In light of the recent Supreme Court bugaboo, and the Department of Tourism's dud of a rebranding that many people believe was purloined from another country's tourism logo, the succinct reminder below from playwright Rody Vera is, I believe, in order. Money quote: One is intellectual dishonesty, the other is simply poor taste.
The original comment appeared in a Facebook thread by actress-advertising mainstay Mae Paner (aka Juana Change) here.
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may kaunting katotohanan ang sinabi ni romano pagdating sa creative field. in the creative field, practically no one is original. kapag kumita ang isang konsepto-- ang dami dami daming derivatives nito. ganun nabubuhay at umuusbong ang bago sa larangan ng sining. kung hindi mangongopya ang mga COPYWRITERS, mamamatay ang industriya.
that is why... a distinction [has to be made] between "pangongopya" sa creative field at plagiarism sa academic and official spheres. plagiarism applies differently in the creative field. plagiarism in the arts is reprehensible if the artist claims a whole work that is not really hers. Take note, a whole work. Take a part of it out of context, it slides into something else na. And then again, in the creative field, we are not even required to footnote. Baguhin mo lang nang kaunti, mahirap nang patunayan na nag-plagiarize ka. Many well-known artists copy from others--for no special reason.
the best artists of the world don't even say they copied. they use another term: creative stealing. shakespeare, brecht in the field of theater, andy warhol in the visual arts. even in music--all artists copy, which in the eyes of rigid adherents of originality (dyusme, may ganun pa ba ngayon???) is plagiarism. That can be a very dangerous advocacy for the arts.
Artists allude, parody, reference, quote, embellish the original, build on the source all in the name of artistic license--for whatever reason we cannot judge. Ke nagbebenta ka ng corned beef o nagbebenta ka ng bansa.
so hindi plagiarism at pangongopya per se ang pagkukulang ng Pilipinas Kay Ganda. Huwag sana nating ihambing ito sa plagiarism na nangyari sa supreme court, halimbawa. these are two different issues. one is intellectual dishonesty, the other is simply poor taste.
kahit original pa ang ginawang logo, kahit pinaghirapan mo pa ito ng ilang linggo, kung talagang pangit, pangit.
PLUS: Case in point, hommage--the last scene of Carol Reed's The Third Man, which should remind you of the ending of what Filipino indie film? Quick.
Friday, November 26, 2010
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
9 Works Theatrical's Rent returns, now at Power Plant Mall Cinema 2
Reprising their roles are Gian Magdangal as Roger Davis, Nicole Laurel Asencio as Mimi, Fredison Lo as Mark, OJ Mariano as Collins, Job Bautista as Angel and Jenny Villegas as Joanne, along with the rest of the ensemble: Gary Junsay, Johann de la Fuente, Harold Cruz, Mark Tayag, Mian Dimacali and Pam Imperial.
New cast members include Lorenz Martinez as Benny, and the real-life sweetheart of Gian Magdangal, Sheree, who will alternate as Mimi. Robbie Guevara directs the musical.
“Rent” will be staged for a limited run of 8 performances at Power Plant Cinema 2, on December 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 (8 p.m.) and December 10, 11, 12 (4 p.m.). Tickets available now at the Power Plant Cinema ticket booth. Call 8981440 or 8981441.
Based on Giacomo Puccini’s “La Boheme” and set on the Lower East Side of New York City, “Rent” won a Tony Award for Best Musical, among its many other awards. The Broadway production closed on September 7, 2008, after a 12-year run and 5,124 performances, making it the ninth-longest-running Broadway show by that time. The original production grossed over $280 million.
9 Works Theatricals is restaging the musical by special arrangement with Music Theatre International.
Mapúa Tekno Teatro stages Filipino adaptation of Brecht's The Good Woman of Szechuan
Adapted by Tim Dacanay, “Ang Mabuting Tao ng Parian” is directed by JK Anicoche. The play will be on December 6-7 with morning and afternoon shows at the Institute’s gymnasium.
The piece is in line with the new vision of the MT2 to stage socially-relevant productions in the tradition of Brecht’s theater of alienation, which engages the audience members to think rather than to get highly emotional about the play’s plot and the characters’ plight.
Director JK Anicoche envisions the play to be a literal interpretation of life as a competitive game with a set of winners and losers, and a boxing ring where the two types of people fight it out.
“Through the three gods, the play asks the characters and the audience members--what is goodness? Having defined goodness, is there still a good person in the world?” The questions, Anicoche adds, are relevant at this time when morality, corruption and oppression remain pervasive issues.
Anicoche heads the artistic team composed of Alison Segarra, assistant director; Dacanay, writer; Ninya Bedruz, lights designer and technical director; Eisa Jocson and Leeroy New, production designers; Teresa Barrozo, sound designer and; Isabelle Martinez, stage manager.
The MT2 cast and production team include Alsus Adiaton, Kim Adulta, Ed Aniag, Kiki Baento, Jezreel Bernaldez, RR Boniol, Michael Caballero, Daniel Cardenas, Rommnel Coliat, Earl Dangalan, Debbie Del Rosario, Jethro Espenida, MK Espiritu, Alyshia Formento, Michael Figueras, Steven Galedo, G-may Galvan, Chopper Gapasin, Julio Garcia, Rachelle Gimpes, Leih Gonzales, Nathalie Inductivo, Roxanne King, Jerome Liao, Henry Malacaman, Kael Ma. Guerrero, Yuyi Marzo, Michan Mendoza, Anton Mercado, Camille Orense, Aj Ramos, Chris Rimas, Harrold Saliba, Jovie Vieja, Charizza Villanueva, and Cedree Wheeler.
Visual artist Joey Cobcobo collaborated with MT2 member MK Espiritu for the advertising collateral design, while filmmaker Raymund Cruz created the trailer. Betty Uy-Regala is the resident coach of MT2 and Dante Sauquillo is the director of the MIT Office of Student Activities and Discipline.
“The Mapúa Institute of Technology advocates academic excellence and strength of character in our students. Our curriculum equips the students to be technically skilled and strengthens values that are equally valuable in the work environment,” says Dr. Bonifacio T. Doma Jr., executive vice president for Academic Affairs of the Institute.
Doma adds that the MIT addresses this balance through a holistic approach with the inclusion of a strong arts, humanities and social sciences program into the curriculum. A non-academic program in line with this approach is the Mapúa Tekno Teatro. The Institute has a School of Languages, Humanities and Social Sciences aside from its technical courses.
Tickets at P90 each. For reservations, call Anton Mercado 0917-6182223, Cha Villanueva 0916-7720752, or Kim Adulta 0915-8692545. For more information, call Betty Uy-Regala 0906-2604175.
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
Pilipinas Kay Ganda. 'I was, of course, wrong.'
Look, that rarest of species--an honorable public servant. In acknowledging accountability, Mr. Romano finds his finest moment. God bless him--and may his tribe increase.
[Resignation letter of Department of Tourism Undersecretary Vicente Romano III, first posted on his Facebook here.]
My name is Enteng Romano--Undersecretary for Planning and Promotions. And I’m responsible for the Pilipinas Kay Ganda Branding.
In the last 7 days, there have been issues and criticisms raised against the branding. I have answered some of them in my facebook page. But there are others left unanswered. Allow me to address them now.
First, the issue on plagiarism. I instructed Campaigns & Grey to take inspiration from the European logos--particularly that of Polska, Espana, Portugal, Italia, and Maldives in order to project a visual impact of fun and natural beauty. The final design had similarities with the Polska logo, but the design elements and the visual presentation are distinctive enough to be clearly differentiated.
Getting inspiration from existing designs is not an uncommon practice. In fact, in one of the definitions of plagiarism, it is stated that, “While plagiarism is condemned in academia and journalism, in the arts it is often a major part of the creative process.”
I did not consider it plagiarism then. I’m sorry others don’t feel the same way.
Neither the Department nor Campaigns & Grey has done anything immoral, much less illegal. At worst, it might have offended the sensitivities of a people who take pride in its creative spirit. For that, I’m truly sorry.
I hope this puts to rest the unfair criticisms being hurled against Campaigns & Grey. I am fully responsible for the final design.
Second, there’s also a lot of criticism about using a Pilipino slogan in communicating to the foreign market. I am still convinced it is a matter of execution.
I honestly think a Manny Pacquiao saying “Pilipinas kay Ganda” will make a world curious and try to find out what it means.
Third, the Department is being criticized for the lack of consultation with the industry stakeholders before the introduction of the initial brand concept.
We made it clear that the November 15 event was simply a preview, both in the invitation and in the Opening Speech of Sec. Bertie Lim. It was a “work in progress”. And we marked the event with fanfare in the hope that we can excite the audience enough to get their support for the brand.
I was, of course, wrong. I now realize a consultation process is long and arduous, and my attempt to fast-track the consultation process is one of the reasons why it failed.
My friends ask me, why the rush?
Well, it’s because I’m in a hurry. Before I joined government, I was in the streets clamoring for change. And when I joined, I wanted to spend every waking hour effecting that change.
I’m in a hurry to have an advertising campaign going on by the first quarter of 2011. Because I am fully convinced that every day we do not run a campaign is a lost opportunity to boost our tourism arrivals. It is a lost opportunity to generate jobs and alleviate poverty.
I now realize that an idea as big as a new country brand needs time to germinate and blossom. There are no shortcuts.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest apologies to President Aquino, Secretary Lim, and the Filipino people for the controversy that this branding exercise has generated.
When I presented the brand to the President, he had his own misgivings about the brand and specifically instructed me to do a comprehensive market research before launching it. I assured him it was just a preview event and that we will do research after.
Secretary Lim also asked me to postpone the event given the President’s concern, but I persisted.
I thank both of them for trusting me enough to let me go ahead with the event.
But in the end, it is the trust of the people that really matters. A public office is a public trust. That’s why the President always says, “Kayo ang boss ko.”
I take the rejection of the brand by the people as a vote of “no confidence” not just for the brand, but also for the person behind it.
I take full responsibility for the branding controversy, and for this reason I am tendering my irrevocable resignation effective immediately.
I hope this puts closure on the issue. I now appeal to the industry stakeholders, to media, and to the general public to put this behind us and rally behind Secretary Lim, whose only fault in this whole controversy is in trusting me completely.
I have seen his reform agenda, and I am convinced it will help grow our tourism industry. He needs all our support to make this happen. In the end, what matters most is a vibrant economy that will uplift the conditions of our people. And tourism has the potential to fuel the much-needed economic growth.
To my newfound friends in the Department and the industry, thank you for sharing your lives with me, even if only for a short time.
To my friends and family, thank you for standing by me throughout all of this. And to my dad, mom, wife, children, and grandchildren, rest assured that I have not done anything to put our family name to shame. I was just in a hurry to see change happen in the motherland we all love.
And, to our God who promised that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him… I look forward with eager anticipation to the good that will come out of this.
Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with a nation so beautiful. Pilipinas kay Ganda.
My name is Enteng Romano--Undersecretary for Planning and Promotions. And I’m responsible for the Pilipinas Kay Ganda Branding.
In the last 7 days, there have been issues and criticisms raised against the branding. I have answered some of them in my facebook page. But there are others left unanswered. Allow me to address them now.
First, the issue on plagiarism. I instructed Campaigns & Grey to take inspiration from the European logos--particularly that of Polska, Espana, Portugal, Italia, and Maldives in order to project a visual impact of fun and natural beauty. The final design had similarities with the Polska logo, but the design elements and the visual presentation are distinctive enough to be clearly differentiated.
Getting inspiration from existing designs is not an uncommon practice. In fact, in one of the definitions of plagiarism, it is stated that, “While plagiarism is condemned in academia and journalism, in the arts it is often a major part of the creative process.”
I did not consider it plagiarism then. I’m sorry others don’t feel the same way.
Neither the Department nor Campaigns & Grey has done anything immoral, much less illegal. At worst, it might have offended the sensitivities of a people who take pride in its creative spirit. For that, I’m truly sorry.
I hope this puts to rest the unfair criticisms being hurled against Campaigns & Grey. I am fully responsible for the final design.
Second, there’s also a lot of criticism about using a Pilipino slogan in communicating to the foreign market. I am still convinced it is a matter of execution.
I honestly think a Manny Pacquiao saying “Pilipinas kay Ganda” will make a world curious and try to find out what it means.
Third, the Department is being criticized for the lack of consultation with the industry stakeholders before the introduction of the initial brand concept.
We made it clear that the November 15 event was simply a preview, both in the invitation and in the Opening Speech of Sec. Bertie Lim. It was a “work in progress”. And we marked the event with fanfare in the hope that we can excite the audience enough to get their support for the brand.
I was, of course, wrong. I now realize a consultation process is long and arduous, and my attempt to fast-track the consultation process is one of the reasons why it failed.
My friends ask me, why the rush?
Well, it’s because I’m in a hurry. Before I joined government, I was in the streets clamoring for change. And when I joined, I wanted to spend every waking hour effecting that change.
I’m in a hurry to have an advertising campaign going on by the first quarter of 2011. Because I am fully convinced that every day we do not run a campaign is a lost opportunity to boost our tourism arrivals. It is a lost opportunity to generate jobs and alleviate poverty.
I now realize that an idea as big as a new country brand needs time to germinate and blossom. There are no shortcuts.
I would like to take this opportunity to express my sincerest apologies to President Aquino, Secretary Lim, and the Filipino people for the controversy that this branding exercise has generated.
When I presented the brand to the President, he had his own misgivings about the brand and specifically instructed me to do a comprehensive market research before launching it. I assured him it was just a preview event and that we will do research after.
Secretary Lim also asked me to postpone the event given the President’s concern, but I persisted.
I thank both of them for trusting me enough to let me go ahead with the event.
But in the end, it is the trust of the people that really matters. A public office is a public trust. That’s why the President always says, “Kayo ang boss ko.”
I take the rejection of the brand by the people as a vote of “no confidence” not just for the brand, but also for the person behind it.
I take full responsibility for the branding controversy, and for this reason I am tendering my irrevocable resignation effective immediately.
I hope this puts closure on the issue. I now appeal to the industry stakeholders, to media, and to the general public to put this behind us and rally behind Secretary Lim, whose only fault in this whole controversy is in trusting me completely.
I have seen his reform agenda, and I am convinced it will help grow our tourism industry. He needs all our support to make this happen. In the end, what matters most is a vibrant economy that will uplift the conditions of our people. And tourism has the potential to fuel the much-needed economic growth.
To my newfound friends in the Department and the industry, thank you for sharing your lives with me, even if only for a short time.
To my friends and family, thank you for standing by me throughout all of this. And to my dad, mom, wife, children, and grandchildren, rest assured that I have not done anything to put our family name to shame. I was just in a hurry to see change happen in the motherland we all love.
And, to our God who promised that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him… I look forward with eager anticipation to the good that will come out of this.
Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with a nation so beautiful. Pilipinas kay Ganda.
So classy. So Catholic.
Pro-Life Philippines president Eric Manalang to RH Bill supporters: “Satan, get away from us! You should have asked your mother to abort you!”
PLUS: What actually happened at Manila Cathedral: Revealing the lies and bigotry of Eric Manalang and Pro-Life Philippines
Friday, November 19, 2010
In case you forget--five new musicals over the next two weekends
On its last weekend
Tanghalang Pilipino's Dugtong-Dugtong na Sumbong (Ang Hukuman ni Sinukuan), a children's musical adapted for the stage by Liza Magtoto, based on National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario’s re-telling of the popular Asian folktale.
With music by Jed Balsamo, production design by Patty Eustaquio and direction by Tess Jamias. At the CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater). For ticket reservations, call TP 8323661/832-1125 locals 1620-1621, CCP Box Office 8323704 or Ticketworld 8919999.
Opening this week/end
Spotlight Artists Centre's restaging of Magsimula Ka!, the longest-running original Filipino musical in the 1980s, at the Music Museum, directed by Robert Sena. Runs until Dec. 4.
Written by Nestor Torre and Gines Tan, with musical arrangements by Ryan Cayabyab. The cast includes Ciara Sotto, Myke Salomon, Poppert Bernadas, Fred Lo and Kyla Rivera, ably supported by Ana Feleo, Tricia Amper-Jimenez, Sherwin Sozon, Sheng Belmonte, Gerald Napoles, Sophiea Reyes, Cheeno Macaraig, Rafael Sudayan, Ava Santos, Kakki Teodoro, Heidi Arima, Carlos Canlas, Pamela Imperial and Migs Ramirez. For tickets, call Spotlight Artists Centre 8998089 or visit www.spotlightartistscentre.com.
Repertory Philippines' Little Women, the Broadway musical based on the Louisa May Alcott novel, at Onstage Greenbelt 1. With music by Jason Howard, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and book by Allan Knee, under Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo's direction. Runs Nov. 20-Dec. 12, 2010, with additional Sunday shows on Nov. 21-28 and Dec. 5 and 12, 2010.
Cast includes Caissa Borromeo, Cara Barredo, Kelly Lati, Lora Nicolas, Jaime Barcelon, Pinky Marquez, Miguel Faustmann. For ticket inquiries and other information, call Repertory Philippines 5716926, 5714941 or e-mail info@repertory-philippines.com. Tickets also available at Ticketworld 8919999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph.
Opening next weekend
Dulaang UP's restaging of Isang Panaginip na Fili, written and directed by Floy Quintos with original music by Ceejay Manuel Javier. Runs Nov. 24-Dec. 12 at Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater in UP-Diliman.
Cast includes Franco Laurel, Red Conception Reuben Uy, OJ Mariano and Nazer Salcedo; Floyd Tena and Inno Martin; Greg De Leon and Dondi Ong; Mica Pineda and Janine Santos;Ces Quesada and Emlyn Santos; and the Dulaang UP Ensemble. For tickets, call Cherry 0917-7500107 or the Dulaang UP Office 9261349, 9818500 local 2449 or 4337840.
Asia On Stage's DragonTales, a new Asian musical collaboration between Filipino and Singaporean artists. Directed by Singaporean Jeremiah Choy, with music composed and arranged by Filipino composer-lyricist-performer Vincent de Jesus. Runs November 27-December 5 at the PETA Theater Center.
Cast includes Kalila Aguilos, Banaue Miclat, Miguel Vasquez, Nar Cabico, Meann Espinosa, Lex Marcos, Carlon Matobato, Joel Molina, Neomi Tabanao-Gonzales and Gani Karim. For tickets, call (63-2) 8810984, 0917-5562718 or 0915-2957550, or e-mail dragontalesmanila@gmail.com.
With music by Jed Balsamo, production design by Patty Eustaquio and direction by Tess Jamias. At the CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater). For ticket reservations, call TP 8323661/832-1125 locals 1620-1621, CCP Box Office 8323704 or Ticketworld 8919999.
Opening this week/end
Written by Nestor Torre and Gines Tan, with musical arrangements by Ryan Cayabyab. The cast includes Ciara Sotto, Myke Salomon, Poppert Bernadas, Fred Lo and Kyla Rivera, ably supported by Ana Feleo, Tricia Amper-Jimenez, Sherwin Sozon, Sheng Belmonte, Gerald Napoles, Sophiea Reyes, Cheeno Macaraig, Rafael Sudayan, Ava Santos, Kakki Teodoro, Heidi Arima, Carlos Canlas, Pamela Imperial and Migs Ramirez. For tickets, call Spotlight Artists Centre 8998089 or visit www.spotlightartistscentre.com.
Cast includes Caissa Borromeo, Cara Barredo, Kelly Lati, Lora Nicolas, Jaime Barcelon, Pinky Marquez, Miguel Faustmann. For ticket inquiries and other information, call Repertory Philippines 5716926, 5714941 or e-mail info@repertory-philippines.com. Tickets also available at Ticketworld 8919999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph.
Opening next weekend
Cast includes Franco Laurel, Red Conception Reuben Uy, OJ Mariano and Nazer Salcedo; Floyd Tena and Inno Martin; Greg De Leon and Dondi Ong; Mica Pineda and Janine Santos;Ces Quesada and Emlyn Santos; and the Dulaang UP Ensemble. For tickets, call Cherry 0917-7500107 or the Dulaang UP Office 9261349, 9818500 local 2449 or 4337840.
Cast includes Kalila Aguilos, Banaue Miclat, Miguel Vasquez, Nar Cabico, Meann Espinosa, Lex Marcos, Carlon Matobato, Joel Molina, Neomi Tabanao-Gonzales and Gani Karim. For tickets, call (63-2) 8810984, 0917-5562718 or 0915-2957550, or e-mail dragontalesmanila@gmail.com.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
DVD! Book! Concert program! Burp!
The Les Miz program is thick, heavy, beautifully produced. Lea Salonga (Fantine) shares a full-color page with Norm Lewis (Javert). Each of the major performers is featured with a quote; Lea's goes like this: I've played both dead girls from Les Miz: Eponine and Fantine. In my first week as Fantine, I found myself so exhausted from a combination of jet lag and a whirlwind rehearsal and put-in period. At one performance, at the end of the first act, I actually started singing the Eponine part of 'One Day More'... very loudly. I was all the way in the back, but I think the guys in the front row heard me. Oops.
Husband-and-wife Mitz and Bing are among the fiercest Lea Salonga fans I know; naturally, at least one of them had to be in London for the concert. Bing made it--even offered me a free ticket when she learned I'd be in London a couple of weeks before the event. Alas, I couldn't extend my stay, so, like she's done in past Lea shows, she bought me and some other friends a copy of the program. The stack turned out to be so heavy she had to ask the help of an usher to carry them!
