Fw: Over the footlights

Over the footlights
By James B. Reuter, S.J.

Dulaang Sibol, the Drama Guild of the Ateneo de Manila High School, is
celebrating its Golden Jubilee. It was born on February 25, 1955, and it has
been producing plays regularly, since that day.

The heart and soul of Dulaang Sibol is Doctor Onofre Pagsanghan, who is 78
years old. He has been directing Ateneo High School boys, between the ages
of 12 and 18, for 50 solid years. He was an inspiration to his students in
1955, and he is an inspiration now.

In school, at the Old Ateneo on Padre Faura, he was known as "Pagsi". The
name has stayed with him through the long years. When he graduated from
college he applied for entrance into the Society of Jesus. The Jesuits, who
had known him at close range for a long long time, realized that he had all
the qualities necessary for the priesthood. As a candidate for religious
life, he was not only acceptable. . . . . he was outstanding. But his health
was so frail that the Jesuit Superiors felt he would not be able to bear the
burdens of the priesthood.

So Pagsi was rejected, only on those grounds: his health was so frail that
probably he would not be able to bear the burdens of the priesthood. . . . .
Pagsi accepted this, became a teacher at the Ateneo de Manila High School,
and went on to do more work than any three priests in the school, put
together.

He had been rigidly trained for the stage, and filled with love for drama,
by the great Dramatics Professor of the Ateneo - Father Henry Lee Irwin,
S.J. In his Senior Year at college, in the Shakespearean play "Hamlet", he
acted in the role of Ofelia - the girl whom Hamlet was supposed to marry.

In those days, a boys' school like the Ateneo was not allowed to use girls
in their stage productions. So Pagsi played Ofelia - a strong dramatic role.
Her mind breaks, under the stress and strain of events in the Danish
Kingdom. Pagsi's last scenes in that play gripped his audience. He
understood "empathy". How to contact an audience. How to make them feel with
you, laugh with you, love with you, and weep with you.

In Dulaang Sibol he taught this to his boys. He produced play after play of
the great William Shakespeare: Macbeth, Julius Caesar, The Merchant of
Venice, Hamlet. He did Edmond Rostand's "Cyrano de Bergerac", and Agatha
Christie's "And Then There Were None".

In 1966, he began to produce Filipino plays. Then came translations and
"transplantations." He did Thorton Wilder's "Our Town" as "Doon Po Sa Amin";
and "Dear Brutus" of James M. Barrie as "Wala Sa Ating Mga Bituin".

In 1967, he began to encourage his High School students to write their own
plays. This led the 16-year old Paul Dumol to create "Ang Puting
Timamanukin" and "Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio". Some newspaper critics
felt that these plays were a major breakthrough in the development of our
national language.

In 1975 Pagsi began to encourage his boys to write songs. In 1979 a first
year High School student wrote a song which won five national awards as the
best original Filipino composition of that year. The song was "Hindi Kita
Malilimutan". The composer was 14-year old Manoling Francisco. After
graduating from the Ateneo High School and from Dulaang Sibol he entered the
Society of Jesus. He is now a Jesuit priest.

In 1976, after 20 years of staging plays in converted classrooms, in
borrowed halls, and in slum clearings, the Ateneo gave Dulaang Sibol a
small, intimate theater, with 156 seats. For the last 30 years they have
been acting in this little theater, which is similar in many ways to the
venues chosen by the dramatic productions "Off Broadway.".

For their Golden Jubilee, Dulaang Sibol is presenting a musical which is all
their own: "Adarna". Ibong Adarna", of course, is one of the best loved
Filipino folk stories. But the libretto and the music of "Adarna" are
composed by the student actors of Dulaang Sibol. They created the set, the
costumes, and the props.

It will be on stage this evening, Saturday, November 26, at 6:30 p.m. Also
on December 2, 3, 9 and 10, at 6:30 p.m. The theater is right there in the
Ateneo High School at Loyola Heights, Quezon City. For information, please
phone: 9201817. This is the phone in Pagsi's house.

Dulaang Sibol is theater produced by the young, largely about the young, for
the young, and for the young at heart. It is a tremendous lifetime
achievement of one of the finest teachers in this country - the simple,
unpretentious - Onofre Pagsanghan.

Very often he has been asked to become a professor in College, or a Dean. He
has always refused. He does not want to give up teaching. The secret of his
success is this: he loves drama; he loves people; and above all he is
willing to sacrifice himself endlessly for every student that God sends to
him.
* * *
The Ateneo is presenting the talents of their High School Students in
Dulaang Sibol. Saint Paul University Quezon City, also very strong in
Communications, is presenting their babies in "The Night Before Christmas".
They have re-opened their grade school. This play is an accomplishment,
because the majority of the cast is under seven years old. Technically, they
have not reached the use of reason.

It is the story of a Toy Shop, on Christmas Eve. All the dolls wake up at
midnight, and are waiting to be delivered. It is a strange toy shop, because
the Toymaker does not charge. He gives the dolls away, free. Not to
children, but to adults. He can only deliver if he receives an acceptance
from the adults. The dolls who are not accepted are carried into the Store
Room, where they must stay, in the dark, forever.

The doll who is a bride, and the doll who is a groom, come to realize that
the Toy Shop is not a toy shop. It is the mind of God. And the dolls are not
dolls. They are real children, in the mind of God, waiting to be born. And
the Toymaker is not a toymaker. He is God.

They ask if they can talk to their Mommy and Daddy, personally. The Toymaker
lets them do this. They go down to earth. The groom talks to his Mommy, and
the bride talks to her Daddy. The play is strongly pro-life, and very
relevant today. The three adult actors all have children in the cast.

On Tuesday, December 6, at 6 p.m., the beautiful new theater of SPUQC will
be open to all religious, free of charge. On Thursday and Friday, December 8
and 9, performances will be held at 6 p.m. On Saturday and Sunday, December
10 and 11, performances will take place at 3 p.m. and at 7 p.m.

Saint Paul Schools have always looked upon Communication as an integral part
of their education. In this play, they are introducing their babies to the
stage, properly. The theater is surrounded by three walls, making it an
acoustical dream. You can whisper on the stage, and be heard by the last
person in the farthest corner of the theater. It seats only 500. It is
steeply banked. Every seat has maximum comfort and visibility. In
productions like this, the children develop a love for drama that lasts
forever.
* * *
And Saint Paul University Manila is coming back, strong, to the Performing
Arts. They have transformed their Observatory of Music to the "College of
Music and the Performing Arts". On Sunday, December 11, at 9 a.m. in the
Fleur de Lis Auditorium on Pedro Gil, they will star their children's
children in a "Paulinian Piano Festival".

They have produced many outstanding pianists over the long years. These
pianists now have music schools of their own. Their students will appear on
stage, playing beautiful classical pieces: Bach, Schumann, Beethoven, Haydn,
Chopin, Liszt, Grieg. This is no small thing, when you realize that some of
the pianists are only six years old.

We are prone to brood over our miseries; the economic recession, the stark
poverty of our people; the disgraceful emotional quarrels among our
politicians. But life rolls on. And Philippine life is beautiful. Families
build their Christmas Belens. They buy Christmas presents for those they
love. They pour through the streets, smiling, laughing, to the Missa de
Gallo. And they work with all their hearts for the good of their children.
The harder things get, the happier we will be, at Christmas time



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