FILIPINO SHAKESPEARE?

or
SHAKESPEAREAN FILIPINO?
An Attempt at Analysis and a Whole Lot of
Theater Chismis
SHAKESPEARE DURING THE SPANISH ERA

- Adaptations into native

forms of poetry and drama
(curiously, not in Manila)
- Ilustrados (Rizal was an
admirer)
- Read in Spanish, most
probably
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN FOR REAL: AMURRCA!

- THOMASITES (August 21, 1901)

- Sent to educate the Filipino
native in math, science,
literature, athletics, with
English as medium of
instruction
- Sent by William Howard Taft
WHAT’S THE FIRST DOCUMENTED SHAKESPEARE
PRODUCTION IN ENGLISH IN MANILA?
 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE (1910)
IN ATENEO OF COURSE!

Why Merchant?

Think about it!

SOME EARLY SHAKESPEAREAN PRODUCTIONS AT THE ATENEO

- Richard III (1917)

- Julius Caesar (1921)
- Macbeth (1923)
* Close rival of the Ateneo in
Shakespearean stagings during
the 1910s: SILLIMAN UNIVERSITY

- Merchant, Julius Caesar,

Macbeth, Othello, Hamlet
FR. HENRY LEE IRWIN, S.J.

- American Jesuit
- Introduced the strong
theater training
(Sapientia, Eloquentia,
Humanitas)
- JULIUS CAESAR,
MERCHANT, MACBETH,
OTHELLO 1930s - 1950s
- HAMLET (w/ an Onofre
Pagsanghan as Ophelia!)
ONOFRE PAGSANGHAN

- Founder of DULAANG SIBOL

- Macbeth (1956), Julius Caesar
(1960), Hamlet (1961)

1950s - 1960s
ROLANDO S. TINIO

- Entered the Faculty of English in

1959
- National Artist (1997)
- Founded the Ateneo Experimental
Theater
- Macbeth (symbolic)
- All-male (literal!) Richard III
(w/ Ricardo Abad as Duchess of
York!)
- Started translating Shakespeare
into Filipino during the 60s with
the theater company Teatro
Filipino
FROM TINIO’S 1962 PRODUCTION --- TILL 1991

NADA!
:(
DULAANG UNIBERSIDAD NG PILIPINAS

- Founded in 1976 by Antonio

Mabesa (a close friend of
Tinio’s)
- First play: Pagkahaba-haba
man ng Prusisyon, sa
Simbahan din ang Tuloy
(Much Ado), trans. Leila
F. Antonio, dir. Tony
Mabesa
PHILIPPINE EDUCATIONAL THEATER ASSOCIATION

- Macbeth (1984), Filipino

translation by Rody Vera,
directed by German
director Fritz Bennewitz
- Joel Lamangan as Macbeth
ROLANDO TINIO’S TEATRO FILIPINO (1976-1987)

- Western classics (mostly

translated into Filipino by Tinio)
- Kung Paano man ang Ibig
- Ang Negosyante ng Venecia (1976)
- Hamlet (1979)
- Pangarap sa isang Gabi ng Gitnang
Tag-araw (1980)
- Romeo at Julieta (1981)
- Makbet (1989)
- Ikalabindalawang Gabi (1992)
TANGHALANG ATENEO

- Founded 1979 by Doreen

Fernando, Badong Bernal
(National Artist), and
Ricardo Saludo
- Ricardo Abad took over
1984
- Glenn Sevilla Mas took
over 2014
RICARDO G. ABAD, PH.D.

- Acted for Tinio

- First Shakespeare in the
Ateneo since 1962 → 1991,
Isang Pangarap sa Gabi ng
Gitnang Tag-araw
- Pagkahaba-haba man ng
Prusisyon, sa Simbahan din
ang Tuloy (1992)
- Romeo at Julieta (1992)
- Hamlet (1994)
- Star Actor: RON CAPINDING
RICKY STARTS TO GO WILD!

- 1999, Negosyante ng Venecia

- Bilingual
- Christians → English
- Jews → Filipino
- Classical, Western production design
- 2000, Twelfth Night: Kung Ano’ng Ibigin
- Bilingual
- Set in an imagined South-East Asian world
- Asian technicolor design
RICKY STARTS TO GO WILD!

- 2002, Ang Pagpapaamo Sa

Maldita
- Bilingual
- Reset in Paracale, Camarines
Norte during the American
occupation
- Petruchio is American
“taming” the wild Filipino
Katerina
- The famous last speech as
“postcolonial mimicry”
RICKY STARTS TO GO WILD!