The Stephen Sondheim book--what else can I say about it after all the hosannahs? Its full title, by the way, is typically, winkingly Sondheim: Finishing the Hat: Collected Lyrics (1954-1981) With Attendant Comments, Principles, Heresies, Grudges, Whines and Anecdotes. Try resisting a title like that.
I was all set to brag that I might be one of the very first to have a copy of this book in town--only for the Philippine Star's Exie Abola to text me early this morning that Fully Booked now carries the title. Darn, balloon deflated. But, seriously, go and buy yourself a copy. I've thumbed through it--it's invaluable reading.
The Yentl DVD, meanwhile, is a much-improved edition of the earlier copy released by MGM, which was a bare-bones entry without any input from its producer-director-screenwriter-star. This time, Barbra has commandeered the process and stamped the release as her own by including outtakes, video diaries, commentary, the works, on top of a pristine, newly refurbished print of her, uh, Funny Boy movie (Funny Girl's high point has Fanny Brice singing Don't Rain on My Parade atop a tugboat; Yentl's finale shows the Jewish girl-turned-boy-turned-girl-again belting out A Piece of Sky onboard another boat. Not that they're any less amazing--especially her audacious harmonizing with her younger cinematic self in her 1994 concert. Here, watch:)
Maraming salamat, Mitz, Bing and my inaanak Kenji! Now, if you'll excuse me, folks, I have a book to devour.
Repertory Philippines' Little Women, opening Nov. 20, adds Sunday shows
“We received requests to add more shows as more and more families wish to catch this Broadway musical,” says “Little Women” director and Rep associate artistic director Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo.
Also, “Many Filipinos do not usually have the chance to listen to a full orchestra,” says Lauchengco-Yulo. “With ‘Little Women,’ they’ll get to experience it as well as enjoy seeing the adventures and misadventures of the March sisters.”
Gerard Salonga will conduct the Filharmonika orchestra.
“Little Women,” with music by Jason Howard, lyrics by Mindi Dickstein and book by Allan Knee, is based on the novel by American author Louisa May Alcott, about the heartwarming story of the March family--how they overcome challenges and preserve the love and unity of their family.
The cast includes Caissa Borromeo as Jo, Cara Barredo as Beth, Kelly Lati as Amy and Lora Nicolas as Meg, with Jaime Barcelon as Laurie as Pinky Marquez as the girl's mother Marmee.
“Little Women” runs Nov. 20-Dec. 12, 2010 with 8 p.m. shows on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays and 3:30 p.m. shows on Saturdays and Sundays, at Onstage Theater, 2/F Greenbelt 1, Ayala Center, Makati City.
For ticket inquiries and other information, call Repertory Philippines 5716926, 5714941 or e-mail info@repertory-philippines.com. Tickets also available at Ticketworld 8919999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph.
Tanghalang Ateneo mounts stage adaptation of St. Augustine's Confessiones
Featuring 18 actors, this devised play depicts Augustine’s profound and poignant conversion from sinner to saint. Selected passages from Augustine’s text will highlight this transformation, among them his pronouncements about man’s faith, need, and adoration of God: man’s lost and confused condition in sin and searching (Dispersio), his heart restless until it rests in God (Conversio).
Actors deliver the lines alone or in an ensemble and act as characters in vignettes that render Augustine’s insights accessible to contemporary young audiences. The production makes excellent learning material for students and professionals in theology, philosophy and literature.
National Artist for Theater Salvador Bernal designs both set and costumes. Lighting is by Sueyen Astero, while Rhem David designs sound and music.
“Confessiones” runs November 18-20, 24-27 and December 1-4, 7 p.m., at the Rizal Mini-Theater of the Ateneo de Manila. There will also be 2 p.m. shows on Saturdays--November 20, 27 and December 4.
For inquiries, contact Bettina Rodriguez 0916-2258036.
Monday, November 15, 2010
When movies become stage musicals--for better or for worse
Philippine Daily Inquirer, 10.17.2010
“The Wedding Singer,” “Legally Blonde,” “Xanadu,” “A Little Night Music”--what works, and what doesn’t, in these productions?
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR’S touchstone film “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” has just opened on Broadway as a full-throttle, multi-diva musical, and already the critical drubbing it has received (“a muddled jumble of vignettes,” sniffed Thom Geier of Entertainment Weekly) serves as a bracing reminder that minting stage musicals out of popular movies is largely a touch-and-go affair.
A few might hit the alchemical jackpot (“The Lion King,” “Hairspray”); many more would be specimens in clumsy transposition, devoid of the charm or spirit of their original screen incarnations (“Footloose,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Saturday Night Fever”).
“To turn so fully realized a work of cinematic art into an equally successful musical demands that it be subjected to a complete and thoroughgoing imaginative transformation,” Terry Teachout of Wall Street Journal wrote, apropos Almodovar’s burlesque-turned-Broadway musical. A solid-sounding formula--but what if the source movie isn’t even a “fully realized work of cinematic art?”
“Legally Blonde,” for instance? Or “The Wedding Singer?” Or, farther back, an ’80s turkey that has become a cult favorite, “Xanadu?”
If you hadn’t noticed yet, those titles occupied the marquees of Manila’s theatrical venues in recent months. Only yesterday, 9 Works Theatrical’s production of “The Wedding Singer,” based on the ’90s Adam Sandler movie, had its closing show after a three-week run at Meralco Theater.
In June, the musical version of the Reese Witherspoon comedy smash “Legally Blonde,” mounted by Atlantis Productions, transformed the same venue into a shrine to all things pink and cutesy. Atlantis followed that up three months later with another candy-colored musical, “Xanadu,” a tongue-in-cheek riff on the Olivia Newton-John flick, this time at RCBC Theater.
Rounding off this slate of screen-to-stage adaptations was Atlantis’ most recent production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” which, while having established a fulsome life for itself as a now-classic Broadway musical, is nevertheless rooted in film--a formidable one at that: Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 Cannes-winning romantic comedy “Smiles of a Summer Night.”
Four musicals made from movies in a span of half a year--what an opportunity to tease out the implications of Teachout’s dictum, especially its insistence on a “complete and thoroughgoing imaginative transformation” if a movie-based musical were to escape its celluloid origins and find an orbit of its own.
‘Legally Blonde’
That absence of any impulse for a bold, consummate reinvention, for instance, should explain the fizz-less, graceless quality that marked the “Legally Blonde” and “Wedding Singer” musicals. There’s a paradox: While slavishly replicating their source movies down to the lamest scenes and dialogue, the stage facsimiles ended up curiously thinner, sillier, more anodyne.
The movies themselves were often shrewd and jagged-edged, unafraid to be idiosyncratic. Both featured quirky, sui generis lead stars in slashingly drawn characters--Witherspoon’s Elle Woods with her “soupçon of freakishness,” as The New York Times’ Ben Brantley put it, and Sandler’s Robby Hart--one more variation on his sour, passive-aggressive man-boy persona, in “The Wedding Singer.”
Alas, whatever eccentricities these characters had, the very source of their movies’ skewed, misfit appeal, were all gone, sandpapered away to a conventional all-purpose slickness, by the time songs, choreography and blocking were added to the mix to simulate a full-scale stage musical.
Atlantis’ “Legally Blonde,” directed by Chari Arespacochaga (serviceable music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, uninspired book by Heather Hach), had a find in TV star Nikki Gil, who sang, danced and cooed with abandon as the dumb-blonde-turned-Harvard-girl. Gil’s was a more-than-capable turn, but it wasn’t Elle Woods. Despite the attempts at girlishness, her approach appeared too smart and self-aware throughout.
Still, Gil’s radiant joy at her musical-theater debut was infectious, which went a long way toward alleviating the show’s many weak spots, beginning with a band that seemed unable to find its bearings, and a cast that was mostly a blur, save for Jett Pangan and Jinky Llamanzares who stood out from the gooey blob with their commanding voices.
‘The Wedding Singer’
A strong central performance also anchored 9 Works’ “The Wedding Singer”--Gian Magdangal’s. Here, too, the tang and tartness of the movie has given way to a bland, plodding rom-com spirit, courtesy of a distended book (by Tim Herlihy and Chad Beguelin) and a defiantly unmemorable score by Beguelin (words) and Matthew Sklar (music).
Tellingly, the only songs with any lingering sense of the oddball in them were the two retained from the movie--“Somebody Kill Me” and “Grow Old With You,” both composed by Sandler and Herlihy.
But if the material itself was flat, thankfully the cast assembled by director Robbie Guevara wasn’t. Magdangal, freed of the showy angst that burdened his Roger in 9 Works’ production of “Rent” earlier this year, was in his element, belting out his high notes with newfound ease. The Sandler neuroses was gone, but in its place was a becoming leading-man aplomb.
Iya Villania looked fetching and sang adequately, but the better Julia Sullivan was alternate Shiela Valderrama-Martinez, who brought a true musical-theater touch, delicate and nuanced, to her singing and acting.
From Guevara’s succinct staging, to the crackerjack choreography (by Francis Matheu--the near-surreal “It’s All About the Green” number was a high point), the sleek scenery (by Mio Infante), and the robust sound of the band (under Rodel Colmenar), this “Wedding Singer” could bid fair as perhaps the spiffiest, most handsomely mounted musical production of the year so far.
‘Xanadu’
“Xanadu,” meanwhile, chucked the literal-mindedness of “Legally Blonde” and “The Wedding Singer.” The original movie was much derided in its time, but Douglas Carter Beane’s witty book would transform it into a first-rate musical, with Jeff Lynne and John Farrar reworking their catalogue of Electric Light Orchestra pop hits into a sparklingly demented score.
Here, at last, was a case study in “complete and thoroughgoing imaginative transformation,” as Beane and company apparently looked at the movie, decided it was crap beyond saving, and proceeded to make fun of it—with affection, as it were, which made all the difference.
Lovingly sardonic, unabashedly off-kilter, “Xanadu, The Musical” untethered itself completely from its unlikely cinematic moorings to find a hip, winking groove of its own.
Unhappily, in the show directed by Bobby Garcia for his Atlantis Productions, “Xanadu’s” feathery vibe found a mismatch in lead star Rachel Alejandro as Clio, the Greek muse who disguises herself on earth (Venice Beach, California, ca. 1980) as an Australian roller-skater girl.
Alejandro’s earthy, rather prim persona lacked the helium ballast required for the part’s sublime ridiculousness to fly. More distressingly, on the two separate nights we watched the show, she seemed to be hitting flats once too often with her singing.
A duty her co-star Felix Rivera had no difficulty executing, however, with his vocal range splendidly showcased by the score. Chari Arespacochaga and Yael Pineda’s scene-stealing turns as Clio’s evil older sisters also paced a solid supporting ensemble.
