All For the Arts: Theater in the Philippines
Theater originated in Greece in the 6th century BC by a Dionysian priest named Thespis. Thespis introduced a new element in cult ceremonies which gave birth to what we know as theater. The Dionysians integrated dancing and songs in choral form to tell the stories of Greek mythology. Moreover, Thespis initiated the act of engaging in a dialogue with the chorus, wherein he is then considered as the first actor. This paved the way for masterpieces of Greek drama like the tragedy, Oedipus the King and the comedy, The Frogs. They then later further influenced the Romans which produced comedies with writers as we know Plautus and Terence in the 3rd-2nd century BC.
An Illustration of a Moro-moro
In the pre-colonial Philippines setting, there were tribal epic recitations. These were then eradicated by the Spanish, all in their favor to promote Christianity in the nation. The Spanish brought with them the comedia, or in local terms, the moro-moro which was facilitated by the Spanish priests. The earliest known moro-moro was in 1637 wherein it was written to dramatize the capture of an Islamic fort by a Christian Filipino army. This was a common plot that was repeated by several casts and performed in different villages throughout the Philippines to further spread Christianity. As can observed, the Spanish utilized this form of entertainment to further their agenda. With the decline of Spanish influence post-colonization, the moro-moro popularity declined along with it. Today it is still merely performed in a few church festivals and villages.
Rolando Tinio
This paved the way for aspiring Filipino writers at the time, and one renowned and well respected writer is Doreen Gamboa Fernandez. She was born on October 28, 1934 in Nueva Ecija and she majored in English literature in 1956 and a Ph.D in literature in 1976 from Ateneo de Manila University. Fernandez was active in the field of research in literature, culture, theater and culinary history of the Philippines. Furthermore, she was a prolific writer of essays, novels, video scripts, columnist and even contributed to the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. Lastly, she was the co-founder of the Babylon Theater Group with Nicanor Tiongson and the Cultural Research Association of the Philippines, among others. For this reason, she had received several awards, most especially the Achievement Award from the National Research Council in 1997 and the CCP Centennial Honors for the Arts in 1999. She was one among the one hundred Filipinos who contributed to molding the arts in the Philippines in the last century.
Nicanor Tiongson
Among Fernandez’s famous writings is of the playwright moro-moro Principe Baldovino, which translates to Prince Baldwin in English. Unfortunately, there has been no recorded sources of the original playwright by Fernandez herself, but rather, Rolando Tinio reinterpreted and directed Principe Baldovino, which played for the duration exclusively on July - August of 1971. At the Cultural Center of the Philippines Little Theater Inauguration. Rolando Tinio is a well-respected National Artist for literature and theater. Tinio’s objective was to dig and rediscover repertory of the past tradition that had been lost and forgotten. In other words his goal was to revive old moro-moro plays and fuse it with contemporary ideals without masking the soul and spirit of the original play. In an interview he had, he explained that he gave Principe Baldovino Shakespearean externals. “Taking the essence, respecting its psychology, the soul of the story retaining its spirit… thus capturing the flavor of the traditional moro-moro”. Principe Baldovino was taken from the province of Palawan wherein there was a confrontation between the Christians and the Muslims which was told in song and dance.
Doreen Fernandez
Rolando Tinio requested “Tita King” Lucrecia R. Kasilag a National Artist for Music, to write music for some of his productions. Of these are Pitong Mga Pasalitang Awit and Requiem in 1992 and Ang Gintong Salakot in 1969. Unfortunately there are no sources available of the musical pieces that Kasilag had made specifically for Principe Baldovino except that it is labeled under her incidental music list.
Lucrecia Kasilag with Rolando Tinio
Kasilag is known for her classical and romantic style of compositions with 20th century techniques. She has composed more than 250 works, especially for orchestra, chamber, organ, piano, vocal, sacred, operetta, dance theater, etc. but unfortunately most of her works are unpublished, thus her only a few of her works have gained recognition by the public today. Tita King is known for her utilization of Filipino folk songs to set the mood of her compositions and also included indigenous elements to the main melodies to counter her Western influenced notes. This is seen in her prize-winning “Toccata for Percussions and Winds, Divertissement and Concertante”. Because of this, she became known as the “First Lade of Philippine Music”. Knowing Kasilag’s style of composition, it is safe to assume that in Principe Baldovino, she was able to capture the essence of the moro-moro by incorporating indigenous instruments and elements to aid the performance and give the play or scene a more authentic flow.
Works Cited:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0Bylj5uPQkiv5eGVKVkRhem1tXzg/view
h t t p s : / / e t d . o h i o l i n k . e d u / ! e t d . s e n d _ fi l e ?
accession=osu1486549482669975&disposition=inline http://ncca.gov.ph/about-culture-and-arts/culture-profile/national-artists-of-the-philippines/ lucrecia-r-kasilag/
Images:
Image of Moro moro retrieved from: http://kristineordaneza.blogspot.com/2013/10/moro-moro-moro-moro-like-cenaculo-is.html
Image of Doreen Fernanadez retrieved from: https://maynila.co.uk/doreen-fernandez-and-one-of-her-essays-on-philippine-food/
Image of Nicanor Tiongson retrieved from : http://filminstitute.upd.edu.ph/ngt/