“Unscripted, intimate, not publicized, not orchestrated. That’s the original form of theater!” says Lynette Carantes Bibal, this year’s Philippine LEAF (Live Entertainment, Arts and Festivals) awardee for Outstanding Performance Art for Heritage Practices for Storytelling.

Lynette is a daughter of Geoffrey Carantes, artist, educator, statesman, and the first Ibaloi graduate of the University of the Philippines Diliman’s then School of Fine Arts. In his home province of Benguet and in the Cordillera region, Carantes is known for documenting the Ibaloi’s history and traditional ways of life through detailed pen-and-ink drawings. These drawings are featured in seminal books (Anavic Bagamaspad and Zenaida Hamada-Pawid’s “A People’s History of Benguet” and Leonardo Co’s “Common Medicinal Plants of the Cordillera Region”), and have inspired a bas relief mural that dominates Benguet’s Provincial Capitol. 

Lynette and I first met when we were co-teachers at UP Baguio. She invited me to help document her work among the youth in Kabayan, Benguet, which eventually led to their own theater production, using traditional storytelling and music, about environment preservation and stewardship. 

She has taught in various universities and even joined the corporate world—but after all these years, her first and most enduring love is still community theater. 

Unfinished businesses 

Carantes had helped his daughter with her production thesis to complete her degree in theater arts at UP Baguio. However, that staging did not materialize at that time. It’s one of many “unfinished businesses” Lynette has been navigating through the years. It’s what eventually became this year’s awardee for Storytelling (or “Chiva”).

In 2021, Lynette wrote, directed, and starred in the short film “Pengsasan” (Chronicling), which won the Kapwa Award at the first Montañosa Film Festival. That was her first foray into filmmaking (disclosure: I co-produced the film). It centered on the interpellation of one of her father’s artworks depicting the community’s reaction to a cholera epidemic at the turn of the 20th century. Set during the Covid-19 pandemic, it presented the idea of the fluidity of time and echoes of events over the course of history, and invited film audiences to greater introspection.    

“Pengsasan” was also the title of the exhibits of Carantes’ artworks that Lynette co-organized in 2018 at the Benguet Provincial Capitol, then in 2019 at the Diplomat Hotel as part of Baguio’s Ibagiw Festival. It was one promise fulfilled by Lynette to her father, who passed away in 1998.

Staging a story

For “Chiva,” Lynette brought out another of her father’s drawings—one depicting the Battle of Tonglo—whose historicity is still being discussed by some local historians and elders to this day. 

Taking inspiration from the traditional “bintuan” (storytelling around a bonfire), Lynette gathered about a dozen fellow Ibaloi at the Carantes Ancestral Forest in Baguio one night last April, with elders from the Indigenous Peoples’ Organization (two from Loakan in Baguio and one from La Trinidad in Benguet).

They first said a “madmad” (prayer for blessings)—“because as Ibaloi, before doing anything together, we always start with a prayer,” she said.

She then showed those gathered her father’s drawing. 

Her presentation of the story involved a performance, too, because, although dressed in a regular jeans-and-shirt outfit, she not merely described but also took the intimate audience into the scene, encouraging them to share what the drawing meant to them and what memory it evoked.

“That’s when it became participatory,” she said. 

This also took Lynette back to her childhood. “I remember many nights spent as I was growing up, sitting around a bonfire, listening to the elders of the clan speak,” she said. That made the performance culturally inspired.

In addition, the performance was cited as “emerging,” she said, “because of how I anchored the storytelling on the artwork.” 

Different stories emerged about where and how the battle happened. This inevitably led to a “tonton” (genealogy tracing). That covered heritage: The Ibaloi have historically been at the forefront of asserting ancestral land rights. 

“You cannot assert your rights if you do not know your genealogy, so that is one of the reasons why they have the ‘tonton,’” Lynette explained.

The Ibaloi strongly believe in the people’s rootedness to the land. In the film “Pengsasan,” Dr. Eufronio Pungayan, Ibaloi linguist and historian, said: “You cannot separate your past from your present to the future. You need to be rooted in the land because everything is founded there. Your history is connected to the land.”

Lynette added: “When you fight for ancestral lands, you cannot speak for your family alone. It’s a collective history.” 

Unscripted performance

To be clear, Lynette did not set out to “stage” this presentation to win an award. 

The artwork about the Battle of Tonglo was supposed to be the subject of her undergraduate thesis that did not materialize. Now, decades later, she was finally able to complete that unfinished work. 

“Chiva” had no actual end—as there usually is no strict “end” or “curtain call” to other “bintuan.” The storytelling ended when they extinguished the bonfire. 

Yet, as performances go, this cannot be repeated or replicated. If just one element — for example, the group of participants—is changed, the entire performance changes. 

Lynette is thinking of more such intimate gatherings as part of a “Bonfire Series.” Different stories and stagings will make up the series, but all will be participatory in nature. There will be no central storyteller, but as many versions as there are people who want to tell their stories.

During the 3rd Philippine LEAF Awards held last May in Porac, Pampanga, Lynette Carantes Bibal stood in front of her peers wearing the traditional Ibaloi “kambal” (blouse) and “devit” (wraparound skirt). Visibly surprised at being awarded, she managed to declare: “I receive this not only for myself but also for a people whose voice continues to assert itself in the national consciousness. Thank you for recognizing voices that are equally meaningful and thank you for exploring more creative spaces.”

A connected collective 

At present, Lynette is busy being part of “Dugad Mi” (Our Place), a community-based artscape that seeks to document and preserve the unique features and culture of Baguio’s barangays — based on stories recounted by their elders — through murals and documentary theater. It is a continuing effort undertaken by the Baguio City Planning, Development, and Sustainability Office. So far, only seven barangays are involved. There are 128 barangays in the city. 

“Since I am committed to seeing this through, I will be continuing to work with the more than 100 barangays until I’m old and gray,” Lynette, now 59, said with a smile.

Soon after Lynette received the LEAF award, the Baguio City Council issued a commendation, citing the performance’s portrayal of “the traditional Ibaloi way of oral storytelling around the bonfire, preserving ancestral narratives and passing the cultural identity down to younger generations.”

“We need to retain the participatory nature of storytelling,” Lynette said. “We need to show how we are all connected.” And in the present world where we have the technology to stay connected but seem to be more isolated than ever, this throwback to tradition becomes even more relevant.  CS