For the embodiment of “Xanadu’s” unexpected whimsy, though, one had to look at veteran actor Noel Trinidad, whose beguiling performance as a hardhearted real-estate mogul mellowing into human form unveiled a presence, command and charisma undiminished by his many years off the stage. (Leo Rialp, alternating with Trinidad in the role, brought twinkling gravitas to the role.)
‘A Little Night Music’
Barely a month after Alejandro et al. had hung up their “Xanadu” roller-skates and leg warmers, Garcia was back at RCBC Theater, unveiling his most ambitious production yet, Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music”--the production taking a leaf from the retooled chamber orchestra set-up employed by director Trevor Nunn for his current Broadway revival.
Ambitious, because, musically and thematically, “A Little Night Music” represented a leap away from the youthful, smart-alecky musicals Garcia has become identified with (“Avenue Q,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Hairspray”).
Sondheim’s work, its 1973 Harold Prince production said to be one of the classiest musicals ever staged on Broadway, perhaps matches most fully a key plank of Teachout’s theory on successful movie-to-musical transfers. “Night Music’s” original playbill said it was “suggested” by Bergman’s “Smiles of a Summer Night”--an accurate word, because, while the resulting musical still recalls the Bergman film, in ways subtle and strategic it has also become an altogether different creation.
Brilliant framework
Already that rare stuffed animal, a “fully realized work of cinematic art,” “Smiles” gave Sondheim and book writer Hugh Wheeler a brilliantly designed framework of characters and plot incidents to work with, but they didn’t stop there.
Wheeler made explicit--in some moments even a touch bawdy--the bedroom farce, while Sondheim sharpened and simplified, with ravishing music and elegant patter, the various romantic entanglements. Both aspects present, incidentally, but rendered with quintessential Nordic cool in Bergman’s film.
Desiree and Fredrik, for instance, didn’t end up in bed onscreen after their backstage reunion. In the musical, they did. Fredrik did fall into a puddle, necessitating his changing into Count Malcolm’s bathrobe; on stage, it was a pretext to ratchet up the men’s confrontation. Count Malcolm himself, unlike his stage counterpart, wasn’t a dim-witted buffoon--was more concerned, in fact, about scandal and propriety than his carefree actress-lover.
The games of seduction and betrayal at the country house weren’t Countess Charlotte and Anne’s doing, as in the musical; it was Charlotte and Desiree’s--two mature women taking charge of their shared destinies. (“Are you prepared to be frank?” asks Charlotte of her husband’s mistress. “Why not?” replies Desiree. “We’re enemies after all. Enemies can sometimes have mutual interests.”)
Most crucially, that bit of dialogue about the summer night smiling three times was uttered by the servant Frid in the film, indicating Bergman’s empathy with the lower classes and their crusty, uninhibited, live-in-the-moment instincts. Sondheim’s musical wrenched that away from him and gave it to Mme. Armfeldt, thus making the observation a (simpler) function of gray wisdom.
In “Smiles,” the boudoir feints and maneuvers were brisk, military-like; in “Night Music,” they had become warmer, broader, if more obvious.
These were not trivial changes. Cumulatively, they altered the tone, temper and intent of “A Little Night Music” (the title was originally intended for Sondheim’s TV musical, which became “Evening Primrose”), nudging it more into the ambit of the American musical form--highly influenced by European operetta, yes, but in its zippy, zany, emotionally voluble character, now also consciously contemporary Broadway.
Glamorous airs
At its best, Garcia’s sophisticated production of “A Little Night Music” lived up to Sondheim’s original instruction to his orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, on how to approach the material: “This score should sound like perfume,” he said. Indeed, rippling outward from Dawn Zulueta’s entrancing revelation of a performance as Desiree, this “Night Music” had no difficulty commanding the senses with its exquisite, glamorous airs.
That, sadly, even without much help from the lights and scenery. Infante, who also did the color-block panels of “The Wedding Singer,” conjured a static stained-glass birch-forest backdrop that, coupled with Dong Calingacion’s pallid lighting, failed to evoke the pastoral, pagan realm so critical to the lovers’ eventual shedding of their inhibitions.
“Don’t marry Scandinavians,” Mme. Armfeldt tells her granddaughter, “they’re all crazy”--the eternal northern light, the exasperatingly drawn-out suspension between night and day, seeing to that. Only, this “Night Music” wasn’t lighted that way.
Otherwise, the drama and music-making were topnotch. Ceejay Javier’s orchestration sounded luscious, ably supporting the superlative singing by the cast. Nonie Buencamino’s Fredrik Egerman was a beacon of clarity and exactitude, an actorly intelligence ever layering his vocals. Cris Villonco as Anne; Jenny Jamora as Countess Charlotte; Alys Serdenia as the saucy servant girl Petra (her 11 o’clock number “The Miller’s Son” was a show-stopper); Jay Glorioso as Mme. Armfeldt; Jake Macapagal as Count Malcolm; the lieder chorus--nearly everyone was at or close to their career best.
Verve and imagination
Rivera, meanwhile, who was superb in “Xanadu,” proved to be surprisingly stymied by “Night Music.” He sang flawlessly as usual (a thrilling solo in “Later”), but fathomed no genuine, profound despair as the tormented son Henrik. And he struck no sparks with Villonco, robbing their flight near the end--the first characters, in effect, to acknowledge the truth and act like grown-ups--the sense of sheer liberation that was the movie’s greatest moment of uplift, and that would free, at last, the rest of the bourgeois menagerie from their petty hypocrisies.
The great work has been done, though. With verve and thoroughgoing imagination, Sondheim had reoriented “Smiles of a Summer Night,” and the resulting musical is big enough to withstand the small, occasional infelicities.
In the general juvenilia that has often marked Manila’s musical landscape, the appearance of “A Little Night Music” allows us, with much pleasure, to channel the critic Clive Barnes’ astonished reaction to it in 1973: “Good God, finally an adult musical!”
“Xanadu” returns Nov. 19-Dec. 5 at RCBC Theater. Call Atlantis Productions at 892-7078/840-1187.
“The Wedding Singer,” “Legally Blonde,” “Xanadu,” “A Little Night Music”--what works, and what doesn’t, in these productions?
PEDRO ALMODÓVAR’S touchstone film “Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown” has just opened on Broadway as a full-throttle, multi-diva musical, and already the critical drubbing it has received (“a muddled jumble of vignettes,” sniffed Thom Geier of Entertainment Weekly) serves as a bracing reminder that minting stage musicals out of popular movies is largely a touch-and-go affair.
A few might hit the alchemical jackpot (“The Lion King,” “Hairspray”); many more would be specimens in clumsy transposition, devoid of the charm or spirit of their original screen incarnations (“Footloose,” “The Little Mermaid,” “Saturday Night Fever”).
“To turn so fully realized a work of cinematic art into an equally successful musical demands that it be subjected to a complete and thoroughgoing imaginative transformation,” Terry Teachout of Wall Street Journal wrote, apropos Almodovar’s burlesque-turned-Broadway musical. A solid-sounding formula--but what if the source movie isn’t even a “fully realized work of cinematic art?”
“Legally Blonde,” for instance? Or “The Wedding Singer?” Or, farther back, an ’80s turkey that has become a cult favorite, “Xanadu?”
If you hadn’t noticed yet, those titles occupied the marquees of Manila’s theatrical venues in recent months. Only yesterday, 9 Works Theatrical’s production of “The Wedding Singer,” based on the ’90s Adam Sandler movie, had its closing show after a three-week run at Meralco Theater.
In June, the musical version of the Reese Witherspoon comedy smash “Legally Blonde,” mounted by Atlantis Productions, transformed the same venue into a shrine to all things pink and cutesy. Atlantis followed that up three months later with another candy-colored musical, “Xanadu,” a tongue-in-cheek riff on the Olivia Newton-John flick, this time at RCBC Theater.
Rounding off this slate of screen-to-stage adaptations was Atlantis’ most recent production of Stephen Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music,” which, while having established a fulsome life for itself as a now-classic Broadway musical, is nevertheless rooted in film--a formidable one at that: Ingmar Bergman’s 1955 Cannes-winning romantic comedy “Smiles of a Summer Night.”
Four musicals made from movies in a span of half a year--what an opportunity to tease out the implications of Teachout’s dictum, especially its insistence on a “complete and thoroughgoing imaginative transformation” if a movie-based musical were to escape its celluloid origins and find an orbit of its own.
That absence of any impulse for a bold, consummate reinvention, for instance, should explain the fizz-less, graceless quality that marked the “Legally Blonde” and “Wedding Singer” musicals. There’s a paradox: While slavishly replicating their source movies down to the lamest scenes and dialogue, the stage facsimiles ended up curiously thinner, sillier, more anodyne.
The movies themselves were often shrewd and jagged-edged, unafraid to be idiosyncratic. Both featured quirky, sui generis lead stars in slashingly drawn characters--Witherspoon’s Elle Woods with her “soupçon of freakishness,” as The New York Times’ Ben Brantley put it, and Sandler’s Robby Hart--one more variation on his sour, passive-aggressive man-boy persona, in “The Wedding Singer.”
Alas, whatever eccentricities these characters had, the very source of their movies’ skewed, misfit appeal, were all gone, sandpapered away to a conventional all-purpose slickness, by the time songs, choreography and blocking were added to the mix to simulate a full-scale stage musical.
Atlantis’ “Legally Blonde,” directed by Chari Arespacochaga (serviceable music and lyrics by Laurence O’Keefe and Nell Benjamin, uninspired book by Heather Hach), had a find in TV star Nikki Gil, who sang, danced and cooed with abandon as the dumb-blonde-turned-Harvard-girl. Gil’s was a more-than-capable turn, but it wasn’t Elle Woods. Despite the attempts at girlishness, her approach appeared too smart and self-aware throughout.
Still, Gil’s radiant joy at her musical-theater debut was infectious, which went a long way toward alleviating the show’s many weak spots, beginning with a band that seemed unable to find its bearings, and a cast that was mostly a blur, save for Jett Pangan and Jinky Llamanzares who stood out from the gooey blob with their commanding voices.
A strong central performance also anchored 9 Works’ “The Wedding Singer”--Gian Magdangal’s. Here, too, the tang and tartness of the movie has given way to a bland, plodding rom-com spirit, courtesy of a distended book (by Tim Herlihy and Chad Beguelin) and a defiantly unmemorable score by Beguelin (words) and Matthew Sklar (music).
Tellingly, the only songs with any lingering sense of the oddball in them were the two retained from the movie--“Somebody Kill Me” and “Grow Old With You,” both composed by Sandler and Herlihy.
But if the material itself was flat, thankfully the cast assembled by director Robbie Guevara wasn’t. Magdangal, freed of the showy angst that burdened his Roger in 9 Works’ production of “Rent” earlier this year, was in his element, belting out his high notes with newfound ease. The Sandler neuroses was gone, but in its place was a becoming leading-man aplomb.
