Bonding through theater

On the last week of October, Batch ’84 of the University of the Philippines Cebu High School organized the MADS Theatre Arts Workshop for 27 students at the UP Cebu Conference Hall. “MADS” stands for Mithi, Arte, Dula, Sundayag. The acronym also happens to be my nickname and according to Batch ’84 the workshop in a way is dedicated to me. I am very honored and very thankful. Originally intended to have been implemented last summer but moved to the semestral break due to a conflict in schedule, the workshop was conceived by Batch ’84 to revive the theater tradition of UP Cebu High School which the batch brought to heights during their time.

It was in 1983 that I first met Batch ’84 when I returned to UP Cebu High School after finishing my Master of Arts in Asian Studies in UP Diliman. I taught Asian History for the three sections of the seniors and the elective creative dramatics for those enrolled in the subject. At that time there were only three electives—photojournalism, calculus and creative dramatics. Few enrolled in photojournalism because it was quite expensive and one had to have a camera. Calculus was scary, so many trooped to creative dramatics not knowing what to expect. But I could only accommodate 38, so the rest were forced to go to calculus but many of them would join the creative dramatics workshops held in and out of the campus. Electives were then held for one year so for one year, Batch ’84 members were brought closer to each other because of the experiences in theaters arts which were not only done in class but also applied in other subjects like Pilipino for the Linggo ng Wika, for the Science and Technology Week for their interpretation of the lives of famous scientists and in their Social Studies Class especially during the First Asian Festival.

But I cannot talk about creative dramatics as an elective without describing Batch ’84. It was a batch with hyper energies inside and outside the classrooms, whether it was in social studies class or creative dramatics class. Each of the three sections had a bunch of drumbeaters and each class was always alive except during exams. It was the death of Ninoy Aquino in August 1983 that elevated the consciousness of the use of theater arts especially the “Dula Tula”  to tackle social issues of the day.

So when the high school held its Science and Technology Week in September 1983, the senior class through the members of the creative dramatics class presented “Galileo,” a Dula Tula on the life of Galileo with a parallelism to the life of Ninoy Aquino. The script so well-written with wit and humor and narrated by now Rep. Pablo John Garcia, the leader of Batch ’84, was performed by the creative dramatics class led by Valdemar Llenos, Joselito Pedaria, Joel Garganera, Joel Bontuyan, Arsenio Pelicano and Sigfried Sayson. The performance brought the whole Multipurpose Hall down and from then on the dula tula became the most effective vehicle for tackling the social issues of the day. “Galileo” for me was a dula tula masterpiece where the narrator and the performers had perfect coordination. Pablo John was not in my creative dramatics class, he was with the photojournalism class but he had a great interest in theater arts so I allowed him and the others to join our workshops and other activities even helping us with the documentation. “Galileo” was written in English but all the subsequent dula tula scripts were written in Cebuano because it was felt that they had to reach out to the general public. For the past 25 years I kept all the scripts written and performed by the creative dramatics class with accompanying pictures and shared the two albums with the batch on their silver jubilee last homecoming 2009. The topics of their dula tula ranged from their four years of high school life in UP Cebu to the squatters, the workers and other marginalized sectors of society and the national issues of the ’80s. It was Batch ’84 that started the move to promote the use of Cebuano.

Twenty-seven years after, Batch ’84 decided to pay back to UP Cebu High School in its attempt to become a high school for the arts (not just visual arts but also the performing arts). This is aside from sponsoring a number of scholarships for UP High graduates. I have never seen so close a batch as Batch ’84. They say that it was love for theater arts that brought them closer than when they were students and even now that they are professionals and with their own  families. Batch ’84 claims that theirs  is the batch that never left.

With MADS Theater Arts Workshop, Batch ’84 with Julies Itaas as  Mother Julie is also trying to revive the dying theater tradition in Cebu. Facilitated by the theater luminaries of Cebu and the Philippines, namely, Orland Magno, Rudy Aviles and Lucien Letaba, the MADS Theater Arts Workshop gives hope to the new generation of students who are stuck to their computers and cellphones, and to instead develop a love for reading and appreciate writing in addition to performing.

On a personal note, I would like to thank Batch ’84 for the continuous connecting with me, the UP Cebu High School, the love and passion for theater arts, and most specially for having no pretensions at all. May you all be blessed with more energy, vigor and compassion!