A good man named Charley

On Tuesday, some in the Philippine theater community will remember one of their own who passed away prematurely on that day, 20 years ago. His name: Carlos “Charley” B. dela Paz Jr. He was a member of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) who wrote and acted in a number of the company’s socially conscious plays in the 1980s and early 1990s.

Although he was a prize-winning dramatist, the disarmingly humble and soft-spoken Charley was not as celebrated as, say, the late Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, Orlando Nadres, Bienvenido M. Noriega Jr. or Rene O. Villanueva. Among his works, his best-known was the Palanca Award-winning musical 1896 (1995), which chronicles the Philippine Revolution through the eyes of Emilio Jacinto, played by actor-singer Ariel Rivera. (Coincidentally, Jacinto was born on December 15, the same day Charley died—a fact that was not lost on many of his friends.)

Despite his modest stature as a playwright, many playwrights in the country today owe a debt to Charley. Why? Because he, with Rene, founded what’s now known as the Writer’s Bloc. It’s an informal group of emerging and established playwrights that, at the time it was set up in 1989, was under Peta’s Playwrights Development Program (PDP), of which Charley was the coordinator.

Charley still headed the Writer’s Bloc when I, a college student who was clueless about the craft of playwriting, joined its bi-monthly play-reading sessions at Peta’s former office in Little Baguio, San Juan City, in 1994.

He was a most conscientious coordinator.  He would call up or send letters to Bloc members—this was before the Internet boomed, mind you—reminding them of an upcoming session and the writers scheduled to have their latest drafts read for comments; invite theater practitioners, Peta members or not, to share their experiences and insights with them; and, occasionally, organize exposure trips to get inspiration for new works (if I remember right, one such trip was to Quiapo).

Some members had wondered—with a fair amount of worry—what would happen to the Writer’s Bloc after Charley died in his sleep at age 30. It turned out they didn’t need to: Rody Vera, who had stepped down as Peta’s artistic director at the time—and, incidentally, portrayed Andres Bonifacio in 1896—took over the PDP soon after. He continued—and even improved on—the good work that Charley began, even after the Bloc became independent from Peta in 2004.

Those who cover the local theater scene would know how much the Writer’s Bloc has flourished under Rody’s leadership. Many theater lovers know the Bloc as one of the organizers of the annual Virgin Labfest theater festival, which has mounted bold and envelope-pushing new plays, and introduced a fresh and vibrant generation of Filipino playwrights.

A partial list of those who have benefited from their membership in the Writer’s Bloc, or even from its sessions, reads like a virtual who’s who of Philippine playwriting.

There’s Liza C. Magtoto, who penned Peta’s blockbuster musical Rak of Aegis. Nicolas B. Pichay, who wrote the Marcelo H. del Pilar bioplay Almanac for a Revolution and the stage version of the hit Cinemalaya feature Ang Pagdadalaga ni Maximo Oliveros, titled Maxie: The Musical. Jun Robles Lana, now better known as the director of Bwakaw, Barber’s Tales and Anino sa Likod ng Buwan. Layeta P. Bucoy, whose Ellas Inocentes and Doc Resureccion: Gagamutin ng Bayan had such a major impact on audiences. Allan B. Lopez, the dramatist behind Melodrama Negra and Anatomiya ng Pag-ibig, which were later adapted into indie films.

The list goes on.

For their contributions to Philippine theater—for founding the Writer’s Bloc, really—The Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group, or Philstage, bestowed on both Charley and Rene its Natatanging Gawad Buhay! lifetime achievement award in 2012.

When I think of Charley, I always recall 1896 and its signature song “Ang Kapatiran,” with the music by the highly regarded Lucien Letaba. I’m always struck by its chorus; so heartfelt and radiant in its optimism, much like the one who penned it:

“At tayo’y lilikha/ng isang bayang dakila./May pag-ibig sa kapwa/at paggalang sa dukha./May tahanang puspos/ng tunay na kalinga,/at sa bawat mukha/ay may sinag ng tuwa./Ang sulo ng kapatiran,/ang tanglaw ng bayan.”

At a time when much of our country is possessed by intense pessimism, and the goals Jacinto and his heroic contemporaries—goals that remain relevant to us—seem unattainable, that lyric can remind us that they’re not only attainable, but also right and just.

You’re a good man, Charley. You’re still remembered.

Three plays

Before 2015 ends, there are three plays this week that deserve patronage: Bit by Bit Co.’s Children’s Plays for Adults, a twinbill production of Eljay Castro Deldoc’s Si Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala and Glenn Sevilla Mas’ Games People Play; and Egg Theater Co.’s production of George A. de Jesus III’s sharp theater satire Maniacal.

Adapted from prize-winning speculative-fiction writer Dean Francis Alfar’s short story L’Aquilone du Estrellas (The Kite of Stars), Maria Isabella is about a lovestruck teenage girl who, accompanied by a loyal young butcher, embarks on a quest to gather the fantastical materials needed to craft a gigantic kite.

Maria Isabella wants this kite made, so she could fly to the heavens and join the stars. She hopes that the man she loves—an astronomer who reserves his gaze only for those distant, twinkling lights in the night sky—would see her among them through his telescope.

Winner of a Palanca Award in 2007, Games People Play, to put it simply, focuses on three friends who try to understand themselves by revisiting the games—each represents a significant rite of passage—they played when they were children.

And Maniacal, an adaptation of Molière’s Les Femmes Savantes and a Palanca Award winner this year, hits artists who over-intellectualize their craft as it shows various characters preparing to rehearse for a problematic production.

Those involved in the local theater scene know them very well: actors with conflicting schedules; a director trying to keep the production together, a beleaguered stage manager; a film and television actor who always flubs his lines; a larger-than-life producer who’s also part of the cast. It’s a play that caresses as much as it cuts.

All three plays have been staged before: Maria Isabella, at this year’s Virgin Labfest, where it was considered the most applauded; Games People Play, at Ateneo de Manila University’s Fine Arts Blackbox Theater early last year, where audiences were riveted by its staging and potent blend of the sacred and the profane; and Maniacal, at the Fringe Manila festival in February.

Ed Lacson Jr. directs both Maria Isabella and Games People Play, while de Jesus helms his own work.

Remaining playdates for Children’s Plays for Adults are on December 19 (Saturday) and 20 (Sunday), 3 and 8 p.m., at the Power Mac Center Spotlight performing-arts venue in Circuit Makati. Playdates for Maniacal are on December 15 (Tuesday) at 8 p.m. and 20 at 2 and 7 p.m. at the Pineapple Lab, 6071 Palma St., Makati City.

For more information about Children’s Plays for Adults, visit www.facebook.com/BitByBitCompany; for tickets, visit www.ticketworld.com.ph. For tickets to Maniacal, call 0917-8440520.