The Market Monitor Minding the Nation's Business
Story and photo by Alvin I. Dacanay
A day before Rodrigo Duterte is inaugurated as our country’s new president, the Virgin Labfest (VLF), Metro Manila’s foremost festival of new one-act plays, will open its 12th edition—aptly christened Binyag (Baptism) and represented by a hatched egg containing the number “12”—at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and run until July 17.
This year’s edition offers a lot of firsts, of new things, and not just the dozen fresh eggs that are the untried, untested and unpublished one-act plays set to debut this week. In fact, a few of these firsts have been made public in the last several weeks.
Those following the VLF through its official Facebook page would know by now that this year marks the first time the festival will be included in the regular season of CCP resident theater company Tanghalang Pilipino, led by artistic director Fernando “Nanding” Josef.
They would also know that this year’s edition will screen four films based on previous VLF plays for the first time during the festival. These are Lawrence Fajardo’s Imbisibol (Invisible), for which Bernardo Bernardo, who recreated his role in Herlyn Alegre’s play for the film, won the Gawad Urian for best supporting actor last Wednesday (interestingly, his role was originated by a fellow nominee, Taklub [Trap] actor Lou Veloso); Denisa Reyes’s and Mark Gary’s Hubad (Naked); Emmanuel Q. Palo’s David F.; and J. Dennis C. Teodosio’s and Mariama Tanangco’s Gee-gee at Waterina (Gee-gee and Waterina).
A few members of the film community will mark their first VLF participation in the Binyag edition. They are Whistlerblower filmmaker Adolf Alix Jr., who helms Soc de los Reyes’s Dahan-Dahan ang Paglubog ng Araw (The Sun Sets Slowly); and actresses Candy Pangilinan, who replaces Meann Espinosa in Maynard Manansala’s Dalawang Gabi (Two Nights), and Lotlot de Leon, who will act in the staged reading of Adrian Ho’s Run, Marga, Run.
Also making her first appearance in the festival is Adriana Agcaoili, one of Philippine theater’s highly respected actresses who is performing in Rick Patriarca’s Hapagkainan.
Another first: the participation of online platform PelikuLove, which is helping to promote the VLF by producing teasers for many of this year’s plays.
As great as these firsts are, there are two that deserve to stand out. First is the VLF’s partnership with the IdeaFirst Company, a content-creation and creative consultancy firm founded by lauded filmmakers Jun Robles Lana (who has solid roots in theater and was mentored by the late playwright and children’s-book author Rene O. Villanueva) and Perci Intalan. It offered valuable support to the VLF when it faced an unexpected challenge earlier this year.
And second is the VLF’s official and permanent logo, which first appeared on its Facebook page and the CCP website several weeks ago. It’s strangely suitable one, for it’s similar to that of the 1999 sex comedy American Pie.
All these firsts are just a small indication of the terrific things that audiences can expect at this year’s VLF, which has not only staged new plays and introduced new playwrights, but also helped reenergize Philippine theater for the last 12 years.
For tickets, call the CCP Box Office at (632) 832-3704 or visit www.ticketworld.com.ph. For more information about the Virgin Labfest or to know about the schedules of the plays, visit www.culturalcenter.gov.ph or www.facebook.com/thevirginlabfest.