MARINDUQUE VICTORIANS REJOINING

In 2002, together with Joseph O I organized a school-based theater group, Teatro Malindug, at the Marinduque Victorians College in Buenavista encouraged by the interest of the school principal, Jules Victor Pernia. "Mara Unduk" was then restaged after having been in hibernation since 1997. Lights and sound were provided by the provincial capitol after pleadings by a teacher, Ms. Orense, who also acted in the play as "Marindik". I was thoroughly surprised when the capitol sent some technical people with stage lighting equipment with special effects such as a smoke machine, special strobe lights and lightning effects. Most of all a powerful follow-spot almost exclusively used only during "Sinakulo" presentations in Boac was also there! Indeed, that surprise inspired the cast to show their very best before a large audience during the eve of the '02 fiesta.

"Sukat Ipag-alab ng Damdamin" a new dance-drama scheduled for Black Saturday '03 was then created for the group. It showed players doing a 'Sinakulo', where the principal character who played Kristo would be taken into another world, the world of local spirits, after a large dose of 'tawak' a local potion that had potency only on Good Friday. Shades of "Bulong" (Gasan 2001), a material on local folklore. For some reason, Ms. Orense did not succeed in borrowing the capitol's lights and sound equipment this time. We had to make do with a rented mobile equipment designed for barangay balls. With that the stage looked like a dimly lit old bar in Mabini even with all available lights on. Seeing this, Bobby L, the owner, hurriedly made a follow-spot of bamboo and that was what saved the play. He defended himself: "Your play is like scenes from a dream and I thought the lighting we came up with was perfect!" I could only agree. For the school's foundation day in '04 an altered shorter version of "Bulong" was also presented by Malindug.

So, our surprise visit to MVC was welcomed by the school heads, Mr. Pernia and Mrs. Saguid, immediately expressing "support in whatever way we can to your current plans". In no time, we were teaching the 'katutubo' dance movements to around 15 girls with the understanding that we would only pick out 8 among them. After 1 1/2 hours (that was Tuesday, 10 Jan), we had chosen our girls and invited those that did not make it to attend the 4:30 pm rehearsals. (It was intended as a polite brush off but to our surprise they all came for the rehearsal). By this time, the number of cast was evenly divided between the public and private high schools.

Based on my 'audition' notes, casting was done for the principal characters Salve, Fire, Air Water and Earth elements, Enkantada, Asuang Master, Alon, Baylana, Conquistador. As the katutubo girls had been chosen, the rest of the male members from BNHS were to be the katutubo boys. I could not find a candidate for Encanto and Katalona both of which required a certain 'power', also left unfilled was the role of Kidlat. It turned out we had a real need for more actors as Spirits, Diwatas, Carriers, Soldiers. Ian listed 36 cast members. We had only 8 days to go..

To the municipal coordinator we presented a sketch of the proposed stag and measurements for the two level platform to be constructed as well as a smaller platform. We also requested that an extension of the small stage be constructed using four pieces of plywood and coco lumber as support.

By Wednesday, the actors were getting more at ease with scenes 1-3 (intro of the elemental spirits, diwatas and asuang). But we had 12 to go thus blocking for the entire dance-drama had to be done immediately. An enkanto had to be selected (Rester). Wondered if we'd ever find a Katalona.. But by Thursday, a former Balangaw member turned up (from St. Mary's College who was part of 'Mis Lagrimas a Ti'), and asked if he could join. Casting changes. He (Bryan) had to be Enkanto and Rester as Katalona. Also by Thursday, Ian and I checked on the dressmaker's progress. She turned out to be the same costume maker from Gasan where she also had a small shop that did the costumes for the 2001 "Bulong" there. She has now moved to Buenavista.

The old costumes I brought from Bahaghari were not enough and that was expected, so Ian and I checked on apparently the only dry goods store that sold textile materials here and found out that both cotton and geena silk sold for P. 35 per yard. We had to make a new costume for enkanto, the elemental spirits, a few diwatas and for the katutubo boys and girls. Didn't find here what could pass off as 'katutubo' costume and had to go to Boac. Was lucky to find something there. Digs started working on the headdresses and came to the rehearsal with a greyish silky fabric he wanted to make as Salve's magical dress.