Necrological services for National Artist Salvador Bernal at CCP

The National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) will hold necrological services for National Artist Salvador “Badong" Bernal on October 29, 2011, Saturday, 9:00 am at the CCP Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (Main Theater). Bernal died last October 26 due to cardiac arrest. He was 66 years old. The event includes readings of poems, reminiscences, and performance tributes by friends of the late National Artist. A set and costume designer, stage director, and poet, Bernal‘s achievements were unparalleled by any theater designer in the country and had opened doors for a whole new generation of theater designers who regard theater design not only as a profession but as a unique form of artistic creation. Bernal has designed more than 300 productions making use of indigenous materials such as abaca, hemp twine, cacha and the like in stage presentations such as Pagkahaba-haba Man ng Prusisyon, Prince of the Pagodas, Midsummer Night’s Dream, La Traviata, etc. He has also designed costumes for films such as Oro, Plata, Mata and Gumising Ka, Maruja. He brought a larger panorama of world design to the stage, as Bernal once said, “A designer," he explained, “not only needs a sense of the past but also of the present and the future." Thus, Bernal became a mentor of young talents and an inspiration for craftsmen and aspiring production designers. Salvador Bernal was conferred the National Artist Award for Theater and Design in 2003. Bernal is survived by his siblings and in-laws Teresita and Camilo Tabora, Cecilia and Generoso Mendoza, Angeline and Luis Samson, Patria and Mariano Salvador, Magdalena and Manuel, Marilen and Arman Borbe, nephews, nieces, and grandchildren. His body lies in state at the Immaculate Conception Cathedral of Cubao, Quezon City. His remains shall be laid to rest at the family mausoleum in Eternal Gardens, Dagupan City, Pangasinan on November 2, 2011. Press release from CCP