the most creative place on earth when more than 2,000 artists, led by the CCP resident companies, perform at least 70 short previews of upcoming shows included in the 2009 performance season.

Dubbed as the biggest one-day performing arts festival, “Pasinaya 2009: CCP Open House Festival” is the opening salvo of CCP’s 40th-anniversary celebration as well as its contribution to the celebration of National Arts Month in February, or the Philippine International Arts Festival.

“Pasinaya 2009” will be held in all the venues of the CCP. Activities and events will be held indoors and outdoors, and will include Harbour Square and Star Theater for the first time.

The public is invited to pay what they can and see all they can in one day. Various activities will be held in different “zones” all over the CCP.

CCP resident companies will regale audiences with snippets of their performance seasons in the Resident Company zone. Featured are Ballet Philippines, Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Dance Company, National Music Competitions for Young Artists, Philippine Ballet Theater, Philippine Madrigal Singers, Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Ramon Obusan Folkloric Group, Tanghalang Pilipino and the University of Santo Tomas Symphony Orchestra.

Other such zones are the Music Zone, Dance Zone, Theater Zone, Film Zone, Literary Zone, Visual Arts Zone, a culinary zone and the Children’s Zone. Pasinaya 2009 will offer workshops, information booths, exhibits, Cinemalaya film screenings, puppet shows, storytelling, performance poetry, a culinary fair and cooking demos, and an arts and collectibles market.

The CCP “Pasinaya” is a yearly event of the CCP to increase awareness of the CCP performance season and programs. This year’s event is expected to once again draw crowds to the CCP as it offers audiences a day of fun and excellent entertainment through the popular pay-what-you-can, see-all-you-can scheme.

“Pasinaya 2009” is the first event in the year-long celebration of the CCP’s 40th anniversary. Contact the CCP Performing Arts Department at 8321125 loc. 1602-1607.

Teaser: Mont Saint-Michel

This is Mont Saint-Michel, a medieval fortress-abbey built on a rocky islet off the coast of Normandy, France. [Click on pictures to enlarge.] And this--the video below--is the breathtaking view of the surrounding flatlands in wintry low tide, taken from a terrace near the top of the abbey. The tiny tube-like objects you see way down below? Those are cars and tour buses. Mont Saint-Michel is four-and-a-half hours away by bus from Paris, or nine hours of travel back and forth. But with a reward as heart-stopping as this sight, who but the most philistine would care to fret?



[Photo 2: CitiesXL.com]

To boldly split the verb is no trangression

“Language pedants hew to an oral tradition of shibboleths that have no basis in logic or style, that have been defied by great writers for centuries, and that have been disavowed by every thoughtful usage manual. Nonetheless, they refuse to go away, perpetuated by the Gotcha! Gang and meekly obeyed by insecure writers.

“Among these fetishes is the prohibition against 'split verbs,' in which an adverb comes between an infinitive marker like 'to,' or an auxiliary like 'will,' and the main verb of the sentence. According to this superstition, Captain Kirk made a grammatical error when he declared that the five-year mission of the starship Enterprise was 'to boldly go where no man has gone before'; it should have been 'to go boldly.' Likewise, Dolly Parton should not have declared that 'I will always love you' but 'I always will love you' or 'I will love you always.'

“Any speaker who has not been brainwashed by the split-verb myth can sense that these corrections go against the rhythm and logic of English phrasing. The myth originated centuries ago in a thick-witted analogy to Latin, in which it is impossible to split an infinitive because it consists of a single word, like dicere, 'to say.' But in English, infinitives like 'to go' and future-tense forms like 'will go' are two words, not one, and there is not the slightest reason to interdict adverbs from the position between them.”

-- “Oaf of office,” or how US Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts flubbed the presidential swearing-in of Barack Obama, requiring a retake the day after

PLUS: Itzhak Perlman, Yo-Yo Ma, Gabriella Montero and Anthony McGill played to taped music. Easy with your snorts now, they had a good excuse...

Ateneo's Dulaang Sibol presents From Shylock to Serapio

Theater has been a big part of many Ateneans’ way of life. And as Ateneo nears its 150th year, its Sesquicentennial, the University aims to celebrate its rich and colorful theater tradition with more heartwarming plays.

