SAGADA, Mt. Province – Let’s start from the very beginning. Dr. Dennis Faustino, principal of St. Mary’s School (SMS) that boasts of a strong music, arts and physical education program, was an accidental tourist who stayed.

Faustino and a friend from the Peace Corps made an unplanned stop in 1974 in the mountain town and saw high school kids holding dress rehearsals for a yearend production of the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical “The Sound of Music.” Instantly, Faustino was smitten.

Here were students running around and singing “The hills are alive…,” and there were them hills!

The next year, Faustino, then working at the International School in Makati, spent June to August (vacation time for IS) in Sagada and taught choral singing at SMS. He and his singers mounted a two-hour concert of English and Filipino songs (“Alleluia,” “Time in a Bottle,” Broadway medleys, among others).

Lights-out Broadway

In 1976, there were nightly productions. Sagada had no electric power then and there was not much to do in the evenings. It did not take much persuading for the parish priest, the police chief, community members and Peace Corps volunteers to join the fun.
It was “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” on Monday, Wednesday and Friday evenings. On Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday nights it was “The Fantasticks,” with the doctor from St. Theodore Hospital playing the male lead and the rural health unit doktora playing the female.

In August 1976, SMS held the week-long Festival of Fine Arts and staged the musical “South Pacific” at the Episcopal Church that was lit by Petromax lamps. The Episcopal nuns served as set designers. Make-believe Tony awards were given out to the Best Actor, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actor, etc.

Faustino recalled, “It was all katuwaan (fun), but there was a pakain (feeding) at the end of the festival.” Rice, pork dishes and pinikpikan (slowly beaten chicken cooked in gingery broth) were served.

In time he formed an exchange program with IS sending performing groups (band and choir) to the city while the well-off students from Makati went on a cultural immersion tour, planting rice in the terraces and interacting with the locals.

In 1982, Faustino left for the United States for his masters in speech and drama at Washington State University and his Ph.D. in theater history, directing and arts management at the University of Minnesota.

Upon his return in 1990, he got caught up in his old duties at IS and new ones as executive director of Tanghalang Pilipino.

Zarzuela in Kankana-ey

But he still visited Sagada periodically and helped mount “Walang Sugat” in the Kankana-ey tongue in 1994. Fely Sibayan, a Filipino teacher at SMS, translated the zarzuela. Faustino and Sibayan made sure it would be popular with the audience by adding more ribald jokes.

SMS almost closed down in school year 2004-05. The Episcopal Church could not afford to maintain the school. The locals preferred to send their children to the Sagada National High School.

SMS alumni, many with lucrative jobs abroad, formed a corporation and leased the land and building. A board of trustees was created consisting of stakeholders like representatives of the alumni association, the church, and the local government.

Faustino said a five-year strategic plan was drawn up that featured student-centered instruction, improved facilities (library, art room, science laboratory), and plans for a gym and dormitories for girls and boys.

Being considered is a college program for the whole Cordillera.

The revived SMS closed down for three days during the academic year so the 200 students could be dispersed to neighboring Mainit, Bontoc, Bauko, Masla and Tadian, all in the Mountain Province. They do a thorough environmental cleanup, prepare pathways for schools, clean and fertilize coffee plantations and give what they can in terms of service.

SMS trains students to do research which is integrated into biology and economics. Students have studied the nearby rainforests and the migration patterns in Tadian by interacting with the elders.

But the culture vulture in Faustino cannot be suppressed. He and his staff are preparing to stage another musical, “Fiddler on the Roof” in Kankana-ey with the working title “Mengasa id Atep” (A Gangsa Player on a Thatched Roof). This version retains the original’s melodies and storyline but is adapted to the local culture.

The plot revolves around the struggle between tradition and change, Christianity and indigenous beliefs or the old ways. The famous song “Sunrise, Sunset” is being transformed into “Toneg (Planting), Ani (Harvest).” Music will blend an upright piano with Igorot drums, gongs, flute and other bamboo instruments.

With the SMS quadrangle serving as outdoor theater, Faustino assures that there will not be a passive audience.

Call SMC at 0928-7880077; E-mail Faustino at dennis@smssagada.org.