Soaring on wings of Pinoy song & dance

Unknown to most, the successful 20-performance Manila run of the UK HK-based production company, ABA’s new adaptation of Peter Pan rested largely on the support of Filipinos in both creative and performance aspects.

On its last performance tonight at the CCP Main Theater, J.M. Barrie’s beloved play of the kind-hearted flying boy of Neverland and his gang of Lost Boys has inspired dozens of spin-offs (original play, cartoon, pantomime, movies as in Peter Pan, Spielberg’s Hook and Finding Neverland). Its basic appeal lies in the message that goodness and a little help from the fairies can overcome bad elements like Captain Hook and his Pirates. All one had to do was dream and believe in oneself. Actually, one could say that Peter Pan, first performed in 1904 in London, was the precursor of the present-day superhero.

As far back as two years ago, our chemist-singer friend Allan Mirasol while rehearsing for the musical’s Singapore performance, introduced us to two Filipinos involved in the project. They were Amuer Calderon and Nobel Gabasan and we found out they are two crucial artistic talents on whom the entire production depended. Both had relocated to Hong Kong and were active in the music scene of the former Crown Colony.

The 16-member UST Action Singers Alumni Ensemble had been organized by Nobel since 1985 in Manila. When he brought the choir to Hong Kong for Philippine Independence Day in June 2005, this served to be a most impressive audition for the new version of Peter Pan. When the musical began its run in Singapore in Oct. 2005, the eight female/eight male strong choir received lavish praises for its construction towards enhancing the musicality of the production. For the Manila run, Nobel had to shuttle between Hong Kong and Manila every weekend to rehearse the choir and attend to other commitments in Hong Kong where he is a teacher in piano and voice, and a professional vocalist and instrumentalist for the past seven years.

Peter Pan’s musical director and composer Amuer Calderon studied music and dance at the Philippine High School for the Arts in Makiling and the UP College of Music. After a stint with Ballet Philippines, he went to Hong Kong to dance for the HK Ballet. Currently, he is an accompanist for the HK Academy for Performing Arts, musical director, arranger and vocal coach. For the Asian tour, Amuer has written five new songs to add to the 14 original compositions of composer Karl Jenkins. Amuer, we discovered, also happens to be the son of Irene Calderon whom we met years before in the course of her advocacy work with a theater troupe of deaf dancers. It was a happy occasion for us to renew ties.

After getting a call from Irene as well as Nobel, there was no way, before, that we could miss its Manila run having participated vicariously in its birth, we felt. From the moment the play began with the choir on stage singing the signature Fairy language chant, we felt in our bones the presence of Filipino talent and we were right. We found out that among the cast of Asians, Brits and Americans was Filipino Meynard Marcellano playing Bo’sun Black the Pirate. Meynard was dance choreographer for the Streetboys and had performed in the Asian tour of Miss Saigon. His line in Tagalog during the Manila performance always brought wild applause from the audience.

Exclusively to the Manila run were 17 dancers from various dance schools in Manila who played the child fairies and they rehearsed for a month. One of them is Noriza Illoy Calderon, a niece of musical director Amuer Calderon.

Also in the creative team is choreographer Kitty Aguila Cortes, originally from Manila who has also relocated to Hong Kong. She has extensive training in theater and performances in Europe and Asia. Consultant choreographer is Jun Mabaoquiao who left Ballet Philippines to dance in the Hong Kong Ballet for nine years; dance assistant is Judelle de Guzman-Sicam who majored in dance at the UP College of Music, and is choreographer, dance teacher and Pilates instructor.

The Manila performances tapped Michael Lopez as assistant conductor and Aji Manalo as keyboardist. We also bumped into Evelyn Gino who proudly told us she was with the play’s make-up team. We are sure there are more Pinoys working behind-the-scenes whose contributions will never be acknowledged.

Beyond the technical polish of the flying machine which brought most kids into the theater to begin with; beyond the wonderful performances of Ryutaro Yanagita as Peter Pan, Capt. Hook and his pirates who make up the 65-member cast; beyond the vision of producer/director Matthew Gregory and his playwright Ben Munroe – it is obvious one can’t ignore Filipino talent on and behind the Peter Pan stage.

This is just another confirmation of our excellence in the performing arts that the world has already acknowledged.

After Manila, Peter Pan continues to Malaysia, China, Japan, Australia and Hong Kong.

(E-mail me at [email protected]).