Sure hits, indie plays

It was an apt representation of my weekend that all the cinemas in all the movie theaters I went to only showed Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. I’m still buying into the franchise—I grew up rooting for the Autobots and living for the moment Megatron would shoot down eager-beaver Starscream—but I didn’t feel like joining the throng of potential swine flu carriers just yet. Besides, if box office performance was any indication, it’s going to be screening for a long, long time.

With that single option available, it was the perfect time to immerse myself in independent theater through Writer’s Bloc, Inc.’s Virgin Labfest 5 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

How this festival, which was started to showcase untried, untested, and unproduced plays (thus, the word “virgin”), became a much-anticipated theater event is not surprising. The plays being “independent,” the writers and actors and directors are free to explore themes that no major producer would probably think about touching. Thus, we get plays about desaparecidos, Muslim Maranaos, prejudice, and such. Much of material is entertaining and, well, eye-opening in a way that the local mainstream entertainment industry usually fails to be.  

The fifth incarnation “devirginized” me in so many ways: It was my first time to attend a Virgin Labfest (I had many reasons to miss the previous festivals, always related to time and money); it was my first time to watch three one-act plays in a row; and it was my first time to be turned away because the theater was standing room only!

The plays are presented in sets of three, with tickets priced at P200. It’s a steal, considering that the plays are all well-written and the actors are the best in theater. The sets I watched, Set E: Life is a Trap (Three Plays in Search of Escape) and Virgin Labfest 4 Revisited, feted the talents of playwright Nicholas Pichay, director Chris Millado, playwright Liza Magtoto, actress Shamaine Buencamino, among others.

I suppose you can compare what Virgin Labfest has been doing for local theater to what Cinemalaya has been doing for the local film industry: It’s making the art—and the still-underappreciated Filipino talent for theater—more accessible to ordinary viewers, and, hopefully, ushering in a new era for local theater.

Somewhere along the road of our education, we were erroneously taught that theater is always academic or entails a lot of work (perhaps because we always had to write criticism papers on plays we were required to watch), but it doesn’t always have to be taken that way. For all the weight of their themes, the plays I watched were also barrels of fun replete with witty punch lines. If I got a “headache,” it was only because I was laughing so hard.

I’ll write more about the plays themselves after next weekend, when I would have watched all sets save for one, which, unfortunately, are only scheduled for staging on weekdays.

Facebook status updates

As you all know by now, I’m one of those people who find 140-character posts (on Facebook, Twitter and Plurk) rather entertaining. While many are either annoying or useless, some really tell a juicy story or are good for some laughs. With that in mind, I’d like to share some status updates compiled in the site www.messquoted.com:

I’m so confused, I’m not sure if I lost my horse or found a rope.

I used to think I was indecisive, but now I’m not so sure.

I’d give my right arm to be ambidextrous.

Sometimes I wake up moody; other times I let her sleep.

And here’s mine right now, albeit not so funny:

Half the year is over. Oh my.

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