Entertainment

Does the summer heat make you want to pack your bags and hit the beach? You could be lying on your mat right now, sipping ice-cold piña colada or splashing water all around to your heart’s content. What if you can have that trip for free? 

By Alvin I. Dacanay In a move seen as a return of the practices that marked earlier, scandal-plagued editions of the Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) and a reversal of the lauded artistic gains scored in last year’s edition, the festival’s executive committee (execom) for 2017 issued late last week its call for submissions of screenplays and finished films to …

In honor of August as Buwan ng Wika (Filipino Language Month), the Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP) is partnering with commercial theaters to exclusively screen Filipino films nationwide in an event called Pista ng Pelikulang Pilipino (Fiesta of Filipino Films), which will run from August 16 to 22, 2017. 

Almost twenty years after it debuted at the University of the Philippines (UP) in Diliman, Quezon City, Lean: A Filipino Musical will be staged for a third time, this time by the UP Manila Dramatista group, at the Adamson University Theater on May 12 and 13, 2017. 

More than 500 years after Europeans sailed across previously unexplored oceans and set foot on what is now the Philippines, Filipinos now have the chance to explore and acquaint themselves with Europe without ever setting foot there through Layag: European Classics in Filipino, the first anthology of its kind that gathers the Filipino translations of 14 short-story classics from 11 …

In an effort to share with the world the priceless collections that have “nourished the minds of countless generations of Filipino students,” the University of Santo Tomas (UST) and UnionBank of the Philippines unveiled the school’s massive, multivolume catalogues of rare books and periodicals at the Edsa Shangri-La hotel in Mandaluyong City on May 5. 

Did you ever think it was possible to visit the Arctic and interact with a polar bear without leaving the country? Well, Shangri-La Plaza is making that true this summer as it offers its “broadcast augmented reality” experience at the mall’s East Atrium from May 6 to June 4. 

By Alvin I. Dacanay  3 Stars and a Sun, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (Peta) musical that used the songs of the late rapper Francis Magalona in telling the story of class-divided young Filipinos struggling against a dystopian society, dominated the Gawad Buhay nominations for 2016 that also saw several onstage and offstage talents recognized twice or more. 

The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) is celebrating the birth centenary of the late National Artist for Visual Arts Cesar F. Legaspi with the exhibit Lying in State, which opened on April 2—his birthday—and is part of the yearlong “100 Years of Cesar Legaspi” series of events celebrating his life and works. 

This weekend, Bonifacio High Street (BHS) Park will turn into one huge “glamping” site with numerous fun-filled activities for everyone.