Iya Villania looked fetching and sang adequately, but the better Julia Sullivan was alternate Shiela Valderrama-Martinez, who brought a true musical-theater touch, delicate and nuanced, to her singing and acting.
From Guevara’s succinct staging, to the crackerjack choreography (by Francis Matheu--the near-surreal “It’s All About the Green” number was a high point), the sleek scenery (by Mio Infante), and the robust sound of the band (under Rodel Colmenar), this “Wedding Singer” could bid fair as perhaps the spiffiest, most handsomely mounted musical production of the year so far.
“Xanadu,” meanwhile, chucked the literal-mindedness of “Legally Blonde” and “The Wedding Singer.” The original movie was much derided in its time, but Douglas Carter Beane’s witty book would transform it into a first-rate musical, with Jeff Lynne and John Farrar reworking their catalogue of Electric Light Orchestra pop hits into a sparklingly demented score.
Here, at last, was a case study in “complete and thoroughgoing imaginative transformation,” as Beane and company apparently looked at the movie, decided it was crap beyond saving, and proceeded to make fun of it—with affection, as it were, which made all the difference.
Lovingly sardonic, unabashedly off-kilter, “Xanadu, The Musical” untethered itself completely from its unlikely cinematic moorings to find a hip, winking groove of its own.
Unhappily, in the show directed by Bobby Garcia for his Atlantis Productions, “Xanadu’s” feathery vibe found a mismatch in lead star Rachel Alejandro as Clio, the Greek muse who disguises herself on earth (Venice Beach, California, ca. 1980) as an Australian roller-skater girl.
Alejandro’s earthy, rather prim persona lacked the helium ballast required for the part’s sublime ridiculousness to fly. More distressingly, on the two separate nights we watched the show, she seemed to be hitting flats once too often with her singing.
A duty her co-star Felix Rivera had no difficulty executing, however, with his vocal range splendidly showcased by the score. Chari Arespacochaga and Yael Pineda’s scene-stealing turns as Clio’s evil older sisters also paced a solid supporting ensemble.
For the embodiment of “Xanadu’s” unexpected whimsy, though, one had to look at veteran actor Noel Trinidad, whose beguiling performance as a hardhearted real-estate mogul mellowing into human form unveiled a presence, command and charisma undiminished by his many years off the stage. (Leo Rialp, alternating with Trinidad in the role, brought twinkling gravitas to the role.)
Barely a month after Alejandro et al. had hung up their “Xanadu” roller-skates and leg warmers, Garcia was back at RCBC Theater, unveiling his most ambitious production yet, Sondheim’s “A Little Night Music”--the production taking a leaf from the retooled chamber orchestra set-up employed by director Trevor Nunn for his current Broadway revival.
Ambitious, because, musically and thematically, “A Little Night Music” represented a leap away from the youthful, smart-alecky musicals Garcia has become identified with (“Avenue Q,” “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee,” “Hairspray”).
Brilliant framework
Already that rare stuffed animal, a “fully realized work of cinematic art,” “Smiles” gave Sondheim and book writer Hugh Wheeler a brilliantly designed framework of characters and plot incidents to work with, but they didn’t stop there.
Wheeler made explicit--in some moments even a touch bawdy--the bedroom farce, while Sondheim sharpened and simplified, with ravishing music and elegant patter, the various romantic entanglements. Both aspects present, incidentally, but rendered with quintessential Nordic cool in Bergman’s film.
Desiree and Fredrik, for instance, didn’t end up in bed onscreen after their backstage reunion. In the musical, they did. Fredrik did fall into a puddle, necessitating his changing into Count Malcolm’s bathrobe; on stage, it was a pretext to ratchet up the men’s confrontation. Count Malcolm himself, unlike his stage counterpart, wasn’t a dim-witted buffoon--was more concerned, in fact, about scandal and propriety than his carefree actress-lover.
The games of seduction and betrayal at the country house weren’t Countess Charlotte and Anne’s doing, as in the musical; it was Charlotte and Desiree’s--two mature women taking charge of their shared destinies. (“Are you prepared to be frank?” asks Charlotte of her husband’s mistress. “Why not?” replies Desiree. “We’re enemies after all. Enemies can sometimes have mutual interests.”)
Most crucially, that bit of dialogue about the summer night smiling three times was uttered by the servant Frid in the film, indicating Bergman’s empathy with the lower classes and their crusty, uninhibited, live-in-the-moment instincts. Sondheim’s musical wrenched that away from him and gave it to Mme. Armfeldt, thus making the observation a (simpler) function of gray wisdom.
In “Smiles,” the boudoir feints and maneuvers were brisk, military-like; in “Night Music,” they had become warmer, broader, if more obvious.
These were not trivial changes. Cumulatively, they altered the tone, temper and intent of “A Little Night Music” (the title was originally intended for Sondheim’s TV musical, which became “Evening Primrose”), nudging it more into the ambit of the American musical form--highly influenced by European operetta, yes, but in its zippy, zany, emotionally voluble character, now also consciously contemporary Broadway.
Glamorous airs
At its best, Garcia’s sophisticated production of “A Little Night Music” lived up to Sondheim’s original instruction to his orchestrator Jonathan Tunick, on how to approach the material: “This score should sound like perfume,” he said. Indeed, rippling outward from Dawn Zulueta’s entrancing revelation of a performance as Desiree, this “Night Music” had no difficulty commanding the senses with its exquisite, glamorous airs.
That, sadly, even without much help from the lights and scenery. Infante, who also did the color-block panels of “The Wedding Singer,” conjured a static stained-glass birch-forest backdrop that, coupled with Dong Calingacion’s pallid lighting, failed to evoke the pastoral, pagan realm so critical to the lovers’ eventual shedding of their inhibitions.
“Don’t marry Scandinavians,” Mme. Armfeldt tells her granddaughter, “they’re all crazy”--the eternal northern light, the exasperatingly drawn-out suspension between night and day, seeing to that. Only, this “Night Music” wasn’t lighted that way.
Otherwise, the drama and music-making were topnotch. Ceejay Javier’s orchestration sounded luscious, ably supporting the superlative singing by the cast. Nonie Buencamino’s Fredrik Egerman was a beacon of clarity and exactitude, an actorly intelligence ever layering his vocals. Cris Villonco as Anne; Jenny Jamora as Countess Charlotte; Alys Serdenia as the saucy servant girl Petra (her 11 o’clock number “The Miller’s Son” was a show-stopper); Jay Glorioso as Mme. Armfeldt; Jake Macapagal as Count Malcolm; the lieder chorus--nearly everyone was at or close to their career best.
Verve and imagination
Rivera, meanwhile, who was superb in “Xanadu,” proved to be surprisingly stymied by “Night Music.” He sang flawlessly as usual (a thrilling solo in “Later”), but fathomed no genuine, profound despair as the tormented son Henrik. And he struck no sparks with Villonco, robbing their flight near the end--the first characters, in effect, to acknowledge the truth and act like grown-ups--the sense of sheer liberation that was the movie’s greatest moment of uplift, and that would free, at last, the rest of the bourgeois menagerie from their petty hypocrisies.
The great work has been done, though. With verve and thoroughgoing imagination, Sondheim had reoriented “Smiles of a Summer Night,” and the resulting musical is big enough to withstand the small, occasional infelicities.
In the general juvenilia that has often marked Manila’s musical landscape, the appearance of “A Little Night Music” allows us, with much pleasure, to channel the critic Clive Barnes’ astonished reaction to it in 1973: “Good God, finally an adult musical!”
“Xanadu” returns Nov. 19-Dec. 5 at RCBC Theater. Call Atlantis Productions at 892-7078/840-1187.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Doctor's prescriptions: theater and--uh, oral sex?
1. Turku, European capital of culture for 2011, [a] city in south-west Finland, has decided that “culture cures” and seen to it that its board of healthcare will distribute 5,500 free tickets for cultural events to people who show up at its municipal health centres. Turku's mayor, Aleksi Randell, [says] “Doctors will consider whether a cultural visit may benefit a patient as a supplement or even as an alternative to medical treatment...” Along with their daily aspirin, the sickly people of Turku will be getting prescriptions for “Cirque Dracula,” “The Brothers Karamazov” and around 50 further events.
-- “The taming of the flu? Finland puts plays on prescription”
2. Heterosexual men who are regularly fellated by homosexual men have a lower risk of developing prostate and testicular cancer, a research study has found. The “Study On The General Health Benefits Of One-Way Gay Fellatio” was spearheaded by University of Montana Sexual & Liberal Studies research fellow Dr. Wendel Jones, and will be published in the upcoming Spring issue of the Men's Journal Of Health & Gender.
“The evidence is just overwhelming and impossible to ignore,” [said] Jones, who identifies as heterosexual and also took part in the study. “If you're a straight guy, getting sucked off by another guy is not as bad as it looks, and does not deserve the social stigma it presently carries...”
“Gay men weren't just put on this earth for their fashion flair, impeccable taste and creativity,” said Jones. “They're cancer-fighting angels that need to be encouraged, celebrated and, above all, appreciated.”
-- “Heterosexual men fellated by gay men have lower prostate and testicular cancer risk, study says”
-- “The taming of the flu? Finland puts plays on prescription”
2. Heterosexual men who are regularly fellated by homosexual men have a lower risk of developing prostate and testicular cancer, a research study has found. The “Study On The General Health Benefits Of One-Way Gay Fellatio” was spearheaded by University of Montana Sexual & Liberal Studies research fellow Dr. Wendel Jones, and will be published in the upcoming Spring issue of the Men's Journal Of Health & Gender.
“The evidence is just overwhelming and impossible to ignore,” [said] Jones, who identifies as heterosexual and also took part in the study. “If you're a straight guy, getting sucked off by another guy is not as bad as it looks, and does not deserve the social stigma it presently carries...”
“Gay men weren't just put on this earth for their fashion flair, impeccable taste and creativity,” said Jones. “They're cancer-fighting angels that need to be encouraged, celebrated and, above all, appreciated.”
-- “Heterosexual men fellated by gay men have lower prostate and testicular cancer risk, study says”
Taiwanese film PInoy Sunday is 12th Cinemanila opening film
The award-winning film tells the story of Manuel (Epi Quizon) and Dado (Bayani Agbayani), two Filipino OFWs in Taiwan who discover a discarded sofa one Sunday in Taipei. This transforms their normal Sunday into a tale of adventure, perseverance and self-discovery.
The jury cited the director for his sense of humor and a lightness of touch in spite of the film's darker themes of difficult labor relations and emotional isolation. According to the jury, “This is a magic realistic film in which the yearnings for the homeland of the immigrant workers are expressed in a fantastic and imaginative way. A film with vivid and brilliant performances of the two actors.”
