Tanghalang Pilipino will restage Pragres starting May 8

After its successful run last year, Tanghalang Pilipino (TP), the resident theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) is proud to present once more Pragres, a musical adaptation of Progress, a short story by National Artist for Literature F. Sionil Jose. The play will have its performance tour in various schools and venues around the country starting May 8, 2009. The tour is in connection with the Cultural Center of the Philippines' 40th anniversary.

Set during Martial Law, Pragres is a hilarious satire on lazy government employees and the entire government bureaucracy under its "The New Society" slogan. It follows the travails of a provincial senior clerk who went to Manila to seek the endorsement of her promotion. As she encounters one bureaucrat after another, and learning the "under-the-table" business up to the extent of prostituting herself to a sleazy department manager, the clerk drowns in incompetence and corruption. Adapted for stage by Philippine High School for the Arts' Dulaang Sipat Lawin Ensemble.

The tour for Pragres will commence on May 8 at the National Arts Center, Mt. Makiling, Laguna. From June 17- 20, the group will perform at the SM Rosales, Pangasinan and at the St. Louis University in Baguio City. This August, the group will also perform at the Philippine Normal University (PNU). The cast includes Skyzx Labastilla, Nar Cabico, and the Dulaang Sipat Lawin Ensemble. Originally directed by Herbie Go, the restaging will have Abner Delina as its repetiteur.

For more information, please call Tanghalang Pilipino at 832-3661 (telefax) or 832-1125 loc. 1620/1621 or e-mail at ccptanghalan@yahoo.com.