Under the spell of a teacher called Naty

If we had told anyone we went to watch a play because we felt a force pulling us in that direction, chances are they would think we had turned batty. So all we said was we were watching the legendary Naty Crame-Rogers in her last performance as Candida in Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino.

The play tells of two spinster sisters Candida and Paula, children of Don Lorenzo Marasigan, living in Intramuros before World War II who stubbornly cling to the impractical world of the old culture contra mundum, refusing their siblings’ offer to sell the house.

Naty is an amazing individual, turning 90 in December yet remembering dates of events, names and faces of people she had met long ago. Even more amazing is that she is still active in the theater scene acting, directing, writing books and pushing the cause of drama education. In 1983, she gave a workshop for the youth during summer break, the result of which led to the formation of the Philippine Drama Company and the Amingtahanan Sala Theater in 1984, venue of this evening’s play.

We enter the house on 40 Stella Maris, Barangay Kapitolyo in Pasig with its theater tarpaulins plastered outside. We are invited into a room with antique furniture — Naty’s bedroom, library and overall inner sanctum. We immediately felt at home in the surroundings especially when Naty started telling us of her current involvements and showing us the books she has written, some already out of print.

Educated at UP, UST, Stanford, California, Texas, East-West Center in Hawaii and England, Naty taught Speech and Drama at the Philippine Normal University and at St. Scholastica’s College. As an actress, it’s as Rizal’s love Leonor Rivera, then both Paula and Candida from Portrait, that she is mostly remembered. The older generation best relates her to the tandem of Daisy Avellana as Candida and Naty as Paula. Today, it is Naty as Candida and Florina “Lala” Castillo as Paula that the present generation knows.

As principal of St. Scholastica’s Elementary school in 1990, Lala Castillo recalls searching for Naty to request for a workshop for her choral group. Naty ended up becoming artistic director of St. Scholastica grade school’s Childrens and Teacher’s Theater for the next 14 years. That was how their friendship commenced. 

In 1994, Naty decided to stage her own version of Portrait in her own home, which she had built precisely for that purpose. With a circular ceiling, three entrances and exits, the garden as the fourth wall, plus costume and dressing rooms, AmingTahanan Sala Theater was ready. This was the performance we watched last weekend, which used Daisy’s script adapted for film. Lala tells us that this is also where she has done 25 out of her 60 performances as Paula. 

Lala says her experience with Naty has been “magical.” “Nakulam ba kita? No matter how much I scold you, you always come back,” Naty chides her. “I truly feel most privileged, having had a different kind of apprenticeship with her!” concurs Lala of the many little and major lessons she has learn from the amazing Naty Crame-Rogers.

We also met last weekend Bob Lane, who has developed a love and passion for Philippine culture. He owns the Silahis Center in Intramuros, has appeared in Leonor and Portrait, and is on the board of Naty’s Philippine Drama Company. Bob seems to have been similarly “seduced” by Naty with her knack for convincing people she had just met to join her for the rest of their lives. And similarly, there is a group of Ateneans led by Kenn Cayundo (great as the obnoxious young Tony Javier) who help breathe young blood into the culture of the theater.

It is almost show time, but Naty takes us around the house. It has two gardens with a whole lot of framed pictures of friends and her late husband Daddy Joe Rogers. There are large and small décor from Thailand where she spent five years with her husband. Naty asks that we water the Thai Spirit House in the garden for the good luck it would bring.

As we watch Portrait and its story of two obstinate spinsters, we wonder how Naty will finally face her similar story, of the need to leave her old Sala Theater with its memories. Or will the gods allow her to spend her days surrounded by all that she loves and cherishes contra mundum? We feel the force at work once more. And it tells us we must happily return again and again.   

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