Virgins go 'Hubo’t Hubad' for VLF XXI
Two nuns who fell in love at a convent see each other again after 20 years to reconcile the consequences of their actions. A cybersecurity employee discovers anomalies in their underground operation disguised as a legitimate technical support center led by his cousin, forcing him to confront questions about loyalty, ambition and being a Filipino. A writer about to leave for New York to receive an award for human rights reporting on EJK is confronted by a former colleague who feels she doesn’t deserve the recognition. These are just some of the intriguing subjects of the coming plays of Virgin Lab Fest XXI opening on June 3.
“Virgins” have always been the raison d’etre of the VLF which was created in 2005 to present plays that have never been published nor staged. Since we discovered this festival, we have attended most editions and look forward to it every year to watch bold new works bravely tackling the most unusual and controversial themes that are always up to the second in currency and relevance.
The fact that it’s already on its 21st year and is a centerpiece program of the Cultural Center of the Philippines is proof of how much it resonates. CCP president Kaye Tinga notes how “it has come of age, bearing the theme “Hubo’t Hubad” (“Stark naked”) to brilliantly capture the maturity and artistry expected at 21 while continuing to harness the magic of theater and the arts.” Showcasing how people bare and reveal themselves, the works of eight “virgin” playwrights and four returning ones “serve as testaments to what VLF has blossomed into: a talented community of individuals devoted to nourishing our nation’s cultural tapestry.”
Dennis Marasigan, CCP VP and artistic director, related how VLF started as just a one-week affair but is now a four-week run with additional educational components, from Staged Readings and Theater Talks to a Writing Fellowship Program and Showcase and Playwright’s Fair. VLF is now considered “a cornerstone of Philippine theater and a Philippine premier theater festival, with its plays winning awards like the Palanca and forming part of the Philippine theater canon, performed in schools as well as professional theater companies, not to mention adaptations into film.”
Marasigan, who is acting in the play Elehiya, has personally seen how VLF has grown as a community, nurturing emerging and established playwrights, directors, actors and designers. who “revel in the artistic and creative desires expressed in fearless storytelling.” Many of his students, and even his daughter Paula, who is directing Lualhati, the play about the nuns by Gab Mactal, are now part of VLF.
There are in fact four sets of parent and child participants: Carlos Siguion-Reyna and his son Rafa are also in Elehiya by Dustin Celestino which is about conversations that should have taken place between fathers and sons but never did; and Angel Aquino and daughter Iana Bernardez are in Lualhati as the older and younger version of one of the conflicted nuns. Peewee O’Hara plays the title role in Dingdong Novenario’s Manang about a yaya whose lifelong servitude fills her ward with guilt and son Paolo is directing Ade Valenzona’s Polar Coordinates, a revisited play from last year that parallels geometry with an adolescent’s emotional journey in finding himself.
The sheer breadth of themes tackled reflects how the festival attracts even those outside the theater community, including a journalist from this paper, Elijah Felice Rosales, who started watching in 2013, got hooked and decided to join the playwriting program to write a piece, Human Rights Story of the Year, which made it for this edition. Password 123 Pilipinas321 was written by Anthony Kim Vergara, a fulltime cybersecurity employee who was able to authentically portray the world he works in. This is actually his fifth work at VLF, with previous ones tackling subjects as varied as dysfunction in a Catholic university and contradictory politics, just to show how diverse and inclusive VLF has become.
There is significant representation from the youth. The youngest playwright, Faith Ferrer Lacanlale explores family trauma and inner turmoil manifested in surreal visions of seeing “human pigs” in Betamax. Gab Mactal, still a student at Ateneo, wanted to write a story about queer nuns while featuring more mature women like her mother so Lualhati was created with older and younger versions of the protagonists. Jackie Lou Blanco, who plays Lualhati, was very thankful that more roles are coming up for mature actresses in theater which she considers a must for any serious actress.
Crossovers have certainly enriched VLF. CJ Navato who started at ABS-CBN’s Star Magic has been doing a lot of theater but is a virgin at VLF just like his Human Rights Story of the Year co-star Justine Peña who usually does English language plays at Rep and the like. John Lapus is a stage and film actor but after discovering VLF decided to write a play, Taksyapo, a Kapampangan expression for releasing anger and also the name of a rage booth inside a restaurant which a middle-aged gay man, reeling from a painful breakup, discovers, together with the booth proprietress with whom he finds an unexpected connection while smashing plates to vent his anger.
Lapus, in typical comedic fashion, lamented his many attempts at submissions and even when his play was selected for staged reading in 2018 he considered it like “winning semi-finals only in Miss U.” Upon watching the plays that made it for actual staging, he felt even worse because he felt his “was better,” he said with a big laugh.
Marco Viaña and Toni Go-Yadao, VLF festival directors, explained that sometimes the play isn’t ripe yet; that’s why now there’s three months of script development so that a play can reach its full potential. They received about 280 scripts, many of which have similar themes but it’s those that give a fresh insight or slant that make it to the final cut.
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VLF XXI will run at the Tanghalang Ignacio Jimenez (CCP Black Box) from June 3-28. For updates on schedule and tickets, visit @thevirginlabfest @tanghalang.pilipino @culturalcenterph.
