Artistic survival

Happiness and success in everything we do needs passion and determination. Almost a year ago, fresh from a writing workshop, feeling exultant but heartbroken, a friend confided to me the grueling baptismal of fire of his writing attempts.

He felt that the workshop was a tremendous help in improving his craft. But not to some extent and to other writing fellows who felt so bad-considered ending writing ambitions. This after getting comments from panelists such as "What's the story? There's no story after all!"-a tear-jerking one for someone who has raked praises from "sympathetic" friends before submitting same literary entry. "It has no imaginative significance"-a remark that would distrust wannabe's ability to create metaphors, in poetry.

My friend's early writing effort is akin to the manner experienced by the main characters of the play, Seminar. "Set in present day New York City, Seminar follows four young writers: Kate, Martin, Douglas, and Izzy, and their professor, Leonard."

"A provocative comedy from Pulitzer Prize nominee Theresa Rebeck, the private writing classes with Leonard, an international literary figure whose reckless brilliance and unorthodox instruction, some thrive and others flounder. Alliances are made and broken, sex is used as a weapon and hearts are unmoored. The wordplay is not the only thing that turns vicious as innocence collides with experience in this biting Broadway comedy."

Alex Murphy, the executive director and producer is bringing Seminar to Cebu. A senior mentor in acting at the International Academy of Film and Television, he played the character of Leonard.

Last Thursday, September 12, 2013 was its preview performance at the Chillage Urban Living, Adnama building in the North Reclamation Area, Cebu City with my Humanities 1 A& B classes and some professors. The performance was highly commendable, and a must-see.

For the Cebu showing, the other four actors are all played by Cebuano actors. Eli Razo as "Martin", Eden Villaraba as "Kate", Jett Pe as "Douglas", and Sam Booc as "Izzy".

In the play, Kate is "fragile but also abrasive and not uncalculating. She absorbs the humiliating evisceration of her overwritten story-and by extension, her coddled, wealthy self. Martin is a dry and smart, ready to shoot down every inane comment but timid about showing his own writing samples to the class. He gets distracted by Izzy, the wily pragmatist of the group. Unlike more prosaic female operators, she's also bluntly candid, perceptive and unapologetic about using sex to accelerate her forward trajectory. Presented at first as a blowhard, pretentiously waffling on about "interiority", Douglas is talented, well-connected and already on the path to modest success."

"Leonard shreds their little egos into ribbons, which he makes sure to do with the cruelest cuts. His savage critiques are redeemed however by his wit, and by the passionate regard for good writing that prompts his cruelty."

Throughout the experience, it tests the actors' true characters, their propensity, as humans, to be moved by up-front and callous comments. But true character has the will and determination to continue honing one's craft.

It is humbling to see that amid exchange of bitter words between the teacher and students, in the end, they showed their mutual admiration for each other. Teacher has recognized the great potential of his students and in return students acknowledged the teacher's effort of molding their initial writing struggles.

Years back, I recalled a play, Madame Butterfly, being shown in Cebu where there was a sensitive scene of the main character, R.S. Francisco. Showing frontal nudity to reveal his true identity, the actor did it brilliantly without any figment of malice. And the audience was mature enough to accept such a bold move.

And here comes Seminar that is satiated with sexual undertones and perversions. But then again the audience has embraced it with a certain degree of level-headedness. This perhaps manifests the kind of audiences and their receptiveness to adult theater materials.

Back to my friend, he continues to write as he believes in self-expression by playing with words creatively. If he was so frenzied with seemingly disparaging remarks, he could not have written wonderful pieces of literature, until this day.