“Elmar, look where we are now,” exclaimed Celeste Legaspi onstage when she received her Philstage Natatanging Gawad Buhay! for Lifetime Achievement a few years back. Celeste singled out the Philstage executive director who, aside from overseeing the awards night at the CCP Little Theater, had also convinced a number of reviewers of national dailies and arts professors from different universities to band together to watch and judge the year-round shows of the professional performance groups comprising Philstage.
