Philippine Theater

3/10/22, 2:14 PM Philippine Theater
Cultural Center of the Philippines
 ENCYCLOPEDIA OF
PHILIPPINE ART
Philippine Theater
Theater in the Philippines is as varied as the cultural traditions and the historical influences that have shaped it
through the centuries. The dramatic forms that flourished and continue to flourish among the different peoples of
the archipelago include indigenous theater, mimetic dances, and mimetic customs; plays with Spanish influence,
among which are the komedya, the sinakulo, the religious playlets, the sarsuwela, and the drama, theater with
Anglo-American influence, which encompasses bodabil and the plays in English; and modern or original plays by
Filipinos, which employ a range of styles drawn from contemporary modern theater or revitalize traditional forms
from within or outside the country.
The Indigenous Traditions and Transformations
The rituals, dances, and customs which are still performed with urgency and vitality by the different cultural
communities that comprise about 17 percent of the country’s population are held or performed, together or
separately, on the occasion of a person’s birth, baptism, circumcision, initial menstruation, courtship, wedding,
sickness, and death; or as a celebration of tribal activities like hunting, fishing, rice planting and harvesting, and
going to war.
In most rituals a native priest (or priestess) variously called mandadawak, catalonan, mambunong, bayok,
babaylan, baylan, or babalyan, goes into a trance as the spirit he (or she) calls upon possesses him (or her). While
entranced, the shaman partakes of the sacrificial offering, which may be a chicken, a pig, or a carabao, depending
on the gravity of the spirit’s anger, or may simply be uncooked rice, rice cakes, rice wine, and betel nut. This act,
which represents the death of the supplicant in the hands of the spirit, adapts itself to the occasion for which the
ritual is held.
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Higaonon saot war dance, Iligan City, 1988 (CCP Collection)
Among the Tagbanwa of Palawan in southern Philippines, the ritual of the diwata, which crowns a series of
activities addressed to the spirits of ancestors, is held after the rice harvest, on the last three days of the last
moon. In this ritual, they ask their supreme deity Mangindusa, the other gods, and the spirits of their ancestors for
a bountiful harvest and for the well-being of the supplicants. For this most significant socioeconomic and religious
event, the interior of the home of the babalyan is decorated with stripped palm leaves and bamboo slats inscribed
with Tagbanwa writing and designs. At the center of the large room, ritual offerings are carefully arranged: a small
wooden boat hanging from the ceiling, which serves as the ancestors’s transport from the spirit world; a mat on
which bowls or plates of uncooked rice, jewelry, betel nuts, rice cakes (which are all later consumed by the
people), and ginger and onions are spread; a ritual bamboo swing where the babalyan will sit and chant; a stool
with more food offerings; and the all-important wine jars set in a line in front of the swing and provided with oil-
rubbed straws through which the spirits/babalyan will sip the rice wine. For the Tagbanwa, wine is not found in the
spirit world, so it is the one item that best attracts spirits to the celebration.
To the heady music of gongs and drums, the babalyan’s assistant, dressed in a sarong skirt, tight blouse, and sash
from which the karis (wavy long knife) hangs, opens the ritual by performing several dances and shaking
the ugsang (stripped palm leaves) in both hands, in honor of Mangindusa who is supposed to be perched on the
roof of the house. This part ends with the babalyan letting out a scream and pulling the ceremonial staff attached
to the ceiling to denote that Mangindusa has departed. Soon after, the babalyan, also in a similar skirt and blouse
but with a black hood covering her face, works herself into a trance as she sips wine and throws herself in the
middle of the room. She then dances, balancing a bowl with rice or a bowl with candles or a karis on her head
while brandishing the palm leaves or two porcelain bowls or a piece of cloth in her hands, as she is followed by
her assistant. To the continuous beating of the gongs, the babalyan may then shake the palm leaves violently,
strike the sides of the wine jar angrily, and sip wine, denoting that a spirit has taken hold of her. As other spirits
take turns possessing her, the babalyan’s movements may change—one spirit may prompt her to sip wine, soft
drinks, or water; another may want to smoke cigarettes with those participating in the ritual; others may want her
to dance with a long knife or bolo on her head, oil the women’s hair, or lead the singing of the spirit song. The
series of possessions is capped with those present drinking, smoking, and participating in the activities of the
ritual (Fox 1982).
Interestingly, these animistic rituals survive today even among Christianized Filipinos. In Isabela, the atang-atang
ritual of the Ibanag features a gaily decorated small bamboo raft with offerings of rice, oil, eggs, cigarettes, rice
cakes, and a little chick representing the soul of the sick person. Around this raft situated on the ground, two
women dance, drink, and chant Christian prayers to cure the sick. Later, the women take oil from the raft and rub it
on the face, legs, or hands of the sick.
Aside from rituals, tribal dances, which were more often than not mimetic, may also be considered proto-dramas.
A majority of these dances, which mark important events like baptism, courtship, marriage, and even death, also
depict important tribal activities. The tribes of the Cordillera have dances that reenact the hunting and killing of a
boar, as well as the practice of headhunting. The Aeta of Zambales perform dances that show the techniques of
gathering wild honey in the forest as well as those of hunting for fish. The Tausug of Sulu boast of dances that
represent how oranges are picked or how not to catch a mudfish. The most important dance among most
Philippine indigenous groups, however, is the war dance. The war dance of the Higaonon or Northern Bukidnon of
Mindanao imitates the movements of warriors who fight with spears and shields. Similarly, proto-dramas are the
dances which are playful imitations of animals, like the monkey, fish, and fly dances of the Aeta of Zambales in
Luzon; the hawk dances of the Higaonon in Mindanao; and the butterfly, monkey, and bird dances of the Tausug
and Sama Dilaut in Sulu.
Mimetic too are some of the customs associated with courtship, marriage, and death among the ethnic
communities. Of the courtship customs, the most common is the debate between a male and a female that may
employ verse, song, and dance. The Maranao panonoroon has a boy and a girl chanting metaphorical verses to
each other, with the boy offering his love to the girl and the latter warding off his verbal advances. The Cebuano
balitaw features antiphonal songs performed by male and female who talk not only of love but also of the
problems faced by married couples and rural workers. Among the Tagalog, the duplo or debate in song and
dance becomes an exchange of spoken verses. Male poets called bilyako use proverbs, riddles, the pasyon,
the awit (metrical romances), as well as contemporary events to advance their suits to the female poets called
bilyaka of their choice. In the 1920s, the duplo became a formal debate on an issue and was then called the
balagtasan.
The duplo, a form of folk debate, Malolos City, 1992 (CCP Collection)
Mimetic customs related to weddings include the Tagalog pamanhikan, where representatives of the families of
both the boy and the girl speak in metaphorical language to settle the dowry or bride price; and the Blaan
samsung, where, after the bride price is paid, the bride and the groom are “forced” to sit beside each other with
their hair tied together even as the bride “objects.” On the other hand, mimetic customs related to death are
exemplified by the baraning usa of the Aeta of Camarines, where a deer made of banana stalk and twigs is
“hunted down” and offered to the dead to be taken to the next life.
Finally, short dance-dramas may narrate a story or dramatize an episode from known epics. The pandamgo of
the Matigsalug is a series of scenes showing how a mother raises her daughter from childhood to maturity, how
the girl is courted by two men, how the mother openly favors one man over the man that the girl prefers, how the
men fight each other for the girl, and how they kill each other in the process. Similarly, the singkil dance of the
Maranao enacts an episode from the epic Darangen, where Prince Bantugan saves the princess Gandingan from
the evil mountain spirits who try to stop the couple by hurling trees on Bantugan’s path and opening up the earth
to swallow Gandingan. Bantugan sucessfully dances between a gamut of clashing shields held by two rows of
men, which represents the trees, while Gandingan deftly dances over eight pairs of clashing bamboos
representing the earthquake.
As a whole, indigenous dramas are well integrated into the lives of tribal Filipinos. These rituals, dances, and
customs express their very beliefs, activities, and material culture. Furthermore, they help fulfill the basic needs of
the tribe for a good harvest, victory in war, and the physical and spiritual well-being of their sick, their newborns,
their youth, and their newlyweds. Finally, these plays create a stronger bond among the members of the tribe and
bind them to work for the common good. Rituals of baptism, circumcision, and marriage, as well as the dances
that instruct children on the techniques of looking for honey, fishing, or fighting in war clearly work for the
collective good. A good harvest, as well as plentiful honey and fish obviously benefit the tribe, while the display of
war dances teaches young boys their primary duty as men—namely, fighting off aggressors to ensure the survival
of the tribe. Similarly, the customs associated with courtship, marriage, and death provide a way of expressing
personal emotions in a socially accepted manner and of informing all of new ties that will have to be respected by
everyone so that harmony may reign in their society.
Hispanic Traditions and Transformations
In the more than three centuries of Spanish rule from 1565 to 1898, the Spanish colonizers, specifically the friars,
showed a keen awareness of the power of theater both as a tool for the Christianization of the natives and as a
magnet to attract the latter to settle in the pueblo (town), which constituted the foundation of Spain’s empire in
the archipelago. The Spanish regime introduced and popularized various types of secular and religious plays.
Secular plays were usually staged to celebrate town fiestas, while religious plays were usually mounted to
highlight important Catholic liturgical feasts or seasons like Christmas, Lent, or Easter. Many of these plays and
playlets continue to be popular among the Christianized folk who live in the rural areas and compose the majority
of the total population.
