Painting three dimentional pictures... onstage

I remember picking up this book that featured a collection of plays in a bookstore once while passing the time. There were about eight or 10 plays in it and I remember browsing through the first few lines of each play and how the last play in the collection, itself a collection of monologues, caught my attention. I remember ending up reading the whole script right there and then, and eventually buying the book and re-reading that script over and over again at home. I remember how I exasperated my best friend then talking endlessly about that script and how wonderful it was. I have been acting onstage professionally for four or five years already at the time, and I thought of giving copies of the script to actors, producers and directors I knew in the hope that they too will fall in love with it, just like I did, and stage it so I can see it come alive onstage. While a lot of them were amused by it, none of them were amused enough to want to stage it. So I did it myself, for I thought that the story must be told. And my life as a director began.

FALLING IN LOVE

While it is true that directors usually get hired to direct plays predetermined by the producers for various reasons – theme, commercial appeal, etc. – an inspired theater production usually begins when the director himself falls in love with the script. It’s much like seeing a movie and liking it so much that you can’t stop thinking about it after, you can’t stop talking about it to your friends, you can’t stop imploring them to go see it themselves. In this case, it’s a director reading a script and liking it so much that he or she can’t stop thinking about it and wanting to share that story to as many as people as possible – and the only way to do that is to make that script fulfill its destiny: to be brought to life onstage.

ELEMENT ONE: WHAT IT’S ALL ABOUT

The script. After reading a particular script and falling in love with it, the director will learn what the playwright’s intention was, why he told this story and why he told it this way and his own interpretation of the play takes shape. At that point, after reading the script perhaps for the nth time, in his mind the written text ceases to be a caboodle of words on a page and begins to take shape as a three-dimensional live presentation – if a stage direction in the script dictates that “there’s a chair upstage right,” in the director’s mind he can already see that chair, what kind of chair that would be and at what angle it should be positioned, and how the actors would interact with that chair.

ELEMENT TWO: SPACE

To me, there are four fundamental elements of theater. First and foremost, as aforementioned, is the script. And then, there’s Space. Or more particularly, the Performance Space. This, I believe, is the theater artist’s true medium: space. It serves as the director’s blank canvas where he paints the story.

ELEMENT THREE: ARTIST/S

While it is ultimately the director who decides what and who goes on stage, and how and why, theater is essentially a collaborative art form. It involves the creative and technical input of different artists. It is important for the director to be able to lead his co-artists into realizing his vision for the play. The playwright has told the story on paper, the Director’s job is to tell that whole story onstage, and the do that, directs his co-artists to tell their individual stories. And among those who will help realize the Director’s vision onstage are -
The Set Designer – who tells the story of the space. He creatively recreates the physical space wherein the story takes place.

The Costume Designer – who helps tell the story of each of the characters through their clothing. He has read the script and has an idea about what pieces of clothing he would need to design. He’s been informed of the Director’s idea on each character’s being – his physical, psychological and social circumstances, among others, and he executes his designs accordingly.

The Lighting Designer – he has asked the question: where is this particular scene taking place? What time of day is it taking place? Morning? Noon? Night? What would be the source of light? The sun through a window? The moon? A lamp post? He would then position the lights according to the answers to these questions – an outdoor morning scene may have bright whites with a tinge of yellow to recreate the bright morning sun’s light, or perhaps a beam of amber to emulate the light thrown by a lamp post, while the rest of the stage will be flooded in soft whites and blues like the way the moon lights up a courtyard on cloudless night.

The Sound Designer – either by doing it live or putting together recorded sound, he adds to the reality being recreated onstage by making the audience, and the actors, actually hear the sound of rain and thunder claps so they believe that this particular scene takes place on a stormy night.

And of course, The Actor/s – they will work closely with the director to create believable portrayals on stage. He has done a character sketch – a biography of the role he is playing. The play may take place in a span of just a few days or hours in the life of the character, but The Actor knows that he must be able to recreate and communicate a 40-year old character’s 40 years of existence – the events in his life that helped make him who he is – and believe deep inside him that he was the one who journeyed through those 40 years for only then will the audience willingly surrender to the suspension of disbelief, and that what results in a magical theatrical experience.