As a segment of the Ateneo de Manila High School’s participation in the Sesquicentennial celebration, Dulaang Sibol presents “From Shylock to Serapio in Sibol.”

The production showcases the high school’s journey from borrowed English plays to original plays; from the trial scene in William Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice,” the first major Ateneo High School production in 1957, to Paul Dumol’s “Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio,”the first major winner in the AHS’ second Paligsahang Pandulaan in 1968.

The trial scene from “The Merchant of Venice” stars Romar Chuca (2M) as Shylock, Paeng Valenzuela (4A) as Antonio, and Gabi Perez (4K) as Portia. These performers are currently Ateneo de Manila High School students and members of Dulaang Sibol.

“Ang Paglilitis Ni Mang Serapio” stars Jet Pacapac stars as Serapio; Justin Aquino is the Unang Tagapagtanong. Pacapac and Aquino are Dulaang Sibol alumni who are now in college.

The show will have a last performance today, 6:30 p.m., at the Tanghalang Pagsanghan in the Ateneo High School campus, Loyola Heights. Tickets are at Php150 each.

“From the beginning of the Ateneo’s institution, the classical Spanish drama and religious plays and pageants were cultivated with marked success. No year passed without one or two major productions,” wrote Fr. Repetti, SJ on Ateneo’s rich tradition in dramatics.

From the first Ateneo-produced play on record--“El Punal del Godo (The Dagger of the Goth)”--during the commencement exercises of 1874, up to the plays now being produced by the Ateneo Children’s Theater (ACT) of the Grade School, Dulaang Sibol of the High School, and Tanghalang Ateneo, Entablado, and Blue Repertory of the Loyola Schools, students have been prolific in putting out plays that entertain, delight, educate and inspire.

Tanghalang Pilipino brings back Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, Ze Muzikal

Tanghalang Pilipino closes its 22nd Theater Season with the restaging of the phenomenal hit "Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, Ze Muzikal." This production features the original cast members as well as talented newcomers and a bigger chorus.

Eula Valdes reprises her role as the red-haired warrior Zsa Zsa. Alternating in the role of Didi, her flamboyant assistant, are Joey Paras and Nar Cabico. Zsa Zsa's alter ego Ada will be played alternately by Tuxqs Rutaquio and Vince de Jesus.

Playing the role of Dodong are Arnold Reyes, Lauren Novero and newcomer Red Anderson. Kalila Aguilos alternates with newcomer Meliza Reyes-Uy as Queen Femina, Zsa Zsa's nemesis. The will be played by Mayen Estañero, Wilma Doesnt, Skyzx Labastilla, Via Antonio, Ring Antonio and Irene Delarmente.

To accommodate a bigger audience, "Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah, Ze Muzikal" will be staged this time at the CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater) for a limited run of two weekends in February. Zaturnnah fans and those who missed the previous productions may catch the Zaturnnah experience on the following play dates: February 6, 7, 8, 13, 14 and 15 (8 p.m.) and February 7, 8, 14 and 15 (3 p.m.).

For ticket reservations, call 8323661 or 8919999.

PLUS: Pics from Ada's baul.

Whitney in flames

Fellow devotee Rabbi calls it “self-immolation.”

“In many ways, Whitney Houston's July 2008 concert in Kazakhstan was a kind of self-immolation. A shivering Whitney, swaddled in fur and clad in a dress that looked like a shattered mirror ball, ambled around an enormous outdoor stage. The performance was shocking.”

Shocking and heartbreaking and quite unbearable to watch. Here: Wince with me.

Newsstand has a new address

From here, it's now here.

Inquirer editorialist/columnist John Nery, a colleague and good friend from way back, runs Newsstand. It's a must stop for anyone who enjoys well-thought-out, elegantly written socio-political punditry. Inquirer readers must concur with me, because in 2008, four pieces by John landed in the paper's Top 15 most-read op-ed columns online (second only to Conrado de Quiros, who had seven): “Pacman's English”(July 1, 2008), “How NOT to read Lozada's testimony” (February 12, 2008), “Manny Pacquiao's lesson in legitimacy” (March 18, 2008) and “Why Neri refuses to talk” (February 19, 2008).

