CCP holds necrological rites for late Nat’l Artist Daisy Avellana

MANILA, Philippines - The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) recently paid tribute to the late National Artist for Theater Daisy Avellana in a necrological ceremony at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater). Avellana passed away on May 12, at the age of 96.

Proclaimed National Artist for Theater in 1999, Avellana was long regarded as the Grand Dame of Philippine stage.

Avellana won much acclaim and was much awarded for her work in Philippine theater. She is best remembered for her stage performances as Candida in Nick Joaquin’s play Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, Eleanor in Lion in Winter, Elizabeth in Elizabeth the Queen, Sarah Bernhardt in Memoir and other roles as Medea, Desdemona and Lady Macbeth.

A versatile actress, director, producer and writer, she co-founded, together with her husband, National Artist for Theater and Film Lamberto Avellana, the Baranggay Theater Guild in 1939. In its time, the guild produced what was considered breakthrough productions of classic Filipino and foreign plays. She directed the opera Diego Silang and the zarzuela Walang Sugat, and collaborated with her husband Lamberto on the story of the classic Filipino film Sakay. She wrote the screen adaptation of Nick Joaquin’s Portrait of the Artist as Filipino and co-authored the scripts for the film classics Badjao and Anak Dalita.

When she was conferred the National Artist Theater Award, Avellana was cited as a “consummate actor, inspiring director, pioneer in stage acting” and for having devoted most of her life “for the establishment of professional performing groups and the professionalization of theater.”