to play or not to play

This is my story of our San Lorenzo Play "Landas ng Liwanag" which was shown in Bonn on 8 and 9 September 2006. The entries will come in different parts coz to talk of a project that took a couple of months to complete just includes so much stories. Happy reading...

backgrounder

The idea of creating a play has been brewing in my mind since Libay approached me for activities for the youth in 1999. At that time though, this kind of project was just unthinkable because the community was not ready for it. I think they even thought I was crazy in the first place.

Then in 2005, came the celebration of the World Youth Day in Cologne, Germany. The youth all of a sudden had a wonderful opportunity to experience the beauty of sharing one’s faith with the other young people of the world. The Filipino community in the Archdiocese of Cologne was then fully mobilized and the Tropa ng Kabataang Pinoy sa Deutschland was born. For us, it was an unforgettable experience, particularly after handling a pre-WYD fund raising activity, the Fiesta ng Kabataang Pinoy. And the following days ferrying from Bonn to Cologne and meeting different youth from different parts of the world was so amazing and great until it culminated in Marienfeld together with Pope Benedict XVI.

After such intense activities, the youth started to mellow because they also had to face reality of going back to school, going back to normal routine but most specially preparing for the higher grade which entails more demanding study habits or even to start work. On top of it, they are becoming more assertive as a person and as such, more independent. The number of the group started to dwindle and the only activity left was the youth choir. But in December 2006, the youth re-assembled and tried to plan for their future activities.

theater any one?
Workshops, writeshop and production

Then the idea of a play was re-born. At that time, I already asked Landz Velasco if he would be interested to mount a play, which he graciously accepted. Even if some were not really ready to take this responsibility, still we kept the idea burning through theater workshops that Landz conducted. And by early May, a “writeshop” was started to draw the skeleton of the script of the play. The group was composed of Jaz, Ays, Mark, Ira, Libay and Landz. I was a “sabit” to monitor the discussions and for any added input but I had no intention to write at all at that time.

Through the month of May and June, the group tried to squeeze in their work and daily activities sessions of the writeshop to advance on the play, but as two members, Jaz and Ira, left by end of May and with the hectic schedule at work of the group the work started to slow down. In the end, I also had to step in and write so that we can still consider the target date of the play, which is September. The initial play was long and taking into consideration the preparation and organization of the whole play, we decided to shorten it. And for the exact date, we had to consider the conferences scheduled for each UN organisation we were working for as we were already missing Tropa core group members.

But push it we did until by end of June, with three-fourths of the script finished, Landz decided to start with the production. Actors and actresses were approached to give their time for the practices. Venues were arranged; former hermanas and hermanos of San Lorenzo Ruiz were requested to provide food; materials were slowly gathered for the props, coordination was made for the theater, for the lights and for the sounds. Arrangements and fabrics were bought for the costumes. The photo shoot was organized including the make-up and hairstyles of the cast. Practices were organized and then eventually cancelled, depending on the availability of the cast. Telephone bills ran high, emotions ran higher and a lot of tears were shed literally.