'Prison Dancer' musical bags six honors in US awards festival

"Prison Dancer," the multi-awarded "transmedia musical" staged by a group of Filipino-Canadians and inspired by the famous "Dancing Inmates of Cebu," won six honors at one of the leading awards shows for web series creators in North America. Prison Dancer Inc. in a statement Tuesday noted that "Prison Dancer" won best producing, writing, directing, composing, cinematography, and ensemble cast awards at the LAWeb Fest, which was noted as a leading festival and awards show for web series creators. "Prison Dancer" was also chosen in an advanced selection to be part of Europe's first web series festival, the Marseille WebFest, which is scheduled in October this year. Viral YouTube video sensation "Filipino Accent Tutorial" creator Mikey Bustos, who is currently pursuing an entertainment career in the Philippines, is part of the musical's nine-person cast. On Thursday, Bustos tweeted his congratulations to the production team after hearing about the news. "Congrats to @prisondancer on this great win! So glad to have been a part of this production. France tayo!!!" he said. Incredible year "Prison Dancer" was created and written by Romeo Candido and Carmen de Jesus, who is also the director and composer of all the original music. The web series, meanwhile, was produced by Ana Serrano. "Prison Dancer has had such an incredible first year! From New York to Los Angeles, from stage musical to web series, we are thrilled that the superb cast, crew, and partners associated with our various productions are getting recognized for their amazing work," Serrano said in the statement. With an estimated running time of 13 episodes with around “eight minutes of three to four branching videos," this interactive web musical tells the jail time stories through Matt Wells, the known music and pop culture reporter (playing himself) who is assigned to report about the dancing Filipino inmates who became YouTube sensations. The story takes the form of combined “faux documentary styles" and traditional musicals, where Wells “uncovers the personal, poignant, hilarious, and universal life journeys" of “prisoners" including: - Ruperto Poblador a.k.a. Lola (played by Jeigh Madjus), who lets his boredom slip in his tiny cell by coming up with dance routines and song numbers that he performs discreetly with his gay minions, Oo oo (Joseph Seville) and Nana (Pierre Bayuga); - Cherish (played by Catherine Ricafort), the Warden’s daughter; - Christian (played by Bustos), Cherish’s secret love and the newest inmate; - Shakespeare (Nicco Lorenzo), the resident poet; and - Hookaps (played by Normal Alconcel), the prison hustler. The episodes of the web series can be found on YouTube. Aside from these latest honors, "Prison Dancer" has won three North American musical theater awards. Last year, "Prison Dancer" also won the Reel Asian Best Canadian Film or Video category at the Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival. - VVP, GMA News