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The Filipino writer’s curse and challenge | Vera Files

The Filipino writer’s curse and challenge | Vera Files

In 'Shock Value,' Infotainment Skewered Further

"I'm as mad as hell, and I won't be taking this anymore," raged a brilliantly mad news anchor played by Peter Finch in the '70s movie "Network." And he leads his millions of evening-news viewers in shouting the same line outside their windows. Ratings soar.

Dulaang UP's recent production "Shock Value" follows the argument of the cinematic satire that television, despite Sesame Street, Nat Geo and the Discovery Channel, has led to the severe dumbing down of a nation's citizens, and all for the greedy corporate cause of TV ratings.

Playwright Floy Quintos, who works for TV, knows where he's coming from when he wrote such caricature-ish characters as producer-host Matt Desaparecidos (shrewd but unwitting patsy in a network war), "distinguished" news anchor Dina Mañalac-Guevarra who has come down from covering plum straight news assignments to reporting on celebrity scandals, the fake love teams, the has-beens ("You’re so last year" goes a memorable line) desperate for a comeback, the no-talents just as hungry for a break, the screaming fags and PAs behind the scenes.

To add to the ambience of a TV soundstage, two wide LCDs are placed on opposite ends of the stage and a wider projector above the audience. The theater audience becomes part of the show, cued by a floor director to laugh, cry or applaud until they do it on their own. Laugh and scream at the right places.

It all begins with Matt being caught by a rival TV show about to sodomize a minor. From there the damage control takes off and lies are fed on more lies with the culprit making tearful onscreen confessions the way actors and similar celebrities caught in a no-no act do in daily/weekly TV, whether it's "Oprah" or "The Buzz."

Then it all becomes too much for Matt, and as his name suggests, he disappears…to the remote island of Polilio, Quezon, where TV, even radio, signals are weak. This builds up to a hilarious bidding of rival networks for images of him and his ex-lover embracing in reconciliation.

Director Alexander Cortez and the cast have put on quite a show that hits where it hurts. The merry mix of veteran actors and young theater arts graduates make for an interesting onstage chemistry although we found film actress Mylene Dizon weak of voice, even unable to suppress an attack of giggles when she misses her lines in the beach scene. When facing down the scene-stealing Frances Makil Ignacio as Dina, Dizon is simply out-glittered.

In another three years ("Shock Value" was originally staged in 2006), what new monsters will the TV medium breed? A character's portentous words at the closing of Act One: "We just dredge up old stuff and give it a new spin."

Photo from CINDERELLA MAYO's Facebook album

For Public Consumption: A Rave for Floy Quintos' "Atang"

What is worth a six-hour trip from Baguio braving fickle weather and the possibility of losing my balance along the way due to an old ear infection? Gilda Cordero Fernando’s workshop on creativity in the classroom is one. But that deserves a story on its own.

Another worth any trouble/hassle is the last run of the musical “Atang” at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater at Palma Hall, UP Diliman, held July 18. The theater was filled to capacity with a very responsive audience of young and young-once alike. Even without much publicity in traditional print and broadcast media outlets, word got around fast through Facebook, SMS, email and new, vital media. Reservations were assured as soon as these were placed. As for the queue a few minutes before curtain time, it was orderly.

I brought Jun Calamba, our family’s occasional weekend driver for my escort, and ensured he’d take a front-row seat while I took the seat behind him. “Sige, Jun, dyan ka. Ingat ka lang na hindi ka matalsikan ng laway ng mga aktor,” I told him. Gentle Jun just smiled and sat upright.

With an audience as keyed up as this one, Ayen Munji-Laurel as Gia Almonte had us at hello. Young, tall and on the mestiza side, Gia is immediately cut down to size by an aging, trembling, hunched Atang (magnificently played by Frances Makil-Ignacio). Constantly referred to in the two-act play as unang superstar ng bayan, Atang/Frances is uncannily interchangeable; Jun actually thought Frances and Atang were one and the same person. She gives Gia her first lesson on perfecting one’s art.

On learning that starlet Gia, who is about to embark on the role of her life ( playing Honorata de la Rama in a biopic on her life) knows music by ouido (by ear) and does not take lessons from a voice teacher, Atang gives her this pointer: it is her duty to herself to better her god-given talent.

Second lesson: the entertainment industry has a short memory. In time Gia’s having worked with Bernal or Brocka and her Best Actress statuettes will be forgotten.

Third: Pursue your heart’s desire. Atang’s older sister wanted her to study pharmacy and to open a botica later. These—becoming a pharmacist and running a drugstore—were the approved jobs for women of that period. Music (voice and piano) lessons were allowed in her youth only as hobbies, not as a vocation. Atang would have none of that; pharmacy for her was like mixing poison.

Fourth: Wherever she performed the song “Nabasag ang Banga” (words by Hermogenes Ylagan and music by Leon Ignacio), Aeta, Igorot and Bagobo audiences, not just the Tagalogs, were all delighted and got the double entendre. So, Gia, never underestimate your audience.

I should stop at the fourth lesson. From my brief stint in corporate communications at San Miguel Corp. 20,000 years ago, Winston Marbella and Art Cariaga taught me to stop at three points. Why? They’re easy to communicate and easy to remember if you stop at three.

But I will insist on a fifth point connected to the relationship of Atang and Amado Hernandez: that what is more important is not romance but understanding. Amado insisted on bayan muna (country first) but with Atang, who found it hard to love a hero, by his side at all times.

That said, I shout “Bravo!” again to the wonderful cast who worked with the equally wonderful director Alex Cortez.

Alex crossed the fingers of both hands, wishing that the production of “Atang” would have a move-over engagement at the Cultural Center of the Philippines in November. Hear that, Mr. Nes Jardin?

For cultural workers like Gia who learned from Atang, it is necessary to create one's story, to cultivate one's own mystery.

Photo courtesy of Frances Makil Ignacio, from her Facebook profile