PETA opens its doors to theater hopefuls with Workshop Weekends 2

With four classes overflowing with students and professionals looking to take hold of creative pursuits, PETA opened its first of three Workshop Weekends cycles this July 25 at the PETA Theater Center studios.

Workshop Weekends is a series of theater workshops for students and adults. Specially designed for individuals with busy lifestyles, it features ten extensive sessions on the weekends, with three exciting courses to choose from: Theater Arts, Basic Acting, and Creative Musical Theater.

If you missed the first cycle, you need not worry. Workshop Weekends is back for its second cycle this October 10 to December 6. 

Each course incorporates PETA’s Integrated Theater Arts Approach, which combines five different disciplines in theater— creative drama, body movement and dance, creative sound and music, creative writing and visual arts —creating for a well-rounded course suited for theater enthusiasts as well as individuals looking for more creative ways of spending the weekends.

Theater Arts I

For ages 17 and up, immerse in an artistic experience that teaches the fundamental knowledge, skills, and attitudes in theater acting, dramatic improvisation, and theater production craft.

Basic Acting

For ages 18 and up, discover the disciplines of acting by learning the basic knowledge, skills, and attitude in becoming stage actors. Enhance your acting tools by exploring different acting styles and principles.

Creative Musical Theater

For ages 16 and up, explore the fine arts of musical theater by experiencing the elements of musical performance, composition, and production. Understand the harmonization of the different fields that make a successful musical production.

Enroll now and avail of special discounts! For more information on PETA and its workshops, contact us at 725 6244 or email us at petatheater@gmail.com. You may also contact Tina Sablayan at 0905 369 6003 PETA is located at No. 5 Eymard Drive, New Manila, Quezon City.

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Kris Bernal and Liza Dino take on the role of the Modern Maria Clara

QUEZON CITY, PHILIPPINES -- 'Maria Clara', a name that often strikes a chord among Filipinos as she is the portrait of an ideal Filipina; graceful, beautiful, and compassionate. In the fast -paced and buzzing world of modernity and technology, do Filipinas still identify with Dr. Jose Rizal's quintessential Filipina icon?

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) redefines the idea of Maria Clara with its restaging of Noli at Fili Dekada Dos Mil this coming September at the PETA Theater Center. A modern retelling of Rizal's greatest novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, Noli at Fili Dekada Dos Mil is produced by two theater greats, playwright, Nicanor Tiongson, and director, Soxie Topacio. The production introduces Clarissa, the beautiful damsel and paramour of the hero, Ibarra; the principled and strong-willed 'Maria Clara'. Two talented artists, Kris Bernal and Liza Dino-Seguerra, gear up for the role of Clarissa.

An exchange between these two young stars revealed their expectations, and challenges taking on the part of the dynamic Clarissa.

'I see Maria Clara as someone with values. I want to be able to show the audience that even if society is changing, the values that Maria Clara held on to before is still the same. She is a very loving daughter and she takes responsibility for her actions.', Kris explains when asked about her portrayal of Clarissa, to which Liza agrees with.

'I'd like to portray this Maria Clara as somebody who makes her choices, whether it's wrong or right; to take responsibility of those choices. I see her as a woman with principles. It takes such a strong person to give up and sacrifice the love of her life to protect her family.', Liza reflects and even teases the compelling character development of Clarissa as the production reaches a turning point towards the end where she finds her true strength.

Where both actors agree on the character and personality of Clarissa, they're also finding a few challenges in translating and relating to the modern Maria Clara.

'As an actor, I consider script analysis as a very important factor. I'd like to take on the journey of the character and honestly, I'm still looking for her [Clarissa]. I'm a very headstrong person and Clarissa may not be that. I'm still looking for the perfect balance between the character and myself.', Liza muses.

Comparing it to her experience in television and film, Kris admits that she is still getting used to the techniques of theatrical acting. 'There are so many things to adjust. Actions have to bigger and my voice has to be loud. Di ka rin pwede magkamali sa lines, dapat perfect, and you also have to know your cue unlike in TV where we can have several takes.'

