Southside stories
“I believe that in a great city, or even in a small city or a village, a great theater is the outward and visible sign of an inward and probable culture.” — Sir Laurence Olivier
When you think about it, Sir Laurence had a point. From the Ancient Greeks to modern day thespians, the theater has been an indication of a higher level of thought, a more informed audience and a more civilized culture in general. There is something about live theater that elevates mind, body and soul, a fact that anyone who has ever experienced it from either side of the stage will attest to. The presence of an active theater scene in an area is a sign that it is a thriving place with a living culture and active thought. The absence of same, therefore, is a cause for concern. It was this concern that led stage actor Michael Williams and his Alabang-based creative team to form a new theater group in March of this year, one that would concentrate on an area long overdue for its own theater scene, namely the South Metro.
The South Metro area includes the cities of Muntinlupa, Parañaque and Las Piñas and extends to Laguna and
Theater Down South is a dynamic group made up of young actors, many of whom live in and around the area. Currently, Williams serves as their director and principal mentor as well as coach, inspiration and friend. In addition, as part of their future training, they will eventually be undergoing workshops and classes under the other theater heavyweights that make up AAI, including Menchu Lauchengo Yulo, Roselyn Perez, Bart Guingona and Jaime del Mundo as well as other theater stalwarts.
Indeed, with its youthful vitality and passion for the stage it is no doubt that Theater Down South will blossom into the premier theater group of the South. Alongside cultivating a love for the theatrical arts in this part of the city, it is one of the company’s primary goals to introduce young audiences to theater as an alternative form of entertainment and to provide schools with activities and materials that will augment their curriculum in a dynamic way.As the first step towards this goal, the group made its debut last September 6, 2007 with William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which is running through March 2008 at the Insular Life Theater in Filinvest Corporate City, Alabang. It is a curriculum-based show meant to cater primarily to high schools and colleges. Conceived with an educational thrust in mind, A Midsummer Night’s Dream features pre-show school visits, a post-show open forum with the cast, a Shakespeare exhibit in the theater lobby and study guides to further the audience’s understanding of the play and of Shakespeare’s work in general. Plus plans for more Shakespeare shows following the same curriculum-based format are in the works, as well as offerings for younger school audiences.
Educational theater is only one of the company’s thrusts. They also aim to service the community with a small, carefully chosen season of shows, which will include a mix of straight plays and musicals. The enthusiastic response of the first batch of students to see A Midsummer Night’s Dream has only fueled their determination to succeed. For many kids in the audience, it was their first live theater experience and by the end of the show, they were already asking when the next presentation would be. Theater Down South takes this as a very good indication that there is an audience ripe for development and in need of good shows to see. They are only too happy to oblige.
A Midsummer Night’s Dream runs from September to March at the Insular Life Theater,
