The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Story and photo by Alvin I. Dacanay
Actress and political activist Mae Paner, better known as satirist and local YouTube sensation Juana Change, returns to the stage this month as the longtime mayor of a small town in Pinatay si Mayor!, a satirical musical that will close the current theater season of the De La Salle University Harlequin Theatre Guild (DLSU HTG).
In a recent news conference, Paner, who starred in the 2013 comedy Juana C.: The Movie and played a pivotal supporting role in Lav Diaz’s highly acclaimed drama Norte, Hangganan ng Kasaysayan, said her participation in Pinatay si Mayor!—about the commotion that erupted in the town of Talon Pikit after its newly elected mayor, a pig named Liberacion Magtanggol, was assassinated—is her first with DLSU HTG.
She also said she’s happy that Raffy Tejada, the guild’s artistic director who is directing Pinatay si Mayor!, and Palanca award-winning playwright and screenwriter Rody Vera, who penned the musical, had wanted to get her for this production, which aims to educate voters and increase their vigilance—issues that are part of her advocacy.
Both Paner and Tejada are members of the Philippine Educational Theater Association, while Vera was a former artistic director of the renowned theater company, famous for its politically and socially conscious productions.
Tejada confirmed what Paner said, and noted that Pinatay si Mayor! is DLSU HTG’s second collaboration with Vera, following Fish-Hair Woman, his adaptation of prize-winning writer Merlinda Bobis’s novel that was staged twice last year.
Asked about where he got the musical’s unusual premise, Vera said he got the idea for it from Brazil, where, in some places, people vote for an animal out of frustration with the human candidates.
Tejada said one of the things audiences can expect from Pinatay si Mayor! is the set, in which Talon Pikit looks like a dead carnival. He added that DLSU HTG is planning to perform the musical in other places after its run in the university.
For their part, the young members of DLSU HTG who form the ensemble of Pinatay si Mayor! said they feel “overwhelmed” by the thought of working with Paner, which one described as “on another level.”
Pinatay si Mayor!, written by Rody Vera and directed by Raffy Tejada, will be staged at the Teresa Yuchengco Auditorium of De La Salle University in Malate, Manila, from March 26 to 28, 2015. Shows are at 3 and 6:30 p.m., and tickets cost P250 each. For inquiries, call the De La Salle University Harlequin Theatre Guild at (632) 524-4611, loc. 702 or 737, or send an e-mail to harlequintheatreguild@gmail.com.