On-line PLAYWRITING and DRAMATURGY workshop
Course designed by Steven P.C. Fernandez, DFA
Founder-Artistic Director, IPAG
A Theater is only as good as its plays. This truism directs us to our plan to build materials for production. An opportunity has set in during this “break” to reflect and gather from our experiences that have the potentials of becoming “masterpieces” with the right guidance.
The “break” is auspicious because we now all experience the same agonies the world also experiences. The extreme circumstances we now go through become the background of the materials we propose to share. Writing and mounting thus become our outlets through where we can release our anxieties and reflect on meanings our obras try to uncover about the world around us.
These works-in-progress shall become the cornerstones of a festival we plan should life return to ‘Normal’, by my estimates the first quarter of 2021. Which means that from now until the end of 2020, time will be devoted to writing and rewriting and rewriting (Note: Rewriting is the constant in good productions.)
Titled “TranScripts”, the program appropriately describes a a process towards a performance that is communally-owned by the audiences, the artists, the producers, and even by the milieu. From the source, to the material, to interpretation, and production, the original script undergoes countless transitions.
Conduct and Pedagogy
Limited resources only allow us to accommodate eight most-promising “trans-criptors” to make the first batch. There is a module I have prepared that is progressive, step-to-step development and that combines dramaturgy with writing because one cannot do with the other. We shall use online facilities and discuss as a group in zoom or duo apps. Our main facility will be Google Classroom courtesy of the MSU-IIT web resources.
I will also join the writing producing a play that is supposed to premiere in the Quinto of LapuLapu together with the that of our participants. All works will go through critiques so that there is a sense of equality and true collaboration. Sessions will be held for live readings as we can only do this in conference thru our online facilities. (There is yet little chance we can meet physically because of the dangers of contamination.)
The program encourages experimentation and innovation, however we all need to begin with the basics. It is from the basics we innovate from, we stylize from. Therefore, I start with the One Act because of the control and discipline required here. The plays may or may not be produced, depending on our evaluations. Also, if we have already understood the framework of the One Act, then I can allow you to move into further explorations. Ultimately, you can work on your full-length play. Later. This will take time.
The planned festival will present one-acts, and perhaps samples of experimentations or portions of one-acts. This will signal our “resurrection”— a celebration after COVID, Godwilling.
Today the world lays prostrate shrouded in a thick pall of gloom, anxious if tomorrow will still come. But for us, HOPE lurks eternal, peeking somewhere in the horizon. Dawn follows darkness, then light. Stock, but it’s the only way we can cope. I discover from my archives music I wrote many years ago. This is from the music of the play “Sarimanok,” a personal favorite and perhaps a favorite of many also. “Sarimanok” despite its dark premise sings of Hope. One bird dared to confront convention. I hope this can inspire us. “Sa liwanag ng bukas, kami ay aasa”
Distribution and launch temporarily suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Standby for announcements.
(originally planned book launch in March at the MSU-IIT CulArts-C and its subsequent distribution at the Natl Theatre Festival TAMPOK in Cebu City)
MSU-IIT’s tribute to STEVEN P.C. FERNANDEZ To officially complete service as government teacher-artist, Steven “Tibo” Fernandez receives tribute for his 43 years of contributions. Here is the “Tribute” they offered during his retirement last January. SP Fernandez continues as Founding Artistic Director of the IPAG.
credits: “And my deepest love my forever Lani who conceived and with much effort to put this amazing production together, to Mahdz Guinto who directed and Kenn who choreographed a masterpiece collating my life’s work in an hour-and-a-half, my colleagues, my co-artist-forever friends in IPAG, Octava Choral Society, Echoes Band, and my original music band MAIZE that gave IIT and Iligan its wonderful music years, and sana-ol, the list is long. SALAMAT! SALAMAT! ❤” — STEVEN P.C. FERNANDEZ, Artistic Director-Founder, IPAG
(film and documentation: Bryan James Lidio, multi-media: Meshaq Dangel and McMarvin D. Palomares)
Locally, Tales From Mindanao and Tatlo sa Isa continued its long-running tours enthralling gym-size audiences in Davao Oriental, Dumaguete (Luce Auditorium, Silliman U), Metro Manila, and Iligan further nailing its claim as the country’s most-traveled repertory production. Still, IPAG headlined the CCP Outreach’s collaboration with its Pearl of the Orient Sun performing to enraptured audiences at the CCP Tanghalang Tolentino and the Nueva Viscaya Convention Center to celebrate the Outreach’s 50 years.
Double-20 conspires to further expand our theater reach, again returning to the Ramayana’s culture of its birth in the next weeks. Besides Ayodha and Mumbai, Sita has performed previously in New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangkok, and Singapore. Plus: more international road tours and our own national commitments.
A PROLIFIC 2020 TO ALL!
(The 2020 schedules will be posted next. ABANGAN!)
#inspiringipag #inspiring42 #sitatheramayanarevisited #ipag #msuiit #talesfrommindanao
“…fabulous show!” – President Betty McCann, Ph.D, Silliman U
TALES FROM MINDANAO continues to enthrall audiences in its 42nd Season National Tours
(NOTE: Manila shows have been re-scheduled because of the on-going SouthEast Asian Games. Check our dates.)
#talesfrommindanao #ipag #inspiringipag #inspiring42 #msuiit
“Tales” opens Silliman U’s 57th Season
Tales From Mindanao, Philippines theatre’s most-travelled repertoire of dances and music from Mindanao narratives, opens the 57th Season of the Silliman University in Dumaguete City.
More international acclaim for Sita: The Ramayana Revisited
Latest News
IPAG’s “Ramayana” forefronts Philippine-India 70 Years of Friendship
Sita: The Ramayana Revisited highlights Dipotsava 2019, the Ayodha festival, at the Ramkatha Park, 6 p.m. on Oct. 26.
The same Sita performs for more Indian events next year as IPAG’s performance represents India’s influencing presence in Philippine culture. Philippine languages, lore, values, religion, and Filipino creative cultural expressions embed significant influences from India in the Philippines’ long relationships with this sub-continent.
View: The Ramayana album
Perlas premieres at the CCP Oct. 10
IPAG expands international links
The MSU-IIT Integrated Performing Arts Guild enhanced its growing international reputation with its sixth participation at the Asia-Pacific Bond (APB) of Theatre Schools Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam. IPAG performed Tighod (Tide of Times), a devised piece that narrates the odyssey of creatures born from water.
IPAG at the helm of CCP collaborative production
Arts & Culture: Perlas ng Silangan, A Regional Collaborative Dance Drama at the Cultural Center of the Philippines
MANILA, PHILIPPINES – The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) through its Cultural Exchange Department (CED) presents a collaborative dance drama featuring four leading regional performing groups in “PERLAS NG SILANGAN” (Pearl of the Orient Sun) on October 10 at 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm at the CCP Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (Little Theater).
IPAG joins prestigious Asia-Pacific Festival in Hanoi
THE INTEGRATED Performing Arts Guild (IPAG), resident company of the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, joins 25 other major universities in the Asia-Pacific in a Drama Festival in Hanoi, Vietnam from Sept. 23 to 29.
https://ipagarts.com/home/news/#2019apb
#inspiring42 #inspiringipag
42nd Season Opens
The Integrated Performing Arts Guild (IPAG) announces its offerings for the 42nd Season, August 2019-May 2020. The widely-acclaimed Tales From Mindanao and Tatlo sa Isa (Three Peoples, One Island) opens the Season with road shows at the SM North Skydome (Aug. 19-20) and at the Letran in Calamba, Laguna (Aug. 21)
…more