20/20 Vision: DUP 40th Theatre Season

Time flies so fast, I just realized that it has been one year since I got my first invitation from Dulaang UP to watch its 39th Season opener – Shakespeare’s  Measure for Measure . Watching it was definitely an exceptional experience so when I received my invitation for a press preview for the DUP 40th Theatre Season offering, I couldn’t be happier. After 39 years and 180 productions, Dulaang Unibersidad ng Pilipinas is all set for its 40th year of staging quality plays with 20/20 Vision: Clarity.Originality.Perspective.

 

With Dexter M. Santos as the newly-elected artistic director, this season’s line-up puts premium on strengthening the UP brand and continuing the DUP legacy. The productions bring to fore the directors’ signature styles that have defined the company through the years. Here they are:

DUP 40th Theatre Season

 

#R</3J

The season opens with #R</3J (Hashtag Romeo broken heart Juliet), a multimedia hallucination on William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet directed by Dexter M. Santos and adapted by Guelan Varela-Luarca. It features the Dulaang UP Ensemble and the collaboration of choreographers, designers, and artists. It retells the star-crossed lovers’ narrative transforming Verona into a concrete jungle at the heart of Metro Manila. #R</3J will run from August 26 to September 13, 2015.

 

King Lear/Haring Lear

Founding artistic director Tony Mabesa directs Shakespeare’s King Lear/Haring Lear (Filipino translation by Nicolas B. Pichay). The play is set in the waning years of a Southeast Asian kingdom replete with appropriate music, movement, costumes, and properties of the region without losing the themes, images, and poetry of Shakespeare’s supreme achievement. King Lear/Haring Lear runs from October 7 to 25, 2015.

 

Peer Gynt

The third offering for this season is a reimagination of Henrick Ibsen’s Peer Gynt under the direction of Jose Estrella and Filipino adaptation by Rody Vera with Gilda Cordero-Fernando. Drawing from the Philippine mythology and folklore, Gynt is now set in ‘Pinas, with Gynt travelling through historical and mystical time, crossing landscapes as he wrestles with the eternal elusiveness of truth and deception, meaning and purpose. Peer Gynt runs from February 3 to 21, 2016.

 

The Dressing Room: That Which Flows Away Ultimately Becomes Nostalgia

The Dressing Room by Shimuzi Kunio comes next from an original translation of John K. Gillespie. The play will be directed by Alexander Cortez with translation and adaptation by Chiori Miyagawa and the Filipino translation by Nicolas B. Pichay. It relives the aspirations, frustrations, memories, and resolutions of four actresses waiting for their cue. By turns tragic and comic, the play becomes a comment on the fleeting nature of theater and of life itself as a form of performance. The Dressing Room: That Which Flows Away Ultimately Becomes Nostalgia runs from April 13 to May 1, 2016.

 

UP Playwrights’ Theatre

Closing the season is UP Playwrights’ Theatre 25th offering: Yugto:Dalawang Maikling Dula under the direction of Banaue Miclat-Janssen. It features Ginto sa Makiling by Luna Sicat Cleto and Sparrow by Linda Faigao-Hall. Yugto runs from July 1 to 10,2016.

The Venue

The four productions will be staged at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, 2nd floor Palma Hall, University of the Philippines Diliman while Yugto’s venue will be the Teatro Hermogenes Ylagan, Faculty Center, in the same campus.

The People Behind DUP

From the sneak preview I got to see, it is believable when DUP says that it is committed to uphold its standards for education, training, artistic innovation, and unfretted vision. During the start of the program, Alexander Cortez clarified that there is really no issue with the election of Dexter Santos as the new Artistic Director, who he believes is very much qualified. The continuing presence of the founding Artistic Director Tony Mabesa in present productions mounted by DUP should tell us that these people are more interested in honing their craft than engaging in internal politics. It is also quite evident that all of them are especially proud of the diversity in theme and style which they are able to offer to stage play enthusiasts.

 

20/20 Vision: Clarity.Originality.Perspective

DUP’s 40th Theatre Season is again offering the audience, a chance to truly experience the magic of theater. This year’s production line-up offers us no excuse to miss it. As a special treat to DUP patrons, the company is introducing the DUP Season Pass. It entitles the holder to watch four (4) DUP productions for only PHP 1500. That’s four DUP masterworks for the price of one commercial theater production.

 

My Say

During the press preview, I cannot help commenting to my daughter who was with me that I am seeing many familiar faces who I get to see on TV programs and commercials as well as movies. Now knowing that they trace their acting roots to DUP, I fully understood why their performances are able to leave a mark in the audience’s mind regardless of how big or small their roles are. I marvel at the seeming ease in which they are able to shift from one performance platform to another, catering to different audiences. That speaks a lot of the quality of performers DUP is able to produce.

 

 

I had the good fortune of sitting beside Tony Mabesa while we were enjoying our refreshments. He is actually very accommodating, funny even. He shared that he had known since he was in Grade 1 that his life will be in performing. To think that he is now 80 years old and still at it is enough evidence that he was right. With people like him continuously supporting DUP, we are assured of quality productions for many, many years to come.

Teresay and Co. is proud to be a Media Partner for Dulaang UP’s 40th Theatre Season opener “#R</3J“.

 

For tickets, sponsorships, showbuying, and DUP Season Pass inquiries, call Samanta Hannah Clarin or Camille Guevara at 9261349, 4337840, 9818500 loc. 2449 or email dulaangupmarketing@gmail.com.