Of these plays, the most important is the komedya, a play in verse introduced into the country from Spain in the
16th century and institutionalized in the 19th century. There are two main types of komedya: the secular komedya
known as moro-moro, linambay, or arakyo, which is on the conflict between Moors and Christians in medieval
Europe, and the religious komedya, which dramatizes the lives of patron saints. This theatrical spectacle takes 3-15
hours and several sessions to perform. Elaborate marches, lengthy choreographed fight scenes, and magical
artifices wrought by heaven to save saints or Christians in distress ensure the popularity of the komedya as
principal entertainment during town fiestas.
Performance of the arakyo, a komedya on the search for the Holy Cross Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija, 1985
(Nicanor G. Tiongson)
The orihinal (script) of the secular komedya, which derives its stories from native versions of European metrical
romances, usually depicts the conflict between Christian princes and princesses and their Moorish counterparts.
Typical of the stories of the secular komedya is the arakyo still performed in several towns of Nueva Ecija, which
revolves around Elena and Constantino’s search for the Cross of Christ. As performed in Peñaranda, Nueva Ecija,
in 1986, the story of the arakyo remains basically what it was at the turn of the century when this play, also known
as tibag, first became popular. After his father, King Constancio of Rome and Constantipole, is killed by the Turks,
the young Constantino sits on the throne and brings war to the emperador (emperor) of Turquia to avenge his
father’s death. Worried about the outcome of the war, Elena is assured by a voice from heaven that victory would
be given to Constantino, but that he and Elena should in turn look for the cross on which Christ died. Constantino
wins the war and kills the emperador of Turquia. Meanwhile, Queen Elena has left for the Holy Land to look for the
Redeemer’s cross.
Princess Ordelisa of Turquia now bids farewell to her father, Emperador Costroas, and leads a mission to the
Christian court. She demands Constantino’s surrender and exacts vengeance on Constantino’s general, Lucero,
with whom she is secretly in love and who, with his companions, made trouble when they joined the tournament
in Turquia some years back. Meanwhile, Queen Elena has found the cross but loses it to the Moors who intercept
and attack her. Informed of this, Constantino sends Lucero on a mission to Turquia to demand that Costroas give
back the cross. The mission fails, but it brings Lucero face-to-face with Ordelisa once again. The general pledges
his undying love for the Moorish princess and proves it by laying down his arms. But the other Moors pounce on,
imprison, and sentence him to death by beheading. Ordelisa, who is now convinced of Lucero’s love, decides to
free him. In the end, a big battle is waged between the Christians led by Constantino and Elena, and the Moors
under Costroas and Ordelisa. Elena is about to kill Ordelisa when Lucero intervenes and begs for her life.
Defeated, the Moors agree to be baptized “so that the dirt of their souls may be washed away.”
Traditional are the arakyo’s sets and costumes, its stylized gestures and rhetorical delivery of verses,
its marcha (slow march) and paso doble (fast march) accompanied by band music, as well as the scenes of love
between Moorish princess and Christian general, the embahada (mission) between kingdoms, the dances to
relieve the audience from long stretches of monotonous dialogue, and the theatrical artifices. Supported by
hermanos mayores (principal sponsors) and by donations from individuals, the arakyo, like many traditional
komedya today, is cherished by the townspeople, for it is a form of dance-prayer or an extended dramatic
devotional to the Santa Cruz (Holy Cross) presented to ask for favors and blessings on both kin and community.
Not as numerous as the secular komedya, the religious komedya called komedya de santo hardly survives to this
day. Typical of these didactic komedya, which were used by Spanish friars to teach Christianity and inculcate
Christian colonial values, is one staged in Iligan City—the Comedia de San Miguel (Play of San Miguel), written
circa 1890. Also called Yawa-Yawa (literally, Devil-Devil), this komedya tells the story of how Lusbel rebelled
against God and how God ordered San Miguel Arcangel (Iligan City’s patron saint) to quell the heavenly revolts
and drive Lusbel, his cohorts, and the Seven Capital Sins, represented by a huge seven-headed monster, to hell
where they are punished forever for their pride and rebelliousness.
Of the Philippine religious plays, the most outstanding and enduring has been the sinakulo, also known as the
pasion y muerte (passion and death), tanggal (literally, to remove) and centurion, which probably saw light in
the mid-18th century. Staged commercially or as community activity during Lent and often for eight consecutive
nights during Holy Week, the sinakulo started as a dramatization of the Pasyong Genesis, the most popular verse
narrative on the life and sufferings of Jesus Christ, and later was augmented by apocryphal stories from other
pasyon and religious books like the Martir sa Golgota (The Martyr of Golgotha), and popular reading materials
like Liwayway.
Sinakulo on the street, Rizal province, circa 1990 (Nicanor G. Tiongson Collection)
In Tambo, Buhi, Camarines Sur, the passion play known as tanggal is a folk interpretation of events of the passion
that is distinguished both by its charm and simplicity as by its faith and fervor. For almost three whole days and
with financial support from the barrio, older members of an itinerant group of tanggalista (members of the
tanggal group) chant the Bikol pasyon and other episodes, from the Creation of the World to the Search for the
Holy Cross by Elena and Constantino, while the younger members of the group dramatize the actions narrated by
the chant. Most popular are the following: doleful scenes like Christ saying farewell to his mother before he goes
to his martyrdom; comic scenes featuring the antics of Judas Iscariot, the great comedian in any passion play;
scenes of spectacle like the storm at sea where the apostles take a little boat ride on Lake Buhi, sometimes beside
bathing carabaos; colorful scenes like the descent of the Holy Spirit on Mary and the Apostles; and finally,
dramatic scenes like the assumption and coronation of the Virgin in heaven.
In Cainta, Rizal, the sinakulo is staged for several nights with spectacular sets, colorful costumes, dramatic
dialogue, with emphasis on artipisyo or special effects. Here and in other towns of Rizal and Bulacan, a shortened
form of the sinakulo is performed on the street on Good Friday. Whether on stage or on the street, the sinakulo’s
worldview, like other folk religious plays, remains as simple as that of a medieval morality play where absolute
and certain is the victory of good over all forces of evil.
As popular but more numerous than the komedya and sinakulo are the playlets, which attest to the importance
placed by the Spanish friars and the local priests that came after them on teaching Catholicism. Many religious
playlets in the Philippines merely embellish the Catholic liturgy or dramatize more fully the feasts narrated by that
liturgy, especially the events of Christ’s birth, passion, death, and resurrection. Others are performed to honor
saints on their feast days. Some of the most important playlets are associated with the Christmas season.
The Tagalog panunuluyan (seeking entry) and Bikol kagharong (going from house to house) dramatize through a
street procession the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph’s search for an inn in Bethlehem on Christmas Eve. The
pastores (shepherds), on the other hand, may either be a playlet depicting the journey of the shepherds, their
encounter with Satan, and their adoration of the Christ Child, as may be seen in Cebu and Leyte; or may simply be
a group of males and females in colorful costumes dancing and singing Spanish and native Christmas songs in
front of different houses, as practiced in certain towns of Bicol. The niños inocentes found in the Tagalog areas
may be a short play showing the beheading of babies below two years of age as ordered by Herod, as was the
custom in some towns of Rizal; or a parade of higante (giants) as in Gasan, Marinduque. Lastly, the tatlong hari
(three kings) may be a simple procession highlighting three males costumed as kings, as in Floridablanca,
Pampanga, and Mabitac, Laguna; or a play reenacting the search for and adoration of the Infant Jesus by the Three
Kings on street and stage, as in Gasan, Marinduque.
The Lenten season, specifically the Holy Week, has many more playlets associated with it. The osana (hosanna),
found in almost all Christian areas, features the blessing of the palms and reenacts Christ’s triumphal entry into
Jerusalem on Palm Sunday. The via crucis (way of the cross), observed in most Catholic parishes, is a procession of
the image of the Nazareno or Christ carrying the cross that stops at 14 altars where the Stations of the Cross are
enshrined. In Paete, Laguna, the stations where Christ and his mother, and Christ and Veronica meet are
dramatized with chanted dialogue and moving images. The paghuhugas (washing), performed in almost all
Catholic and Aglipayan churches, dramatizes the washing of the feet of the apostles by Jesus on Maundy Thursday.
The huling hapunan or ultima cena (last supper), staged in some Tagalog and Bicol provinces, reenacts the Last
Supper with an actual dinner eaten by the priest and 12 men playing the apostles. The siete palabras (seven last
words), observed in many Catholic parishes, features a life-sized image of Christ hanging on the cross which
moves its head each time one of the seven last words is spoken—with accompanying thunder and lightning
effects—during the three hours before Christ’s death at 3:00 pm on Good Friday. The misericordia (mercy)
procession of Pakil is the Good Friday procession enacting the burial of the dead Christ which stops at
several estaciones (altars) where the image of the dead Christ is placed on a low platform and smoked with local
incense. The soledad (solitude), still done in Bicol and Pangasinan, is a procession of the image of the grieving
Mater Dolorosa after the burial of her son on Good Friday or Black Saturday. This procession stops at designated
houses where songs are performed to lighten Mary’s sorrow. The pagkabuhay (resurrection) of Lubao, Pampanga,
reenacts with special effects the Resurrection of Christ in the early hours of Easter Sunday. The salubong
(meeting), also known as sugat, encuentro, sabet, alleluya, and padafung in Catholic and Aglipayan parishes all
over the country, dramatizes the meeting of the Risen Christ and the Virgin on Easter Sunday morning in dance
and song. This is climaxed by the removal of the Virgin’s black veil by a little angel, who descends from the
“heaven” of the four-poster galilea to sing “Regina Coeli, Laetare” (Queen of Heaven, Rejoice). The hudas, found in
Pampanga and Bulacan towns, shows the burning of the effigy of the traitor Iscariot. The moriones (helmets) of
the Marinduque parishes dramatizes the story of the Roman soldier Longhino who, while guarding the tomb of
Christ, witnesses the Resurrection, becomes a Christian, proclaims Christ’s divinity, and is beheaded by Pilate’s
soldiers.
