Article:
New spin on timeless tale
Tuesday January 17, 2006
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How far would you go for Love?
Two young thespians and a sterling cast will give life to the timeless tale of ROMEO & JULIET onstage beginning January 13, 2006 at the Teatro Aguinalo (AFP Theater).
William Shakespeare’s eternal theater classic “Romeo & Juliet” has been incarnated throughout the civilized centuries in different cultures, languages and media. The cinematic greatness of Broadway’s "West Side Story" and many other memorable romance films owes its profound impact to this “mother of love stories.”
It’s the highly emotional tale of two families cast in political conflict, where the Montague son Romeo falls in eternal love with the Capulet daughter Juliet. Where love breeds passion and defiance, the two star-crossed lovers live through a harrowing romantic adventure leading through a tragic ending that defines the most all-encompassing idea of true love.
This season’s theater production by the Metropolitan Theater Guild Asia offers a fresh spin on this stage classic, fusing contemporary design and Filipino nuances to better project the story to the younger audiences and theater enthusiasts who always seek for something new.
Playing the role of Juliet is the beautiful Ina Feleo, a 20-year old Creative Writing major at the Ateneo de Manila University. She happens to be the daughter of celebrated film director Laurice Guillen and noted veteran actor Johnny Delgado. “It helps a lot in a sense...that I know it’s in my blood to be able to be a good perfomer. I like that I can ask all I want in relation to acting and they never run out of things to say,” Ina confesses.
She has performed with the renowned Bayanihan Dance Troupe and has two Tanghalang Ateneo plays to her credit. Ina says she totally relates to Juliet because she can also be very strong-willed in love. “My favorite scene is when Romeo and Juliet spend their last moments together. I invest so much emotion each time we do the scene, and I pour every ounce I have…it’s like jumping off a cliff well aware of what I’m getting into.”
In Romeo's shoes is the suave lead guitarist of Ely Buendia’s band Pupil and writer of the youthful ABS-CBN TV show Goin' Bulilit, Yan Yuzon. With years of theatrical credits locally, Yan has played the clown “Feste” in Shakespeare’s "12th Night," which he says was liberating because he's not known to be funny and the Baron in Carlo Goldoni’s "Mistress of the Inn," which Tanghalang Ateneo staged on tour for 4 years.
He graduated with an AB Social Science from the Ateneo, with a minor in Hispanic Studies, and now teaches Theater Direction at the Ateneo Loyola School of Humanities for the Fine Arts Department. His band Pupil has just released its first album “Beautiful Machines” under BMG Records.
Artistry seems to run in his family as his younger brother Yael Yuzon also figures in another band called Sponge Cola, not to mention a distant relation with actress-singer Donna Cruz. “I hope to continue teaching, theater, music, basketball…and I hope to make films in the future.”
The two are not really involved with personal relationships now--Yan was but no longer is, and Ina has not really found the one great love of her life.
Yan relates that as an actor, he avoids relating to other people as much as possible. “It’s dangerous because you can lose your objectivity, or your sanity if you’re not careful.”
When asked what they won’t do for love, Ina says “I wouldn’t kill myself for love...have gone through so much for me to think that I am left with no other choice but to kill myself.” Yan responds, “betray friends...kill myself...run for President...I won’t do those for love.”
Dr. Ricky Abad, Artistic Director of Tanghalang Ateneo and Metropolitan Theater Guild Asia, directs this season’s staging of "Romeo & Juliet." At age 19, he directed his first play--Agatha Christie’s "Ten Little Indians" while teaching theater arts in Notre Dame in Sulu.
Years passed before he engaged full-time in Teatro Pilipino, Tanghalang Ateneo, and the World Theater Project (with Anton Juan), as an actor and as a director. Ricky first directed "Romeo & Juliet" in 1992 for Tanghalang Ateneo, with Ron Capinding as Romeo (Ron has a role in this season’s run) and Pauline Suaco (now Editor-In-Chief of Preview Magazine) as Juliet.
Asked what’s new about this "Romeo & Juliet," Ricky could cite three things that the whole creative cast and crew worked on to show a new approach to the stage classic. “It’s contemporarized...it’s not strictly Elizabethan English but it's still the poetry of Shakespeare, spoken more comfortably.”
The stylized costumes and the glamorized aglobe theater (true to Shakespearean times in England) were designed and rendered by National Artist for Theater Design Salvador Bernal.
The pacing is notably faster, as if it was “edited for TV,” with one small scene after another. This staging is also peppered with Filipino nuances, like the popularity of basketball, and the use of arnis in leiu of swords as weapons. Thirdly, Dr. Abad employed a few “visual jabs” that attempt to take the play out of its literal context, and make a symbolic and mythic statement in the course of a normal realistic situation.
“If you see half a dozen monks with candles and an angel hovering above in the corner of the stage when it’s not really related to the ongoing scene, that’s that mythic symbol.”
Romeo and Juliet are not just your regular love team, but they are eternal symbols of true love, archetypes of two lovers whose story has been reprised by lovers throughout the ages.
“The way to a passionate life is a dangerous one, where life and death are always on the verge,” explains Ricky. Defying society for what one holds true is the mark of any compelling love story and Dr. Abad exemplifies this in the play. Romeo and Juliet loved against all odds, innocently, and above the conventions and artificiality of the “real” world.
“Watch out for the death scene, it is the supreme statement of what I feel is the sweetest, most important things about all things said about this theatrical classic.”
Steven Uy, President of Metropolitan Theater Guild Asia and Executive Producer for "Romeo & Juliet," uses this production to mount a pipe dream--the MET Academic Partnerships (MAP), a campaign that seeks to contribute to the development of campus theater in the country.
“A lot of talent thrives in the high schools and colleges and it would be an exciting venture to engage these young people in lectures, grants, and stage festivals, so that watching or acting in a stage play would become a preferred pursuit,” Steven relates.
Last year’s staging of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" was an artistic success, and Steven feels that with productions such as "Romeo & Juliet, we would all benefit from having a new company that joins all the Filipino theater groups in making the theater arts scene a better place.
Metropolitan Theater Guild Asia’s ROMEO & JULIET goes onstage on January 13, 14, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, February 1, 2, 3 and 4 at 8PM and January 26 at 3PM, Teatro Aguinaldo (AFP Theater), Camp Emilio Aguinaldo, EDSA, QC. Directed by Dr. Ricardo G. Abad. Production Design by Salvador F. Bernal (National Artist for Theater Design). Choreography by Dexter Santos.
Lighting Design by Donato Karingal. Music by Jobin Ballesteros. Fight choreography by Mon Rivera. Photography by Dave Fabros (davidfabros.com). Also stars Ron Capinding, Miguel Vasquez, Leo Rialp, Ana Ascalon, Katski Flores, Randy Villarama, EJ Afzelius Jr., Missy Maramara, and Maria Katrina Lopez.
For more information, please contact Steven Uy at (0928)400-1219 or email at met_romeoandjuliet@yahoogroups.com.
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