Wi Ding Ho’s first visit to Manila was when he presented his short film “Respire” in the 2005 Cinemanila edition. He has since won awards for “Respire” and other short films, including a Cannes Film Festival prize for Best Short. When asked during Toronto International Film Festival why he was a Malaysian filmmaker living in Taiwan making stories about Filipinos living in Taipei, his answer was, “I was touched by the optimism and hope I saw in the Filipino OFWs in Taipei. I was curious when I saw all the Pinoys near the St. Christopher's Church. They looked so happy.”
The director will attend the Philippine premiere of Pinoy Sunday on December 1, 2010. His Filipino actors, Bayani Agbayani, Epi Quezon, Alessandra De Rossi and Meryll Soriano, are expected to attend the 12th Cinemanila Grand Opening, which is sponsored by the Cinemanila International Film Festival Foundation, the Film Development Council of the Philippines, and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Manila.
Thursday, November 11, 2010
Vincent De Jesus writes DragonTales, a new Asian musical
MANILA, Philippines--Vincent De Jesus seems to have perfected the art of multi-tasking. In between hosting a television game show, scoring movies and soaps, this prolific composer, librettist, musical scorer and musical director for theater, television and film manages to compose/arrange and co-write an original English musical about mythical Asian dragons.
The production, titled “DragonTales,” started out as a dream project of a group of Singaporean producers who wanted to develop and produce an original musical for the Asian market. Their partner from Manila, Jack Yabut, introduced a network of theater artists from PETA (including De Jesus) and other artists from various theater companies--and what was originally a Singaporean production later became a collaboration between Singaporean and Filipino artists.
As the co-writer, composer, arranger, musical director and lyricist of the production, De Jesus was given the huge task of combining Asian-inspired musical motifs, Filipino musical theater aesthetics and contemporary pop-jazz progressions that would reflect the over-all sense of the play.
“For the past 27 years, I mostly did original Filipino plays. Writing the libretto and composing the music for an all-original Asian-inspired English musical is something very refreshing... and extremely challenging,” he says.
“'DragonTales' is an original musical. Naturally it’s a work in progress. The process was difficult at first but, just like always, I found myself I falling in love with the material. As part of the creative team, you have to fall in love with the material. You have to be a stakeholder; otherwise you’ll end up doing it just because you have to. And there’s no fun in doing things half-heartedly, much more doing it just for the money.”
Although it is not his first time to work with different nationalities with varying cultures, De Jesus is happy at “healthy exchange of ideas” that emerged. “We found ways to agree, compromise and innovate... to never stop pushing the envelope. We are always brutally honest. And we laugh a lot. It’s important to have fun while creating,” he says.
Working with Singaporean artists, director Jeremiah Choy as well as choreographer and actor Gani Karim, allowed De Jesus to appreciate the different ideas and points of view exchanged during production meetings and rehearsals. He adds, “Our differences make things much more interesting. I love diversity. It would be a boring world if everyone was the same.”
But the real challenge for him was to create an Asian-inspired musical that somehow blurs the lines of typical identification as a Filipino, Singaporean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai or Chinese work, and to be able to interlace these rich and varied Asian cultures into one.
“When one hears the term Asian-inspired musical, one would probably expect to hear a sitar, a kubing or the gamelan in the musical arrangements. Instead, I used the piano to simulate the percussive quality of the gamelan and the pizzicato cello as a substitute for bamboo kulitong. I used the violin a lot because it sounds like the soft wailing of the summer wind. I tried to see instruments not for the names they were called but for the sounds they produced, the emotion they represented.”
De Jesus had to bear in mind that “DragonTales” will be touring around Asia, in countries like the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore. “This play is a great vehicle to unearth the true Asian values amidst globalization--self-sacrifice, moderation, word of honor, dignity, humility, love for family, and resilience.”
As the musical’s composer, it has also been a challenge to have a balance of grandness and tranquility to give the play a feel of introspection. “Jeremiah doesn’t want it to sound ‘only’ Asian or ‘very’ Western. He wanted to capture the essence of Asia while utilizing instruments in an orchestra. It’s an interesting take and I was immediately convinced.”
To arrive at this, De Jesus explored timeless Filipino kundiman melodic progressions and combined Western and Eastern influences to come up with a unique flavor that would surely make audiences recall the tunes and themes used throughout the play.
He says, “Mark Twain once said that East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, but in this musical we will try to incorporate and harness what the West has to offer--lush orchestration and rich vocal harmony combined with Asia’s seemingly simple yet complex musicality.”
De Jesus also made sure the music is more introspective rather than fill it with musical gimmickry. “'DragonTales' is not your typical loud production, heavy on dance numbers and showstoppers. It is not about being presentational, or should we say grand but cold, but more inward-looking. It’s very honest. There is truth behind the songs. For what is a song without truth? It’s like a person without a soul. ”
“DragonTales” will run only for two weeks in the Philippines, but De Jesus is hopeful that people will support this groundbreaking project as well as other original Filipino and Asian musicals in general.
“It is not in our culture to buy freshly cut flowers to put in our living rooms everyday. Filipinos would rather buy artificial flowers. But nothing beats real flowers. That is how I would describe the theater. It’s real, it’s alive. Live musical theater is probably the most magical experience an audience can ever have.”
“DragonTales” is showing at the PETA Theater Center on the following dates: November 27, 28, December 4 and 5 at 10:00am, November 26, 27, 28, December 3, 4, and 5 at 3:00pm, November 26 and December 3 at 7:30 p.m. For advance reservations and bookings, contact “DragonTales” Marketing at (63-2) 881-0984, 0917-5562718 or 0915-2957550 or dragontalesmanila@gmail.com.
[Text by Darcy Esguerra]
PLUS: Spilling the Vince--our 2007 podcast with the ZsaZsa Zaturnnah composer-lyricist-musical director-actor, on how he came up with the score, plus his struggles as a theater artist, getting bamboozled by certain show-biz people, working with Mother Lily, how he snagged his bebe, and so much more. Priceless interview.
Part 1 is here, part 2 here. Don't laugh too hard, baka makabag!
The production, titled “DragonTales,” started out as a dream project of a group of Singaporean producers who wanted to develop and produce an original musical for the Asian market. Their partner from Manila, Jack Yabut, introduced a network of theater artists from PETA (including De Jesus) and other artists from various theater companies--and what was originally a Singaporean production later became a collaboration between Singaporean and Filipino artists.
“For the past 27 years, I mostly did original Filipino plays. Writing the libretto and composing the music for an all-original Asian-inspired English musical is something very refreshing... and extremely challenging,” he says.
“'DragonTales' is an original musical. Naturally it’s a work in progress. The process was difficult at first but, just like always, I found myself I falling in love with the material. As part of the creative team, you have to fall in love with the material. You have to be a stakeholder; otherwise you’ll end up doing it just because you have to. And there’s no fun in doing things half-heartedly, much more doing it just for the money.”
Although it is not his first time to work with different nationalities with varying cultures, De Jesus is happy at “healthy exchange of ideas” that emerged. “We found ways to agree, compromise and innovate... to never stop pushing the envelope. We are always brutally honest. And we laugh a lot. It’s important to have fun while creating,” he says.
Working with Singaporean artists, director Jeremiah Choy as well as choreographer and actor Gani Karim, allowed De Jesus to appreciate the different ideas and points of view exchanged during production meetings and rehearsals. He adds, “Our differences make things much more interesting. I love diversity. It would be a boring world if everyone was the same.”
But the real challenge for him was to create an Asian-inspired musical that somehow blurs the lines of typical identification as a Filipino, Singaporean, Malaysian, Indonesian, Thai or Chinese work, and to be able to interlace these rich and varied Asian cultures into one.
“When one hears the term Asian-inspired musical, one would probably expect to hear a sitar, a kubing or the gamelan in the musical arrangements. Instead, I used the piano to simulate the percussive quality of the gamelan and the pizzicato cello as a substitute for bamboo kulitong. I used the violin a lot because it sounds like the soft wailing of the summer wind. I tried to see instruments not for the names they were called but for the sounds they produced, the emotion they represented.”
As the musical’s composer, it has also been a challenge to have a balance of grandness and tranquility to give the play a feel of introspection. “Jeremiah doesn’t want it to sound ‘only’ Asian or ‘very’ Western. He wanted to capture the essence of Asia while utilizing instruments in an orchestra. It’s an interesting take and I was immediately convinced.”
To arrive at this, De Jesus explored timeless Filipino kundiman melodic progressions and combined Western and Eastern influences to come up with a unique flavor that would surely make audiences recall the tunes and themes used throughout the play.
He says, “Mark Twain once said that East is East and West is West and never the twain shall meet, but in this musical we will try to incorporate and harness what the West has to offer--lush orchestration and rich vocal harmony combined with Asia’s seemingly simple yet complex musicality.”
De Jesus also made sure the music is more introspective rather than fill it with musical gimmickry. “'DragonTales' is not your typical loud production, heavy on dance numbers and showstoppers. It is not about being presentational, or should we say grand but cold, but more inward-looking. It’s very honest. There is truth behind the songs. For what is a song without truth? It’s like a person without a soul. ”
“DragonTales” will run only for two weeks in the Philippines, but De Jesus is hopeful that people will support this groundbreaking project as well as other original Filipino and Asian musicals in general.
“It is not in our culture to buy freshly cut flowers to put in our living rooms everyday. Filipinos would rather buy artificial flowers. But nothing beats real flowers. That is how I would describe the theater. It’s real, it’s alive. Live musical theater is probably the most magical experience an audience can ever have.”
“DragonTales” is showing at the PETA Theater Center on the following dates: November 27, 28, December 4 and 5 at 10:00am, November 26, 27, 28, December 3, 4, and 5 at 3:00pm, November 26 and December 3 at 7:30 p.m. For advance reservations and bookings, contact “DragonTales” Marketing at (63-2) 881-0984, 0917-5562718 or 0915-2957550 or dragontalesmanila@gmail.com.
[Text by Darcy Esguerra]
PLUS: Spilling the Vince--our 2007 podcast with the ZsaZsa Zaturnnah composer-lyricist-musical director-actor, on how he came up with the score, plus his struggles as a theater artist, getting bamboozled by certain show-biz people, working with Mother Lily, how he snagged his bebe, and so much more. Priceless interview.
Part 1 is here, part 2 here. Don't laugh too hard, baka makabag!
Ateneo Blue Repertory holds auditions for Hair
Ateneo Blue Repertory is holding open auditions for its February 2011 production of the pioneering Broadway rock musical “Hair.” The auditions will be on November 22-23 (music auditions), 4:30 to 10 p.m.; and November 24, 26 and 28 (dance auditions, callbacks and workshops), all at the Ateneo de Manila University.
Auditionees must prepare a song segment from “Hair” and any song (8 bars) from a different musical. Dance attire is required for the dance auditions.
