On its opening night last August 5, Noli Me Tangere: The Musical's director Audie Gemora says the production earned a standing ovation. The veteran thespian said he felt relieved that the play is currently running at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. It will be staged until August 28, 2011.
He let out a sigh as he said, "Nakahinga na ako. I don't have to live under the shadow of the last staging. May sarili na siyang buhay."
To direct Noli Me Tangere, Audie Gemora revealed that he had to re-read and re-educate himself on Jose Rizal's classic novel.
The first staging of the Noli musical ran in 1995 with a libretto written by National Artist for Literature Bienvenido Lumbera and music by Ryan Cayabyab. Back then, Audie Gemora was in the production as well. He played the part of Rizal's protagonist Crisostomo Ibarra under the direction of Tanghalang Pilipino founder Felix "Nonon" Padilla.
Direk Audie recalls, "The first one was intimidating kasi yung director namin... had a really fantastically profound visual staging. Parang tumatak sa isipan naming lahat na ilang henerasyon na ang gumawa ng Noli and yung direksyon niya parang yun na yung definitive staging. To go into it again and try to come up with something different was intimidating for me sa umpisa."
This present production of the Noli honors the National Hero's 150th birth anniversary and at the same time celebrates Tanghalang Pilipino's silver season.
Having played lead in the previous production and now with an established producing, acting, and singing career, Audie made use of his experience when it came to directing the 2011 staging.
"Primarily I'm an actor so that's where I align myself—in storytelling."
When asked how he treated the material of the Noli musical, he explained, "Imbis na isipin ko ang visuals... balik tayo sa story telling. Anong kuwento ng Noli? Bakit ako nahirapan magbasa ng Noli at Fili [El Filibusterismo] nung nasa school pa 'ko? At pa'no ko gagawing relevant para sa mga estudyante ngayon?"
What Audie did was "take away all the imagery, all the symbolisms that were in the past production" to come up with a simpler storyline. He focused on the acting and "fleshing out the characters" and in that way they become real. "Para people can identify," he adds.
Audie explains further that he worked with dramaturge Rody Vera to work on linking the scenes that turned out to be disconnected after removing the imagery and symbolism. Upon realizing that the Noli contained letters written by characters to each other, Audie and Rody used the novel's motif to act as a thread that would weave the scenes and acts together. He hints, "There's a lot of love-betrayal theme using letters."
The now clearer, linear storyline gives a better understanding of Rizal's masterpiece. Audie remarks, "That's the biggest compliment kasi hanggang ngayon, so many people struggle with the novel."
What makes the Noli a comprehensive read, says Audie, is that it consists of many subplots embedded with metaphors and satire which were used as a means of sugarcoating Rizal's social commentaries on the government and the Church.
The difficulty thus of turning the novel into a musical was at hand. "So what we did, we just concentrated on the love story between Maria Clara and Ibarra, tapos may pumapangatlong priest [Padre Salvi] na gusto silang siraan dahil gusto niya si Maria Clara although hindi niya makuha.
"So it's like a love triangle and I figured everybody can relate to a love triangle. It's like a teleserye."