This is a good time as any to recall how long John and I have been media colleagues--and to thank him for the mentorship. I joined a newspaper for the first time in late 1999 straight from my previous job as an HR manager. I knew I could string together words decently and edit a bad piece into shape, but as to how newspapers were run, I had only the vaguest of ideas. Obviously, my experience running school publications didn't count. I was the youngest editor in a mix of newbies and newsroom veterans, among them John. They had no idea what to do with me, so they first put me in charge of sections thought to be nearer my ken--Youth and IT (I was 29).

My first project for the Youth page was a rip-off of the Inquirer's Youngblood. I wanted to get away from the celebrity-driven youth pages then in vogue (what, until now?) so I invited ordinary young readers to write about the things that defined their world--at that time, that included Starbucks, Dawson's Creek, the endless Erap scandals and a new phenomenon called texting. I had a flood of contributions, many of them surprisingly insightful, well-written. John got what I was trying to do and was very encouraging of my work.

It gives me great pleasure now to realize that some of the bylines that appeared in my section have become published authors, with a Palanca or some such literary award to their name--Norman Wilwayco, Karl De Mesa, Zosimo Quibilan. One is a well-known blogger, Ederic Eder; another a blogger-editor, Karla Maquiling. The most famous, perhaps, is hit author Bob Ong, who was then practicing an early form of blogging with his humor commentary site Bobong Pinoy. I asked him to contribute to the section, he obliged a few times, and we became friends--no small thing for me, because the guy zealously guarded his real identity (Bob Ong's a pseudonym) and was something of a recluse. Even today, when he has become a byword with his blockbuster book series, I've stuck to my promise not to divulge his name to anyone.

John and I and a few other editors would be fired from the paper in about four months' time. Our crime: not being pro-Erap enough. Since the paper, we had ascertained too late, had been bought by a crony of the president, we had to go. Yes, even me, with my innocuous, non-political corner of the paper. The axing happened on Rizal Day, two days before the new millennium. By the New Year I was jobless--the first time I was unemployed in my life, and after I had turned my back on my nine-year career in HR. To put it mildly, it was a nerve-wracking time.

We had an equally short stint in another paper, now defunct, before John joined Summit Publishing, with me in tow, to launch a new magazine called Entrepreneur Philippines--a franchise of a long-running US title. He was editor in chief, I was his managing editor. Among other instructive experiences, it was through the magazine that I learned the incredible stories behind such successful businesses as Penshoppe and Jollibee, the French Baker and Lapid's Chicharon (don't sneeze, it's worth millions). And, before I left the magazine, I had a chance to interview, with the rest of the staff, John Gokongwei himself--a man so strikingly simple in demeanor despite his billions.

John was ahead of me in joining the Inquirer. He became part of the central desk, writing editorials, guiding reporters and improving their copy. It was he who alerted me to a vacancy in the Lifestyle section, and that's how I ended up applying for--and getting--the job. That was more than five years ago. Playing catch-up as usual, I then followed him aboard the next wave: blogging. The old Newsstand was already a well-read site among political observers, regularly referenced by Manolo Quezon and others in the local commentariat, before my own blog saw the light of day.

All this is to say that he has been, by his writing, his way of thinking, his professional example, the best kind of teacher. (His Journalism students in UP should feel so lucky.) Someone whose feedback I value a lot and seek whenever I can, especially when it comes to the merits (or lack thereof) of my output as a writer-blogger. But you don't have to know John Nery personally to appreciate his fine, perspicacious writing. Just go to Newsstand and have your fill.

Reruns: Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street at CCP, Atang in UP

Tanghalang Pilipino's “Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street”, adapted by Rody Vera from the novel by Benjamin Pimentel, directed by Chris Millado. January 23-February 1, 2009, at the CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute. For tickets, call Paolo 8323661 or 0920-9535381.

