Women on the stage of life

MANILA, Philippines - From a daughter going against the beliefs of her parents to a war-weathered mother doing all she can to ensure her family’s survival, Tanghalang Pilipino’s 2009-10 theater season presents works that celebrate women.

The “Women of Substance” season explores women’s beauty, will power, strength, wisdom and resilience in four literary masterpieces.

Founded in 1987, Tanghalang Pilipino is the resident theater company of the CCP. It aims to promote Philippine theater that is rooted in Filipino culture and history while being responsive to evolving contemporary society. To date, the company has presented more than 200 full productions for 22 seasons and maintains a pool of professional theater actors known as the Tanghalang Pilipino Actors Company. TP is under the artistic direction of noted film/theater/TV personality Fernando Josef.

The company’s 23rd season opens on August 7 with Apples from the Desert/Mansanas ng Disyerto, a heartwarming comedy written by Savyon Liebrecht, one of Israel’s most acclaimed female writers. The play is about the conflict that erupts between an independent-minded daughter and her Jewish Orthodox parents, as she discovers love and life beyond the confines of her highly-regimented life. Translated by Liza Magtoto, Apples/Mansanas reveals the impact of larger social and political conflicts within the private worlds of home and family. The play is directed by Tess Jamias a contemporary dancer, choreographer, filmmaker, and teacher, who is also an alumna of the TP Actor’s Company. Apples from the Desert/Mansanas sa Disyerto features Sherry Lara, Leo Rialp, Rody Vera, Peewee O’Hara, Roeder Camañag, Amihan Ruiz, and Olive Nieto.

Based on Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children, Madonna Brava ng Mindanao is Don Pagusara’s paean to the German master. Considered one of the greatest anti-war plays of all time, Brecht’s Mother Courage is thrown into a new, but equally conflicted, Filipino setting. Award-winning actress Shamaine Centenera heads the cast as Madonna Brava, an ubiquitous witness to the rough and tumble wherefores of the Mindanao war. She follows its warpaths with the flamboyance of a trader and the bravado of a woman who needs to survive with her family in uncertainty, terror and death as she journeys through war-torn Mindanao with her mixed brood of three – a Moro, a Christian and a Lumad. The intense play is directed by Nestor Horfilla, founding artistic director of Kaliwat Theater Collective of Davao.

In October, multi-awarded playwright and TV and stage director Floy Quintos directs Tennessee Williams’ famous masterpiece, A Streetcar Named Desire and its Filipino translation, Orlando Nadres’ Flores Para Los Muertos, a play about the conflict between reality and fantasy, actual and ideal. The roles, immortalized in film by Marlon Brando and Vivien Leigh, will be filled by Eula Valdes, Anna Abad Santos, Mailes Kanapi, Neil Ryan Sese and Mario Magalona.

The season ends with Tatlong Maria, Rody Vera’s adaptation of Anton Chekhov’s Three Sisters, a magnificent tragicomedy about the decay of the privileged class in Russia. Tatlong Maria examines the slow destruction of a once highly regarded family. From Russia, the play moves to a remote small town in the Philippines during the first decade of Martial Law. Internationally multi-awarded New York-based director/designer Loy Arcenas directs Mailes Kanapi, Diana Malahay, Angeli Bayani, Cheryl Ramos, Nonie Buencamino and Paolo O’Hara.

Passionate, extraordinary, complicated – such are the “Women of Substance” of Tanghalang Pilipino. Get to know them, and let them change your life.

For details, call TP at 832-3661 or visit TP’s website: www.tanghalangpilipino.com.