A peek at the plays of the Virgin Labfest 14

The Cultural Center of the Philippines, in partnership with Tanghalang Pilipino and The Writer's Bloc,Inc., invites audiences to take a peek at the untried, untested and unstaged plays at the 14^th edition of the Virgin Labfest with the catchphrase Silip this June 27-July 15, 2018 at various venues of the CCP.

A total of 12 new plays, out of the more than 150 submissions, are set to premiere in this three week-long festival at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater) while 3 plays from last year’s Virgin Labfest 13 will have a revisited run to be held at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute (CCP Studio Theater). Staged readings of 4 plays and works from the VLF Writing Fellowship Program will be held at the Bulwagang Amado Hernandez (CCP Conference Room).

Seated L to R: Juan Ekis, Sari Saysay, JV Ibesate, Anthony Kim Vergara,
Tyrone Casumpang, Dustin Celestino, and Dominic Lim
Standing L to R: Eric dela Cruz, Issa Lopez, Ina Azarcon-Bolivar,
Tuxqs Rutaquio, Bayang Barrios, Nanding Josef, Ariel Yonzon,
Maynard Kenneth de Guzman, and Roobak Valle

For this year, half of the 12 new plays chosen from more than 150 submissions were written by VLF virgins namely Dustin Celestino with Mga Eksena sa Buhay ng Kontrabida, Roin Migyuel Cadallo Obina with Mga Bata sa Selda 43, Anthony Kim Vergara with Ang Inyong mga Anak: Si Harold at Napoleon, JV Ibesate with Tulad ng Dati, Lino Balmes with Amoy Pulbos ang mga Alabok sa Ilalim ng Riles ng Tren, and Tyron Casumpang with Marawi Musicale.

Returning VLF playwrights in this year’s lineup are Sari Saysay with Ang mga Propesyunal, J.  Dennis Teodisio with Rosas, Carlo Vergara with Edgar Allan Hemingway, Ma. Cecilia dela Rosa with Labor Room, Juan Ekis with Ensayo, and Allan Lopez with River Lethe. The new plays divided into 4 sets will premiere at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater).

The playwrights whose works will be revisited are Ejay Castro Deldoc with Pilipinas Kong Mahal with All the Overcoat, Adrian Ho with Sincerity Biker’s Club, and Rick Patriarca with Birdcage. Staged readings of Jay Crisostomo’s Without the Drama, Peter Zaragoza Mayshi’s Dolorosa, John Lapus’ Bagyolanda, and Dominic Lim’s Asalto, and works from the Virgin Labfest Writing Fellowship Program round up this year’s Virgin Labfest 14 lineup. The Revisited plays will have their run at the Tanghalang Husent Batute (CCP Studio Theater) while the Staged Readings take place at the Bulwagang Amado V. Hernandez (CCP Conference Room).

Marawi Musicale's Bayang Barrios

Here are the Virgin Labfest 14 Silip plays and their respective schedules.

Untried, Untested, Unstaged Plays

Set A

June 27, July 6, 11, 15 | 3:00 PM

June 27, July 5, 10 and 14 | 8:00 PM

Mga Eksena sa Buhay ng Kontrabida

Written by Dustin Celestino

Directed by Roobak Valle

Jake is a villain. He is violent, selfish, and reckless. Unfortunately, Jake doesn't exist in a vacuum, and his behavior has consequences. Because Jake is a villain, people around him feel threatened, and these people look for ways to solve the problem that is Jake. Part origin story, part family drama, the play is a collection of conversations heard in the vicinity of a villain.

Mga Bata sa Selda 43

Written by Rolin Migyuel Cadallo Obina

Directed by Ian Segarra

Philip and his younger brother, Ino, are ordinary and playful children from the slums who were kidnapped by aliens. So they thought. But their dreams of escaping the alien prison cell to be reunited with their mother and ailing grandmother are shattered when they met Ed.