- 2009, Otelo, Ang Moro Ng

Venecia
- In Filipino
- Borrowed from the komedya (or
moro-moro) tradition,
rendering Iago as a
traditional figure of the
PUSONG
RICKY STARTS TO GO WILD!

- 2011, Sintang Dalisay

- Based on an Awit version of
Romeo and Juliet
- Script by Abad and Luarca
- Used IGAL as the
choreographic vocabulary (by
Dr. Matthew Santamaria)
- Used the GAMELAN as music (by
Edru Abraham)
- Reset in an imagined
Southeast Asian world
- Script was a collage of the
awit, w/ Tinio, and passages
from traditional chants
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- DULAANG UP
- Titus Andronicus (2011)
- Dir. Tuxqs Rutaquio
- Script by Layeta Bucoy
- Play reset in local
Philippine politics
- Reaction to the Ampatuan
massacre
- Originally titled
Tinarantadong Asintado
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- Dulaang UP
- #R</3J (2015)
- Dir. Dexter Santos
- Script by Guelan Luarca
- Re-set Romeo and Juliet in
Manila
- Heavy in choreography and
mixed media
- “Millennial”
aesthetics/sensibilities
- Tackled issues about popular
media, elections, postmodern
Philippines, teenage
psychology
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- Dulaang UP
- King Lear/Haring Lear (2015)
- Dir. Tony Mabesa
- Trans. Nick Pichay
- Re-set in an imagined
Indo-Asian country, mixing
design motifs from Cambodia,
Thailand, Philippines,
Vietnam
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- Anton Juan’s Screen

Macbeth
- Utilized video design to
impose popular culture and
psychologically-linked images
onto Shakespeare’s world
- Set in no particular place
and time
- Semiotics-heavy
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- PETA
- William! (2011)
- Dir. Maribel Legarda
- Script by Ron Capinding
- A musical depicting high
school kids going through
young adolescence and
learning Shakespeare
- Aimed for young audiences
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- PETA
- D’Wonder Twins of Boac (2013)
- Adaptation by Rody Vera
- Re-worked the Twelfth Night
during the 60s, heyday of
Sampaguita Pictures, LVN, and
other film studios
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- PETA
- Haring Lear (2012)
- Dir. Nonon Padilla
- Trans. Bienvenido Lumbera (National
Artist)
- All-male cast
- Reset in a futuristic,
post-apocalyptic world of pollution
and detritus
- (In)famous for an ending that
delivered parts of The Wasteland by
T.S. Eliot
- Abstracted, suggestive, Japanese
rock/anime aesthetics
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- PETA
- The Tempest Reimagined (2016)
- Co-production with Royal
Academy of Dramatic Arts
(from England)
- Adapted by Liza Magtoto
- Dir. Nona Shepphard
- Reset in Leyte, discusses
Yolanda Typhoon
- Prospero played by C.B.
Garucho (Prospera)
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- Tanghalang Pilipino
- Der Kaufmann (2013)
- Dir. Tuxqs Rutaquio and Rody
Vera
- Uses Tinio’s translation
- Resets the play in a Nazi
concentration camp
- Parallels the persecution of
Jews and homosexuals
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- Nonon Padilla’s Makbet

(2017)
- Uses Tinio’s translation
- Performed at Benilde
- Uses multimedia, and spliced
with images culled from EJKs
- (In)famously ends w/ an
explication about the
spirituality of the play, and
Shakespeare’s secret
Catholicism
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- The Mousetrap: Anti-Hamlet

(2016)
- Part of the Karnabal Festival 2016
- Devised production by Chris
Aronson, Ness Roque-Lumbres,
Guelan Luarca
- Fused Hamlet w/ personal
confessions regarding problems of
politics, theater, craft,
technique, personal, financial
- Ends w/ the struggle of the
Players to play a “seditious”
material in front of “The King”
OTHER RECENT SHAKESPEARE PRODUCTIONS

- Eto, Brute: Isang devise-devise-an

ng mga feeling-feelingang artist na
pa-relevant sa panahon ng
Dutertistmo (2018)
- Devised production by Delphine Buencamino,
Jenny Jamora, Guelan Luarca, Xander
Soriano, and Charles Yee
- Fused excerpts of Julius Caesar w/
interviews, political confessions, artist
manifestos, audience participation, forum,
etc.
- A work-in-progress
What formal/thematic attributed constitute Filipino
Shakespeare?

Why Shakespeare, still?

Have we transcended American Shakespeare?

Where is this all going?