Theater - bridging communities and defining culture

Author's Note: This is an article originally published at The Manila Times. However, this is the raw and uncut version, ika nga. :) Follow the link to read the other version. :) 


Theater is not just entertainment anymore. It is an art that can bridge communities and culture. 

This is the message stated loud and clear on Thursday’s (September 23) back-to-back activities sponsored by Asia Society Philippine Foundation Inc. and Lark Play Development Center. The first of two the events, called “Breaking Through Barriers Panel Discussion,” was led by international playwrights whom through their companies in the United States have produced theater plays that addressed Asian communities. 

While the second event, “Meet the Writers Reception,” was attended by Filipino and American playwrights. It was highlighted by award-winning playwright David Henry Wang who gave a speech to the eager theater enthusiasts and practitioners. 

Strength is communities
The Breaking Through Barriers Panel Discussion speakers were Kate Leowald, founding producer of Play Co.; Jorge Ortoll, executive director of Ma-Yi Theater Co.; and John Eisner, producing artistic director of 
Lark Play Development Center. 

“The strength of theater is its community,” said Eisner. He said that in our world today that is already so huge, people need to find the value in the small identifying it to be the minor communities existing along the majority. Theater can do so by translating Asian scripts and producing it to foreign audiences. This is an example for both Lark and Play companies. 

Ortoll, who is a veteran in the Filipino theater scene, on the other hand, tells that Ma-Yi Theater have produced plays about the Filipino-American society in the US for years. They also have a roster of American playwrights with Asian origins. 


Language barrier 
Pastrano asked the speakers how is it possible for communities to showcase their theater plays if language is already a barrier.

Both Ortoll and Eisner believed that actions and purpose delivers the message of the play. Ortoll gave as example the play Ma-Yi has produced in Romania that had Tagalog and Ilocano script. He said the Romanian audience got the meaning of the play. He added, “Language is important but it does not make or break the success of a play in a foreign country.”

For Leowald, she said the multilingual plays have become a trend nowadays and that it should be practiced more. One time Play Company had produced a multilingual play, she said the audience had a good time, but the critics had not.

Excerpts 
At the Meet the Writers Reception held at the Ayala Museum in Greenbelt 5 Makati City, both Filipino and American playwrights showcased their talents as actors read full of emotions excerpts from their scripts.
Filipino playwrights from Writers Bloc who presented on the event were Layeta Bucoy, Vincent de Jesus and Mariane Mixkaela Villalon. Meanwhile, Floy Quintos, also a Filipino playwright has directed, written and conceptualized cultural plays.

Lloyd Suh is and American playwright who has produced plays off Broadway with Ma-Yi Theater and Play Company. His part of his play American Hwangap was performed by Ana Valdez.

The much-awaited performance though came for David Henry Hwang’s M. Butterfly. First produced in the year 1988, it is about a French diplomat having an affair with a Peking opera diva which 20 years later will be revealed as a man masquerading as “drag queen.”

The play was highly praised and popularized even here in the Philippines. It has won Tony Award for Best Play in 1988 and was nominated for Pulitzer Award for Best Drama in 1989. Filipino actors Richard Cunanan, Jeremy Domingo and Jomarie Jose read the confrontation scene in which Rene Gallimard found out that Shi Pei Pu’s true sexuality was a man.

Define, assert culture 
On Hwag’s speech, he gave his techniques in writing his plays. He identified two instances in the process.

The first instance—“I hear the play read,” he said. He added that some say that writing plays are like writing novels, but for him it is more like writing music. He comes to know more of the play when he hears it on air and not just see it on paper.

The second instance—“The first time I watch the play performed in front of an audience,” Hwang added. For him audience is very rarely wrong. He gets to see how they feel once watching his plays and he gets to understand his play more. He also adds that if the audience did not get the play, they are not the problem. It is the play that has some problem in it.

He tells that the process in writing plays is messy but the as long as a writer has even just a bit of an agenda, plays may help a nation, a community to define and assert a culture. Aspiring young playwrights may do so by showcasing through their plays the unique and beautiful identity of the Philippines and teach the audience to assert their roles and place in the world.

He finished by saying that playwrights have to make their plays produced no matter what.