Although there's still a long road ahead to achieving the character of the Modern Maria Clara, both artists are positive as they are supported by the cast and staff, and most especially, their director, Soxie Topacio.

'[Soxie Topacio] encourages me to find my vulnerability. He keeps telling me that my weakness is my strength. Every day is a learning experience', Liza describes how Soxie Topacio coaches her to find her inner Clarissa.

'I'm very thankful to PETA for giving me this opportunity. Sa dami ng pinagpipilian nila na mas experienced, they chose me to carry the role. Thankful din ako na kahit first time kong makatrabaho yung mga batikan sa teatro, they're very supportive. They let me ask questions and it really inspires me to see how they work. I'm enjoying it.', Kris expresses.

Joining these two artists are a powerful mix of young and experienced actors such as: Raul Alfonso, Jojo Atienza, Lucho Ayala, Rikki Benedicto, Renante Bustamante, Roi Calilong, Buddy Caramat, Mikou David, Eric Dela Cruz, Jess Evardone, Rhenwyn Gabalonzo, Gio Gahol, Neomi Gonzales, Joseph Madriaga, Richard Manabat, Nicole Manlulo, Michelle Ngu, Gie Onida, Kitsi Pagaspas, Jo-ann Pamintuan, Norbs Portales, Ian Segarra, Raffy Tejada, Marco Viana, and Jack Yabut. With the set design by Gino Gonzales, lighting by Jonjon Villareal, sound design by Dodjie Fernandez and Noel Cabangon, choreography by Dudz Terana, costume design by Arlene Crisostomo, and fight choreograhy by Jack Yabut, Noli at Fili Dekada Dos Mil promises to be scenic masterpiece that rivals a cinematic experience.

Catch it at the PETA Theater Center starting on September 10 to 13 and at the Springs Production Studios on September 18 to 27. Interested viewers may get their tickets at www.ticketworld.com.ph or 891 9999. For more information on Noli at Fili Dekada Dos Mil and the cast, contact PETA at 725 6244, 0905 353 6602, or visit www.petatheater.com.

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Amulets, Anting-Anting at Yuchengco Museum

Before the arrival of Spanish colonizers to our shores, early Filipinos believed that wearing powerful, mystical amulets or talismans would protect them from harm or even give them special powers. Called agimat and anting-anting, these mysterious objects have survived for centuries, thanks to the later inclusion of Christian iconography. Shrouded in myth, meaning, and symbolism and long kept secret from the rest of society, the stories aboutagimat and anting-anting are revealed in a special exhibit at Yuchengco Museum entitledPinoy Power Packs: Agimat, Anting-Anting , and the Stories They Tell, on view starting August 15.

Agimat and anting-anting illustrate our folk beliefs, spirituality, and view of the world: they are a fusion of a belief in nature and in a concept of God who is both animist and Christian. They can be seen as our way of seeking to approach God and hold the power of God within a medallion, handkerchief, or vest, creating a powerful divine connection that gives the wearer god-like qualities.

Pinoy Power Packs explores the animist symbols and icons found in agimat, from the all-encompassing Infinito Dios to the many forms the Infinito manifests. The exhibit also looks at how these iconsincorporate Christian imagery, such as the crucified Christ, the Virgin Mother, and the Santo Niño.

In addition, Pinoy Power Packs highlights our modern interest in our folk spirituality, as seen in nativist movements such as the Rizalistas and Lapiang Malaya (Freedom Society), and in films such as Nardong Putik. Visitors can watch videos of an artist shopping for agimat in the streets of Quiapo in Manila, or of a young healer and practitioner explaining the various motifs seen in agimat.

Pinoy Power Packs juxtaposes examples of talismans from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries, along with colonial religious sculpture and contemporary art by National Artists for Visual Arts Ang Kiukok and Benedicto “BenCab” Cabrera, the late Santiago Bose and Roberto Villanueva, and Leeroy New. Lenders to the exhibit curated by Floy Quintos include Romeo Allanigue, the Bose family, Jaime Laya, Richard and Sandra Lopez, Ramon Lucas, Lisa Ongpin Periquet, and Dennis Villegas.

