Philippine culture and arts scholar Nicanor Tiongson has recently launched three important books on Philippine theater, the products of his five decade-long career as a critic, academic, author and playwright.
This trilogy attests to his lifelong work and scholarship in Philippine theater.
Published by the Ateneo de Manila University Press, these incomparable, seminal works are invaluable materials on the history and the different facets of theater in the country.
These are the “Collected Essays I: Philippine Theater History and Genres,” “Collected Essays II: Philippine Theater Traditions, Relations, and Contestations,” and “Collected Essays III: Philippine Theater: Aesthetics, Critiques, and Personalities.”
These volumes are wellspring of studies, critiques and to a point, everything related to the development of Philippine theater from the precolonial to the contemporary periods.
The launch, held at the Gimenez Gallery of the University of the Philippines-Diliman, was attended by National Artist for Literature Virgilio Almario, National Artist for Music Ramon Santos and National Artist for Dance Alice Reyes; other literature, film and theater luminaries; and members of the academe.
In her review during the launch, Joi Barrios-Leblanc of the University of California-Berkeley, describes Tiongson as the “foremost scholar of Philippine theater.”
This fact is also mentioned by Almario in his introduction in the first book, saying Tiongson is today’s “foremost scholar and critic in our national theater.”
Almario further mentions in Filipino that Tiongson’s “dedication in theater and film is highly admirable” and that “his views and keen observations on the history and types of genre discussed in his studies are comprehensive.”
Tiongson’s dedication not only to Filipino film and theater but to Philippine arts and culture in general is indeed diverse and covers many aspects of Philippine life.
These recent works fittingly encapsulate his zeal, journey and mettle as an important Filipino academic and Filipinologist. —CONTRIBUTED