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Theatre of Liberation in Action: the People's Theatre Network of the Philippines

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 January 2009

Eugène van Erven
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Abstract

Our inclusion in NTQ5 of a piece by the priest-playwright Karl Gaspar, recording his experiences of creating drama in a Philippine prison-camp, coincided with the overthrow of the Marcos regime – a revolution in whose preparation and support. Eugène van Erven now argues, the theatre played a significant part. In the following article, he describes the organization and work of the Philippine Educational Theatre Association – PETA for short – from its creation in the early 'seventies, to the fully-established network of companies and activities of the present day, and discusses its future role in a society not yet certain of the success of its revolution. Eugène van Erven is currently involved in a long-term project researching liberation theatre in the Third World, funded at present by his postdoctoral research fellowship in the Drama Studies Programme of the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. His earlier publications have been in the field of contemporary western European political theatre, on which subject he was awarded his doctorate from Vanderbilt University. Tennessee.

Type
Research Article
Information
New Theatre Quarterly , Volume 3 , Issue 10 , May 1987 , pp. 131 - 149
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1987

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References

Notes and References

1. See Cruz, lsagani R., ed., A Short History of Theatre in the Philippines (Manila, 1971)Google Scholar; Fernandez, Doreen G., The Loilo Zanuela (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1978)Google Scholar; Tiongson, Nicanor, Kasayan at Estetika ng Sinakulo at Ibang Dulang Panrelihiyor, sa Malolos (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila University Press, 1975)Google Scholar and Kasayan ng Komedya sa Philipinas (Manila: De La Salle University Press, IRC, 1982).

2. For a useful and readable introduction to traditional and contemporary forms of Filipino theatre, see Tiongson's, NicanorWhat is Philippine Drama? (Quezon City: PETA, Theatre Studies No. 1, 1984)Google Scholar.

3. With the possible exception of Nick Joaquin's Portrait of the Filipino as an Artist (1952).

4. Guidote, Cecilia Reyes, A Prospectus for the National Theatre of the Philippines (unpublished MA Thesis, Trinity University, Dallas, Texas, 02 1967), p. 88Google Scholar.

5. Claro M. Recto was a communist intellectual active in the 1950s; Jose-Maria Sison, recently released from prison, is one of the current leaders of the Communist Party of the Philippines; Constantino, Renato is a widely respected historian whose book. Synthetic Culture and Development (Quezon City: Foundation for Nationalist Studies, 1985)Google Scholar, has strongly influenced current Philippine counter-culture.

6. Personal interview with Nicanor Tiongson, Manila, 5 March 1986.

7. Personal interview with Behn Cervantes, 4 March 1986.

8. This was only the first in a series of detentions which Cervantes, as one of the most outspoken Filipino dissidents, had to suffer.

9. Personal interview with Lutgardo Labad, 15 February 1986.

10. Ibid.

11. From an unpublished concept prospectus, kindly provided by the PETA executive committee.

12. Personal interview with Alan Glinoga, 6 March 1986.

13. Augusto Boal is a Brazilian theatre worker, who, together with his compatriot Paulo Freire, must be credited with the invention of the process concept of political theatre. See, notably, his Theatre of the Oppressed (New York: Urizen Press, 1977).

14. Labad interview.

15. Fajardo, Brenda V., The Aesthetics of Poverty: a Rationale in Designing for Philippine Theatre (Quezon City: PETA, Theater Studies No. 5, 1985), p. 2Google Scholar. (Subsequent quotations from this work are indicated parenthetically in the text.)

16. Tiongson, Nicanor. Pilipinas Circa 1907 (Quezon City: PETA, 1985), p. 198Google Scholar. (Subsequent quotations from this work are indicated parenthetically in the text.)

17. Labad interview.

18. For a detailed account of the People's Theatre Network's activities during the month of February 1986, see my ‘Political Theater and the Fall of Ferdinand Marcos’, TDR (forthcoming).

19. The Concerned Artists of the Philippines was founded by movie director Lino Brocka in July 1983.

20. Tiongson, Nicanor, ‘General Introduction’, in The Politics of Culture: the Philippine Experience, ed. Tiongson, Nicanor (Manila: PETA, 1984), p. 5Google Scholar.

21. Ibid., p. 4–5.

22. ‘Hamletting’ is a strategy which the Philippine army adopted from American military practice in Vietnam. By isolating villages in the countryside and preventing people from moving in or out, the strategy was designed to eliminate pockets of guerrilla resistance.

23. PETA Kalinangan Ensemble, Oratoryo ng Bayan, in Politics of Culture, p. 222.

24. Labad interview.

25. The tentative itinerary of PETA's tour is as follows: Los Angeles (20–25 Sept.), San Francisco (26 Sept.–4 Oct.), Vancouver (5–9 Oct.), Chicago (10–14 Oct.), Toronto (15–19 Oct.), Montreal (20–24 Oct.), New York City (25 Oct.–3 Nov.), Washington D.C. (4–8 Nov.), other eastern US venues (9–13 Nov.), London (14–21 Nov.), Paris (22–29 Nov.), Netherlands (30 Nov.–13 Dec.), Switzerland (14–20 Dec.), Italy (21–27 Dec.), West Germany (28 Dec.–15 Jan. 1987).

26. From a concept paper kindly provided to me by the Kalinangan Ensemble's Writers Pool.

27. The only exception is, perhaps, the Chicano Theatre movement in the US. This was founded through workshops conducted by El Teatro Campesino and several Chicano theatre festivals, but it nowhere approaches the close-knit organizational structure and militancy of the Philippine network.

28. For example, Rote Rübe in Munich and 7:84–England.

29. Personal interview with Manny Pambid, Cebu City, 21 February 1986.