Ang Inyong mga Anak: Si Harold at Napoleon

Written by Anthony Kim Vergara

Directed by Ricardo Magno

Harold was just about to leave the house after feeding her grandmother for another poetry gig and an out of the country trip when he opened up a conversation with his mother about Napoleon – a former college schoolmate who was recently brutally murdered in their province. The conversation then opens up a venue for powerful insights and revelations about the mother and son’s beliefs and political stand. The play will start and end with poetry which will further tackle the mother and son’s will to exist as an ordinary citizen or a steward of change.

Set B

June 28, July 1, 7, 12 | 3:00 PM

June 28, July 6, 11, 15 | 8:00 PM

Ang mga Propesyunal

Written by Sari Saysay

Directed by Carlos Siguion Reyna

Pia is a ten-year old professional journalist who is barred from covering Malacañang. From here, she confronts reality and, along with her two friends, a doctor and a police officer, chooses to dwell in a make-believe realm of truth in order to investigate the predicaments of each other’s chosen profession while trying to discover facts about deaths – of innocent children, of freedom of expression, of democracy.

Rosas

Written by J. Dennis Teodosio

Directed by Charles Yee

In the Home for the Aged, two old men wait for the sun to set. As they reminisce, the past and the present unapologetically confront them, forcing them to reveal and admit their fears and longings, and eventually, leading them to face and accept their inevitable future. Before them, a bed of blooming roses bears as a silent witness.

Edgar Allan Hemingway

Written by Carlo Vergara

Directed by George de Jesus III

When a young man achieves a feat that many writers could only dream of, he's thrust into a hectic life of celebrity, one unabashedly embraced by his supportive lover. But when a childhood friend shows up hoping to have a slice of the same success, an unexpected revelation brings about questions on ethics, survival, and freedom.

Set C

June 29, July 4, 8, 13 | 3:00 PM

June 29, July 1, 7, 12 | 8:00 PM

Labor Room

Written by Ma. Cecilia “Maki” dela Rosa

Directed by Jose Estrella

Three women meet in the busy labor room. As they watch delivering mothers come and go, they build a short friendship, that of strong confidence and genuine concern. Three women – one, having a baby, two facing the loss of one. All are giving birth to hope.

Ensayo

Written by Juan Ekis

Directed by Eric Villanueva dela Cruz

Lolo Peds (60’s) anxiously waits for his acting partner Lola Tisha (60’s) so that they can rehearse the scene they are about to present in acting class. Tisha arrives late, protesting the script which contains a kissing scene. Tisha suspects Peds asked to rehearse so he can get his way with her. Peds accuses Tisha of being unprofessional. As they work on the scene, they both discover that they’re in for a little more than just a rehearsal.

Tulad ng Dati

Written by JV Ibesate

Directed by Olive Nieto

Returning home from being imprisoned for twenty years, Neil, a former teacher convicted for raping his adolescent student, reunites with his younger brother Norman. Home is where many of the brothers’ secrets have been formed, that Norman wishes to forget. What supposedly is a happy reunion turns sour when past issues re-emerges, forcing the two to come face to face with their darkest, most disturbing secrets.

Set D

June 30, July 5, 10, 14 | 3:00 PM

June 30, July 4, 8, 13 | 8:00 PM

Amoy Pulbos ang mga Alabok sa Ilalim ng Riles ng Tren

Written by Lino Balmes

Directed by Tess Jamias

Live-in partners Chona and Ramil argue about their misfortune inside their house beneath a railroad. A train passes by and we're transported to a TV studio in Quezon City where Ramil performs a lousy pansit monologue during the elimination round of Pera o Bayong. Then, a different train arrives.

Marawi Musicale

Written by Tyron Casumpang

Directed by Ariel Yonzon

September 24, 2017. Four months since Marawi City was attacked and invaded by the terrorist group Maute-ISIS. While soldiers in Marawi fight the war against terrorists, a group of Christian and Muslim volunteers fight a war against hunger in an evacuation center located in a municipality right beside Marawi. As they already struggle to make ends meet in order to feed all the children evacuees in the area, they face a greater adversary: the immobilizing noise of gunshots, bombing, and air raids from the war zone. And in their war against the immobilizing noise, their only weapon is music.