“One of the most significant plays of the year... Directed with élan by Chris Millado, [it] exploited the novel’s comic and dramatic possibilities, while maintaining Brechtian 'objectivity' and Garcia-Marquez 'magic realism' when the scenes threatened to become too emotional. Ensemble acting was superb.” -- Amadis Ma. Guerrero, Philippine Daily Inquirer

“Many of the scenes hit close to home, particularly those that depict the loneliness and homesickness that the beteranos feel while living abroad. As the cast members had their curtain call, some viewers and even members of the cast could not help but shed tears...” -- Jocelyn Dimaculangan, Philippine Entertainment Portal


Dulaang UP's “Atang: Dulang May Musika,” written by Floy Quintos, directed by Alexander Cortez. January 28-February 8, 2009 at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theatre, 2nd Floor Palma Hall, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City. For inquiries, call Luz De Luna 0922-8206224, 0917-6206224 or contact Dulaang UP office 9261349, 4337840, 9818500 local 2449, or e-mail http://www.upd.edu.ph/~dup.

“The play was marvelously executed. From the production design, to the costumes, to the lighting, the acting and singing, the music, the well-written lines and dialogues, the direction. Every detail contributed and was successful in building up the magnificent end result.” -- Shirley Pizarro, Manila Bulletin

“Expertly directed by Alexander Cortez, this play certainly deserves wider viewership as it gives today’s young viewers a better perspective on local entertainment history” -- People’s Journal

Pambansang Balagtasan National Finals, UP Diliman

Witness the “Pambansang Balagtasan” National Finals of high school students on February 9, 2009, 1 p.m., at the U.P. Theater.

“Balagtasan” is a form of debate in poetic form which began and prospered in the 1920s. This contest aims to promote and remind us of the role of culture and the arts in society, in line with the goals of UP as an educational institution.

The finalists are from San Pedro High School Hagonoy, Bulacan (Northern Luzon), Nabuslot National High School Pinamalyan, Oriental Mindoro (Southern Luzon), UP High School Iloilo (Visayas), and Molave Vocational Technical School, Zamboanga del Sur (Mindanao).

Each team is composed of two “mambabalagtas,” one “lakandiwa” and a coach. They will compete and perform for 20-30 minutes based on these topics:

1. Nakatutulong ba ang mga call center at iba pang outsourcing sa bansa?
2. Dapat dagdagan ng isa pang taon ang hayskul.
3. Lumalala ang sitwasyong pangkapayapaan sa bansa.
4. Dapat bang magkaroon ng uniporme sa eskuwelahan o wala?

The criteria for judging revolve around the Piece (60 percent) and Delivery (40 percent). The National Champion will receive P20,000 and a Tropeong Angara.

A major output of this event is the publication of the Balagtasan pieces of the contest to be used as reference for teachers, trainers, students, scholars and for future-related events.

This event is organized by UP Sentro ng Wikang Filipino through Sen. Edgardo Angara, together with UP Diliman, UP College of Arts and Letters, Department of Education and National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Singing for their place at the table

From the welter of reports on the ongoing Inaugural festivities in Washington, a tiny detail mentioned by Salon's Joan Walsh that warms my heart: Among the performers at the We Are One concert at the Lincoln Memorial was the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus [UPDATE: the Gay Men's Chorus of Washington DC, not the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus. Thank you, Mr. Gerry Umali.], singing My Country Tis of Thee, on the very same spot “where Marian Anderson sang it almost 70 years ago (after the Daughters of the American Revolution kept her out of Constitution Hall because she was black).”

Think: Would a gay men's chorus ever be allowed to sing in a Republican inaugural?

Reading this bit made me dig out my copy of a 1991 San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus CD album called How Fair This Place and savor it again.

“The singing began in November 1978,” said the liner notes, “when a small band of men gathered in an impromptu moment on the steps of San Francisco's City Hall and sang beautifully to ease the shock, grief and pain felt by the city--especially the Gay and Lesbian community--at the senseless assassinations of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. [Digression: You have to watch the Sean Penn film.] Not long after, a formal concert was presented; thus was born the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus.”

Now they're in Washington, claiming their own legitimate place at the banquet table in this special, epochal moment for America--and perhaps the world. Thrilling.

