Time has become a privilege one carves out from these days of want and fear: time to muse, to make sense of what’s going on, to read. Reading is crucial: an act of will, of resistance. Slogging through the tremendous crowd on the last day of the Manila Book Fair last September, one gaped at...
You really wouldn’t be able to tell based solely on its colorful, toy-themed promotional materials, but Tanghalang Pilipino’s “Anak Datu” is a work of proud defiance that speaks to today’s concerns of historical denialism in a direct, patient, and intelligent way. The play, written by Rody Vera, tells several tales about Muslim Mindanao all at once—including that of the original short story by National Artist Abdulmari Imao; anecdotes about real-life tragedies...
I went back to the remote Barangay Villa Espina in Lopez, Quezon, one Tuesday morning. At 6:30 a.m. after insufficient sleep the night before, I jumped into a decrepit jeepney—only one unit plies the route twice daily if the weather is fine—bound for the barangay (village). It was sunny, unlike the first time I embarked...
“I distinctly remember the letters our parents gave us, telling us how much they yearned to be with us, and that they look forward to the time that we can be together as a family… My parents did not impose their principles and belief on us, but rather gave us the freedom to discover for...
Ignacio Gimenez who? It’s been seven years since I first heard that name—a donor for a theater to be constructed on the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) grounds. Former CCP vice president and artistic director Chris Millado kept on harping on the edifice before and during the coronavirus pandemic, and continued to push for...
Where does history end and myth begin? How does memory, individual and collective, influence and possibly correct the narration of a people’s history? These questions are doubly important today, in an era when social media and other digital platforms tend to lump the critical verification of facts with unthinking chismis (gossip). Tanghalang Pilipino’s latest production,...
The rehearsal hall turns tense and the dancers stand still as Agnes Locsin critiques their execution of the steps. She slowly rises, touching her abdomen as she points to the exact spot where—and how—they must lift in order to deliver the right intensity and angle that the step requires. It’s clear that she has mastered...
It’s easy to get “Cyrano de Bergerac” wrong. If you overstate its romance and its inherently ridiculous premise, this story of a cartoonishly long-nosed soldier helping a young cadet woo the woman they both love can come off as frivolous. To an extent, this is how I felt about the 2016 production of “Mula sa...
They say that these are not the best of times but they’re the only times I’ve ever known. And I believe there is a time for meditations in cathedrals of our own.” – Billy Joel (“Summer Highland Falls”) Veronica Peralejo’s installation of concrete cement cubes titled “Empty Rituals” at Finale Art Gallery in Makati City...
Filipinos consume an average of seven liters of alcohol every year, according to the World Population Review. While that might appear manageable to many, the Philippine College of Physicians recently presented numbers sufficient to give Filipino parents a nightmare: About 70% of students had their first taste of alcohol at age 14, and many of...
