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; and Rody Vera's Tatlong
Maria, an adaptation of Anton Chekov's The Three Sisters to be directed by Loy Arcenas.
Tanghalang Pilipino is currently negotiating with the dream cast for the
productions that will include powerful women in theater, television and film. The
directors will also hold auditions for the other female and male characters of
the plays.
For season
subscriptions and other information on the 23rd theater season, Tanghalang
Pilipino may be reached through Tel. Nos.: (02) 832-3661; (02) 832-1125 local
1620/1621
1. August 7 - 9; 14 - 16; September 4-6; 11 - 13; 2009
Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino
Apples from the Desert
A heartwarming comedy written by Savyon Liebrecht, one of Israel's best-selling and acclaimed female writers, the play is about the conflict that will inevitably erupt between an independent-minded daughter and her Jewish Orthodox parents as she discovers and chooses love and life beyond the confines of her highly regimented life.
Director: Tess Jamias
Playwright: Savyon Liebrecht
Translation: Liza Magtoto
2. September 11 - 13; 18 - 20; 25 - 27, 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 in a barrio and a torn picture. As a shocking secret is revealed, mother and daughter grapple with the issue of whether killing another human being is justifiable or not.
Director: Joel Lamangan
Playwright: Ricky Lee
3. October 2 - 4; 9 - 11; 16 - 18; 23 - 25, 2009;
Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino
A Streetcar Named Desire (Flores Para Los Muertos)
Perhaps American playwright Tennessee Williams' masterpiece, the play's recurring theme is the constant and often dangerous 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 from malicious intent, but rather from a heart and spirit broken by adversity and forced to retreat to a kinder, purer time that no longer exists.
Director: Floy Quintos
Playwright: Tennessee Williams
Translator: Orlando Nadres
4. October 9 - 11; 16 - 18; 23 - 25; 2009
Tanghalang Huseng Batute
Madonna Brava(Mother Courage)
An adaptation of Bertolt Brecht's "Mother Courage and her Children," considered one of the greatest anti-war plays of all times. Set against the unending armed conflict in Mindanao, the play shows the horrors of war and the idea that virtue is not rewarded in corrupt times. Mindanao's contemporary Mother Courage is a woman forced by circumstances to sell pirated DVDs and other tiangge items to survive and to feed her family.
Director: Nestor Horfilla
Playwright: Bertolt Brecht
Adaptation:
Don Pagusara
5. February 5 - 7; 12 - 14; 26 - 28; 2010
Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino
Tatlong Maria(The Three Sisters)
Adapted from Anton Chekov's The Three Sisters, Tatlong Maria is about the slow destruction of a family once regarded as one of most respectable in society. From Russia, the play will move to a remote small town in the Philippines during the first decade of Martial Law. The storm of change will destroy everything: wealth, memories, and dreams.
Director: Loy Arcenas
Playwright: Anton Chekhov
Adaptation: Rody Vera