Here--selections from their CD: Ennio Morricone's sublime On Earth As It Is in Heaven from The Mission soundtrack, plus medleys of songs from Miss Saigon, Chess and Jekyll & Hyde. Enjoy--and if you're a brothah/sistah, take pride.

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A book-loving president? How refreshing!

“Much has been made of Mr. Obama’s eloquence--his ability to use words in his speeches to persuade and uplift and inspire. But his appreciation of the magic of language and his ardent love of reading have not only endowed him with a rare ability to communicate his ideas to millions of Americans while contextualizing complex ideas about race and religion, they have also shaped his sense of who he is and his apprehension of the world.

“Mr. Obama’s first book, 'Dreams From My Father' (which surely stands as the most evocative, lyrical and candid autobiography written by a future president), suggests that throughout his life he has turned to books as a way of acquiring insights and information from others--as a means of breaking out of the bubble of self-hood and, more recently, the bubble of power and fame. He recalls that he read James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Langston Hughes, Richard Wright and W. E. B. Du Bois when he was an adolescent in an effort to come to terms with his racial identity and that later, during an ascetic phase in college, he immersed himself in the works of thinkers like Nietzsche and St. Augustine in a spiritual-intellectual search to figure out what he truly believed...

“What’s more, Mr. Obama’s love of fiction and poetry--Shakespeare’s plays, Herman Melville’s 'Moby-Dick' and Marilynne Robinson‘s 'Gilead' are mentioned on his Facebook page, along with the Bible, Lincoln’s collected writings and Emerson’s 'Self Reliance'--has not only given him a heightened awareness of language. It has also imbued him with a tragic sense of history and a sense of the ambiguities of the human condition quite unlike the Manichean view of the world so often invoked by Mr. Bush.”

-- “From Books, New President Found Voice”

Other books mentioned in the Michiko Kakutani piece as having been read by Mr. Obama:

Taylor Branch's Parting the Waters
Doris Kearns Goodwin's Team of Rivals
Steve Coll's Ghost Wars
Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon
Doris Lessing’s Golden Notebook
Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man
Fareed Zakaria’s The Post-American World
Reinhold Niebuhr’s writings
Elizabeth Alexander and Derek Walcott's poetry

Best of Theater 2008, by the Philippine Star's Exie Abola

It's out at last (here), but with a sad caveat: “This is the first and last of my yearend theater roundups. I began the year wondering if watching plays and writing about them was something I could pursue along with my full-time academic and erratic creative-writing careers. One year later, I realize that I can’t pursue this without institutional support, something I am finding difficult to obtain. So my short, happy life as a wannabe theater critic ends here.” Say it isn't so, Exie.

His honor roll:

OUTSTANDING PLAY: Tanghalang Pilipino’s Golden Child (by David Henry Hwang, dir. Loy Arcenas) was a wonderful production where everything went right: an excellent script, astute direction and staging, and a rousing ensemble performance. Other notables: Atang (Dulaang UP; by Floy Quintos, dir. Alexander Cortez); Kudeta! (Tanghalang Pilipino; by Mustapha Matura, trans. George de Jesus III, dir. Floy Quintos); Master Class (Philippine Opera Company; by Terence McNally, dir. Michael Williams); Batang Rizal (PETA, by Christine Bellen, dir. Dudz Teraña); ? Two by Ionesco (Tanghalang Ateneo; by Eugene Ionesco, adapted and directed by Ricardo Abad and Baby Jay Crisostomo); Slipped Disc: A Study of the Upright Walk (Goethe-Institut Manila; by Ingrid Lausund, trans. Henning Bochert, dir. Lito Casaje).

OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A PLAY (FEMALE): In Master Class, Cherie Gil played legendary opera diva Maria Callas with the supreme confidence of someone who knows no one has ever been better than her. Last year, no one was. Three came close, though: Irma Adlawan-Marasigan as the intransigent first wife in Golden Child; Shamaine Centenera-Buencamino as the old Atang in Atang; and Mailes Kanapi as the wandering soul in Marisol, a project of the Philippine–American Education Foundation and UP–Diliman. Other notables: Kanapi again, in Slipped Disc; Wenah Nagales (The Lover [one act], Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company); Tina Chilip (Golden Child); Ayen Munji-Laurel (Atang).

OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A PLAY (MALE): The first major production of the year, Tuesdays with Morrie by Repertory Philippines, gave us the performance of the year: José Mari Avellana rendered the terminally ill professor’s increasing physical decrepitude with dignity, humor, and gentle humanity. Mario O’Hara’s turn as the brash dictator in Kudeta! was a close second. Other notables: Richard Cunanan (Slipped Disc); Nonie Buencamino (Otelo: Ang Moro ng Venecia, Tanghalang Ateneo); Joe Gruta, Dido dela Paz, Lou Veloso (Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street, Tanghalang Pilipino); Art Acuña (Golden Child); Jonathan Tadioan (Antigone [one act]; Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company).

OUTSTANDING FEATURED PERFORMANCE IN A PLAY (FEMALE): Cris Villonco’s haunting Ophelia was the emotional heart of Repertory Philippines’s modernized Hamlet. Other notables: Bituin Escalante (Atang).

OUTSTANDING FEATURED PERFORMANCE IN A PLAY (MALE): Bong Cabrera’s naive but well-meaning jail guard played perfectly against O’Hara’s deposed dictator in Kudeta!. Other notables: Nicco Manalo (Marisol); Nor Domingo and Raffy Tejada (Tosca, PETA); Wylie Casero (Batang Rizal).

OUTSTANDING MUSICAL: Dulaang UP’s Orosman at Zafira (by Francisco Baltazar, adapted by Anril Tiatco, dir. Dexter Santos, music by Carol Bello) demonstrated what good may come from the fusion of old and new in words, costume, dance, and music. A visceral and thrilling meditation on love and war, by a first-time director no less, this thoroughly original work is my pick for overall production of the year. Other notables: Altar Boyz (Repertory Philippines); Bat Boy (BlueRepertory).

OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL (FEMALE): The year’s best musical featured the year’s best performance: Cris Villonco gleamed in her turn as the delicate but ferocious warrior-princess Zafira. Other notables: Joanna Ampil (West Side Story, Stages); May Bayot (Skin-Deep, PETA); Naomi Emmerson (Piaf: Love Conquers All, MusicArtes), Laura Cabochan (Bat Boy); Nica Reynoso (Summer of ’42, BlueRepertory).

OUTSTANDING LEAD PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL (MALE): This is a category in which I can’t point to any one performer who stood out from the rest, so here are those I found remarkable: Red Concepcion (Altar Boyz); Onyl Torres (Isang Panaginip na Fili, Dulaang UP); Robert Seña (Skin-Deep); Jett Pangan (EJ: Ang Pinagdaanang Buhay nina Evelio Javier at Edgar Jopson, Tanghalang Pilipino); Marvin Ong (Bat Boy).

OUTSTANDING FEATURED PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL (FEMALE): Only one person appears in this category, but it was for a fabulous performance. Rowena Vilar stole West Side Story from her fellows, making her Anita the character we cared about most. She was the show’s foremost triple-threat: singer, dancer, actor. Here’s hoping the Australia-based Pinay keeps coming back.

OUTSTANDING FEATURED PERFORMANCE IN A MUSICAL (MALE): It was a nonsinging role, but Ricky Ibe’s smoldering Boulasem in Orosman at Zafira was exactly the seriously nasty villain the story needed. Other notables: Roeder Camañag (Ibong Adarna, Gantimpala Theater Foundation); Jake Macapagal (West Side Story); Bodjie Pascua (The Magic Flute, Philippine Opera Company); Reb Atadero (Summer of ’42).

OUTSTANDING PRODUCTION FOR CHILDREN: PETA’s Batang Rizal spoke to both children and grownups and kept both marvelously entertained. Other notables: Ibong Adarna (dir. Roobak Valle); Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang (PETA; adapted by Christine Bellen, dir. Phil Noble).

