In these times of pirated DVDs, torrents, iPad apps and smartphones, going to the theater to watch a play or a musical is something not a lot of teenagers and young people like to do—but should. It doesn’t just promote love for music, arts and performance, it also develops focus, since a lot of people from today’s generation have short attention spans.
“If you love two people at the same time, choose the second, because if you really loved the first one, you wouldn’t have fallen for the second.” Words of wisdom from the great living icon Johnny Depp, his perhaps most-shared and retweeted quote in social media lately.
Defiance is at the core of the birth of new theater group Red Turnip. Theater artists (in alphabetical order) Ana Abad Santos, Topper Fabregas, Jenny Jamora, Cris Villonco and Rem Zamora had been meaning to set up the group for a few years now, partly to break away from the current popular choices of the Manila theater industry.
Heartbreak is the theme of the stage play “Closer,” written by English playwright Patrick Marber. Some aspects of it seem close to home to actor-director Ana Abad Santos.
In celebration of its 46th year, Repertory Philippines proudly closes its 76th theater season with “The Producers.”
When “Katy” opened on Jan. 27 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, not only was it the first local production to raise its curtain this year, it was also a harbinger of sorts.
When Rem Zamora was tasked to direct Red Turnip Theater’s staging of the Olivier Award-winning play “Cock,” he was terrified.
A mere kilometer from the Magallanes MRT station, in a nondescript building called Whitespace, a play of diminutive scale rages with astonishing explosive power, one that ravages the robust human façade and inflicts damaging blow after blow upon the fragile emotional soul.
Niccolo Manahan can be self-deprecating to a fault. “I hate the sound of my voice, and I hate looking at myself,” says the 35-year-old actor who recently played M in Red Turnip Theater’s “Cock.”
In his speech during the Philstage Gawad Buhay 2013 Awards held last week at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), Chris Millado, the artistic director of that institution, hailed the event as more of a “celebration” and “not a competition.”
