Rizal in July

School's in again, and teachers, not just media folk, get invited to activities related to their profession and vocation, particularly the teaching of the life and works of our national hero (my personal idol) Jose Rizal.

When Maite dela Rosa, my supervisor (the equivalent of a principal) at the Community of Learners, learned that I was up and about after an ailment and going out already, sometimes to attend lectures (one event a day, unlike before when I had a crowded tuhog-tuhog or one appointment after the other schedule), she asked that I go to this one: the Teachers' Conference on Rizal's Life and Works at PETA's home grounds on Eymard Drive, New Manila, Quezon City. Whenever I go there and the weather outside ain't rainy, I start to miss its former home, an open-air theater at Fort Santiago, Intramuros, those years when PETA truly embodied the "aesthetics of poverty." There's something about walls and ceilings.

My daughter and niece like to remind me I should keep my storytelling down to 350 words or less and let the rest of the story be told in photos.

So okay, okay, I know how to listen to these experts in social media communication--the young.

This is the lamp burner that Rizal gave to his sister Trinidad and where he put his poem "Mi Ultimo Adios." This lamp is in the permanent collection of the Ateneo Library and housed in its Art Gallery on the second floor. I took this photo during a class field trip to the university's Library of Women's Writings and gallery on another occasion. Photos by Babeth Lolarga

When you're at a PETA workshop, prepare to get physical before you buckle down to listen to a lecture, watch a play's excerpt or have a Q and A with the playwright or director.

A tour of the theater all ready for another weekend of Rak of Aegis

View from the outside of a dressing and make-up room

To the question on why he chose to specialize in teaching the Rizal course, Vic Torres, a De La Salle University professor and five-time Palanca Literary Award winner, said in the beginning (or just five years ago), he took it for granted. It meant an additional subject, additional pay apart from teaching journalism and history. Then he realized while studying and preparing his lectures that there was so much to learn from the national hero's life and even to discover new things about that life. His novel Noli Me Tangere, for example, is also "a literal recipe book--it was obvious that he was hungry when he was abroad." Before Dr. Torres knew it, Rizal became very much a part of his life.

'Care Divas': A Play Depicting the Agony of OFWs

The turmoil in the Middle East was not in the picture when the play dates for “Care Divas” were being planned but the harrowing stories of Overseas Filipino Workers fleeing Libya provide a gripping background to the musical comedy-drama mounted by the Philippine Education Theater Association (PETA).

“Care Divas” is about gay caregivers in Israel.

“The term diva has been used to refer to glass-breaking female singers or extremely demanding and fussy celebrities,” PETA explains in a statement. “However, independent and wildly talented gay men (a.k.a. transvestites) can be divas, too.”

Written by Liza Magtoto and with lyrics and music by Vincent de Jesus, “Care Divas,” despite its show-stopping cabaret revue numbers, holds up a mirror where Filipinos can see themselves as they are: a scattered people who leave family and other loved ones behind to toil for the almighty dollar that would pull up from dire straits almost the entire clan through monthly remittances.

It is the story and fate of gay care givers Chelsea (ably played by Melvin Lee), Shai (de Jesus), Kayla (alternately played by Ricci Chan and Jerald Napoles), Thalia (Dudz Terana and Jason Barcial) and Jonee (Phil Noble and Buddy Caramat) who tend for the sick and elderly Israelis (played by Paul Holme in repertory manner) in the daytime.

At night, these five caregivers turn into transgender performers, complete with wigs, slinky women’s clothes and platform heels.

“Armed by their aspirations (and their pointed stilettos), their true spirits and creativity shine through their performances,” PETA said. “They dream of going big time divas and encounter a few problems along the way. But it is through their journey of being a small-time group of singers that they are able to share valuable experiences and friendships that bind strangers in a strange land.”

Even if their punch lines bring the house down, one flinches from the truth in their songs. “Oy Vey” (Oh woe) talks about how care givers (or domestics stationed abroad) care for other people’s elderly and infirm while leaving aging, just as sickly, parents at home.

Chelsea sings:

“Naku, naku, naku, ano ba’ng nangyari dito?
Inaalagaan ko’y hindi ko kadugo
Samantalang ang sarili kong ina
Saklay lamang ang umaakay
Dahil ang kanyang anak may inaakay na iba.
Naku, naku, naku ano ba’ng nangyari dito?”

For a gay man like Shai, his situation feels like “walang anak pero maraming pasanin (childless but with many responsibilities).”

While interacting with his grumpy employer, Shai hears the voice of his demanding termagant of a mother who is critical of his homosexuality, among other issues.

Central to Chelsea’s character is his unquestioning love for a Palestinian illegal worker in Israeli territory. It is doomed love from the start. But for the Palestinian attracted to Chelsea, it is a realization that behind his seemingly macho exterior, there lies a hidden gay man willing to accept Chelsea for what he is.

Veteran actress and ranking PETA officer CB Garrucho plays a minor role — that of the typical Jewish mother who is strict with money, conservative in thinking and ready to betray to the authorities an illegal employee who lacks the proper papers.

The play acts out columnist-blogger Jessica Zafra’s theory of world domination by Filipinos through far-reaching influence of yayas and care givahs. Chelsea teaches his employer the folk ditty “Bahay Kubo;” another care giver teaches a one-eyed, Yiddish-speaking employer, who was hurt in the Israeli-Palestinian skirmish, the meaning of the parol (Christianity’s Christmas lantern).

Based on a real-life story, “Care Divas,” surprisingly is written by a woman (Magtoto) and directed by a woman (Maribel Legarda) with great sensitivity.

Somehow, the pain that migrant workers go through as they adjust to different climes and cultures is couched by the colorful sward-speak (the most dynamic language in the Philippines without a doubt.

The musical raises in viewers the hope that the country’s leaders will realize the economy can be held up by OFW remittances up to a certain point only and that exposing Filipinos to wars and similar societal upheavals does not speak well of any administration.

Originally published by VERA Files/Yahoo Philippines, March 10, 2011

Image from “Care Divas” poster, sourced by VERA Files.