In order to shed more light on these icons, related talks will be held. Pinoy Power Packs: Agimat, Anting-Anting, and the Stories They Tell is on view at Yuchengco Museum from August 15 to November 7, 2015. The museum is located at RCBC Plaza, corner Ayala and Sen. Gil J. Puyat Avenues, Makati. Museum hours are Monday to Saturday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, call (632) 889-1234 or visit www.yuchengcomuseum.org.

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Pinoy Power Packs Exhibit @ Yuchengco Museum

Pinoy Power Packs: 

Anting-Anting, Agimat, and the Stories They Tell

Aug 15 - Nov 7, 2015

3/F Bridgeway Gallery

Pinoy Power Packs sheds light into the Filipino folk psyche by examining the motifs, meanings, materials, and mediums of talismanic amulets known as anting-anting and agimat. These are popularly known as brass medallions peddled around Quiapo Church in Manila.

The exhibit also includes examples of sacred woods such as dignum and alitagtag, ephemeral materials such as ink on linen or cotton, or oraciones or prayers on paper. Talismans made of rarer materials such as bone, silver, and ivory are also on display. Pinoy Power Packs showcases anting-antingand agimat from as early as the mid-19th century to contemporary pieces used by today's mag-aanting and healers. 

How have these amulets—and the belief systems they signified—survived to this day? How do they continue to protect, transform, and empower? Though misunderstood—even feared or ridiculed—by many, these amulets continue to be the source of secret spirituality that continues to attract many followers.

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Veteran Actor Gloria Sevilla Headlines Cinema Rehiyon 7 Opening In Cebu

Veteran actor Gloria Sevilla is expected to grace the opening of Cinema Rehiyon 7 film festival on August 6, 2015, at the SM City Cebu Cinemas in Cebu City, Cebu. She will be joined by fellow Cebuano actors including Pilar Pilapil, Suzette Ranillo, Julian Daan and Undo Juizan, the first Cebuano FAMAS Best Child Actor awardee (for the film Salingsing sa Kasakit).

A flagship project of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) National Committee on Cinema (NCC), headed by filmmaker William Mayo, Cinema Rehiyon is a film festival that features the works of Filipino filmmakers from all over the Philippines, especially outside of Metro Manila, raising awareness on the efforts on and progress of filmmaking in the different regions. Now on its seventh year, Cinema Rehiyon provides a platform for these films, most of which in local languages and showing culturally-rooted narratives, to be exhibited and appreciated by a wider audience, and for the filmmakers to interact with other filmmakers and stakeholders.

Cinema Rehiyon has been a major part of the Philippine Arts Festival, NCCA’s celebration of the National Arts Month every February. The first two years of Cinema Rehiyon was held at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in Pasay City. Since 2011, it was held in different parts of the country—Davao City in 2011; Bacolod City, Negros Occidental, in2012; Los Banos, Laguna, in 2013; and Cagayan de Oro City in 2014.

This year with the theme “At the Crossroads of the Seventh Art,” Cinema Rehiyon will be held in Cebu from August 6 to 9, 2015, highlights Cebuano films, cognizant of the fact that Cebu is the second largest film-producing region in the country after Metro Manila, especially during the 1950s and 1960s.

“Cebu has a unique situation. A local industry sprung from the province around 1932 to 1975. Also, there is a resurgence of a new breed of Cebuano filmmakers,” shares NCC vice head Teddy Co.

