Tanghalang Pilipino's 23rd Theater Season | Theme: "Women of Substance"

Are you a WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE?
Or do you know a WOMAN OF SUBSTANCE?

For its 23rd Theater Season, TANGHALANG PILIPINO celebrates the power of women with the theme, "Women of Substance."

Sheer beauty that can soften the most hardened of hearts. Will power and strength that can transform an entire nation. Pure love and wisdom that create the strong foundation of a home. Resilience through life's difficult passages. Each production that constitutes this season looks into all these qualities and more that make a woman of substance.

TANGHALANG PILIPINO'S 23rd Season repertoire includes Ricky Lee's Lihis to be directed by Joel Lamangan; Savyon Liebrecht's Apples From the Desert, an Israeli play to be directed by Tess Jamias; Don Pagusara's Madonna Brava (set in Mindanao and adapted from Bertolt Brecht's Mother Courage and Her Children) to be directed by Nestor Horfilla; Orlando Nadre's Flores Para Los Muertos (a translation of Tennessee William's A Streetcar Named Desire) to be directed by Floy Quintos; Lope K. Santos' Banaag at Sikat (a musical version with libretto by National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera) to be directed by Lutgardo Labad; and Rody Vera's adaptation of Anton Chekov's The Cherry Orchard to be directed by Loy Arcenas.

Tanghalang Pilipino is currently negotiating with the dream cast for the productions which include powerful women in theater, television and film, like Cherry Pie Picache, Meryl Soriano, Irma Adlawan, Iza Calzado, Angel Aquino, Shamaine Centenera. The directors will also hold auditions for the other women and men characters of the plays.

For season subscriptions and other information on the 23rd Theater Season, TANGHALANG PILIPINO may be reached through the following contacts:

Phone: (02) 832-3661; (02) 832-1125 local 1620/1621
E-mail: ccptanghalan@yahoo.com
Website: www.tanghalangpilipino.com


tanghalangpilipino
23rd Theater Season 2009 - 2010
Women of Substance

1. July 31, August 1-2; 7 – 9; 14 – 16; 28 – 30; 2009
Tanghalang Huseng Batute

"Lihis"

An original play by multi-awarded film and TV writer Ricky Lee about a mother, a former activist and her daughter, a successful commercial TV writer, who spend the night together waiting for news about the missing activist husband. Soon they are haunted by ghosts of the past – a hidden crime, a special relationship between the husband and the daughter's godfather, the massacre of a barrio and a torn picture. As the secret is brought to the open, mother and daughter grapple with the issue of whether killing another human being is justifiable or not.

Director: Joel Lamangan
Playwright: Ricky Lee

2. September 4 – 6; 11 – 13; 18 – 20; 25 – 27, 2009
Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino

"Apples from the Desert"

A light family situational comedy written by Savyon Liebrecht, an Israeli lady playwright, about the rising conflict between a conservative Jewish mother and her independent- minded daughter as they struggle to convince one another what love and a meaningful life really mean.

Director: Tess Jamias
Playwright: Savyon Liebrecht

3. September 18 – 20; 25 – 27; October 2 – 4; 9 – 11; 16 – 18; 23 – 25, 2009
Tanghalang Huseng Batute

"Madonna Brava" ("Mother Courage")

An adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage;" considered the greatest anti-war novel of all times. Set against the unending armed conflict in Mindanao, the play shows the dreadfulness of war and the idea that virtues are not rewarded in corrupt times. Mindanao's contemporary Mother Courage is a Muslim woman forced by the situation to sell pirated DVDs and other tiangge items to survive and to feed her family.

Director: Nestor Horfilla
Playwright: Don Pagusara

4. October 2 – 4; 9 – 11; 16 – 18; 23 – 25, 2009
Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino

"Flores Para Los Muertos" ("A Streetcar Named Desire")

A play written in 1947 by American playwright Tennessee Williams; translated into Filipino by the late Orlando Nadres. A recurring theme found in the play is the constant conflict between reality and fantasy, actual and ideal. Blanche Dubois, the main character says, "I don't want realism; I want magic." Blanche's deception of others and herself is not characterized by malicious intent, but rather a heart-broken and saddened retreat to a romantic time and happier moments before disaster struck her life.

Director: Floy Quintos
Playwright: Tennessee Williams
Translator: Orlando Nadres

5. November 2009; National Theater Festival, Cultural Center of the Philippines
Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo

"Banaag at Sikat"

A musical theater production based on Lope K. Santos' novel with the same title, with libretto by National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera, and compositions by Lucien Letaba. The production will be the centerpiece of the CCP's celebration of Ikaapat na Tagpo, the 8th National Theater Festival.

Director: Lutgardo Labad
Playwright: Bienvenido Lumbera, based on Lope K. Santos' novel
Composer: Lucien Letaba

6. January to February 2010
Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino

"The Cherry Orchard"

A play by Anton Chekov about an aristocratic Russian woman and her family as they return to the family's estate just before it is auctioned to pay the mortgage. The story presents themes of cultural futility – both the futility of the aristocracy to maintain its status and the futility of the bourgeoisie to find meaning in its newfound materialism.

Director: Loy Arcenas
Playwright: Anton Chekov
Translator: Rody Vera