River Lethe

Written by Allan Lopez

Directed by Chris Martinez

A room in a small lover's hotel is sanitized, preparing it for its next occupant. Abe and Mara, two cancer patients who just finished with their early morning chemotherapy sessions, check in before returning to their regular lives. In snapshots, we see the few hours they are together exploring fetishes, kinks, uncanny sex and hopeless medical conditions - the nakedness of their bodies shadowing intimacies that nobody outside the room will ever know. All is left in the cramped space to be forgotten - a dip in the mythical River Lethe, where one drinks to forget.

Set E: VLF Revisited

June 30, July 1, 7, 8, 14, 15 | 3:00 PM

June 29, 30, July 6,7,13, 14 | 8:00 PM

Birdcage

Written by Rick Patriarca

Directed by Ian Segarra

As two of the longest-staying employees in the BPO company, Ed and Arthur have witnessed the departure of many colleagues from work. When a young teammate suddenly resigns to pursue his dreams, the two contemplate about their future in the industry, and on everything they have sacrificed to secure their comfortable lives.

Sincerity Biker’s Club

Written by Adrian Ho

Directed by Jenny Jamora

The only bikers' club of Barangay Sincerity welcomes a new member: Louella, a widow from Manila. All five original members are happy about the new addition to their club, except for one who reveals that Louella is rumored to be a drug user and that her husband was killed by the police for being a drug addict. The revelation causes dissent amongst the members. Those who fear for the club's reputation and their safety want Louella out. Some, however, feel that Louella shouldn't be punished for the tragic events of her past. All are faced with a dilemma: will they succumb to fear or will compassion win out?

Pilipinas Kong Mahal with All the Overcoat

Written by Eljay Castro Deldoc

Directed by Roobak Valle and Tuxqs Rutaquio

Ambet and Nato are behind a satirical news website that has gone on to become too popular to a fault. Ambet, on the one hand, no longer wants to write fake news stories, even though his pieces always go viral on social media. The worst part about it, people believe them as true. Nato, on the other hand, is very much driven to keep their website alive, especially now that business is doing good.

Ambet has made up his mind on leaving their business, but Nato wouldn’t let him. Things take a turn for the worse when a client comes in, demanding for a falsified account that would revise an important part of Pilipinas Kong Mahal’s history. At gunpoint, Ambet and Nato discover that the real enemy might actually be too close for comfort.

Staged Readings

Set A

July 6 | 6:00 PM

Without the Drama

Written by Jay Crisostomo

Directed by Renante Bustamante

Writers, Alister and Loraine, meet up one last time before they part ways indefinitely. They sit down in the apartment they shared as husband and wife to write a play about their romance: how they met, how they fell in love, and how that love fell apart. As they write, they reminisce; they relive their past, and understand. After writing the play, Loraine hands Alister their annulment documents. Alister leaves. Alone, Loraine types a single word: Epilogue.

Dolorosa

Written by Peter Zaragoza Mayshle

Directed by Chic San Agustin

In Dolorosa, each year for the Holy Week procession in Paete, Laguna, a family’s prized heirloom, a one-of-a-kind wooden statue of the Mater Dolorosa, is put together and made whole by three sisters: Ate Maria, Dete Alicia, and Juliana. On this Maundy Thursday, they await the visit of their mother Pilar, who mysteriously abandoned them fifteen years ago. When she arrives, the sisters will confront the ghosts of their past and one shattering truth about their beloved Dolorosa statue.

Set B

July 13 | 6:00 PM

Bagyolanda

Written by John Lapus

Directed by Tuxqs Rutaquio

Bagyolanda is about the tragic but fun experience of three generations of gays, who found themselves trapped in a beauty parlor, on the day super typhoon Yolanda hits their province. Showing resiliency & strength amidst the tragic storm, the three entertained themselves by about their favorite topic, Beauty Pageants.

Asalto

Written by Dominic Lim

Directed by Yong Tapang

On the night of her fifth “fake stroke," a hypochondriac mother tries to convince her two sons and daughter that tonight is the night that she will finally die.