World Theater awardees/Only Love Remains CD

The International Theater Institute (ITI), associated with UNESCO, celebrated World Theater Day yesterday.

The first Filipino included in the ITI’s 20-member board is Cecile Guidote Alvarez, the youngest Filipino recipient of a Magsaysay Award for Public Service in the Arts. She founded the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) which links RP to the international network of theater artists.

Cecile performed a theater coup when RP hosted for the first time in SE Asia the 31st Theater Congress and Theater Olympics of the Nations on Cultural Diversity for the UN. It was attended by no less than UNESCO Director General Koitchiro Matsuura and the then ASEAN Secretary General Ong Keng Yong. The 500 foreign delegates attended the world premiere of Alejandro Roces’ zarzuela “Something to Crow About” directed by Cecile through partnership with the ITI-Earthsavers DREAMS Academy and the UST Liturgikon Choir. Benjie Goquingco choreographed.

World Theater Day recognition awards were given at Malacañang yesterday to culture-friendly officials, media organizations and outstanding artists for their golden years of service.

Awarded were the Mabuhay Singers, Alfredo S. Buenaventura and Josefino Cenizal for music; visual artists Raphael Pacheco, father of Philippine finger painting, Ed Castrillo for his monuments, Ramon Orlina for his glass sculpture; Leonardo Cruz for transforming Rizal’s Noli into paintings; Tony Fabella, Tony Espejo and Tony Mabesa for dance-theater; poet Virginia Moreno and Ilocano writer Juan Hidalgo, founder of Gumil, for literature; Bobby Mañosa for architecture; Pitoy Moreno and Ben Farrales, fashion designing. Rosalinda L. Orosa, for cultural research and criticism, Onofre Pagsanjan for youth theater. Also popular performers impersonator Willie Nepo-muceno, “Kuya Germs” Moreno and comedian Dolphy.

Of the awardees, I’d like to single out two. Dutch Dr. Antoon Postma, an anthropologist living among the Mangyans, was first to decipher the Laguna Copperplate inscription and to document the Hanundo script: proving the literacy of the Filipinos before the Spaniards introduced the Roman script. For more than 40 years, he gathered data about the Mangyans, collected their folklore, published it in four books, and documented their poetry.

Eight-year old Hamzah Marbella, the youngest AAP member, has received over 40 awards and recognitions. A painting of his was auctioned in Hongkong for $273,000, which amount he donated to the Mindanao Peace Program. He won the “Water Is Life” international competition in Korea.

Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita, along with NCCA chair Dr. Wilma Labrador, handed the awards which were given by the ITI Philippine Executive Committee with the cooperation of NCCA, DOT, the Office of the President on Culture which Cecile Alvarez serves as Presidential Adviser.

The CD album “Only Love Remains” was launched Tuesday at the CCP Little Theater under the auspices of Nes Jardin, CCP president, and Rustan’s Nedy Tantoco.

The CD is a sparkling gem. The songs and words are by the incredibly versatile George Sison, composer, lyricist, poet, painter and spiritual guru. His melodies are hauntingly exquisite; his lyrics, based on the titles of his painting-poems, tenderly poetic. Interpreted by balladeer Bo Cerrudo in a soothing, mellifluous voice and in a deeply moving fashion, the songs express widely diverse emotions ranging from the joy, rapture and ecstasy of loving to the pain, loneliness and despair it brings.

Internationally acclaimed classic pianist Raul Sunico demonstrates his mastery of popular music as well. He etches the melodies with beautiful phrasing and superbly controlled volume, ranging from fortissimos to pianissimos in diminishing whispers.