AUTHOR’S BACKGROUND

BIENVENIDO LUMBERA
- As a child, he survived the carpet-bombing of his native Lipa in Batangas at the
end of World War II.
 
- Lumbera was born in April 11, 1932 and was orphaned at an early age. He was a
baby when his father Timoteo, a baseball player, fell from a tree while picking
fruits, broke his neck and died. His mother Carmen, suffering from cancer,
followed a few years later.
 
- Young Bienvenido and an older sister were then brought up by their paternal
grandmother, Eusebia Teru, who unfortunately also passed on later due to old
age. For his new guardians, Bienvenido was asked to choose between maiden
aunts with whom his sister had stayed, or his godparents Enrique and Amanda
Lumbera, who were childless.
 
- Aged 13 at the time, Lumbera chose his godparents because they could send
him to school. He went on to study Literature at the University of Santo Tomas
(Litt. B and MA degrees), eventually obtaining a PhD in Comparative Literature
from Indiana University, United States.

Going underground
 
- When the dictator Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, Lumbera went
underground. He was arrested by the military in January 1974 and released in
December that year. During the late 1970s, while I was interviewing him for
Celebrity magazine, Lumbera told me he believed that a friend or colleague close
to Marcos had recommended his release.
 
- “Professor Lumbera is not violent,” he quoted this colleague as telling the
authorities.
 
- A man of letters used to working or writing alone, he was later drawn to the
collaborative labyrinth that is the theater.

- “As a beginning writer, I used English in fiction and shifted to poetry because I
was such an inept typist,” he recalls. “Later, I began using Tagalog in my creative
writing. My discontent with publishing was the absence of any feedback from
readers. In the theater, however, feedback is immediate, so that if your work is
effective, you can tell right away from the reaction of the audience.”

Successful works
- Lumbera’s foray into theater spawned some of his most successful works. For
the Philippine Educational Theater Association, he created a musical based on
Carlos Bulosan’s “America Is in the Heart.” Several highly acclaimed musical
dramas followed, such as “Tales of the Manuvu,” “Rama Hari,” “Bayani,” “Noli Me
Tangere: The Musical” and “Hibik at Himagsik nina Victoria Laktaw.”
 - In the playwright’s estimation, his most successful plays are his adaptations of
“Noli Me Tangere,” “Hibik at Himagsik nina Viktoria Laktaw” and “Rama Hari.”
- “The ‘Noli’ was able to project the vital themes of the Rizal novel and succeeded,
it seems to me, in allowing the substance of the book to be accommodated in the
songs. ‘Hibik,’ meanwhile, is a tribute to revolutionary women in a setting that
celebrated my hometown of Lipa and its role in the Revolution of 1896.”
- He adds: “‘Rama Hari’ was a challenge to adapt for the stage, being an epic and
a foreign work that must be tamed for the Philippine stage. Much of the credit for
the success of the play comes from the excellent direction and choreography of
Alice Reyes.”
Imaginative, gripping
- Federico Garcia Lorca of Spain and Bertolt Brecht of Germany are the
playwrights who have had the most impact on Lumbera’s work in the theater.
-  “‘Bodas de Sangre’ and ‘Yerma’ (by Lorca) are imaginatively conceived and
emotionally gripping,” he says. “I like Brecht for the discourse that his material
provokes, allowing his plot to engage the audience in a discussion of issues that
concern them. ‘The Good Woman of Satzuan’ is a fine example of theater that
draws an audience to think out problems in society, but avoids boring them
because he has an ironic sense of humor.”
-  Among the directors he admires are Chris Millado and Nonon Padilla. “Millado
excels as both playwright and director, while Nonon Padilla is amazingly
inventive. Also, the young director Tuxqs Rutaquio overwhelmed me with his
ingenious work in ‘Ibalong.’”
- Lumbera also pays tribute to a friend and fellow National Artist, the late Rolando
Tinio: “It was Rolando Tinio and his genius that got me into theater. His great
insight into the art of theater and playwriting was that they were a continuing
effort to approximate what an artist considered as passing and transitory in the
world.”

REFERENCES
https://lifestyle.inquirer.net/139809/bienvenido-lumbera-in-craft-as-in-life-forever-
81/#:~:text=Lumbera%20was%20born%20in%201932,followed%20a%20few%20years
%20later.
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5156421.Bienvenido_L_Lumbera
https://geemiz.blogspot.com/2009/09/biography-bienvenido-l-lumbera.html