A musical history of the evergreen university

MANILA, Philippines—In 70 minutes, the last 100 years of De La Salle University (DLSU) will be recapped in a musical that commemorates tragedies as well as victories, from the 1945 massacre at the university chapel to the school’s first basketball victory.

Now one of the country’s top universities, La Salle is staging a grand retelling of its first century in the Philippines in the one-night-only show “Proudly Green” on June 11.

The event is expected to draw some 3,000 alumni at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia Complex in Pasay City.

The show is one of the highlights of DLSU’s year-long centennial celebration that started in March with the university’s alumni homecoming.

“We will take you back to 1911, take you back to Paco, to Taft Avenue, to the first time girls entered the La Salle campus. Then we will bring you to today, and end with everybody onstage saying the power of a dream does not end tonight, [that] it actually starts for the next 100 years,” said Fritz Ynfante, La Salle high school alumnus who was asked to cocreate and direct the play.

“I think anyone who will see (the play) will realize (even if they are not from La Salle) why all Lasallians are proudly green,” said sports analyst Quinito Henson, “Proudly Green” spokesman.

In a mix of live action and video, the play will recount La Salle’s history in lyric theater, using borrowed music across a variety of genres—Broadway, rock, pop and gospel. Lyrics were “rewritten” to fit the storyline, organizers said.

“The presentation will tell the story in song. The entire show will not have a spoken word. It will all be sung,” said Ynfante.

The musical will come alive with a cast of some 80 performers, mostly La Salle students and alumni from different campuses, including singer Rannie Raymundo. Familiar names in theater, including Atenean couple Isay Alvarez and Robert Seña, will play cameos.

“The show does not have star value. I want the show to stand by itself,” said Ynfante.

The musical would be presented on a specially designed stage awash in the university’s color, said the director.

“I think the color green is something that we are all proud to wear. It is a symbol of hope. And every time there is a La Salle homecoming, we talk about the green, green grass of home,” Henson said.

DLSU was established in the Philippines in 1911 by the Brothers of the Christian Schools, members of the Roman Catholic teaching congregation founded by Saint John Baptist de la Salle in France in 1680. It now has more than 350,000 alumni from different campuses.

La Salle alumni will hold veneration rites for the relic of the La Salle Brothers’ founder on June 15 at the Chapel of the Most Blessed Sacrament in DLSU-Manila.

Being a top university serving the more privileged sector of the population, La Salle aims to raise its capacity of providing scholarships to up to 20 percent of its total student population, system-wide.