The production will run Feb. 9-12 and Feb. 16-19, 2011, at the Rizal Mini-Theater, Ateneo de Manila University.
For audition materials, please check the official page on Facebook (BlueRepertory's “Hair”). Follow announcements on Twitter (twitter.com/HAIR_BlueRep) and Tumblr (hairbluerep.tumblr.com). Contact Tomik Tendero at 0922-8363374 for more information.
With book and lyrics by James Rado and Gerome Ragni, and music by Galt MacDermot, “Hair” was a groundbreaking musical both in its music (rock) and setting (the '60s hippie era, the “flower power” generation of the Vietnam War, sexual liberation and bohemianism). “Hair's” original cast album won a Grammy Award for Best Score from an Original Cast Show Album. Meanwhile, the 2009 revival on Broadway bagged a Tony Award, a Drama Desk Award and a Drama League Award for Outstanding Revival of a Musical.
Ateneo Blue Repertory's “Hair” will be theater actor Jake Macapagal’s directorial debut after performing in the Germany and UK runs of “Miss Saigon,” Repertory Philippines’ “The Fantasticks,” Stages’ “West Side Story” and Atlantis Productions' “A Little Night Music.” The creative team includes musical director Laura Cabochan (Tanghalang Ateneo’s “Walang Sugat”), choreographer Adrydeo Dela Cruz (Dulaang UP’s “Orosman at Zafira”) and stage designer Monica Sebial (Ateneo Blue Repertory’s “Freakshow”).
Auditionees must prepare a song segment from “Hair” and any song (8 bars) from a different musical. Dance attire is required for the dance auditions.
The production will run Feb. 9-12 and Feb. 16-19, 2011, at the Rizal Mini-Theater, Ateneo de Manila University.
For audition materials, please check the official page on Facebook (BlueRepertory's “Hair”). Follow announcements on Twitter (twitter.com/HAIR_BlueRep) and Tumblr (hairbluerep.tumblr.com). Contact Tomik Tendero at 0922-8363374 for more information.
Ateneo Blue Repertory's “Hair” will be theater actor Jake Macapagal’s directorial debut after performing in the Germany and UK runs of “Miss Saigon,” Repertory Philippines’ “The Fantasticks,” Stages’ “West Side Story” and Atlantis Productions' “A Little Night Music.” The creative team includes musical director Laura Cabochan (Tanghalang Ateneo’s “Walang Sugat”), choreographer Adrydeo Dela Cruz (Dulaang UP’s “Orosman at Zafira”) and stage designer Monica Sebial (Ateneo Blue Repertory’s “Freakshow”).
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
What's your favorite Sondheim song?
It's his 80th, so the toasts and tributes keep on coming, and we fans are happy to merrily roll along. Here, pop-music legend Paul Simon takes an admiring look at Sondheim's celebrated lyrics and lyric-making. Here, Los Angeles Times theater critic Charles McNulty catches the Broadway god at his wistful, self-deprecating best (“There's an up- and downside to being venerated. You start to believe your own notices, and that's very dangerous. At the same time, it does feel like it's gold-watch time. It's 'thanks so much for coming to the party.' They're nails in the coffin, is what they are.”) And here, NYTimes business writer Joe Nocera writes of his own “midlife obsession” with the man Leonard Bernstein once called “the most important force in American musical theater.”
So what's your favorite Sondheim song? Mine has always been Losing My Mind, from Follies. Searing loneliness, aching ambiguity, all-out love--in lyrics rinsed of the slightest sentimental bunkum.
I dim the lights and think about you
Spend sleepless nights to think about you
You said you loved me
Or were you just being kind?
Or am I losing my mind?
Michael Ball's version of it, from the Hey Mr. Producer concert:
And Broadway titan Barbara Cook's take, from a stupendous concert production of Follies in 1985. In the final line, Cook pours all her character's anguish into one long, lonely note--Or am I looooo-sing my mind?--and rends the audience to bits. Still kills me now.
There's also Old Friends from Merrily We Roll Along. In his Broadway-tribute album Showstoppers, Barry Manilow--of all people--slowed the piece down from its more upbeat pace and made it more ruminative, autumnal, a version that gets me looking at my friends with greater affection each time. And why not, with lyrics like these?
Most friends fade,
Or they don't make the grade
New ones are quickly made
And in a pinch--sure, they'll do
But us, old friends
What's to discuss, old friends?
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few.
Enough of my choices. What's yours?
So what's your favorite Sondheim song? Mine has always been Losing My Mind, from Follies. Searing loneliness, aching ambiguity, all-out love--in lyrics rinsed of the slightest sentimental bunkum.
I dim the lights and think about you
Spend sleepless nights to think about you
You said you loved me
Or were you just being kind?
Or am I losing my mind?
Michael Ball's version of it, from the Hey Mr. Producer concert:
And Broadway titan Barbara Cook's take, from a stupendous concert production of Follies in 1985. In the final line, Cook pours all her character's anguish into one long, lonely note--Or am I looooo-sing my mind?--and rends the audience to bits. Still kills me now.
There's also Old Friends from Merrily We Roll Along. In his Broadway-tribute album Showstoppers, Barry Manilow--of all people--slowed the piece down from its more upbeat pace and made it more ruminative, autumnal, a version that gets me looking at my friends with greater affection each time. And why not, with lyrics like these?
Most friends fade,
Or they don't make the grade
New ones are quickly made
And in a pinch--sure, they'll do
But us, old friends
What's to discuss, old friends?
Here's to us!
Who's like us?
Damn few.
Enough of my choices. What's yours?
A certain sadness
[T]here should be a small part of every critic, I believe, that grieves quietly each time a creative product is less than it ought to be. Every so-so TV series, every half-baked movie or underachieving book [or less-than-satisfactory play or musical--mine] is a lost opportunity. To be sure, a critic's job is to point out just how and why the entity in question falls short. Yet if you don't find yourself ever-so-slightly saddened by the gap between what is and what might have been, you might want to feel around and make sure you still possess a soul.
-- Julia Keller, “Big Meanies: On the Writing of Negative Reviews,” in the Chicago Tribune
-- Julia Keller, “Big Meanies: On the Writing of Negative Reviews,” in the Chicago Tribune
Animators from Mexico and Philippines sign agreement on technology transfer, cultural exchange program
Multi-awarded Mexican animation studio Animex has recently signed a memorandum of understanding with Filipino-owned digital animation and production company Cutting Edge Productions. Their new partnership ushers in technology transfer and cultural exchange programs between the two broadcast and film animation advocates.
Endorsed by the world’s leading supplier of digital media solutions Toon Boom Animation and the embassy of Mexico in the Philippines, Animex and Cutting Edge’s planned creative synergy looks forward to the creation of multicultural and original animated contents, and new business models.
“The Philippines has the most talented animators. They’re much more talented compared to animators in the rest of Asia and the world. From a purely artistic creative point of view, the people here are very gifted. However, they’re not getting their proper share of revenue. What we need now are more local owners of animation studios who have a big vision; who can raise enough financial resources to be able to take on a more leadership role versus being at the bottom of the food chain,” says Joan Vogelesang, Toon Boom President and Chief Executive Officer.
“The animation industry in the Philippines has been built in the past on outsourcing. But the future is on creation of local content and co-production where the Philippine studio takes a bigger position, and therefore gets a bigger piece of the pie. We are confident that the linkage and exchange program between Animex and Cutting Edge will be a big flagship initiative in the Philippines,” she adds.
Animex and Cutting Edge studios have 16 years' combined experience in producing and marketing original animated contents. Both companies’ past digital animation projects have been considered groundbreaking.
Animex is a pioneer in Mexican animation. Its impressive portfolio includes one-minute 2D filler “Roncho: the bad luck dog” (2003)--series aired on LocoMotion Channel in Miami, USA; “La Leyenda dela Nahuala” (2007)--Mexico’s first film done in DTS format; “Nikte”(2009)--a film distributed by Universal Pictures; and “La Revolucion de Juan Escopeta,” an Aeroplano Films and Animex co-production to be completed in November 2010.
Animex, which has established a division in Hollywood, California, is also collaborating with Mexican-American actor and director Edward James Olmos in his first animated Mexican feature entitled “Il Americano”--a hilarious tale about a flock of birds migrating from Mexico to the United States.
On the other hand, Cutting Edge is composed of local animators and producers behind “Dayo Sa Mundo Ng Elementalia”, the Philippines’ first full-length 2D digital animated film, which premiered at the annual Metro Manila Film Festival two years ago. ulti-awarded film composer and musical arranger Jessie Lasaten sits as the company’s president and chief executive officer.
“Animex and Cutting Edge certainly share common grounds: birth pains, corporate values and advocacies. For the cultural exchange program, we are selecting the best candidates from both our teams. We could have animators from Mexico and the Philippines switch places twice or thrice a year,” says Ricardo Arnaiz, Animex producer and director.
As maiden venture, Animex and Cutting Edge have started co-producing their first 3D animated short film that explores the similar culture and traditions of Mexicans and Filipinos. Animex’s Mr. Arnaiz and Filipino director Jerry Santiago helm the Mexican/Filipino production.
Endorsed by the world’s leading supplier of digital media solutions Toon Boom Animation and the embassy of Mexico in the Philippines, Animex and Cutting Edge’s planned creative synergy looks forward to the creation of multicultural and original animated contents, and new business models.
 |
| Cutting Edge Productions’ “Dayo Sa Mundo Ng Elementalia” |
“The animation industry in the Philippines has been built in the past on outsourcing. But the future is on creation of local content and co-production where the Philippine studio takes a bigger position, and therefore gets a bigger piece of the pie. We are confident that the linkage and exchange program between Animex and Cutting Edge will be a big flagship initiative in the Philippines,” she adds.
Animex and Cutting Edge studios have 16 years' combined experience in producing and marketing original animated contents. Both companies’ past digital animation projects have been considered groundbreaking.
 |
| Animex’s “Nikte” |
Animex, which has established a division in Hollywood, California, is also collaborating with Mexican-American actor and director Edward James Olmos in his first animated Mexican feature entitled “Il Americano”--a hilarious tale about a flock of birds migrating from Mexico to the United States.
On the other hand, Cutting Edge is composed of local animators and producers behind “Dayo Sa Mundo Ng Elementalia”, the Philippines’ first full-length 2D digital animated film, which premiered at the annual Metro Manila Film Festival two years ago. ulti-awarded film composer and musical arranger Jessie Lasaten sits as the company’s president and chief executive officer.
“Animex and Cutting Edge certainly share common grounds: birth pains, corporate values and advocacies. For the cultural exchange program, we are selecting the best candidates from both our teams. We could have animators from Mexico and the Philippines switch places twice or thrice a year,” says Ricardo Arnaiz, Animex producer and director.
