Pagmamahal

Of course the food was good, as you’d expect from Milky Way, the iconic restaurant on Pasay Road in Makati, but this lunch the food was outdone by eight bright-eyed young performers, scholars of the Actors Company of Tanghalang Pilipino, recently named National Performing Arts Company for Theater for the period 2024-2029, under RA 11392 or the National Performing Arts Companies Act.

This NPAC designation is well deserved for this 38-year-old company, which has soldiered on with well over 100 productions, many of them ground-breaking (remember Zsazsa Zaturnnah?), thought-provoking, even instigating/inciting (Mabining Mandirigma, a steam punk musical that is a personal favorite) – but not necessarily to rebellion.

I have been a trustee of TP for several years, although I have to admit I’ve been an almost NPA – non-performing asset – or, in this case, a PPT – poorly performing trustee – but I always try to attend meetings of the Board, as I get a good idea of how the company is doing (quite well, even before the NPAC designation) and what still needs to be done (a lot, for sure).

Our recent meeting, the last for the year, turned out to be a special treat, as the trustees received a surprise gift of music from the AC scholars, all of them wonderful singers, a definite asset since TP has been and will be doing a lot of musical theater.

Tinatawid ng pagmamahal ang panaginip,

sa mga sandaling akala mundo ay naiidlip.

Those lines from the children’s musical Sandosenang Sapatos, one of TP’s most popular shows, aptly capture the sentiment and motivation of the AC scholars as well as the senior actors, indeed all of the dedicated and committed folks at TP (artistic, production, especially administration which has to keep an eye on finances, never an easy task for an arts company in this country) and even extending to their collaborators and guest artists.

It’s definitely pagmamahal – for their craft and the arts – that keeps them going as, unlike showbiz and pop stars, getting rich is not on the list of reasons to join a theater company like TP. Although the financial grant that comes with being named NPAC has given everyone a raise, nobody’s going to be getting rich here.

Some of them have to keep day jobs, being their family’s breadwinner; one scholar, with a beautiful voice that just about fills the room, works at the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (I asked if she could give me the inside scoop on happenings in the West Philippine Sea!) – worlds away from her true love, which is theater – and juggles her schedule of work with AC classes and rehearsals. It’s quite a sacrifice, and it’s all because of pagmamahal.

The Actors Company has been around since 1987 (current artistic director Nanding Josef was in the original batch), as a venue for training aspiring actors, mainly for the company’s productions – TP has a full season of three productions plus CCP’s Virgin Labfest, with multiple shows per production, aside from workshops, seminars and special performances – but it has since become a much sought after training ground. This year’s eight scholars were chosen from over 140 applicants. Many AC alumni have gone on to flourishing careers in film and television, their comprehensive training serving them well.

AC classes are held year-round, Tuesdays to Fridays 1-5 p.m., followed by rehearsals 6-10 p.m., then performances on weekends. It is, no doubt a full-time job, and by no means an easy one, but it is with heart and from the heart that these actors – artists – articulate the world around us, sometimes helping us make sense of it all, othertimes pushing, nudging us to take a step outside the circle of our lives, and in doing so enabling us to perhaps ignite that spark within us. As the song from Pingkian, the musical about Emilio Jacinto, says:

Ang tunay na himagsikan/ sa loob nagsisimula/ hangga’t may hininga/ hindi pa tapos ang laban.