MARINDUQUE LENT 2005 AND NCCA WARP
Just got back from Marinduque for the Holy Week respite, spending a day in each town to get the feel, you know. Surely the usual exodus of island residents coming home from Manila has dwindled this time. It was a breeze coming over. Without the welcome banners and commercial streamers in Boac the week could have been just like any other. Gasan's new 'Baywalk' where visitors could enjoy a beer with pulutan is in place, but, I figure there were more people there on a weekend a month ago when I last visited that spot. Maybe the off-and-on rains did it. Unusual for Lent.
In Buenavista, talk was about the postponement of a Holy Week presentation where the participants staged a walk out when the director displayed his neurosis, I was told, almost similar to an act he did some years ago when he displayed his wrath on stage -with lights and all - just when the show was about to start, causing the entire cast to scamper home to safety and the mayor declaring the cancellation in 2001 of the main Easter presentation SPONSORED BY THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR CULTURE & THE ARTS (NCCA)!! Apparently the Commission never came to know of that fiasco (the NCCA observers left a day before the 'big event' right after watching the dress-tech. I was there so I knew).
The Mayor is supposed to have made a declaration this time that this would be the last project with one who has declared himself the 'god' of theater in Marinduque (though he is just a visitor there), simply because the god is supposed to be fully backed by the NCCA where his sister holds a position, squeezing funds therefrom seem matter-of-factly like a walk in the park. So much for people's money spent on rubbish and misrepresentation.
(Hey, without NCCA in 2003, we mounted "SUKAT..." and just with PHP 5,000 we were able to put it up there, just mobilizing people to contribute bamboos for props, clothes from their 'baul' for costumes, just one meal from the municipio for the cast and staff, no fees to anyone. The lights & sounds were hired for PHP 1,500. We didn't have a follow spot so the lightsman designed one in 15 minutes. It was made of scrap bamboo!)
How much did the NCCA shell out this time? At least PHP 75,000 to cover for 'Manila-imported' lights & sounds like they did in 2001? Did they think that a 5th-class municipality like Buenavista could be dazzled by such show of force? Ask the handful who came to watch and heckled the performers this time! Enough of cultural intervention, 'artistic license' and powerplay!
http://www.geocities.com/teatro_balangaw/sukatfotos.html
The El Nino could be felt more severely, it seemed, in Torrijos. With two friends we camped out at Poctoy Beach and frozed towards morning. The fresh tambakol fish (PHP 110/kilo), an elderly woman volunteered to cook (ihaw at sinigang) was the best we have ever, ever tasted. Mr. Fetalvero of Rendezvous Beach said a 'mini-Pugutan' would be staged come Black Saturday at the beach for the first time so we should return. I was hearing of "panata" again...
There was some surprise in Sta. Cruz. A Lenten Presentation billed as a 'Silver Roadshow Presentation' was to be premiered the next evening. We ate at Rico's owned by board member Ka Norma who said we should be there 'with the dignitaries' during the Holy Thursday premiere. But she had no idea, nor any of my company could understand, what the title of the play "The Economy of Salvation" meant so we left it at that. "All the senators were invited and the general public could watch only outside the fences surrounding the people's park.", she said, "Basta may Genesis diyan sa play, may Jesus Christ Superstar, may Claudia at Pilato, mananayaw, basta mas maganda ito!". A customer who just got in smiled in agreement and torted: "may kanta rin ng Carpenters! Malaki ang budget dito kasi ng gubyerno. Hatid-sundo at pakain ang buong cast since February pa at mas maganda ang costume at ilaw!" Ow, ahmmm.
Aboard the passenger jeepney we proceeded towards Boac passing by Mogpog where we saw just four moryon playing with the streetkids near the marketplace. The "halo-halo" at Doughboys in Boac was good. Home at last, we ran to the beach! My friend Nick said "time to really wash away all the dirt and dust and slime that poured upon us, timawa!"
In Buenavista, talk was about the postponement of a Holy Week presentation where the participants staged a walk out when the director displayed his neurosis, I was told, almost similar to an act he did some years ago when he displayed his wrath on stage -with lights and all - just when the show was about to start, causing the entire cast to scamper home to safety and the mayor declaring the cancellation in 2001 of the main Easter presentation SPONSORED BY THE NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR CULTURE & THE ARTS (NCCA)!! Apparently the Commission never came to know of that fiasco (the NCCA observers left a day before the 'big event' right after watching the dress-tech. I was there so I knew).
The Mayor is supposed to have made a declaration this time that this would be the last project with one who has declared himself the 'god' of theater in Marinduque (though he is just a visitor there), simply because the god is supposed to be fully backed by the NCCA where his sister holds a position, squeezing funds therefrom seem matter-of-factly like a walk in the park. So much for people's money spent on rubbish and misrepresentation.
(Hey, without NCCA in 2003, we mounted "SUKAT..." and just with PHP 5,000 we were able to put it up there, just mobilizing people to contribute bamboos for props, clothes from their 'baul' for costumes, just one meal from the municipio for the cast and staff, no fees to anyone. The lights & sounds were hired for PHP 1,500. We didn't have a follow spot so the lightsman designed one in 15 minutes. It was made of scrap bamboo!)
How much did the NCCA shell out this time? At least PHP 75,000 to cover for 'Manila-imported' lights & sounds like they did in 2001? Did they think that a 5th-class municipality like Buenavista could be dazzled by such show of force? Ask the handful who came to watch and heckled the performers this time! Enough of cultural intervention, 'artistic license' and powerplay!
http://www.geocities.com/teatro_balangaw/sukatfotos.html
The El Nino could be felt more severely, it seemed, in Torrijos. With two friends we camped out at Poctoy Beach and frozed towards morning. The fresh tambakol fish (PHP 110/kilo), an elderly woman volunteered to cook (ihaw at sinigang) was the best we have ever, ever tasted. Mr. Fetalvero of Rendezvous Beach said a 'mini-Pugutan' would be staged come Black Saturday at the beach for the first time so we should return. I was hearing of "panata" again...
There was some surprise in Sta. Cruz. A Lenten Presentation billed as a 'Silver Roadshow Presentation' was to be premiered the next evening. We ate at Rico's owned by board member Ka Norma who said we should be there 'with the dignitaries' during the Holy Thursday premiere. But she had no idea, nor any of my company could understand, what the title of the play "The Economy of Salvation" meant so we left it at that. "All the senators were invited and the general public could watch only outside the fences surrounding the people's park.", she said, "Basta may Genesis diyan sa play, may Jesus Christ Superstar, may Claudia at Pilato, mananayaw, basta mas maganda ito!". A customer who just got in smiled in agreement and torted: "may kanta rin ng Carpenters! Malaki ang budget dito kasi ng gubyerno. Hatid-sundo at pakain ang buong cast since February pa at mas maganda ang costume at ilaw!" Ow, ahmmm.
Aboard the passenger jeepney we proceeded towards Boac passing by Mogpog where we saw just four moryon playing with the streetkids near the marketplace. The "halo-halo" at Doughboys in Boac was good. Home at last, we ran to the beach! My friend Nick said "time to really wash away all the dirt and dust and slime that poured upon us, timawa!"
posted by balangaw @ 12:05 PM
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