OTHER ACHIEVEMENTS IN STAGE DIRECTION: Two full-blown opera productions came onstage last year, both directed by Floy Quintos. For the CCP and UST Conservatory of Music, Quintos tarted up Strauss’s Die Fledermaus deliciously. The opera goes by in a bubbly and naughty blur, and you leave the theater giddy. For the Philippine Opera Company, he moved Puccini’s La Boheme to contemporary Manila and gave the love story set among struggling artists a new poignance.

ACHIEVEMENTS IN TRANSLATION AND ADAPTATION: For Orosman at Zafira, Anril Tiatco turned the sprawling text of Balagtas into the base for a compellingly modern music drama. The bewildering nonsense of Ionesco’s Bald Soprano became, in the hands of Ricardo Abad and Baby Jay Crisostomo (Tanghalang Ateneo), a heady brew of hilarious, euphonious blather that mocked Pinoy middle-class pretensions. Jerry Respeto brought Alberto Florentino’s now-quaint English adaptation of Nick Joaquin’s May Day Eve (Tanghalang Ateneo) into a familiar Filipino without losing any of its stateliness. Rogelio Sicat and Luna Sicat-Cleto’s Filipino translation of Shakespeare’s Othello (Tanghalang Ateneo) made the Bard’s poetry contemporary and accessible without sacrificing its poetry and power.

The complete article, with notes on a few missed shows, here. “The year is over, and so are the shows,” says Exie. “The rest is gratitude.”

Don't be gone too long, man.

Goodbye and good riddance

“He leaves the White House as one of the least popular and most divisive presidents in American history. At home, his approval rating has been stuck in the 20s for months; abroad, George Bush has presided over the most catastrophic collapse in America’s reputation since the second world war. The American economy is in deep recession, brought on by a crisis that forced Mr Bush to preside over huge and unpopular bail-outs.

“America is embroiled in two wars, one of which Mr Bush launched against the tide of world opinion. The Bush family name, once among the most illustrious in American political life, is now so tainted that Jeb, George’s younger brother, recently decided not to run for the Senate from Florida. A Bush relative describes family gatherings as 'funeral wakes'... The three most notable characteristics of the Bush presidency: partisanship, politicisation and incompetence.”

-- “The frat boy ships out” [Ouch.]

[Photo: Paul J. Richards/AFP-Getty]

More and more we’re luring French divers into RP waters

Philippine Daily Inquirer, 01.19.2009

DOT aims its marketing firepower at a growing, and high-spending, sector

AMID IMPERILED ECONOMIES all over the world, with travel and leisure among the biggest industries to be hit by the downturn, some Philippine tourism experts--practitioners as well as policy hands--are pinning their hopes on a sector that might yet prove to be recession-proof: divers.

“It’s an upscale market, certainly not for the backpacker type,” said Yvette Lee, director for marketing and media affairs of Expedition Fleet, a company that operates a mix of resorts and diving boats aimed mostly at foreign, usually European, divers.

Expedition’s typical “Liveaboard” package of seven nights on a specially outfitted diving boat and three nights on shore in a first-class resort costs around 1900 Euros. A rather steep price, but “it’s a top-tier package that brings you to some of the best diving sites in the Philippines, and even 100 Euros can go a long way here,” explained Lee. “That amount is inclusive of meals and accommodations already, so it’s a pretty good package.”

Proof that the market for diving in Philippine waters remains on the upswing is that, even if the summer season hasn’t started yet, Lee said her company’s trips to the Tubbataha Reef are almost fully booked for the year.

“The Philippines as a diving destination is relatively low-cost, so it will remain attractive,” echoed Tommy Soderstrom, a Swedish national who owns a diving resort, El Galleon, with its own diving school, in Puerto Galera, Mindoro.

Soderstrom, who has lived in the country for 21 years and is married to a Filipina, said the Philippines offers great bang-for-the-buck value for divers--a considerable factor even for high-spending but pragmatic travelers.

“In Puerto Galera alone, there are 25 to 30 diving sites within 15 minutes of each other, so it’s very convenient,” he pointed out.

Exhibit
Lee and Soderstrom were among the Philippine-based tour operators who joined the Department of Tourism’s (DOT) participation in France’s premiere diving exhibit Salon de la Plongée, held a week ago at the Parc des Expositions-Porte de Versailles in Paris.

