PETA has been known and credited for creating issue-based performances that mirror and reflect the times – and for its fearless delivery of truth through a palette of theatrical forms. Now on its 42nd Theater Season, PETA continues to contribute to help bring about social awareness and change through its productions, performances and workshops, as it calls on its audiences to act and respond to the clarion call that hound the Philippine society. Using fresh, innovative and interesting techniques and approaches, PETA welcomes its new theater season as a renewed challenge to test and push the capacity of art in to inform, influence and inspire its audiences.
First on its list of productions is Nic Tiongson’s opus, Noli at Fili Dekada Dos Mil, an adaptation of Jose Rizal’s two most influential novels: El Filibusterismo and Noli Me Tangere. Reworked as a postmodern narrative, Noli at Fili Dekada Dos Mil is inspired by real events, characters and testimonials that arose during the landslide in the Quezon province. The story, which revolves around small town politics and the fight against corruption, also zooms into the problem of illegal logging and its corrupted relation with governance and religion.
Following Noli at Fili is Christine Bellen’s Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang. Now on it’s third year, Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang still remains to be one of PETA’s most-loved productions. Featuring stories from Severino Reyes’ folktales, Prinsipeng Mahaba ang Ilong, Ang Babaeng Tumalo sa Mahal na Hari at Prinsipeng Duwag – Mga Kuwento ni Lola Basyang presents different mythical stories about self-discovery and values formation.
In August, PETA celebrates the 20th anniversary of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child through its presentation of Ismail at Isabel (Ang Paghahanap ng mga Bagong Kuwentong Bayan), a moving story about two children, a Christian and Muslim, who once lived happily in their small village in Dilangawen, Mindanao. Blind to their differences, the two told and retold the folktales that narrate the likeness of Muslims and Christians – until the fearsome war reached their community and permanently broke their innocence.
In time for the 2010 elections, PETA creates a vaudeville style musical, Boto-boto-boboto-bonana-fanna-fo-foto-fee-fy-momoto-boto (BOTO Another Musical), that uses iconic characters of the Philippine electoral process: Lorrie Logarta, Chix Pedero, and popular terms such as ‘trapo’, ‘ispits’ (speech) and many others. The story, cast with 10 actors with interchanging roles and characters, also follows the electoral process, beginning with the voter’s registration and ending with the need for vigilance after elections.
The four productions, which officially begin on June 2009, also commence PETA’s renewed commitment to artistic excellence as it cradles a people’s culture through its use of theater that is distinctly Filipino.