Via crucis using moving images, Paete, Laguna, 2013 (Tom Santos, photo courtesy of Charles
Cabansay)
Some playlets are performed in honor of patron saints. In Taal, Batangas, the loa or verse poem is declaimed by
youths to thank and praise San Martin of Tours and the Virgin of Caysaysay. To honor the Holy Cross during the
month of May, the santakrusan is held, originally a procession that dramatizes the exaltation of the cross after it
is found by Elena and Constantino. Similar in theme is the dotoc (journey) of Camarines Sur where costumed
characters enact a journey of devotees to the Holy Land to adore the Holy Cross. But by far, the most important
playlet performed on the feasts of some patron saints, such as Santiago Matamoros, is the moros y cristianos,
popular in Manila and many towns all over the archipelago in the 19th century. Today, this dance drama survives in
a few isolated towns. Known by different appellations, this playlet still dramatizes the conflict between Christians
and Moors or non-Christians. Notable examples of this genre are the kinabayo of Dapitan, Zamboanga del Norte,
which depicts the conflict of the Moors and Christians in the Battle of Covadonga; the palo-palo of Ivana, Batanes,
which survives as a dance with sticks between Moors and Christians; and the sayaw of Ibajay, Aklan, which
underscores the defeat of the Moors in the hands of the Bisaya.
The secular and religious plays and playlets are drastically different in content and function from the indigenous
plays. While the latter depict the life and activities of the tribe, the dramas with Spanish influence either showcase
alien stories of princes and princesses from ideal worlds peopled by the “beautiful” white race or narrate the life
and sufferings of Jesus Christ and the saints of the Catholic Church, which were introduced into the country by the
Spanish friars. Moreover, the komedya propagated and continues to propagate a colonial mentality that privileges
the king and all figures of authority and looks up to the European as superior in race and religion while it looks
down on the Moros as inferior by virtue of their religion. The plays and playlets on the life and sufferings of Jesus
Christ and the saints discourage self-initiative, a critical attitude, and decisiveness, preferring to forge a passive
will that bows to autocracy and its hierarchy of authority. It is thus not difficult to see how these plays contributed
to the shaping of the native Filipino as colonial during the Spanish period and how they continue to discourage the
development of persons and citizens in contemporary Philippine society.
Responding to the needs of the times, some komedya and sinakulo have instituted changes in the content and
form of these plays. The traditional komedya in San Dionisio, Parañaque, found its first innovator in Max Allanigue,
who wrote Prinsipe Rodante (Prince Rodante), 1962, which uses all the conventions of the komedya but rejects its
divisive anti-Muslim message and instead argues that a person’s respect for justice and not his religion be the
basis for judging that person. For his part, Al Santos, in his Kalbaryo ng Maralitang Taga-lungsod (Calvary of the
Urban Poor), 1988, reinterpreted the Christ story according to the problems faced by the urban poor in Manila.
Introduced into the country by Spanish artists in 1878 or 1879, the sarsuwela had its heyday during the American
era from 1900 to 1940 in Manila and the provinces. Usually in three acts with music and dancing interspersed
within the prose dialogue, the sarsuwela focuses on a love story between members of the upper classes that is
spiced up with comic love episodes between servants and made more relevant with satirical attacks on usurers,
corrupt politicians, oppressive landlords, lazy husbands whose husbandry is wasted on cockfighting and other
vices and, lately, students hooked on drugs and “Saudi” recruiters who take advantage of naive workers.
Original sarsuwela were created in the Tagalog region by writers like Severino Reyes, Hermogenes Ilagan, Patricio
Mariano, Julian Cruz Balmaseda, Servando de los Angeles, and composers like Fulgencio Tolentino, Juan S.
Hernandez, Leon Ignacio, Alejo Carluen, and Bonifacio Abdon; in Cebu, by writers like Vicente Sotto,
Buenaventura Rodriguez, Pio Kabahar, and Fernando Buyser; in Pampanga, by writers like Juan Crisostomo Soto,
Aurelio V. Tolentino, Felix Galura, and Urbano Macapagal; in Bicol, by writers like Asisclo Jimenez, Jose Figueroa,
and Valerio Zuñiga; in Iloilo, by writers like Valente Cristobal, Jimeno Damaso, Angel Magahum, and Jose Ma.
Ingalla; in Ilocos, by writers like Mena Pecson Crisologo, Mariano Gaerlan, Leon Pichay, Isaias Lazo, and Barbaro
Paat; and in Pangasinan, by writers like Catalino Palisoc and Pablo Mejia.
One of the most popular sarsuwela of all time is Hermogenes Ilagan and Leon Ignacio’s Dalagang Bukid (Country
Maiden), 1919, which tells of the love between a pretty young flower girl, Angelita, and a young handsome law
student, Cipriano. Principal obstacle to their love is a rich old man, Don Silvestre, who frequents
the kabaret (dance hall) where the dalagang bukid sells flowers and is determined to get the girl for himself.
Taking advantage of their addiction to cockfighting and card games, Don Silvestre lends Angelita’s parents all the
gambling money they want, certain that they would then easily agree to deliver the girl to him as payment for
their debts. Moreover, Don Silvestre uses his money to make sure that Angelita wins the beauty contest that
means so much to Angelita’s parents. In the end, after a series of romantic misunderstanding and comic
misinterpretations, Angelita is crowned queen but manages to sidestep Don Silvestre’s trap by eloping with
Cipriano, who has just finished his law studies.
Tanghalang Pilipino’s Dalagang Bukid, CCP, Manila, 1987 (Tanghalang Pilipino Collection)
The traditional sarsuwela now survives mainly in the Ilocos, from where a few commercial troupes fan out to other
Ilocano-speaking provinces for performances during town fiestas. These groups continue to stage stories such as
those of veteran sarsuwelista Barbaro Paat. Typical of Paat’s stories is one which depicts the plight of a wife who
has been sent away by her husband and mother-in-law, and the sufferings of their young daughter under the
father’s new wife. Although its costumes are contemporary, Paat’s sarsuwela has all the ingredients of popular
traditional sarsuwela—namely, the love songs, the melodramatic scenes, and the comic scenes, which the
audience loves above all.
Introduced from Spain in the 19th century, the drama (to be distinguished from the generic English term “drama”)
is a play in verse and/or prose usually in one act. As written by Filipinos at the turn of the century, it often revolves
around an aspect of Filipino contemporary life such as divorce, gambling, and other social vices, usually in the
framework of a love story. During its golden age from 1900 to 1940, the drama was performed in a series of three-
in-one performance or by itself before a sarsuwela. Like the sarsuwela, it was presented commercially or as a
community activity on a proscenium stage in a teatro (theater) or on an open-air rural entablado (stage), using
telon (theater curtain or backdrop) and appropriate props to denote setting. Although the drama is hardly ever
staged today, it still enjoys immense popularity on radio, television or film, either as tear-jerking, sala-set
melodrama popularly known as soap opera or as a comedy with a lot of slapstick or toilet humor.
The drama as a Philippine form could be one of three types, depending on its emphasis: drama romantiko or
social (melodrama), drama komiko (comedy), or drama simboliko (allegorical drama). The pre-World War II
melodrama which aims to make people cry is typified by Veronidia, 1919, by Cirio H. Panganiban, which depicts the
tragic death of a divorcee who only wants to visit her first husband who is now on his deathbed. The comedy,
which entertains with laughter, is exemplified by Julian Cruz Balmaseda’s Sino Ba Kayo? (Who Are You All?), 1943,
which weaves its hilarious situations around the mistaken identities of the main characters—a widower and his
pretty daughter, a widow—the widower’s new wife—and her handsome son who turns out to be the boyfriend of
the widower’s daughter, and the male and female servants. The drama simboliko, popular in Manila and its
environs from 1900 to 1905 as a vehicle of political protest against American colonization of the archipelago, is
exemplified by Juan Abad’s Tanikalang Guinto (Golden Chain), 1902, and Aurelio V. Tolentino’s Kahapon, Ngayon
at Bukas (Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow), 1903.
Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas is an allegory that chronicles the struggle of the Filipinos. Inangbayan (representing
the motherland), under the leadership of Taga-ilog (the patriotic Filipino), attempts to overcome the oppressors in
the country’s history: the Chinese, the Spanish, and the Americans. Act 1 opens with Inangbayan reprimanding
Asalhayop (Filipino collaborators) and his friends for feasting on the tombs of those who perished when
Balintawak fell to the Chinese. Taga-ilog exhorts everyone to rise against Haring Bata, the Chinese king. For a fee,
Asalhayop informs Haring Bata of the planned revolt but is exposed by Inangbayan and burned alive by Taga-ilog
for his treachery. The Filipinos launch the revolt against the Chinese and win a signal victory. But another power
comes to the islands: Dilat-na-bulag (Spain) and Matanglawin (Spanish colonial government), who have a blood
compact with Taga-ilog. In Act 2, the Halimau (Spanish friar) strips the natives of their little wealth. Taga-ilog
defies him and is imprisoned. Ignoring Matanglawin’s orders to release Taga-ilog, Halimau forces Inangbayan to
surrender all her riches in exchange for Taga-ilog’s freedom. Dahumpalay (Filipino collaborator) wants Taga-ilog
shot but instead is killed by Taga-ilog, who burns the traitor’s face and uses his clothes to escape from prison.
Halimau orders Inangbayan buried alive, but the latter is liberated by the forces of Taga-ilog who finally overthrow
the Spanish colonizers, even as the third colonial power, represented by Bagonsibol (America) and Malaynatin
(the American insular government), arrive to pledge friendship with the Filipinos. Act 3 opens with women sewing
the Philippine flag which will be raised when the new moon rises. Taga-ilog persuades Malaynatin to give the
Filipinos their independence, but the latter is reluctant to do so. Malaynatin then falls asleep and in a dream sees
Taga-ilog and his army preparing to fight America with cannons, air ships, and tanklike vehicles. In the end,
Inangbayan begs for the country’s independence but is refused. But when young children kneel before Bagonsibol
in support of Inangbayan, Bagonsibol’s heart softens and he grants the people freedom.
In general, the drama and the sarsuwela represent a significant development in Philippine theater history, if only
because they pioneered a more realistic portrayal of Filipino life and culture, showcasing not only Filipino
costumes and sets but also typical Filipino characters, dialogue, and situations. Moreover, unlike the colonial
plays, these forms trained their sights on current issues of Philippine society, launching diatribes against those
they perceived as social “offenders.” If these plays can be faulted, it would be for the simplistic way in which they
solve the very real problems they present. Coincidences, accidents, and other forms of deus ex machina are used
to eliminate all obstacles to come to a correct—not necessarily happy—ending for all concerned. By a stroke of
the pen, the villains all mend their evil ways and become model members of the establishment church and
community.
The “seditious” dramas, however, are an exception, because they dared to paint the bloody struggle of Filipinos
against the American colonizers, hoping thus to enlighten and exhort the Filipino masses to support the
revolutionary movement based in the mountains, and thus prevent colonization by another Western power. In
doing this, the drama simboliko have come to represent a high point in the development of Philippine theater,
reflecting the urgent conflicts of its time and encouraging the people to support the revolutionary movement in
the countryside and prevent the second colonization of the islands.
The American Traditions and Transformations
Short as it was, the American colonial regime from 1901 to 1946 had a profound effect on 20th-century Philippine
theater, first in form and later in content and philosophy. This influence is seen in the Philippine bodabil
(vaudeville), the Western plays presented in English or in Filipino translation or adaptation, and the original
modern plays written in English by Filipino playwrights.
Descended from the American vaudeville and introduced into the Philippines in the 1920s by artists like Borromeo
Lou, bodabil is not a play per se but a potpourri of songs, dances, and comedy skits which showcase popular
culture from the United States. Songs included jazz, blues, ballads, and local comic songs. Dances, performed by
chorus girls or pairs of dancers, featured cakewalk, charleston, tap dancing, and jitterbug. Comedy skits were
performed by local versions of Laurel and Hardy or Charlie Chaplin. Showing its circus origins, bodabil also
featured magical acts, contortionists, animal tricks, fire and sword eaters. Stars of bodabil in the pre-World War II
era were singers Katy de la Cruz, Hanasan, Diana Toy, and Cecil Lloyd and musicians like Maestro Beck and the
Alabama Brothers. The first bodabil shows were held at the Olympic Stadium, a boxing arena. But within two
decades, many theaters, like the Savoy, Sirena, and Rivoli, were showing bodabil and movies which alternated
with each other.
Through the Westernized educational system established by the Americans all over the archipelago, Filipinos were
introduced to the first examples of “legitimate” theater in the Philippines—that is, plays that have so-called artistic
merit. In the 1930s and 1940s, prominent schools which were steeped in English language and Western culture,
such as the University of the Philippines (UP) and Ateneo de Manila University, led in the production of Western
classics, especially Shakespearean tragedies—namely, Macbeth, Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Julius Caesar —
and comedies like Merchant of Venice, as well as then-contemporary Western plays written originally in English
or in English translation. The latter included European and American plays that became popular in the United
States from the late 19th century to the first three decades of the 20th, including Edmond Rostand’s L’Aiglon and
Cyrano de Bergerac, Anton Chekhov’s The Marriage Proposal, George Bernard Shaw’s Arms and the Man, and
Broadway-type plays like W. W. Jacobs’s The Monkey’s Paw, George Middleton and Guy Bolton’s Polly with a
Past, Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s Richelieu, George M. Cohan’s Seven Keys to Baldpate, Mary Roberts Rinehart and
Avery Hopwood’s The Bat, James Barrie’s Dear Brutus, A. A. Milne’s Mr. Pim Passes By, and John Galsworthy’s
The Silver Box.
Arms and the Man, University of the Philippines Little Theater, Manila, 1934 (Philippinensian 1934, UP Archives)
But even as Filipinos were being Westernized by their formal education, Filipino playwrights began to write their
own original plays in English, the language being then considered as the only legitimate language for literature
and theater. Early playwrights include Carlos P. Romulo, Vidal Tan, and Jorge Bocobo, who in their youth wrote
plays with historical subject matter, usually presented during Rizal Day celebrations, and later about
contemporary characters and customs. The latter is typified by Vidal Tan’s The Husband of Mrs. Cruz, which
satirizes the elections and its effects on the people. But the major playwright in English of the pre-World War II
period is doubtlessly Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, who wrote about the characters, values, and relationships of the
middle class in both his tragedies and comedies. His first play in English, Half an Hour in a Convent, 1934, was
followed by such important plays as Women Are Extraordinary, 1937; Forsaken House and Wanted: A
Chaperone, 1940; Forever, 1941; and Condemned, 1944.
As the komedya and sinakulo helped to Hispanize the natives in the Spanish period, so the bodabil and plays in
English contributed to the rapid Americanization of the Filipinos in the first half of the 20th century. For one thing,
bodabil and the Western plays presented in the country, although staged by Filipinos and for Filipinos, contained
very little of Philippine life and culture in them. The bodabil had Filipino singers approximating American singers
like Sophie Tucker, and flexing their limbs in the air à la Fred Astaire. In the same vein, the American and European
plays had Filipinos imitating an English accent to be convincing in Macbeth or adopting an American twang to do
justice to Polly with a Past.
Furthermore, bodabil shows transported audiences to the American dreamland through the songs, dances,
comedy skits, and production numbers on stage, while educated or Westernized Filipinos tried to get their
catharsis from the characters of a Shakespeare play—an endeavor that did not always succeed since few Filipinos
understood the idioms and culture of Shakespeare’s time. Finally, because of their proven effectivity in
Americanizing Filipinos, bodabil and Western contemporary plays certainly helped to make more acceptable to
the Filipino America’s continuing domination of the Philippines.
On the other hand, as the Filipinos were becoming more Americanized in thought, taste, and temper by these and
later plays, they were also being equipped with many dramatic theories and styles that opened new avenues for
growth and later expanded the horizons for theatrical expression of Filipino playwrights, directors, actors,
designers, and stage managers. Even as foreign plays strengthened the colonial bias, they also eventually
enabled the Filipino to write and stage plays that represent Philippine realities with greater effectivity and fidelity.
During the Japanese period from 1942 to 1945, the theater scene in Manila was dominated by the stage show,
which now combined bodabil and the drama or the legitimate play. In this form, bodabil continued to dish out its
bevy of songs, dances, and skits but with a more Filipino flavor, to be in consonance with the “Asia for Asians”
policy of the colonizers. But the main attraction of the show was now the short traditional melodrama or modern
straight play at the end of the show. The compromise between the commercial and the legitmate became possible
and feasible because producers wanted to take advantage of the many movie talents, already names in the
prewar period, who were now out of work because the Japanese had prohibited the further importation of film
stock from abroad. Film actors Leopoldo Salcedo, Fernando Poe, Rosario Moreno, Rosa del Rosario topbilled
plays at former movie theaters like Avenue, Ideal, and Capitol, which showcased mainly their acting abilities, since
many of them could not sing even if they had become famous in musicals where they lip-synched professional
singers. These plays, like Guerrero’s Forever, Condemned, and Forsaken House, and foreign plays like Cyrano
de Bergerac, were translated into Filipino for the benefit of the mass audiences and directed by film directors like
Gerardo de Leon, Lamberto Avellana, and Manuel Conde and designed by artists like Carlos “Botong” Francisco.