The opening film is the classic Cebuano film Badlis sa Kinabuhi, first shown in April 1969. Long thought to be “lost,” Badlis sa Kinabuhi, directed by Leroy Salvador and written by Junipher, stars Gloria Sevilla, Mat Ranillo Jr., Felix De Catalina, Danilo Nuñez, Aurora Villa, Siux Cabase, Frankie Navaja, Jr. and Remedios Atillio Alivio. It won best film at the Filipino Academy of Movie Arts and Sciences (FAMAS) Awards in 1969, and best actress (for Sevilla), best child actor (for Navaja) and best film in black and white at the 1969 Asian Film Festival in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Badlis sa Kinabuhi follows the story of Celia (Sevilla), who is forced to work for his harsh stepfather Simon, when she, her husband Doming (Ranillo) and her young son Lito (Navaja) have fallen into hard times. Rumors begin to circulate that Celia and Simon is having an affair. Simon tries to rape Celia but Lito intervenes. Celia snaps when she sees Simon shoving away her son, and kills him with a bolo. Doming arrives. Seeing Celia naked, he chooses to believe the rumors and banishes Celia. Celia is about to be sentenced in court for the murder of Simon, when Lito, who is unable to speak because of trauma, finally speaks up and recounts the incident. Celia is acquitted and reunited with her husband.

Sevilla, who produced the film with Ranillo, will be given the Hara Humamay Award by the Cebuano Cinema Development Council during Cinema Rehiyon 7. Widely considered as the Queen of Visayan Movies, she, together with Ranillo, has produced and acted together in a number of notable Cebuano films. In 1973, her film Gimingaw Ako (I Miss You) was the first movie from the Philippines to be shown at Moscow International Film Festival in Russia. She won the FAMAS Best Actress award the following year for the movie together with daughter Suzette Ranillo, who won Best Supporting Actress. She received her first FAMAS Award as Best Supporting Actress in the movie Madugong Paghihiganti (1962). FAMAS gave her a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Sevilla is still active in Philippine film and television. Most recently, she won New Wave Best Supporting Actress award at the 40th Metro Manila Film Festival in 2014 for the movie, Mother’s Maiden Name.

On the other hand, Mat Ranillo Jr., known as the King of Visayan Movies, will be honored with the Rajah Humabon Award. A lawyer, Ranillo died in a plane crash in 1969 and was posthumously given an award at the 1969 FAMAS Awards.

Their movie, Badlis sa Kinabuhi joins select regional films, 17 in all, in showings at the SM City Cebu Cinemas, Cine Orientes 1 and 2, and Film and Media Arts Academy (FMA) Mini Theatre. Films are clustered into thematic categories. One example is a category delving on the aftermaths of super typhoon Haiyan or Yolanda, and it includes T.M. Malones’ Dapya Sang Paglaum, Charena Escala and Rowena Sanches’ documentary Nick and Chai, and Thomas Fitzgerald’s Tigdong.

Films focusing on indigenous traditions are also included in the line up. Among them are Nef Luczon’s documentary on the Pan-ay Bukidnon group titled Father Said, “Let’s Return Home”; Lester del Valle’s Walang Rape sa Bontok; Adjani Arumpac’s War is A Tender Thing; and Ivy Universe Baldosa’s Marciano. A notable work is Boyong and Sendong’s Busol: The Last Headhunters, which is regarded to be an “indigenous film,” produced by and for the Cordilleran communities.

Other notable films to be shown are Remton Zuasola’s Soap Opera, which serves as the festival’s pre-opening film; Baby Ruth Villarama’s Little Azkals; Bagane Fiola’s Sonata Maria; John Paul Laxamana’s Magkakabaung; Lemuel Lorca’s Mauban: Ang Resiko; Charliebeb Gohetia’s Chasing the Waves; and Alec Figuracion’s Bitukang Manok, a product of an all-Cebuano crew from the boutique film school International Academy of Film and Television.

Kidlat Tahimik’s Balikbayan #1: Memories of Overdevelopment Redux III closes the festival of the best regional films. Said to be the prominent filmmaker’s tribute to pre-Hispanic Cebuano, the film follows Enrique of Malacca, a Visayan slave brought by Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan considered to be possibly the first man to circumnavigate the world. Tahimik stars as Enrique with George Steinberg, Kawayan de Guia, Wigs Tysman, Katrin de Guia, Kabunyan de Guia and Danny Orquico.