And all of the stories told by the artists above, when put together, tells the story of the play. And that’s the director’s job. He will infect everyone with his love and passion for the story he wants to tell. It is his job to motivate everyone and enable them to express themselves individually and as a group.

Once he has chosen his staff and designers and has cast actors for the roles required, he begins the production process with a reading of the script, this helps everyone acquire a deeper understanding the play. He may call for more than one reading session, and in these sessions, he begins to share his vision of the play, his concept, his interpretation, and this will guide everyone else in telling of their respective stories.

And as the designers begin to work on their creations, the Director begins to paint his three-dimensional picture onstage using his actors. He starts by blocking them on stage, or determining their positions and movement within the performance space. Step by step, he helps them become the characters they are playing. Eventually, he will add all the other elements, the creations of his co-artists – the costumes and make-up that the actors will wear, the scenery that the set designer created, the lighting and sound design, etc., and the artwork is almost done.

I say almost done for we are now down to our fourth element necessary to complete the art process – the AUDIENCE, for no art work is truly complete until it has been experienced by an audience. And once the curtains are drawn on opening night, the Director’s job is essentially done. It is now up to the rest of his collaborators – the actors, the designers, the technicians, etc. to ensure that his vision is realized in every single performance.

In the coming months, I am quite sure that local theater scene will come to life once again with various productions opening in various theaters in Baguio. Take a break from the usual and more popular forms of entertainment such as television and cinema, and spend a magical evening at the theater and experience the stories told by local directors such as Dan Riopay, the dynamic, young resident director of Tangahalang SLU; Ferdie Balanag, among the pillars of Baguio theater who directed the local production of “La Mandragola” at the Victor Oteyza Community Arts Space years ago, and more recently the musical “Bintao” at the UC Theater; Martin Masadao, also a playwright and who usually stages his production at UP Baguio and who wrote, directed and acted in the much loved collection of monologues, “Baguio Stories,” or the indefatigable dynamic duo of local theater, Atty. Dammy and Bing Bangaoet, who may just find the time to get out of their beautiful sanctuary in Tomay to regale local audiences once again with a delightful musical.

/kma

And this is why we tell the story

“Why are we doing this?” I surprised the participants of the recently concluded theater workshop for teachers of the Department of Education’s Special Program for the Arts held at the Teacher’s Camp last June 10-11, 2010. They were stumped. I asked a more specific question, “why do you think the Department of Education came up with a special program for theater for high school students?” No reply. “Or even more specifically,” I added, “why do we want to teach theater to high school students?” And after a few moments of silence, a rather flamboyant male teacher raised his hand and said, “para matuto silang umarte! Tapos, sisikat sila’t yayaman!” Good luck with that. Then I proceeded to give them a real picture of what it’s really like to be a theater actor.

One cannot make a decent living out of this. You may be one of the most sought after stage actors in town, perhaps even in the whole country - applauded and adored by many, but at the end of the day, you cannot put food on the table if you rely only on your income as a theater artist. There will be times when you’ll be working on a production for three or four months and bring home only enough money to feed you for a few weeks. And even if you’re cast in a production where the pay is really good, you’re not sure if there will be another one like it after the last curtain call. But despite all that, you will always be expected to commit more than 100% of yourself in every production. There may even be times when you will get screamed at, humiliated in front of your peers by a rather temperamental director. You may be having a bad hair day or coming down with the flu, but everyone – from the director to your co-actors to the stage hands – will still expect you to be at rehearsals that day. They’ll give you “that look” the next day if you don’t show up. Job security is a concept that doesn’t exist in this field. It’s not just about doing your best to land a role in a new production soon after finishing one – you’re never sure if there will actually be a production at all next week, next month, next year.

And so I asked, again, “so why are we here? Why is the government spending a lot of money to bring you all up here to learn about theater and how to teach it to your students if this is the kind of life that awaits them should they actually pursue a career in theater?” Nobody gave an answer this time, and I, too, did not give one. Instead, I told them a story.