As maiden venture, Animex and Cutting Edge have started co-producing their first 3D animated short film that explores the similar culture and traditions of Mexicans and Filipinos. Animex’s Mr. Arnaiz and Filipino director Jerry Santiago helm the Mexican/Filipino production.
Saturday, November 06, 2010
Dulaang UP restages Floy Quintos' Isang Panaginip na Fili
“Isang Panaginip na Fili” is a radical reworking of Rizal's “El Filibusterismo.” For one, Jose Rizal himself is a central character in the musical.
Set in 1891, Rizal is writing “El Fili” in a seedy hotel room in Paris. His roommate is Tunying Ibañez, an ilustrado who is living a profligate life in the city. Little by little, Tunying is drawn into the mystery of Rizal's novel, as well as into Rizal's haunted dreams.
The play is about the idea of transformation. Ibarra's transformation from reformist to filibustero is the very crux of the novel, a shift echoed by Kabesang Tales' morphing into Matang Lawin, Basilio into a disillusioned rebel, and Juli from a faithful lass to a sexual plaything.
Even Maria Clara transforms from Ibarra’s chaste inamorata to Salvi's secret whore. The new libretto makes explicitly clear the transformations only hinted at in Rizal's novel.
Reprising Pepe Rizal is Franco Laurel—a role that won for him an Aliw Award in 2009. Alternating with him is Red Conception, who was last seen in Repertory Philippines' “Equus.”
Alternating as Tunying are Reuben Uy, OJ Mariano and Nazer Salcedo; Floyd Tena and Inno Martin play as Basilio; Greg De Leon and Dondi Ong as Kabesang Tales; Mica Pineda and Janine Santos as Juli; and Ces Quesada and Emlyn Santos as Donya Victorina.
The production is supported by the Dulaang UP Ensemble.
Comprising the artistic team are musical director/composer CeeJay Javier, choral director Onyl Torres (who played Tunying in the original run), choreographer Dexter Santos, set designer Tuxqs Rutaquio, technical director Ohm David, lights designer Luther Gumia, sound designer Jethro Joaquin, video master/designer Winter David and stylist Jomari Jose.
“Isang Panaginip na Fili” runs November 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, December 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 12 at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, U.P. Diliman, Quezon City, from Wednesdays to Fridays, 7p.m.,; and at 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekends.
For tickets, call Cherry 0917-7500107 or the Dulaang UP Office 9261349, 9818500 local 2449 or 4337840.
Joe Gruta is back as Padre Florentino in Gantimpala’s El Filibusterismo
“El Filibusterismo,” the final installment of Gantimpala’s annual production of the Four Classics (“Ibong Adarna,” “Florante at Laura,” “Noli” and “Fili”), runs November 12, 13 and 14, (10 a.m./2 p.m.) at SM Southmall in Las Piñas; and November 20, 21, 27 and 28 (10 a.m./2 p.m.) at the AFP Theater in Quezon City.
Gruta and Gantimpala go a long way.
“My first play with Gantimpala—Bulwagan pa siya at the CCP, yung ‘Kanser,’ and I portrayed Pilosopong Tasyo,” says Gruta. “After that, I did majority of my plays with them. My last was ‘Lualhati sa Kaitaasan,’ with Spanky Manikan and Mia Gutierrez under Joel Lamangan’s direction. When we transferred at the MET, I directed some of their laboratory projects.”
What can we expect from his portrayal of Florentino?
“The same passion. My passion for acting has never wavered. You will definitely feel it. I’ve done this [role] before but I’m excited about this because it is a very challenging character, and I like the manner Roobak Valle is directing it,” he says. “Padre Florentino represents the Filipino priest. He knows the secrets of Simoun, even his back story. He is very intelligent, and has a bigger capacity to understand the weaknesses of men.”
Gruta’s beginnings in theater were an accident.
“It happened in 1969. There was a co-production between PAL and PETA. At the time they were doing ‘The Visit.’ I was not included in the play since what I did for the company was to solicit advertising for the programs.”
“But Vic Silayan’s co actor got sick and this happened 14 days before the show,” recalls Gruta. “Cecile Guidote Alvarez panicked and pulled me out from my soliciting job. She felt I was fit for the part. Since then, I have never stopped.”
Gruta’s no. 1 play is “Ang Paglilitis ng Mang Serapio.”
“Definitely the first,” he says. “It started as classroom production by Paul Dumol. Then, he was invited to stage it in PETA. I was the original Serapio, and we did three versions.”
“Second, the ‘Caucasian Chalk Circle.’ Fritz Benovitz went to Manila to direct it. They were rehearsing already for two months and because of a career problem, the lead actor could not do his role anymore. I was already in advertising that time. The PETA people convinced me to take over. It was not difficult to convince me since mahal ko ang theater, eh. When director Benovitz saw me, he said you should have been the first one to do the role.”
His final choice: “Mariano Alvarez’s character in the play 'Andres Bonifacio.' It was memorable for me because of the circumstances surrounding Alvarez and the controversy he was embroiled in, since the play tackled Bonifacio’s trial.”
“Theater is my first love,” says Gruta. “A few minutes before a performance, I still get nervous. The moment I step on stage, however, and I feel the lights on my skin, wala na ang kaba, ako na yung character.”
“Nothing beats the feeling of hearing the applause of people after a show. Hanggang ngayon, nothing beats that satisfaction. My decision to make theater as my vocation is affirmed. Tama pala ang choice ko.”
For information, bookings and ticket reservations on Gantimpala’s “Fili,” call 8995745, 8963503, 9985622. Or visit www.gantimpalatheater.multiply.com and www.facebook.com/gantimpala.
[Photo: Joe Gruta in the 2008 Tanghalang Pilipino production Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street]
Wednesday, November 03, 2010
Just across the street--Prince Charles and Prince William
Unfortunately, our side of the street was barricaded. In front was the majestic facade of Westminster Abbey. The church's courtyard was decked out for a formal event, with a dais, rows of chairs and cops all around. The Pope, I thought, as the bus passed by. I was on my way to the British Museum when I got intrigued at the crowd that grew by the minute in front of the church, so I lingered.
Who's in there, I asked the cop near the fenced-in curb. Camilla, he said, and Prince William--for the 75th Battle of Britain anniversary. Oh oh oh. The British Museum visit promptly banished to after lunch, I began looking for a good vantage point. It was hard. I was a pygmy straining for a look behind the growing forest of Caucasian backs in front of me.
After about 15 minutes, the church bells began to peal, the doors opened, and out came a phalanx of flags. Then the congregation began trickling out and taking their seats on the courtyard. Trickling's the right word--it was excruciatingly slow, at least for those of us standing impatiently and watching the proceedings from across the street. It looked like everybody had to be out of the church first before Their Royal Highnesses would march out. The scene looked veddy English with the women in their sprightly frocks and colorful hats.
My view was already blocked by bobbing heads and shoulders--then an inconsiderate cameraman positioned himself right in front of our spot, earning audible hisses from the crowd. When the two princes finally appeared--and they materialized with no fanfare, announcement or introduction, though you heard the crowd gasp--I had to stand on tiptoe and hoist my camera far above my head to get good shots. The only time I hated being short, I tell you.
Neither of the two princes spoke. Prince William sat on the front row, while Prince Charles ascended the dais and saluted as a military parade passed by. Which lasted all of five minutes perhaps. After a flypast by three Royal Air Force planes in formation, the two princes got up, turned on their heels and reentered the church. And just like that--not even a wave or a nod at the crowd--the royal appearance was over.
The cop got one thing wrong. The event commemorated the 70th (not 75th) anniversary of the Battle of Britain. In 1940, after France fell, the UK was virtually alone in Europe against the might of Hitler's army. Only 21 miles separated the French coast from England; the Germans were set on crossing the Channel and annexing the isles next, except for one thing--Hitler first had to have air superiority before he could launch the invasion.
In this, he was thwarted by the Royal Air Force, whose squadrons of young pilots engaged the Luftwaffe in legendary dogfights over the English skies. The RAF's bravery and successful defense of the realm effectively scuttled Hitler's planned invasion of England, rallied the world against the Nazi onslaught and helped alter the course of war. The sacrifices of those young men--“a truly multinational force comprising 574 British, 139 Poles, 98 New Zealanders, 86 Canadians, 84 Czechoslovakians, 29 Belgians, 21 Australians, 20 South Africans, 13 French, 10 Irish plus others from the USA, Jamaica, Palestine and Southern Rhodesia” [from here]--moved then-UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill to utter one of his deathless lines: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
That morning, what were left of the young heroes of 1940 shambled out of Westminster Abbey still distinguished-looking in their crisp military coats and medals, but a number of them already looking feeble and on wheelchairs. The royals were there to pay tribute to these men--boys, really, 70 years ago--who had saved England and the Free World from tyranny.
The event, quiet and solemn and dignified, moved me tremendously. How great for a country to continue to remember its heroes. Back here, my late lolo--in his teens already a guerrilla against the Japanese, and then post-war was denied recognition for decades by the US for his and his comrades' sacrifices--couldn't even get a decent Philippine flag for his burial. A debt owed by so many to so few, indeed--yet so stingily remembered.
The reward I gave myself for the exhausting royal stakeout? A Coke and a Subway sandwich. It was my 6th and last day in London. Two days before my 40th birthday.
Who's in there, I asked the cop near the fenced-in curb. Camilla, he said, and Prince William--for the 75th Battle of Britain anniversary. Oh oh oh. The British Museum visit promptly banished to after lunch, I began looking for a good vantage point. It was hard. I was a pygmy straining for a look behind the growing forest of Caucasian backs in front of me.
In this, he was thwarted by the Royal Air Force, whose squadrons of young pilots engaged the Luftwaffe in legendary dogfights over the English skies. The RAF's bravery and successful defense of the realm effectively scuttled Hitler's planned invasion of England, rallied the world against the Nazi onslaught and helped alter the course of war. The sacrifices of those young men--“a truly multinational force comprising 574 British, 139 Poles, 98 New Zealanders, 86 Canadians, 84 Czechoslovakians, 29 Belgians, 21 Australians, 20 South Africans, 13 French, 10 Irish plus others from the USA, Jamaica, Palestine and Southern Rhodesia” [from here]--moved then-UK Prime Minister Winston Churchill to utter one of his deathless lines: “Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few.”
That morning, what were left of the young heroes of 1940 shambled out of Westminster Abbey still distinguished-looking in their crisp military coats and medals, but a number of them already looking feeble and on wheelchairs. The royals were there to pay tribute to these men--boys, really, 70 years ago--who had saved England and the Free World from tyranny.
The event, quiet and solemn and dignified, moved me tremendously. How great for a country to continue to remember its heroes. Back here, my late lolo--in his teens already a guerrilla against the Japanese, and then post-war was denied recognition for decades by the US for his and his comrades' sacrifices--couldn't even get a decent Philippine flag for his burial. A debt owed by so many to so few, indeed--yet so stingily remembered.
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