Balikbayan #1 won the Caligari Film Prize at the 65th Berlin International Forum of New Cinema alst February. The work was also screened and well-received in other international festivals such as the Singaporean Biennale and the 39th Hong Kong International Film Festival in April.

Aside from the full-length feature films, there will also be screenings of contemporary Cebuano short films at the FMA Mini Theater, on August 7 and 8, from 1 to 6 PM. There are about 50 titles to be screened including Rommel Ruiz’s “Nangisit nga Darag” (Black Sand) from Cagayan Valley; “Red Lights” by Cebu’s Christian Paulo Lat; and “The End of War” by Ozamis City-based Jo Bacus.

There will also be outreach screenings in select venues, outdoor screenings as well as a special viewing of National Artist Lamberto Avellana’s rarely seen works. Cinema Rehiyon 7 also features fora and discussions on subjects such as “Re-imagining Regional Cinema,” “The Regional as the Other in Cinema,” “Getting the World to See Youth Film” and “Film as Heritage.”

The NCCA is led by its chairman Felipe M. de Leon Jr. and OIC-executive director Adelina M. Suemith. Cinema Rehiyon is made possible by NCC head William Mayo, NCC vice-head Teddy Co, festival director Maria Victoria Beltran and other NCCA-NCC members.

For more details, please contact Ms. Bambi Beltran, Festival Director for Cinema Rehiyon 7, through 09471763343 or email your concerns to bambibeltran@gmail.com or Mr. Rene Napeñas, Head of the Public Affairs and Information Office, through 09285081057, 527-2192 loc 208 or through email address ncca.paio@gmail.com.

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A Solo Exhibit by Nunelucio Alvarado @ Ysobel Art Gallery

Putting into faces the re-working of perception and subjectivity, Nunelucio Alvarado delivers an exhibit entitled "Byutipul" (Filipinized form of the word beautiful). The celebrated Negrense artist will be displaying over thirty artworks in Ysobel Gallery from August 15 to 26, 2015. In this series Alvarado reflects how society understands and interprets identity more than showing its physiological imitation.

BYUTIPUL articulates themes that focus on the appearance of idea;

Face perception allows people to function efficiently in a social and communal environment. It is crucial to identify, for instance, expressions of distaste or pleasure, cultural history or some pathological implications. The exhibit, however, re-examines this simple act of looking at a person; what are we longing to see in one another? What goes on in the depth of observing each other's features- flaws, assets and all? Is appreciation something spontaneous, or is it strictly built and predetermined by our ideologies?

In contrast to a poet who puts pictures into words, Alvarado is a lyricist of image. But like a poet his projections of reality are encrypted with metaphors. He reprepares the obvious into something less familiar; allowing more space for introspection. This lets his works border around his playful intentions.

The artist navigates by impulse. He goes about working within and beyond his reality by freeing his creative process from the isolation of a self. The natural is simply shown as evaluated through distorted eyes. We become the spectators of his contemplations; how he captures emotion and presents it directly without the theatrical drama. It is in this kind of contemplation that we, as both listeners to his visual narratives and beholders of his abstract expressions, are drawn to ask; how does one find beauty? How do we point it out apart from its absence? In this same manner, one would wonder; what is not beautiful at all?

Alvarado takes beauty itself as his subject- a faceless muse. He does not give it identity. He does not prefer exposing it as a recognizable whole either. It is placed spontaneously in a clutter of figures; prodding viewers to seek whatever beautiful may be through the context of personal experience or memory. So that, after all the queries, while beauty can be caught between glimpses of things, Alvarado proposes it only exists everywhere our minds allow."

The exhibit will be on view from August 15 - 26, 2015 at YSOBEL Art Gallery, 2nd flr. Shops at Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig

For more information you may call 09285071117/09332227952/ 5764758 or email mark.sancheztiongco@gmail.com.