The other private-sector participants included Abyss Scuba Divers, Atlantis Dive Resorts, Atmosphere Resorts, Marco Vincent Dive Resort, Sea Explorers Philippines, Sampaguita Resort and Cathay Pacific.


They were in Paris with DOT to try to capture a significant chunk of France’s diving market. The French are among the world’s most enthusiastic divers. Around 400,000 are registered practitioners, members of some 2,500 active clubs around the country.

Salon de la Plongée is, in effect, their exhibit--an international fair that brings together French and foreign exhibitors specializing in diving. Last year, it hosted more than 400 exhibitors and around 40,000 general public visitors, majority of whom held Grade 2 (Advanced level) diving skills on the French grading system.

The fair offered not only an array of global diving destinations, but also companies and brands hawking all manner of diving gear and accessories, even lessons in a large indoor pool.


The Philippines was “Destination of the Year” in the 2008 exhibition, a distinction that, with the country’s extensive exposure on the TV show “Koh-lanta” (the French version of “Survivor”), resulted in greater awareness of the Philippines as an alternative leisure destination for the French.

According to DOT records, French tourists accounted for the highest percentage growth (24.4 percent) among European visitors to the Philippines in 2007. From January to October 2008, despite the creeping economic squeeze, French arrivals still managed a respectable 20.94-percent increase. This makes France one of the country’s fastest-growing tourist markets in Europe today.

Affordable, attractive
Not only are the French, and European tourists in general, high spenders, they also stay in the country longer--around 10 days, spending around 100 US dollars a day. It’s not hard to see why, said Mark Sutch, France country manager for Cathay Pacific, which has the biggest share—about 45 percent—of the French tourist market to the Philippines.

“You’ve got a fantastic array of diving sites, the sites are relatively unspoiled, Filipinos are a very welcoming people, and European visitors get a lot of value for their money, with hotel prices, food and drinks very affordable,” he pointed out. Sutch himself dived in Philippine waters during his stint as Cathay’s country manager in Manila a few years ago.

“If the Euro remains strong, the Philippines will remain a very affordable and attractive destination,” said Sutch. “People into diving are very passionate about it; the industry will hold up, I believe.”

“We’ll just have to offer them the right package,” said Venus Tan, Philippine tourism attache for the Western, Central and Eastern European markets.

“Travel is sacred to the Europeans, and with ‘Koh-lanta’ and other French diving operators featuring the Philippines as their main diving destination, we’ve created a buzz as far as this niche product is concerned. It’s one of our strongest suits--we have the highest marine bio-diversity in the world!—and we have to stay in this market and build on it.”

Different breed
French tourists, said Tan, are a different breed. Generally they want rustic surroundings and greater interaction with local people and culture. “They don’t like staying in concrete structures. They don’t just stay in the resort to dive, they want to immerse themselves in local food, to talk with people. That’s an advantage for us, because we’re very sociable. The impression always is that Filipinos are very friendly and hospitable.”

Tan is looking at another sub-set of the market--airline employees with travel privileges, a big sector in Europe--to buoy the market, through active advertising and editorial presence in consumer magazines, newsletters and other publications.

The sustained PR campaign the last two years has resulted in many French travel firms taking a second look at the Philippines.

About 14 major French diving operators have or are featuring the country in their 2008-2009 campaigns, while Nouvelles Frontieres, one of France’s biggest tour operators, pushed the Philippines as a top destination in its sprawling exhibit booth and dive brochures.


Air France, too, devoted 17 pages of its inflight magazine to Philippine destinations, while the popular French Travel Guide had nine pages of pictures of Bohol, Palawan and other main attractions.

“Our goal is to make the Philippines a destination that can compete with the Caribbean and the Red Sea among French divers,” said Tan. “Divers will travel to dive, and we’re here.”

What about French tourists who aren’t too keen on diving? The country, it seems, has got them covered, too.

In March this year, another international fair called Destinations Nature! will open in the same venue. The focus this time is ecotourism, and its featured destination: The Philippines. Vive le honeymoon.

PLUS: Pictures from an exhibition.