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 14th 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.
