Let's play. Dead.
For the past few weeks I've been watching stage plays as a requirement for my Theater 100 subject. I feel like I'm getting information overload for I have to see all those plays, analyze them, and put my analyses in black and white. And I'm being a lucky guy because all those plays are - how shall I put it - pa-deep, so to speak. Upon learning all those theatrical concepts by different people I really find it hard to put everything into one piece. By now it's all muddled and confusing.
Roll call.
Basilia ng Malolos. A feminist play by Nicanor Tiongson. Or at least I think it's a feminist stage play because of the proliferation of female characters, and the ladies seem to dominate with their ideals. A three-hour play could often equate to boredom but Basilia ng Malolos is a musical so I enjoyed much. Unlike Hamlet.
Kundiman ng Senyorita. A thesis play by Jeremy dela Cruz which is based on the Legend of Banana (okay, Alamat ng Saging). Purely a movement play, I still couldn't get over the way it was presented. It's actually a love triangle between Babayi, Bana Sang Babayi (husband of Babayi), and Lalaki. This is the description of their play: "...exploring an alternative design in movement for theater, called PUPPETRY of the BODY by eliciting the extremities as 'puppets'." It's an "all-male ensemble." I had to leave the Sunken Garden grounds to watch this play because it simultaneously went on with the UP Fair on a Friday.
Belong Puti. A postmodernist play by Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero staged at the PETA Theater in New Manila. I said postmodernist because it perfectly fits the concepts of the postmodern theater. Lou Veloso makes for a great versatile actor, playing various characters ranging from a grandmother, Grim Reaper, a funny driver who upon retiring is planning to work as a call center agent, among other characters. The actors and actresses emerge from the audience, and it fosters the impression of making the spectators as if a part of the whole play. It's like peeking through a scene that is very close enough to be touched - fourth wall? I'm not sure. Beautiful. Fantastic. Magnanimous. Worthy of a 30-minute applause. I rest my case. Just watch the play - it runs until March 4. Cough out P300. But it's worth it, I'm telling you.
Mefisto. A thesis play about, well, Mefisto based on another play Faust, but here Mefisto the devil is the center of attraction. It talks about disassociation for instead of literally showing to the audience the elements of the play, it somehow makes use of symbolisms that are still comprehensible, but as I've said, pa-deep masyado. Very artsy. Good play, though. There were parts when actors have to cavort and struggle inside a long sheet of polyethylene plastic for the movement scenes. It bothered me. It must have been suffocating. Breast exposures, ha ha. I saw my friend's. Whoopee. Directed by Ole Tiangco.
In lieu of a written final examination in the said subject, I will have to make critique papers on all four of these plays. The question is, How?
Roll call.
Basilia ng Malolos. A feminist play by Nicanor Tiongson. Or at least I think it's a feminist stage play because of the proliferation of female characters, and the ladies seem to dominate with their ideals. A three-hour play could often equate to boredom but Basilia ng Malolos is a musical so I enjoyed much. Unlike Hamlet.
Kundiman ng Senyorita. A thesis play by Jeremy dela Cruz which is based on the Legend of Banana (okay, Alamat ng Saging). Purely a movement play, I still couldn't get over the way it was presented. It's actually a love triangle between Babayi, Bana Sang Babayi (husband of Babayi), and Lalaki. This is the description of their play: "...exploring an alternative design in movement for theater, called PUPPETRY of the BODY by eliciting the extremities as 'puppets'." It's an "all-male ensemble." I had to leave the Sunken Garden grounds to watch this play because it simultaneously went on with the UP Fair on a Friday.
Belong Puti. A postmodernist play by Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero staged at the PETA Theater in New Manila. I said postmodernist because it perfectly fits the concepts of the postmodern theater. Lou Veloso makes for a great versatile actor, playing various characters ranging from a grandmother, Grim Reaper, a funny driver who upon retiring is planning to work as a call center agent, among other characters. The actors and actresses emerge from the audience, and it fosters the impression of making the spectators as if a part of the whole play. It's like peeking through a scene that is very close enough to be touched - fourth wall? I'm not sure. Beautiful. Fantastic. Magnanimous. Worthy of a 30-minute applause. I rest my case. Just watch the play - it runs until March 4. Cough out P300. But it's worth it, I'm telling you.
Mefisto. A thesis play about, well, Mefisto based on another play Faust, but here Mefisto the devil is the center of attraction. It talks about disassociation for instead of literally showing to the audience the elements of the play, it somehow makes use of symbolisms that are still comprehensible, but as I've said, pa-deep masyado. Very artsy. Good play, though. There were parts when actors have to cavort and struggle inside a long sheet of polyethylene plastic for the movement scenes. It bothered me. It must have been suffocating. Breast exposures, ha ha. I saw my friend's. Whoopee. Directed by Ole Tiangco.
In lieu of a written final examination in the said subject, I will have to make critique papers on all four of these plays. The question is, How?
Mike allegedly clacked away to post this
on Wednesday, February 28, 2007 at 7:44 PM.
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