Years ago in some remote town in Pangasinan, we were invited to stage our production of “Tonyo/Pepe”, two one-act plays on the lives of Antonio Luna and Jose Rizal, respectively. It has been decades since the last time a play was staged in that town. There was no theater as we know it - no lights and sound equipment, no proper seats for the audience. When we arrived with all our sets, props, costumes, technical equipment, we were led to a cemented square in the middle of a school with only a tin roof over it - no walls. There was a concrete stage on one end.

We spent the whole evening the day before the morning performance pasting together old newspapers and painting them black which we then hanged on the sides of the square - these served as walls, darkening the hall enough for our stage lights to matter at all.

After setting up the stage and finishing at around way p[ast midnight, we slept on the cold concrete floor with the empty boxes and spread-out costumes as beds.

We were up by sunrise the next morning - focusing lights, checking the sound equipment, rehearsing and by 9am, we were ready for our 10am performance. We “opened house” at around 9:30am and after letting in a couple hundred excited students, we were amazed by the sight of some elderly people from the community, dressed in formal attire - barong tagalog for the men and dresses for the women (there was even one with wearing a terno). At first we thought they were there to perform also, but when we asked one of the teachers why they were dressed so, she told us that when they heard that there was a dula being performed, they put on their best clothes for this was how they remember going to theatrical performances in their younger days.

We also saw a few tricycle drivers parking their sidecars by the school lining up to get tickets to the show. 10am is a slow hour in their trade, so they decided to pass the time watching a play.

The performance started with Rene Villanueva’s “Tonyo,” and while we were used to having noisy students for our audience, we were quite surprised by the attentiveness of this particular audience. They watched intently and listened to every line being delivered.

The second part, “Pepe,” starts off as a comedy, and the audience responded well to every punchline. Halfway through the second part and the mood changes to being serious - “Pepe” starts talking about the suffering he and his family suffered under the hands of the friars, the soldiers, the guardias civil, and how these abuses seem to still continue to this day. Towards the end, “Pepe,” using lines from the last chapter of “El Filisbusterismo,” challenges the audience: “Nasaan ang mga makabayang opsiyal ng gobyerno, ang mga intelektuwal, ang mga makabayang mangangalakal? Nasaan ang mga kabataang magbibigay ng lakas ng buhay na tumanan na sa aming mga ugat? Ng kalinisan ng pagkukuro na nadungisan na sa aming mga isip? Ng lagablab ng sigabo na namatay na sa aming mga puso? Nasaan kayo? Ang bayan ay naghihintay!”

I was the one playing the part of “Pepe,” and at the end of that line, I clutched a Philippine flag and slowly raised it with my right hand as the first notes of the Natonal Anthem faded in. And the rest of the cast, one by one, went onstage singing the “Lupang Hinirang.” I scanned the audience, who were by this time have stood up and were singing along with us, and a group of tricycle drivers at the back of the make shift theater caught my attention. Not only were they standing up and singing along with us, they had their right fists raised too. And by the time we crescendoed towards “lupa ng araw, ng luwalhati’t pagsinta, buhay ay langit sa piling mo...” I saw tears in the eyes of one tricycle driver.

And that is why we’re here.

Because of people like that tricycle driver. And that group of elderly dressed in their best to hear our story. As long as there are people out there who take time and effort to go to the theater, be it Cultural Center of the Philippines, or in some forgotten elementary school in Tayug, Pangasinan, there we’ll be. Because we know that in that one hour or so, we can make them see the world from a different perspective, enrich their souls, and change their lives forever.

We have performed that particular play countless times in the past, but that morning, it felt like we were doing it again for the first time.

As the dramatist Arthur Miller put it, “The theater is so endlessly fascinating because it's so accidental. It's so much like life.”

In the coming weeks, we shall feature articles about the workings of theater - the people involved, processes, the art and science behind it, and stories that we hope can help our readers understand this wonderful world called theater better.