For a lot of people, one’s first experience of theater is akin to a revelation, an awakening of the senses. There’s an aura, a mystique that can’t be replicated in other forms of entertainment. For some, the mere entry into the theater and imbibing the atmosphere is similar to feeling the reverential air upon entering a church. The rapt attention when the performance commences, the sheer enjoyment at play’s end, are things we take with us for the rest of our lives.
My first taste of theater came during a trip to New York in the mid-60s. It was Broadway and the play was Oliver. My parents fully expected me to wilt and tire, but instead, it was the start of an infatuation with this particular performing art. While I may no longer consider Oliver a favorite, I have to admit I can still sing the first verse of the upbeat Consider Yourself or the plaintive Where is Love. Some things just get stuck in one’s memory, entwined as they are with one’s first brush with full sensory exhilaration.
As Celeste recounts, "For me, I was in Grade 2 at St. Paul’s in Quezon City. It was an operetta, and I was in heaven. I was a performer and I never looked back, as it’s been a lifelong affair with performing ever since. Sure, this first recollection is as a member of the troupe and not as part of the audience; but it’s in the hope of making the first experience of theater truly memorable for children who may otherwise not have the opportunity to go, that we set up "Be an Angel".
"The mechanics are simple: for five thousand pesos, one provides transportation, tickets and merienda for ten public school children. The idea being we have to make the experience pleasant for the children and their teachers. Tickets alone will not ensure this as they’re left with the problem of how to get to the venue or doing so on an empty stomach; ditto for the teachers who accompany them. The results have been very encouraging and I thank all those who have given their support since we began this in 1997." Among their angels are Boy Abunda, QC Mayor Sonny Belmonte, CCP’s Bal Endriga, Zsa Zsa Padilla, Jose Mari Chan, Wyngard Tracy and a host of others.
I had the chance to talk with Celeste during the last week of their run of Sino Ka Ba, Jose Rizal and seeing the audience that was primarily composed of high school kids I fully understood what Celeste was striving for. A more enthusiastic audience you would be hard-pressed to find. They applauded, they cheered and hooted, they answered back, sighed and laughed, at all the right moments, with no prompting of any kind. Leaving the Music Museum, there were groups singing the curtain call music, albeit changing the lyrics. Staying true to the melody; they’d forego the line of Sino ka ba, Jose Rizal‚ with "Kakain na tayo, gutom na ako!" And for Celeste, this tampering with the libretto composed by husband Nonoy was just fine.
"How often do you leave the theater with the melody of a song stuck in your mind? You can’t take it for granted that it’ll happen every time. Sometimes, I overhear them singing songs from the first act and for me it means we’ve been successful in entertaining them and making them see theater as a very rewarding experience."
"There’s a form we ask them to fill out after the performance; and one girl left a form which said, "Ngayon, kilala ko talaga si Jose Rizal at proud ako sa kanya. Grabe!" For some reason, I was moved to tears reading that. It was expressed in the language of her age-group, yet succinctly showed us that we had undeniably reached out and achieved our purpose."
To provide additional perks to these first-timers, "Be An Angel" even arranges for some members of the cast to come and talk to them after the performance. Ricky Davao has done this and had the kids agog as they recognized him from movies and television. In Sino Ka Ba, Roy Rolloda who plays Rizal had the girls all giggly with his matinee idol looks. Roy, who was in the Singapore production of Chang and Eng also essays a role in the upcoming Alikabok, along with teen pop princess Cris Villongco.
On February 21st, they commence their restaging of Alikabok and Celeste has high hopes for this particular production. "Inspired by the Bulaquena who’s in the painting of Juan Luna, it’s the story of a girl who turns her back on her family, upbringing and life of comfort to embrace our struggle for national independence. To provide drama, along this path she falls in love and has an illicit affair from which a child is born. As with Jose Rizal, we’ve brought in very young set designers and production designers to make this staging more entertaining for the younger audience. In Rizal for example, when Rizal is writing the Noli, we had cut-out costumes for the actors on stage who represented the fictional characters of the book. On the screen, we had visuals where the book of Noli had wings of the gamugamo. We have similar innovations for Alikabok and I’m excited to see how the audience will react to them.
"We recognize that music videos and MTV form part of the cornerstone of today’s kids’ cultural references; and if we have to borrow from that to make theater more accessible to them, to heighten entertainment value, then why not?"
Both Sino Ka Ba and Alikabok are MUSICAT productions. Spearheaded by Celeste, husband Nonoy, Ryan Cayabyab and Girlie Rodis, their creative direction is to provide entertainment while retaining inspirational and educational elements. As Celeste reminds us, "We are all essentially entertainers; I truly have only one foot in theater. The last thing we wanted to do was come up with experimental or "artsy" theater that ends up sterile or boring for the audience. As we’re also focusing on the youth, bringing in a younger audience, we knew the most important thing was to be entertaining. It makes it so much easier for them to then assimilate what inspirational message we want to convey. You can’t be too preachy or heavy handed with this educational aspect."
In fact, it’s a regular feature of MUSICAT productions to have Celeste come out before the curtain rises to give a little talk to the audience. She explains the reasons for basic audience etiquette conventions–how they should be quiet when the actors are speaking their lines, when to clap, to turn off cellphones (and not just revert to silent mode). Then she reminds them that they can laugh, even shout at appropriate moments.
The all-important message is that while there are rules, you still can have fun and fun is encouraged. The teachers who accompany the kids are made to understand this as well. After all, the last thing Celeste wants is for the kids to leave thinking theater is formal and stiff; and she realizes that teachers can play a crucial hand in this.
Before Miss Saigon opened in Manila, Celeste was one of the voices raised in protest on how actors and other productions were treated in the face of the Saigon juggernaut. In retrospect, Celeste concedes that while the protestations were justified, Saigon did in fact help enliven the local theater scene, that a segment of the audiences that trooped to productions such as The Little Mermaid were motivated by their Saigon experience. "Of course, the participation of Kaycee Concepcion and the endless plugging of Sharon on her television shows helped. That is still the irony insofar as the local theater scene is concerned. Plays with name stars or staging successful Broadway or West End plays still get the nod where financial support is required. Original plays have a much more difficult time in terms of getting off the ground. But all in all, thank God for the flourishing scene we now have. With all the work going around, it’s now sometimes difficult to get the technical people one would want; they’re either committed already to another production or in development for another one. We even have actors who make lagare like those in the film industry; and that’s a first for theater."