Many of the artists in the stage shows were connected to the anti-Japanese guerrilla movement like the
comedians Pugo and Togo, so they devised skits that took potshots at the colonizers and their propaganda
machine. One skit had a comedian read the newspapers upside down to get at the truth because newspapers
under Japanese control always reversed the truth. Other actors ad-libbed lines to inform the audience of war
developments or even sang songs like "Babalik Ka Rin" (You Will Return) to alert the mass audiences of the
impending return of General Douglas MacArthur. In this way did bodabil indigenize itself by serving the needs of
Filipinos desperately seeking liberation from a foreign fascistic regime. After the war, the return to popularity of
the movies drove the stage show into small, cheap theaters or to open-air stages in the provinces.
The Period of the Republics
After the war, America “granted” the Philippines its independence, inaugurating the first Republic of the
Philippines, which had been prepared for by the Commonwealth and the first constitutional convention in 1935.
But even as America relinquished direct rule over the country, it quickly reestablished its hold on the islands,
turning it into a neocolony through treaties like the Bell Trade Act and the Laurel-Langley Agreement. And as
America continued to control the country’s economy and politics, it went on to dominate its culture through
Hollywood films and American programs on radio and television, and more importantly, through the educational
system, with the help of American-educated Filipino teachers and administrators, the American-inspired curricula,
and the obligatory use of the English language as primary language of instruction.
Raised in the Anglo-American tradition of theater, many local artists, understandably enough, continued the
prewar practice of staging plays in English, which included the same Western classics like the plays of
Shakespeare and now also Greek tragedies like Oedipus Rex and Antigone. In addition, they now staged modern
plays from Europe like Emile Zola’s Therese Raquin, Henrik Ibsen’s Enemy of the People and Hedda Gabler,
August Strindberg’s Miss Julie and Dream Play, Chekhov’s Three Sisters, Cherry Orchard, and The Seagull, as
well as contemporary American plays such as Tennessee Williams’s A Streetcar Named Desire, The Glass
Menagerie, and Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman, The Crucible, and All My Sons.
But with the rise of nationalism in the mid-1960s and the desire to connect to a larger audience, Filipino artists
began to translate and/or adapt these foreign plays into Filipino. Among the early examples of such translations
staged between 1968 and 1971 are Rolando Tinio’s translations of The Glass Menagerie (Laruang Kristal), Death
of a Salesman (Pahimakas sa Isang Ahente), and Enemy of the People (Kaaway ng Bayan); and Philippine
Educational Theater Association’s (PETA) translations of The Visit (Donya Clara), Everyman (Tao), The Bald
Soprano (Ang Tatay Mong Kalbo), The Inspector General (Inspektor Heneral), and Antigone (Antigone). An
early example of a cultural adaptation is Onofre Pagsanghan’s adaptation of Thornton Wilder’s Our Town (Doon
Po sa Amin), 1965, which reinterprets foreign settings and characters within Filipino realities.
But even as the translations and adaptations multiplied, Filipino playwrights continued to produce original works
in English. From the prewar period, Guerrero restaged many of his early works and wrote even more plays like
Perhaps, 1947; Deep in My Heart, 1951; and Our Strange Ways, 1953. These plays were staged by the UP
Dramatic Club and later the UP Mobile Theater, both of which Guerrero directed. At the Philippine Normal College,
Severino Montano followed suit, staging his own plays, including the full-length The Love of Leonor Rivera, 1954,
and the one-act plays Sabina, The Ladies and the Senator, and Parting at Calamba, all in 1953. Many of these
plays were toured around the country by Montano’s Arena Theater.
Arena Theater’s Sabina, Philippine Normal College, Manila, 1953 (Photo courtesy of Naty Crame-Rogers)
The establishment of the Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards in 1950 did so much to encourage the writing of
original plays in English and helped discover playwrights in English like Alberto Florentino, Jesus Peralta, Wilfrido
Nolledo, Estrella Alfon, Mar Puatu, Antonio O. Bayot, Fidel Sicam, Nestor Torre Jr., and Elsa Victoria Martinez. To
this generation too belonged Rolando Tinio, Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio, and Virginia Moreno. Starting 1953, the
Palanca awards recognized playwrights in Filipino like Dionisio Salazar, Amado V. Hernandez, Clodualdo del
Mundo, Fernando Samonte, Benjamin Pascual, Agapito Joaquin, Rogelio Sikat, Wilfredo Pa. Virtusio, and Levy
Balgos de la Cruz.
Influenced by the foreign works translated into Filipino that they had read in college and those they had seen in
American films, Filipino playwrights created plays that were cast mainly in the style of Western realism, which
sought to move the audience toward empathy with its well-rounded, flesh-and-blood characters. Realism from the
1950s to the early 1970s followed two tendencies: the psychological, which focuses on the problems of individuals,
and the social, which situates and roots individual problems within the larger framework of a class society.
Outstanding psychological studies of character of this period were first found in English plays such as Wilfrido Ma.
Guerrero’s Three Rats, 1948, which is about the affair between a woman and her husband’s best friend which ends
in the latter’s death; Severino Montano’s Sabina, about a Filipino woman who kills herself after being betrayed by
her American lover; Nick Joaquin’s A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, 1955, which depicts the tragedy of two
unmarried sisters in Intramuros who are slowly being devoured by the growing commercialism and pragmatism
under America, but who stubbornly cling to the genteel, albeit impractical, world of Hispanized culture; and
Nestor Torre’s And a Happy Birthday, 1967, which was influenced by the rebellious teenage characters played by
American actor James Dean onscreen.
UP Repertory Company’s Larawan/A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino, UP Diliman, 1982 (CCP Collection)
In the 1950s and 1960s, social realism slowly seeped into the modern Philippine stage as the country became
more and more politicized toward the 1960s. A pioneer in this style was Alberto Florentino, as seen in his The
World Is an Apple, 1954, which focuses on how a poor man had to steal to buy medicine for his child. This play
was later popularized in its Filipino translation. Not surprisingly perhaps, social and political issues were more
evident in the Palanca plays written in Filipino, such as Agapito Joaquin’s Bubungang Lata (Roofs of Tin), 1968,
which is about characters whose poverty forces them to live in the cemetery; Rogelio Sikat’s Moses, Moses, 1968,
the story of a schoolteacher who desperately seeks justice for the rape of her daughter by the mayor’s son; and
Wilfrido Pa. Virtusio’s Vida, 1969, which focuses on the last hours of a farmer who is about to be electrocuted for
the murder of an oppressive landlord.
The First Quarter Storm that happened from January to March 1970, when activist groups came into open
confrontation with the state police and military, ushered in a new chapter in the development of Philippine theater.
Guided by the ideology of the National Democratic Front, theater groups such as Panday Sining, Gintong Silahis,
Tanghalang Bayan, and Kamanyang began to stage plays denouncing the three root evils of Philippine society: US
imperialism, bureaucrat capitalism, and feudalism. Because of its mass orientation, these plays used Filipino to
reach the widest audiences, performed in schools, theaters, public plazas, and strike areas, and denounced
Marcos as a dictator and imperialist lackey. Famous and typical activist plays of the early 1970s are Bonifacio
Ilagan’s Welga! Welga! (Strike! Strike!), Tunggalian (Rivalry), Hukumang Tuwad (Kangaroo Court), and Pasyon ni
Juan de la Cruz (The Passion of Juan de la Cruz). In the same spirit, PETA staged Isagani Cruz’s Halimaw
(Monster), 1971, which used allegory to allude to the rise of a fascist dictator.
Taking advantage of the endless demonstrations and chaos caused by what he called communist organizations
and wanting to extend his term beyond what was allowed by the 1935 Constitution, Ferdinand Marcos declared
martial law on 21 September 1972, ushering in the Fourth Republic (1972-86). After putting his political enemies,
media critics, left-leaning leaders behind bars, Marcos set out to establish his New Society by creating his own
constitution; transforming the Philippine Armed Forces into his private army; establishing a legislature dominated
by his own Kilusang Bagong Lipunan politicians; appointing his men to the Supreme Court; muzzling print media,
radio, television, and film; and cruelly suppressing all forms of dissent coming from schools, cause-oriented
groups, and foreign critics.
Under such strictures, theater artists either continued translating and adapting mostly foreign works, as Rolando
Tinio and Antonio Mabesa did through Teatro Pilipino and Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas (DUP), respectively;
continued staging foreign plays, especially hits from Broadway and London’s West End, as Zeneida Amador’s
Repertory Philippines (Rep) did; staged original Filipino works that dealt mainly with personal relationships and
some social themes, as Tony Espejo’s Bulwagang Gantimpala did; or created an activist theater that dealt with the
oppressive conditions of martial law, imaginatively using styles that allowed artists to speak the truth without
threat of censorship or imprisonment but always standing for the rights of the majority, as Behn Cervantes’s UP
Repertory Company and PETA and all its allied groups all over the country did.
Believing that translating the Western classics into Filipino would enrich the national language, Teatro Pilipino,
then resident company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), staged translations not only of the Western
classics and modern plays that Tinio had translated before, but also a whole slew of classics of the Western
theater such as Plautus’s The Menaechmi, Carlo Goldoni’s The Fan and The Mistress of the Inn, Moliere’s The
Miser and Tartuffe, Gerhart Hauptmann’s The Weavers, Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, Albert
Camus’s Caligula, Max Frisch’s Andorra, Alexei Arbuzov’s The Promise, and John van Druten’s I Am a Camera. At
the University of the Philippines, DUP followed suit, running the gamut of Western plays and a few Asian plays,
many of which were performed in both English and Filipino.
