Like coming home

Ayen Laurel is back to an old love: Theater. That’s why her eyes glisten with excitement; her words are full of joy.

“Eighteen years after I last did a play with Dulaang UP, I am back where I came from,” she reports.

The reason for her comeback: Atang, based on the life of National Artist Atang de la Rama. Ayen plays the fictional character Gia Almonte, a superstar who studied the National Artist’s life and times to prepare for a film she will star in. In the process, she becomes Atang, reenacting moments from the star’s life and interpreting the signature songs of Atang’s career.

Ayen feels a sense of déjavu as she works with student artists in the period play. Like her years back, they are bright-eyed and burn with a passion for acting.

“I can tell who will stay on to make a name for themselves in theater,” observes Ayen.

And like an older sister fussing over her younger brothers and sisters in the profession, Ayen wants to set a good example for them.

“I already memorized my lines as early as the second week of rehearsals,” says Ayen. She hopes her younger co-workers will take the cue and show the same professionalism.

Not that the cast is short on this hallmark of a thespian. Atang also topbills veterans Shamaine Centenera and Frances Makil.

It’s just that returning to familiar grounds can be so overwhelming you want to savor minute while it lasts.

And the play, part of the UP Centennial celebration, does just that. It starts Nov. 26 and runs until Dec. 14 at the university’s Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater).

Too long has Ayen joined the pop bandwagon. And it’s about time she goes back to basics: The classics. In the first place, it’s the backbone of her training at Tanghalang Pilipino and Dulaang UP, where her journey as a performer began. It’s about time she revisits the good old days when she was still a greenhorn in the business and new to the ways of the outside world.

Playwright Floy Quintos knows that crystal-clear soprano will serve his purpose of bringing back the days of the kundiman and the terno. So he only had one choice for the Atang/Gia role: Ayen.

Ayen assures the younger ones who might find the kundiman too old school: “The sound is not ’20s. New arrangements with the violin, cello and other instruments will give the music a dark but compelling sound.”

Gen Xers will also find something to relate to in the plot.

“Showbiz issues back then — intrigue, rivalry, ambition — were as intense then as they are today. Nothing has changed,” states Ayen.

Atang may lapse into a soulful Bituing Marikit or a moving Pakiusap, not an upbeat Umbrella. She and her friends may be garbed in baro’t saya, not in the latest empire-cut garb of today. But the issues she confronts are the same. She still has to be strong for her man (Amado V. Hernandez) the way Ayen, and most women have to be for their family and loved ones.

It’s a complicated set-up. And Ayen knows how it is to be married to power and position the way Atang was.

“Remember, my first husband had a government position,” Ayen reminds you.

Yes, Atang may be set in 1987. But it remains as timely as ever. History, after all, has lessons we will do well to remember.