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Call for Artists: Outside the White Cube

The Multiple eXposure Project will be curating “Outside the White Cube”, an alternative, traveling, curatorial project which aims to feature image-based works across different disciplines and media by emerging artists from the Philippines and elsewhere. We are inviting local and international artists whose works discuss the notion of the “PUBLIC” and its complexities. Deadline of submission is on October 5, 2015.

Artists working in a variety of media and disciplines are invited to participate and submit their works. We are seeking image submissions such as photographic series, video arts, short films, video mapping, recorded public performances, digital manipulation, animation, digital arts, new media arts, and others. Needless to say, any medium that can be projected to the screen will be accepted.

Please email your submissions, together with description, artist statement, and bionote, to themultipleexposureproject@gmail.com.

For more information, visit our website: http://www.themultipleexposureproject.co.nr or our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/themultipleexposureproject.

About the Theme (Public):

The “public” is a multi-layered concept defined differently depending on how the term is used and framed. It is a notion devoid of singularity and is, grammatically speaking, a terrain of contradictions. As a noun and an adjective, the public constitutes the people, masses or community, and suggests anything that is staged, accessed, or seen out in the “open.” The public can also be used as a verb to describe something one does, as in make public or publicize, suggesting the movement or shift from the inside (private) to the outside (public). Paradoxically, however, the same term also points to the limits of such openness and movement. Given that it simultaneously refers to something “involving and provided by the government”, the public is always at risk of becoming merely an apparatus of the sovereign state and its institutions, thus making the flow of its production, distribution, and consumption partial and counterproductive.

With these issues in mind, we are looking for submissions that address and interrogate key topics of interest, but are not limited to, the following:

- What is public? What counts as public?
- The public and the private - their overlapping tensions and ambiguities (ex: private event, object, or space made public)
- The public as a collective (subject, citizenship, nation, etc.)
- Politics, institutions, and conflicts (of interests) in public sphere
- Positioning the public in the city or urban context
- The value of public-ness (openness, sharing, connection, participation, etc.)
- The limits and potentials of the public
- The public and the subaltern counterpublic
- Public image and identity
- Public performance, gaze, visual voyeurism, and spectacle
- Public and biopolitics (power, discipline, panopticon, and surveillance)

Description:

As implied by the project’s title, “Outside the White Cube” seeks to re-frame the practice of curating and spectating images outside the exclusionary, institutional borders of the “white cube” or gallery space.

Public spaces are used as an exhibition site to stimulate a mode of spectator experience that revolves around displacement of the passersby (public) from their “habitus” by interrupting the flow of pedestrian traffic. We alter a familiar public space and transform it into an unusual, dialogic site for image projection and exhibition, taking advantage of its accessibility and site-specificity in order to redefine the ways the spectators look at and engage with images. Adopting “guerilla urbanism” as a curatorial strategy, we make sense of the immediacy of the “public” and reflect upon its context, meanings, and intersections with representation, place, and discourse. In so doing, we intervene and reformat aspects of the urban landscapes and emphasize the “counter-spectacle” in art viewing and appreciation.

This project also underlines the inherent ephemerality of an open-to-the-public display in relation to time and space. As a “traveling” exhibition which heavily depends on projection technology and public space as its “frame” or “canvas", this project celebrates the momentary nature of image-viewing, consumption, and mobility in the metropolis at a time of constant flux and transition.

Sites and Duration:
Selected works will be projected and displayed in public spaces in different parts of Metro Manila where there is a massive flow of human traffic. Possible sites defined by law as “public place” include: “any highway, boulevard, avenue, road, street, bridge or other thoroughfare, park, plaza, square, and/or any open space of public ownership where the people are allowed access.” Each exhibition will run anywhere from a few hours to a week. The first phase of the traveling exhibition will run from October to December 2015. An accompanying zine featuring the works of the artists will also be published.

About The Multiple eXposure Project:

The Multiple eXposure Project is a multimedia, multi/trans/inter-disciplinary artistic practice and research-based initiative that explores the many layers of image-making, participatory photography, visual ethnography, and performative encounter(s) between the image and the spectator; the subject and the viewer.

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