Amador’s Rep, on the other hand, concentrated on plays that got good reviews from their mostly upper middle-
class audiences. Their plays included comedies like Barefoot in the Park, Plaza Suite, Blithe Spirit, Mornings at
Seven, Don’t Drink the Water, How the Other Half Lives, Private Lives, and Lettuce and Lovage, and musicals
like The Sound of Music, Annie, Hello, Dolly!, My Fair Lady, Pippin, A Chorus Line, and Fiddler on the Roof.
The same thrust was later followed by theater groups such as the Triumphant People’s Evangelistic Theater
Society (Trumpets), Actors Actors, 9 Works Theatrical, and Red Turnip, which were mostly founded by Rep alumni
or English theater actors.
Bulwagang Gantimpala was conceived as a theater group that would put on the boards the winners of the CCP
Playwriting Contest, hence the name. Its first play, Bonifacio Ilagan’s Katipunan: Mga Anak ng Bayan (Katipunan:
Sons of the People), 1978, about the Philippine Revolution of 1896, was followed by Jose Dalisay Jr.’s Sugatang
Lawin (Wounded Hawk), 1978, about the meaning of heroism during the Japanese occupation; Jomar Fleras’s
Kanser (Cancer), 1980, an adaptation of Noli Me Tangere (Touch Me Not); Rene O. Villanueva’s Hiblang Abo
(Strands of Gray), 1980, which portrays four tragic characters in a home for the aged; and Elsa Coscolluela’s In
Frailty’s Grace, 1984.
Other dramas of psychological realism performed during this period by other groups include Orlando Nadres’s
Paraisong Parisukat (Square Piece of Paradise), 1974, which shows how a young girl decides to sacrifice love and
idealism to the banality of a stockroom assistant’s life, and Hanggang Dito na Lamang at Maraming Salamat
(This Is All, and Many Thanks), 1974, a play about a closeted gay man who is rejected by the young man he is
sending to school; Bienvenido Noriega Jr.’s Bayan-bayanan (Little Country), 1975, which exposes the personal
dreams and heartaches of Filipino expatriates in Switzerland; and Tony Perez’s Biyaheng Timog (Trip to the
South), 1984, which shows how an autocratic patriarch meddles in and destroys the lives of his children and how
after his death, his children finally become whole as persons.
The majority of theater artists in Manila and the regions, however, decided to create plays that tackled the social,
economic, and political issues under martial law as they impacted on the majority of poor Filipinos. PETA led in the
creation of a people’s theater that had a Filipino and mass orientation through the plays it mounted and through
the Basic Integrated Theater Arts Workshop it gave to all kinds of progressive organizations all over the
archipelago. Influenced by Bertolt Brecht’s epic theater and later Augusto Boal’s theater of the oppressed, the
people’s theater through the 14 years of martial law evolved into many styles in response to changing political
conditions, the nature of the political action required, and the audiences that the plays needed to reach. To avoid
censorship, many forms of people’s theater consciously destroyed the illusion of theatrical reality, using folktales
or historical events, and employing symbols, mime, dance, songs, stylized sets, costumes, props, and almost
anything that would clarify and intensify sociopolitical and economic ideas for their audiences.
History became a fecund source for plays that talked about the past in order to allude to the present. Lito
Tiongson’s Ang Walang Kamatayang Buhay ni Juan de la Cruz Alyas … (The Deathless Life of Juan de la Cruz
Alias …) depicted the techniques used by the Americans in the early 1900s to eradicate the revolutionary
movement, including the torture and execution of insurrectos (insurgents), hamletting of villages to stop villagers
from supporting the revolutionaries, and imposing curfews at night to control the movement of citizens. When the
play was shown in 1976, the audience realized that the techniques of suppression under the Americans were no
different from those under martial law. Other historical plays that were made to speak of the struggle against
martial law were Bonifacio Ilagan’s Langit Ma’y Magdilim (Though the Sky Darkens), 1979, and Estados Unidos
bersus Cruz, Abad at Tolentino (United States versus Cruz, Abad and Tolentino), 1981, both directed by Behn
Cervantes for UP Repertory.
The documentary style was also employed by some playwrights in order to establish the objectivity and strength
of dramatic narratives that commented on conditions under martial law. Using narrators and slides of newspaper
clippings, Al Santos’s Mayo A-Beinte Uno Atbp. Kabanata (May 21 and Other Chapters), 1977, traced the life of
Valentin de los Santos through three periods of struggle against colonial rule to explain why Tatang was obsessed
with freedom and why it was wrong of Marcos to massacre the members of the Lapiang Malaya. A similar style
was used for Manny Pambid’s Canuplin, 1980, about the life of Canuto Francia who made a living as the local
Charlie Chaplin in bodabil; and Mariang Aliw (Maria the Woman of Pleasure), 1983, which documented on stage
the lives of actual prostitutes in the Malate district, to show that nothing had changed under the so-called New
Society.
The Brechtian style, with touches of absurdism, is evident in Al Santos’s Ang Sistema ni Propesor Tuko (Professor
Gecko’s Way), 1980, which pokes fun at the authoritarian rule of a fascistic professor in order to comment on
Philippine society under the Marcos regime; and Rolando S. Tinio’s May Katwiran ang Katwiran (Reason Has Its
Reason), 1972, which shows how a landlord manipulates a peasant’s simple mind for the latter to accept the
landlord’s superiority. Chris Millado’s Ilokula II, 1983, staged by Tropang Bodabil, presents, in absurd bodabil
fashion, the ailing president/economy of the country, which has to be propped up with infusions of blood/cash
from the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
Typical of the inexpensive, portable, and short plays called tula-dula (poem-play), which were evolved for
symposia or rallies, is one acting out Jose F. Lacaba’s poem "Ang mga Kagila-gilalas na Pakikipagsapalaran ni Juan
de la Cruz" (The Amazing Adventures of Juan de la Cruz), 1975, which narrates one day in the life of an ordinary
Filipino who realizes that wherever he may go he has no real rights. Richie Valencia and Ed Vencio’s Mga Unang
Araw sa Buhay ng Iskolar ng Bayan (First Few Days in the Life of a New Scholar of the People), 1976, which
narrates one day in the life of a UP student, was followed by Titser ng Bayan (People’s Teacher), which recounts
the problems of the Filipino teacher, from low salaries to colonial education.
Brechtian techniques were also used for full-blown musicals, which may be rock or pop musicals on
contemporary themes. Featuring a band of rock singers and musicians on a separate platform and a group of
dancers-actors-singers on stage, Al Santos and Joey Ayala’s Nukleyar! (Nuclear!), 1983, strings together songs,
dances, and slides that explain nuclear reaction, exposes the horrors unleashed by the bombs on Hiroshima and
Nagasaki, and finally attacks the establishment for the overpriced and unsafe Bataan nuclear plant in the
Philippines. Another important musical is Dong de los Reyes’s Bien Aligtad, which describes the necessary
evolution of a simple slum dweller into a notorious criminal because of police corruption and military violence.
Important achievements in the successful use of ethnic performing, visual, and literary arts to convey the
problems of Mindanao like insurgency, militarization, landlordism, exploitation of indigenous communities, and
landgrabbing are Rodulfo Galenzoga’s Maranatha (Make Haste, Lord), 1974, which uses an old Lanao tale about a
big, black, predatory bird, to expose corruption of politicians and the growing militarization in Mindanao; and
Frank Rivera’s Mga Kuwentong Maranao (Maranao Tales), 1974, which uses the bayok (debate in chant) tradition,
the kapamalong-malong (dance with the tubular skirt called malong), and the Pilandok character of Maranao
culture to comment on capricious and abusive rulers.
Sining Kambayoka Ensemble’s Mga Kuwentong Maranao, Dulaang Rajah Sulayman, Manila, 1974 (PETA Library
and Archives)
With the significant progress in research into Philippine traditional forms, some companies resurrected these
forms and revitalized them with contemporary sociopolitical messages. Dulaang Babaylan’s Sinakulo, 1973,
pioneered the use of the passion play to comment on the commercialism brought about by the dominance of
multinational companies in the Philippines. Virgilio Vitug’s Sinakulo ning Balen (Passion Play of the Nation), 1983,
as presented in Lubao, Pampanga, unveils a new Christ: Jesus Makabalen, who condemns fiscals who accept
bribes, fake recruiters who victimize hapless peasants, candle sellers who commercialize the blessing of the pope,
and government officials who are insensitive to the needs of the people. Although his enemies succeed in
crucifying him, Jesus rises again through the ordinary people who decide to continue his struggle. PETA’s
Dupluhang Bayan (People’s Poetic Joust), 1975, became a debate between workers and peasants that ended in an
exposé of the cause of poverty in the country. Panunuluyan nina Birheng Maria at San Jose… (The Search for an
Inn by the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph…), 1979, showed the holy couple coming down from
theirkaro(processional float) and being led by a young Jesus to different poor communities in Metro Manila.
Meanwhile, because of its enduring popularity among Filipinos, the sarsuwela was successfully updated as in Ang
Bundok (The Mountain), 1976, which showed the harassment of the Igorot by foreign speculators digging for gold
in the Cordilleras and the unity the mountain people forged to fight their oppressors; and in Pilipinas Circa 1907
(Philippines Circa 1907), 1982, which portrayed the conflict between Filipinos and Americans in politics, economy,
and culture at the beginning of American colonization to reflect the beginnings of imperialism in the country.
