TAGBILARAN City, Bohol, Jan 22 (PIA) – Theater of the future, or Teatro Porvenir finds a new slot in history when the famed Andres Bonifacio stylized biography gets to be staged in Bohol: in a cockpit.
Lutgardo Labad, a multi-awarded Boholano theater director and musical scorer as well as National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) Theater Committee Director said the Baclayon theater, home to traditional cockfights for over a century will become the theater for the future as it will stage the performance of Teatro Porvenir.
The play, written by Tim Dacanay and Edward Perez explores by imagination the country’s heroes as theater artists and threads on the life of Andres Bonifacio, Macario Sacay and Aurelio Tolentino to a direction that is not even mentioned in any historical books.
In Teatro Porvenir, Tim Dacanay and Edward Perez based their story from an interview of one Katipunero who said Bonifacio, before starting the Katipunan, doubles up as a moro-moro and sarzuela stage actor.
In fact, this insinuates that Bonifacio’s revolutionary ideas were not perhaps from the European radical extremists but could be from the messages of protest inserted in the moro-moro and sarzuela plays.
Now, for the paly to be staged in Bohol, in an abandoned Baclayon cockpit, it must be historic, cultural worker observers claimed.
Labad, a Baclayanon openly wished the move to bring the theater to the unique architecture of the cockpit that resembles the theaters-in-the-round of old, enhances communication and dramatic interaction with the audiences.
He said he hopes the move will assist in the revitalization of local community based theater, arts and heritage as well as resurgence of cultural tourism recently which got affected by the earthquake and the super storms.
Labad, artistic director of teatro Bol-anon and Kasing sining: Arts with the heart organizer, also thanked the Uy family of Baclayon for allowing them to explore the possibility of using the cockpit, a private ancestral property for cultural use.
In Bohol’s staging, Teatro Porvenir, which would run on Feb 6-7, 13-14 and 20-21, is Kasing Sining’s offering for February’s Arts Month. (RAC/PIABohol)
