Binyag: Virgin Labfest 2016 to mount 12 new, original plays out of 197 entries

The organizers of the 2016 Virgin Labfest (VLF), the festival of “untried, untested, and unstaged one-act plays” now on its 12th year, decided to brand this year’s edition of the event “Binyag” (Baptism).

Tuxqs Rutaquio, VLF artistic director, may have been alluding also to their baptism of fire in foraging through the unprecedented 197 new plays submitted for consideration for this year’s festival. 

The 2016 VLF runs from June 29 to July 17 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). The annual VLF is a collaborative production and endeavor by the CCP, Writer’s Bloc, and Tanghalang Pilipino.

As the annual practice of the VLF screening committee, which includes the multi-awarded playwright-director-actor Rody Vera, only 12 new works were chosen, despite the bountiful submissions.

“We remained true to the festival’s vision of devirginizing playwrights alongside directors, actors, stage managers, and audiences,” said Rutaquio.

“The annual Virgin LabFest is about playwrights who have the courage to tell their stories. It is about actors and directors who work not for profit but for fun. It is about writers in different genres who now try their hand at working on plays,” Rutaquio said.
         
“The VLF is about film directors and actors entering the world of theater with great gusto. It is a huge collaboration among VLF writers, directors, actors, and staff,” Rutaquio said.

However, Chris B. Millado, CCP vice president and artistic director, said in an interview that for the first time, the 2016 VLF edition includes the screening of four VLF plays which eventually became films.

Millado said this year’s VLF features 30 playwrights, 21 directors, and 200 actors whose ages range from 14 to well over 60. “They are among the core and essence of the annual VLF.”

The original VLF plays which have crossed over into the big screen to be featured are: J. Dennis Teodosio’s “Gee Gee at Waterina” (a VLF 1 entry), Denisa Reyes and Mark Gary’s “Hubad” (based on Liza Magtoto’s VLF 2 entry), Emmanuel Palo’s “David F” (based on Liza Magtoto’s “Paigan,” a VLF 5 entry), and Lawrence Fajardo’s multi-awarded “Imbisibol” (VLF 9).

One of the newest VLF partners this year is the “Pelikulove,” a film outfit “diving into a collaboration with a theater festival,” Rutaquio said.

Included in the performances on top of the staging of the 12 new plays are: five “Staged Readings,” three performances of plays featured in site-specific works known as “Fragments,” 10 five-minute plays created by the VLF writing fellows, and the much-awaited and popular remounting of the “Revisited,” the three most popular plays in the 2015 VLF.

Playwrights

Rutaquio said the 2016 VLF’s “Virgin Playwrights” include VLF Fellowship graduates Alexandra May Cardoso and Soc Delos Reyes, Kanakan Balintagos who is famous for his cinema works and theater productions, National Book Award Winner Eliza Victoria, multi-awarded poet Ma. Cecilia dela Rosa, and web content writer Rick Patriarca.

The “virgins” are joined by VLF veterans such as Oggie Arcenas, who holds a Ph.D. in economics, Maynard Manansala, Eljay Castro Deldoc, Juan Miguel Severo, Dingdong Novenario, Herlyn Alegre, Dominique La Victoria, Guelan Luarca, and Carlo Vergara of “Zha Zha Zaturnnah” fame.

The "virgin playwrights"' works are as follows:

• Cardoso: “Ang Sugilanon ng Kabiguan ni Epefania” directed by Charles Yee, recipient of Ateneo de Manila University’s Loyola School Award for the Arts in Theater;
• Delos Reyes: “Dahan-Dahan ang Paglubog ng Araw” directed by VLF virgin director and filmmaker Adolf Alix Jr;
• Balintagos: “Loyalist” directed by filmmaker Lawrence Fajardo
• de la Rosa: “Ang Mga Bisita ni Jean” directed by Ariel Yonzon;
• Patriarca: “Hapag-Kainan” directed by Chris Martinez; and
• Victoria: “Marte”directed by George de Jesus III.

Meanwhile, those of the VLF veteran playwrights are:

• Arcenas: “Si Jaya, Si Ronda, Si Barbra at ang Mahiwagang Kanta” directed by Roobak Valle;
• Alegre: “Bahay-Bahayan, Tagu-Taguan” directed by Nicolo Magno;
• La Victoria: “Ang Bata sa Drum” directed by Dudz Teraña;
• Luarca: “Bait” directed by Mara Marasigan;
• Novenario: “Daddy's Girl” directed by Nicolas Pichay; and
• Vergara: “Mula sa Kulimliman” directed by Hazel Gutierrez.

Staged Readings

Another ground-breaking feature of the 2016 VLF is the staged reading of a musical written by the multi-awarded Vincent de Jesus, considered as among the pillars of contemporary Filipino musical scene. De Jesus is a composer, musical director, writer, and an actor for film, television, and theater.

Other featured writers of the Staged Readings section are Layeta Bucoy, Job Pagsibigan, and VLF actor, director, and now virgin playwright Jonathan Tadioan, and virgin playwright Adrian Ho.

Themes

The themes of the VLF plays are as varied as the playwrights themselves. Themes mutate from the universal subjects of family, love, and longing to searing social commentaries, and there are plays on science fiction and on religious and personal faiths.

“The Virgin Labfest has proven to be a veritable showcase of Filipino writing talent, a space where virgin playwrights are given opportunity to stage their works for an audience that has also evolved with festival,” Rutaquio said.

“Here’s hoping that we find value in watching these untried and untested works, and find reason to believe in the importance of starting anew, ushering audiences into new worlds,” Rutaquio said.

The section called “Fragments,” or the site-specific plays where performers suddenly burst in when least expected, showcases PUP Sining Polyrepertory and the works of VLF virgins Dwein Baltazar and Alex Dungca, and VLF veteran and VLF Fellowship graduate Jerome Ignacio. —KG/KG, GMA News

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