Finally, the oldest of all traditional drama, the mass, was given new meaning in one of the most popular protest
plays of the 1970s. Pagsambang Bayan (People’s Worship), 1977, by Bonifacio Ilagan reinterpreted Christ’s
sacrifice, the parables of the New Testament and the priesthood itself, according to the problems of the peasants
and workers at that time.
Some plays successfully blended realistic and nonrealistic styles. Juan Tamban, 1978, focused on the street urchin
Juan Tamban, who ate roaches and lizards. In this play, Malou Jacob used a chorus as narrator and commentator to
tie together a series of highly realistic and moving episodes.
After the assassination of Marcos’s archenemy Benigno Aquino Jr in August 1983, the tide of protest against the
dictatorship reached new heights. Theater artists, like many progressive Filipinos, became bolder in expressing
their protest against the decadent and dying regime. It was then that certain plays were able to use realism. Chris
Millado’s Buwan at Baril sa E-flat Major (Moon and Gun in E-flat Major), 1985, showed in monologues and
dialogues the politicization of two brothers (a farmer and worker), a socialite, a priest and a tribal woman, a
student activist, and a teacher. After the triumph of the EDSA Revolt in 1986, PETA was able to stage Panata sa
Kalayaan (Oath to Freedom), 1986, at the Main Theater of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, symbolically
showing how the people’s theater had breached the bastion of colonial and elitist culture under Imelda Marcos.
The play was a comprehensive narrative of the Filipino’s experiences under martial law ending in the EDSA Revolt,
using a whole range of theater styles evolved during and because of the martial law period.
After the dictator Marcos and his family were ousted from power, the era of the Fifth Republic (1986 onward)
began. Radical changes were seen in the cultural sector. CCP established new thrusts toward, among others,
Filipinization—that is, the prioritization of Filipino original works and artists in programs, grants, and venues;
democratization, meaning equal opportunities for support and exposure for artists of all sectors and wider access
to CCP venues and products; and decentralization, meaning the active participation of regional artists in the
creation of works from the region and the definition of a national culture. The National Commission for Culture
and the Arts (NCCA), created through Republic Act 7356 and passed in 1992, established a comprehensive
program to protect and support the arts. Additional support for artists came in the form of literary and playwriting
contests, as well as the National Centennial Commission contests held in 1998 to commemorate the decade of
Philippine nationalism.
Translations and adaptations of foreign plays continue to be part of the regular seasons of companies like
Tanghalang Pilipino, PETA, and DUP. As in previous periods, foreign plays translated into Filipino come mainly
from Europe and the United States, such as Moliere’s The Miser (Ang Kuripot), Jean Genet’s The Balcony (Ang
Balkonahe), Maxim Gorky’s Lower Depths (Lusak), Manuel Puig’s Mystery of the Rose Bouquet (Ang Misteryo
ng Pumpon ng Rosas ), Pierre Choderlos de Laclos’s Les Liaisons Dangereuses (Juego de Peligro), Arthur
Miller’s All My Sons (Sa Ngalan ng Anak), and Eugene O’Neill’s The Iceman Cometh (Pagdating ng Daluyong).
After 1986, there is a marked increase in the translation or adaptation of plays from Asia, such as Shusako Endo’s
Golden Country (Ginintuang Bayan), Shundraka’s The Little Clay Cart (Ang Munting Laruang Kariton), the
Mahabharata (Ang Nawalang Kapatid), and Ramayana (Rama at Sita). Moreover, many foreign classics are not
only translated but adapted to Filipino situations, such as Rody Vera’s Arbol de Fuego, which sets Chekhov’s
Cherry Orchard to Negros during martial law; D’ Wonder Twins of Boac, which situates Shakespeare’s Twelfth
Night during the dark days of the film industry in the 1960s; Elmer Gatchalian’s Juego de Peligro, which adapts
Les Liaisons Dangereuses to Spanish colonial Philippines; and Jerry Respeto’s Birheng Matimtiman, which sets
Niccolo Machiavelli’s La Mandragola in Pakil, Laguna, at the end of the 19th century. Similarly, there is
considerable increase in stage adaptations of local epics like Ang Paglalakbay ni Radiya Mangandiri: Isang
Pilipinong Ramayana (The Journey of Rajah Mangandiri: A Filipino Ramayana); Filipino literary pieces like Ang
mga Huwad from F. Sionil Jose’s novel The Pretenders; and Filipino films like Insiang by Lino Brocka.
Plays of psychological realism come in the form of the straight plays. Focusing on Filipino individuals are plays like
Tony Perez’s trilogy on relationships: Saan Ba Tayo Ihahatid ng Disyembre? (Where Will December Bring Us?),
Oktubre, Nang Tayo’y Nagmamahalan Pa (October, When We Were Still in Love), and Nobyembre, Noong
Akala Ko’y Mahal Kita (November, When I Thought I Love You). Earlier, his Sa North Diversion Road (On the
North Diversion Road), 1988, had two actors acting out the roles of different married couples and their various
reactions to marital infidelity. Elsa Martinez-Coscoluella’s In My Father’s House, 1987, depicts the slow
disintegration of the members of a Cebuano family during the Japanese occupation of Negros island in the 1940s.
Three monologues on different types of love that cause cardiac arrest are the subject of three monologues in Nick
Pichay’s Tres Ataques de Corazon (Three Heart Attacks), 2006. Glenn Mas’s Games People Play, 2013, is about
three characters who get to understand the traumas of their childhood through the guessing game pitik-bulag. In
2015, Kanakan Balintagos staged the revised Mga Buhay na Apoy (A Breath of Fire), about a woman who must
come to terms with the trauma of rape in her youth and her ethnic origins.
Plays of social realism continue to proliferate in this period. Repressed for years, the traumatic experiences under
martial law have expressed themselves in plays like Nick Pichay’s Isang Araw sa Karnabal (A Day in the Carnival),
2010, and Ed Maranan’s EJ: Ang Pinagdaanang Buhay nina Evelio Javier at Edgar Jopson (EJ: The Lives of Evelio
Javier and Edgar Jopson), 2008. The corruption in government which has increased by leaps and bounds is the
subject matter of Malou Jacob’s Anatomiya ng Korupsyon (Anatomy of Corruption), 1992; Layeta Bucoy’s Doc
Resureccion: Gagamutin ang Bayan (Doc Resureccion: Will Heal the Nation), 2009, and Walang Kukurap (Let
No One Blink), 2012; and Floy Quintos’s Evening at the Opera, 2011. Poverty and the exploitation of the poor are
the subject of Anton Juan’s Taong Grasa (Tramp), 1985, a monologue by a homeless man.
Some plays successfully blend realistic and non-realistic styles. Anton Juan Jr.’s Death in the Form of a Rose,
1992, intersperses realistic scenes with choral passages using masks and symbols, in order to dramatize the
“execution” of Paolo Passolini at the hands of the “establishment.” Juan’s Mga Hinabing Pakpak ng Ating Mga
Anak (The Woven Wings of Our Children), 2008, is about child labor. The suppression of tribal rights is the
concern of Malou Jacob’s Macli-ing, 1988.
Anton Juan Jr., right, as Pier Paolo Pasolini and Noel Lopez as the Teen-ager in Death in the Form of a
Rose, which Juan himself wrote and directed, UP Diliman, 1992 (Arnold Jumpay, CCP Collection)
Many straight plays have focused on historical themes, some because of the “decade of nationalism.” These
include Rene Villanueva, Malou Jacob, and Paul Dumol’s Tonio, Pepe, at Pule (Tonio, Pepe, and Pule), 1990; Jacob,
Villanueva, and Nonon Padilla’s Teresa, Gregoria, at Teodora (Teresa, Gregoria, and Teodora), 1993; Nick Pichay’s
Dalawang Buhay ni Plaridel (Two Lives of Plaridel), 2000; Tim Dacanay’s Teatro Porvenir, 2013; and Floy
Quintos’s … And St. Louis Loves Dem Filipinos, 1992. Paul Dumol’s historical play Francisco Maniago, 1987,
dramatizes the life of Maniago, who must betray community and self to remain loyal to the king of Spain, and Ang
Pagpatay kay Luna (The Murder of Luna), 2001, which analyzes the motivations of those who masterminded the
heinous crime.
Tanghalang Pilipino’s Ang Pagpatay Kay Luna, CCP, Manila, 2001 (Salvador F. Bernal Collection)
Western-type musicals have been adapted by Filipino playwrights and composers who have indigenized them
both in content and form. A wealth of original musicals came out in these decades, some in celebration of the
“decade of nationalism.” Among these are the musicals with Ryan Cayabyab as composer—namely, Jose Javier
Reyes’s Katy! The Musical, 1988; Noel Balmaceda’s Alikabok (Dust), 1995; Bienvenido Lumbera’s Noli Me
Tangere, 1995; Jovy Miroy’s El Filibusterismo (Subversion), 1996; and Paul Dumol’s Aguinaldo 1899: Ang
Pagpatay kay Luna (Aguinaldo 1899: The Murder of Luna), 1998. Later historical musicals include Christine Bellen
and Noel Cabangon’s Batang Rizal (Young Rizal), 2007; Joy Virata and Ian Monsod’s Miong, 1999; Floy Quintos’s
Atang: Isang Dulang May Musika (Atang: A Play with Music), 2008; Virgilio Almario and Josefino Toledo’s San
Andres B., 2013; and Nicanor G. Tiongson and Jed Balsamo’s Mabining Mandirigma (Gentle Warrior), 2015.
