Have you ever tried going back to your ancestral home?

That one home every ‘old’ person in your

family grew up on? Or one of those reunions where you just sit and watch until an elder touches your
soldier and wants to talk to you? And you’d talk for hours and hours, leaving the place with new
learnings and a hope to return once again. Every month, I return to my dad’s house in Maa. The
house I grew up for two years ever since I was a baby, to reconnect with my roots. There I have three
cousins with almost the same ages as me, as well as uncles and aunties that still treat me like a little
child.

We were always made fun of my grandparents for not being able to speak Tagalog nor bisaya. I have
always been speaking in English, if not, conyo. My grandmother would always tell me that our
national hero, Jose Rizal, would be mad at us from heaven. I was six years old at that time. Who
wouldn’t be scared right? So I wanted her to teach me more about the language, she then told me
that I should know the history of the country first, especially the history of our national hero. My amah
always told me that I am somewhat similar to Rizal. I have a soft spot for my mother, I have a certain
charm where women always get attracted, and also the wits and intelligence. Love for the country is I
was told I was missing. Ten minutes of chatter on my amah’s front porch, holding fast to a sweaty
glass of iced tea, and I still sound like a foreigner.

José Rizal is one of the most revered figures in Philippine history. His political writings, which spurred
the Philippine revolt and ultimately led to his execution by the Spanish invaders, made him a versatile
intellectual and political activist who is most known for his political writings. In addition to being a
doctor, Rizal had his training in ophthalmology from two eminent European eye specialists, Louis de
Wecker and Otto Becker. Other than his career, Jose Rizal is also known to have a significant
number of love interest. He has this rizz where he always knows how to get a girl’s heart.

When I set the stage play, Pepe the Musical, I wanted to let the Filipinos know who really is Jose
Rizal behind the scenes. We always got used to how he always became political and makabayan. But
this stage play could be able to show who our national hero really is as a person behind those
achievements, behind those sacrifices. Writing the dialogue in a more modern dialect sounded right
to me. Actually, I wanted to make an adaptation in which these public figures possess the norms that
we have in this time right now. However, I am sill aware that there are more people who wanted it to
be traditional.

The making of the script was done back in October 2022, in compliance for the requirements for our
curriculum’s second quarter. Making a stage play about Jose Rizal, nor any historical Philippine
figures was not something I would really do. To be frank, I have never made any writings talking
about history. It’s just not for me. So it needed me to step out of my comfort zone and it forced me to
explore more in the field of literature.

The hardest process in this stage play is definitely making the plot itself. Everything went so smooth
after. I had to do research and know their backgrounds so that I would know how to write how they
act. From the body languages, to the outfits, from their posture all the way to the smallest bits of their
identity. I just had to make sure that this stage play is something justifiable. I knew it should be. I
realized that if I ever make a stage play about Jose Rizal, or even any of these historical figures, I had
to polish every single area and make sure everything is placed where it should be. What a shame if it
wouldn’t.
When making the characters for the stage play, I made sure that everyone would still have a
significant role in the play where it could also be related to they actually were back in the day. I
wanted to not just make things up with no basis whatsoever. Making literature about respected
figures need to be relevant. I still made Jose Rizal as a bookworm who has an interest on writing. His
mother who was always cold-hearted on the outside but is actually warm in the inside. The three
women, who each came from different countries, thus, possessing significant and distinguishable
properties.
Upon making the script for this stage play, I have decided to make things more interesting. I’m
actually someone who enjoys watching theatre only at times when the characters sing or performs.
So obviously, I tried. However, it sucked. As someone who also sucks at singing and body
movements, I found it ridiculous for me to actually be the one planning the performance.

One internet friend of mine, who praised my work suggested that my sentences might be a bit
“inelegant.” Although it was more of a modern styled play, she doesn’t really think Jose Rizal would
say putangina. The common wisdom is that there is a right way to talk and then there is the way
uneducated people talk. Mark Twain famously said, “I believe we should not only listen to their stories
but also preserve their voices in writing fiction that their stories inspire. Rather than impair meaning,
dialect can shine a light along the way.”. but living in the 21 st century in the Philiippines, how can you
not say putangina.

Writing dialect is risky, especially if you haven’t lived in the culture you’re writing about. A few
nonstandard spellings can add legitimacy, as colloquialisms can add flavor: however, dialect
shouldn’t choke the narration. A tick up or a tick down in dialect can help distinguish characters.