July 7, three years to this day, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (through the Kaisa sa Sining Program of the Cultural Exchange Department) awarded the INTEGRATED PERFORMING ARTS GUILD (IPAG) and its Artistic Director STEVEN P.C. FERNANDEZ, with the 1st GADOR Awards.
CCP would later award the IPAG the GAWAD PARA SA SINING, the highest distinction for a performing company, in a ceremony at the CCP Tanghalang Abelardo (Main Theater) two years after.
We recall those momentous events to give gratitude to those who have established what IPAG is today –– a major performing company: its home, the MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology, co-founder Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa, the original IPAG 12, its artists who have nurtured the Guild through all its years, and the multitude of supporters and its communities of audiences, particularly the CCP and the precursor of this award, the CED and its Director Carmencita Jasareno-Bernardo coming from a long list of Outreach workers too many to mention.
AWARDS: 2020 CCP Gawad para sa Sining; 2020 CCP Gador; 2015 UMPIL Gawad Pedro Bucaneg; First Place, 2006 Palanca, MingMing; STEVEN P.C. FERNANDEZ, 2014 UMPIL Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas; 2011 Fr. Francisco Demetrio Award for Culture and the Arts, Xavier U; 2004 Pilak, Cultural Center of the Philippines, for outstanding contribution in Culture and the Arts; 2010 Global Pinoy, awarded SM Superstores; Concourse de Chanson Internationaux, and most awarded group, 13th Intl Folkloric Festival, Port Sur Saone, France
CITED: STEVEN P.C. FERNANDEZ, ‘Defender of Our Heritage’ 2004 Philippines Yearbook, Fookien Times, 2001 Who’s Who in the World and leading 2,000 intellectuals in the world, Millenium edition Cambridge Biographical Centre
PHILIPPINE REPRESENTATIVE: 2019 Mumbai Ramayana International Festival, 2017 India-ASEAN Summit, New Delhi, Kolkata; 2016 Ramayana Plus ASEAN Cultural Festival, Bangkok, Thailand; 2012-2018 UNESCO-ITI Asia-Pacific Bureau Festivals in Taiwan, Vietnam, Shanghai, and Singapore; 2013 Ho Chi Minh Philippine Independence Day; 2007 Taipei Int’l Arts Festival; 2006 US Centennial Celebrations, Hawaii and USA; 2005 Asia Meets Asia (Japan); 2002 Philippine National Day, MonteCarlo, Monaco; International Folkloric Festivals: France (Bray Dune, Port Sur Saone, Haguenau, La Menitre), Belgium, Spain (35th Int’l Mediterranean Festival); Taiwan-Philippines Products Promotions; World Cup, Daejeon, South Korea, 2001 Changhua International Traditional Arts Festival, International Hand Drum Music Concert, Taiwan 1998 International Festivals, France, Spain, and Portugal 1997 Folkloric Festivals (Association Culturelle d’Echanges Internationaux) Angers, Haguenau, St. Denis de Joubet, Remiremont, Strassbourg (France), 1996 5th Holten International Folkloric Festival, Schagen Festival (Netherlands), Stockton Riverside International Festival, (UK), 1994 Singapore Festival of the Arts
FEATURED: 2016 Knowledge Channel, 2012 Singapore Xtreme TV, 1992, 1996, and 2012 National Theater Festivals of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, 2019 CCP Encyclopedia of the Arts. Documentaries on world and national TV: LA18 TV, VOA, CCTV, Isla Advocacy Channel, TVE Madrid, 2004 Philippine Yearbook, Harvard Asian Quarterly, and various academic theses and dissertations
Winner, CCP National Drama Competition, 1989
OTHER PLAY AWARDS: Datu Matu (CCP Grant Award, 1992), Sarimanok (UP Likhaan, 1986), Patas (CCP Playwriting Workshop outstanding play, 1986), Ranaw: Isang Alamat (CCP Playwriting, 1985)