Characters from bodabil are the subjects of Mario O’Hara’s nostalgic Stage Show, 2012.
Some musicals derive subject matter from contemporary events and issues such as Lucien Letaba and Vincent de
Jesus’s Skin Deep, 2008; Liza Magtoto and De Jesus’s Care Divas, 2010; and Magtoto and Aegis’s Rak of Aegis,
2014. Other musicals are adaptations from popular culture, especially movies andkomiks. These include Chris
Martinez and De Jesus’s Zsazsa Zaturnnah Ze Muzikal, 2006, from the komiks character created by Carlo
Vergara; Ricky Lee and De Jesus’s Himala: The Musical, 2000, from Ishmael Bernal’s film Himala (Miracle); Nick
Pichay, William Manzano, JJ Pimpinio, and Janine Santos’s Maxie: The Musical, 2013, from the movie Ang
Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros (The Blossoming of Maximo Oliveros).
Dance dramas that use ethnic music and movements in order to dramatize folklore and contemporary myths
include Fe Remotigue and Don Pagusara’s Sinalimba (Magic Boat), 1986, which brilliantly uses Bagobo musical
materials and instruments for contemporary artistic expression; Reynaldo Jamoralin and Dan Razo’s Si Bulusan
nan si Agingay (Bulusan and Agingay), 1990; Nick Pichay and Josefino Toledo’s Hudhud: The Sky Dance of the
Buliklik Hawks, 2004; and Rody Vera and Carol Bello’s Ibalong, 2013, a contemporary interpretation of
mythological characters from the Bikol epic.
Tanghalang Pilipino’s Sandosenang Sapatos, CCP, Manila, 2013 (Tanghalang Pilipino Collection)
Children’s theater witnessed its own flowering in this period with Teatro Mulat’s Papet Pasyon (The Passion of
Jesus Christ in Puppetry), 1986, and Sita at Rama: Papet Ramayana (Sita and Rama: Ramayana Puppetry), 2004;
Tanghalang Pilipino’s Prinsipe ng Buwan (Prince of the Moon), 1994, and Sandosenang Sapatos (A Dozen Pair of
Shoes), 2013; and PETA’s Si Bodyok at si Ningning (Bodyok and Ningning), 1990, Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang
(Stories of Grandma Basyang), 2005, Batang Rizal, 2007, and Ismail at Isabel (Ismail and Isabel), 2009. Ateneo
Children’s Theater has regular productions, which include Batubayani (Stone Hero), 1996; Mga Bata ng
Himagsikan (Children of the Revolution), 1998; Agyu, 2001; Adarna at ang Alaala ng Kristal (Adarna and the
Memory of Crystal), 2009; Astig (Cool), 2012; and Mga Kuwentong Hari (King’s Stories), 2015. UP Diliman’s Sining
Pangkabataan staged Tagisan (Struggle), 1988; Tikbalang, 1989; and Munting Mithi (Little Dream), 1990. From the
Philippine High School for the Arts came An-i-no: Shadow Puppet Collective, which debuted in 1993 with Shadow
Play, an innovative shadow puppetry to the music of Yoyoy Villlame, Joey Ayala, and Kontragapi. Outside Metro
Manila, the Arts Research and Training Institute in Southern Tagalog, Incorporated or ARTIST Inc produced
Maryang Calabasa (Mary Pumpkin), 1995; Sina Marya at Kiling (Mary and Kiling), 2002; and Ibarang, 2007.
Regional theater, which began to develop before the EDSA Revolt, came to full flowering during the period,
encouraged by, among others, the CCP and NCCA’s policies of decentralization. The first CCP National Theater
Festival in 1992 showcased original plays from the regions, such as Salidummay-TADEC’s Panagsubli (Return) by
Mary Carling and Judy Cariño; Barasoain Kalinangan Ensemble’s Tatlong Maria (Three Marys) by Noel Valencia,
Nena Gajudo, and Armand Sta. Ana; Dagyaw’s Hinilawod (Tales from the Mouth of the Halawod River) by Edwin
Duero and Agnes Locsin; Adela Community Organization’s Matam-is Man Gali ang Kalamay (Sugar Can Also Be
Sweet) by Ligaya P. Ardenio; University of San Carlos and Cebu Central Colleges’ The Legend of Maria Cacao by
Rudy Aviles; Kaliwat Theater Collective’s Siak sa Duha ka Damgo (Crack in Two Dreams) by Nestor Horfilla;
Kulturang Atin Foundation’s Bungkatol ha Bulawan (Golden Law) by Don Pagusara; and Integrated Performing
Arts Guild’s Buhay, Pag-ibig at Kamatayan (Life, Love and Death) by Steven Patrick Fernandez.
In this period, important alliances of theater artists and cultural workers were formed, including Bugkos in
Northern Luzon, ARTIST in Southern Tagalog, Dungog in the Visayas, and Mindanao Community Theater Network
in Mindanao. Teatro Pabrika is an alliance of 35 cultural groups from workers organizations in Metro Manila. In
Manila, professional theater groups, among them PETA, Repertory Philippines, Ballet Philippines, Tanghalang
Pilipino, Trumpets, Actors’ Actor Inc. Foundation, and Ballet Manila came together in 1997 to form the Philippine
Legitimate Stage Artists Group or Philstage, which among others, gives out the annual Gawad Buhay! for theater.
Komedya Don Galo’s Florante at Laura, Parañaque City, 1992 (CCP Collection)
With the realization among theater scholars and critics that traditional forms of drama still popular among the
masses should not only be studied but be imbued as well with positive contemporary messages, urban
playwrights have revitalized traditional forms to comment on contemporary issues and concerns. The “seditious”
drama of nationalist playwright Aurelio V. Tolentino, Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas (Yesterday, Today, and
Tomorrow), was revived and reinterpreted several times in the last two decades. One of the most successful
productions of KNB was that of Chris Millado, 1990, which reinterpreted the main protagonist Taga-ilog as a
tattooed native datu, a Bonifacio-type revolutionary, and a contemporary New People’s Army fighter. The
komedya was revitalized in content and form by Jonas Sebastian’s stage adaptation of Francisco Baltazar’s
Florante at Laura (Florante and Laura), 1992. New sarsuwela that won in the sarsuwela division of the Centennial
Literary Prize included Mario O’Hara and Minda Azarcon’s Palasyo ni Valentin (Valentin’s Palace), 1998;
Bienvenido Lumbera and Lucien Letaba’s Hibik at Himagsik nina Victoria Laktaw Atbp. (Plea and Revolt of
Victoria Laktaw and Others), 2002; George de Jesus III and Jesse Lucas’s Paglayang Minamahal (Beloved
Freedom), 2000; and Melba Maggay and Lucio San Pedro’s Bayan, Isang Paa na Lamang (Nation: Just One Foot
Left), 2002.
Conclusion
Modern Philippine dramas display a vitality and urgency that surprise theater enthusiasts of whatever background.
For one, this theater has finally come into its own, at least as far as subject matter is concerned. An amazing range
of characters, all painstakingly portrayed as individuals or types—from salesgirls, peasants, and factory workers
to landed gentry and basketball stars, from boxers and slum dwellers to social workers, and historical characters
from Andres Bonifacio to Valentin de los Santos—all move and speak in situations that almost always ring true.
Urgent too are many of the issues that these plays speak about—the danger of nuclear warfare, the exploitation
of farmers by landlords, the boredom and heartaches of Filipino expatriates, the dilemmas faced by personalities
in Philippine history, the violation of basic human rights among the poor and the powerless, the enlightenment of
students and social workers about the world outside of the academe, the massacre of the Lapiang Malaya. Slowly
but surely, Philippine theater is finally coming to fulfill the most basic expectations of a national theater—the
perspicacious interpretation of the many realities Filipinos struggle with; the vital expression of the Filipino’s
needs, concerns, and aspirations; and the use of dramatic styles that are rooted in Philippine ethnic or folk
traditions and/or enriched by foreign dramatic contributions.
As these needs, expressions, aspirations, and dramatic styles coincide more and more with those of the majority
of Filipinos and of the nation as a whole, the closer will this theater grow toward becoming a truly national theater
by and for all Filipinos.
 Written by Nicanor G. Tiongson (1994 and 2018)
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Tags: zarzuela rituals sarswela musicals sarsuwela drama senakulo sinakulo cenaculo theater history dances history of Philippine theater komedya
plays Philippine theater history
This article is from the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art Digital Edition.
Title: Philippine Theater

Author/s: Nicanor G. Tiongson (1994 and 2018)
URL:
Publication Date: November 18, 2020
Access Date: March 10, 2022
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3/10/22, 2:14 PM Philippine Theater

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The Indigenous Traditions and Transformations

Higaonon saot war dance, Iligan City, 1988 (CCP Collection)

Hispanic Traditions and Transformations

The American Traditions and Transformations

The Period of the Republics

 Written by Nicanor G. Tiongson (1994 and 2018)

———. 1982. Kasaysayan ng Komedya sa Pilipinas: 1766-1982. Manila: De la Salle University-IRC.

Title: Philippine Theater

Copyright © 2020 by Cultural Center of the Philippines

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