Roeder Camanag Leads All-Male Cast For Female Roles In Ang Dressing Room: Kung Saan Lubusang Pangungulila Ang Dulot Ng Agos Ng Panahon Set To Open On April 13

Dulaang UP stages really interesting and engaging plays. I'm looking forward to watching another masterpiece featuring very talented actors!

Press Release:

Multi-awarded actor and director Roeder Camanag is set to lead an all-male cast to act as females in Dulaang UP’s “ANG DRESSING ROOM: KUNG SAAN LUBUSANG PANGUNGULILA ANG DULOT NG AGOS NG PANAHON” ---  a 1977 post-war Japanese play by Shimizu Kunio, translation adapted by Chiori Miyagawa from an original translation by John Gillespie and its Filipino translation by Palanca award winning playwright Nicolas Pichay under the direction of Alexander Cortez.

Together with Roeder are seasoned artists of Philippine theatre, film, and television namely Andoy Ranay, Gwyn Guanzon, and Ian Ignacio. 

The play within a play tells the stories, frustrations, memoirs and aspirations of four actresses preparing backstage (gakuya, in Japanese) and waiting for their cue to enter onstage. All actresses express their desire to perform the lead role and their obsessive coveting for it ignites a comic yet dramatic narrative about shared memories and their relationship with each other. “Ang Dressing Room: Kung Saan Lubusang Pangungulila Ang Dulot Ng Agos Ng Panahon ”is a tender and humorous drama about actors, the theatre, aging, surviving and moving on.

Herewith are some interesting thoughts written by Roeder Camanag on his role as Actress A about this play which opens on April 13 – 7 p.m. at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, 2/F Palma Hall, U.P. Diliman Q.C. 

“There are many reasons why I love being part of The Dressing Room. For many years now,  I love my personal rituals as soon as I stepped into the theater.  The preparations excite me as an actor. I make it a point to arrive in the performance venue an hour before my actual call time.  I work best when I am relaxed, when I take my time, when I get into my character.”

“As soon as I enter my designated dressing room, I turn on the lights, and put on my robe or what some call the dressing gown of the actor.” 

“I have also mastered doing make up on my own.  If the play requires me to have a special look, I sometimes collaborate with a make up expert, but I like doing my own make up.   It is something that excites me when I create a look for my character.”

“Aside from the dressing room, my other favorite place is the stage.  The small talk I have with my co-actors while prepping for our roles, the conversations serve as a warm up to me.  The indescribable feeling of excitement as I step on stage to breathe life to a character also is priceless.”

“For this particular play,  it is doubly memorable because my rituals and routines in the dressing room happen on stage.  I play a Japanese actress from the past, a ghost whose soul never left the theater. So imagine the preparations I have to do to transform to my character and everyone sees that on stage.”

“As an actor, I am fascinated with the actresses - their core, their being, their psyche, their complications, their angsts, their emotions, their temperaments, quirks, and the many other things that make them different from me.  This show allows me to live that fantasy.  I love getting into the heart of a performance actress, into the mind of a female actor, into the soul of a diva.  I’ve always loved the strong empowered women characters in theater - Lady Macbeth and Olga in The Three Sisters.”

“I am also glad that this play, Shimizu Kunio’s The Dressing Room, is all about dreams, sacrifices, focus, determination, struggles and survival, life in all its beauty and drama.  And I am happy to work along side wonderful actors Andoy Ranay, Gwyn Guanzon, Ian Ignacio, and Jon Abella.   It’s also my first time to work with director Alex Cortez."

“Ian Igancio and I  auditioned for this play, while Andoy Ranay and Gwyn Guanzon were pre casted. We only had one session for the Geisha walk but for the rest, we had to do our own research and then explore all other possibilities during rehearsals.”

“It was in mid-January when rehearsals started with a thrice a week schedule. I’m so lucky to be working with these talented, disciplined and generous actors. They made the whole process easy and fun. Almost like a tete-a-tete or ‘chikahan’ but we made sure that every rehearsal always turn out to be productive.”

“I'm in awe of Andoy's wit . Fast thinker. The nuances that he puts into his character Actress B is amazing. I would often catch myself watching him.”

“I marveled on Gwyn's vocal prowess and elegance as Actress C - the Diva."

“Ian Ignacio and Jon Abella alternating as Actress D are both hardworking ---  their attitude and respect for their craft is inspiring.”

The English version “The Dressing Room: That Which Flows Away Ultimately Becomes Nostalgia" features an all-female cast namely Frances Makil-Ignacio, Ces Quesada, and Missy Maramara. Also featured in the production are up-and-coming theatre actors, Maxine Ignacio, Marynor Madamesila, and the Dulaang UP ensemble.

The artistic team is composed of Dexter M. Santos (choreography), Ohm David (set design), Meliton Roxas Jr. (lighting design), Faust Peneyra (costume design), Jethro Joaquin (sound design), and Patricia Balboa (video design).

Ang Dressing Room: Kung Saan Lubusang Pangungulila ang Dulot ng Agos ng Panahon opens April 13, 14, 15, 16 and 17 (10 am and 3 pm), April 20, 22, 23 (10 am) and April 24 (3pm).  All evening shows start at 7 p.m.

The Dressing Room: That Which Flows Away Ultimately Becomes Nostalgia runs April 7, 8, 9 and 10 (10 am and 3 pm); April 19, 21, 23 (3 pm) and 24 (10 am).

All performances are held at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, 2nd floor, Palma Hall, U.P. Diliman. 

For tickets, reservation, sponsorships, and show buying inquiries, call Samanta Hannah Clarin or Camille Guevara at 926-1349, 433-7840, 981-8500 local 2449 or email dulaangupmarketing@gmail.com. Like our official Dulaang UP page at facebook.com/DulaangUnibersidadNgPilipinas. 

The Dressing Room: That Which Flows Away Ultimately Becomes Nostalgia | Ang Dressing Room: Kung Saan Lubusang Pangungulila ang Dulot ng Agos ng Panahon is produced by special arrangement with the playwright, Chiori Miyagawa.

Photography: Jojit Lorenzo

Poster Design: Pow Santillan

Art Direction (Photoshoot): Gwyn Guanzon

Makeup: (Photoshoot): Riza Romero

#DUP40 #TheDressingRoom

What Should Parents Expect from Schools in the 21st Century?

This is a good read for parents who are looking to maximize their children's potentials. Personally, I  believe that it is not enough to get a child to go to school; parents should make sure first to wisely choose the right school that is a good fit to how their children learn. 

Press Release:

The current changes in the Philippine educational system, particularly with the K to 12 program, expose many challenges that our educational sector has to face for it to be continuously effective and relevant in a fast-changing world. One can argue that the ways of the past no longer effectively meet the demands of the 21st Century; hence, we must reassess our expectations of schools and how they teach our children. 

Sir Ken Robinson, an English author and international advisor on education, presents the need to change existing education paradigms. In a speech about changing education paradigms readily available online, he points that schools operate like factories that churn out products ready to be absorbed in the market since these supposed learning organizations are traditionally based on the models of industrialization. The products of these schools, which go thru the semblance of factory lines in batches, are assessed of their quality based on their economic productivity or the promise of it. The rigid compartmentalization of learning may actually result to a stifling of creativity and love for learning. This production line mentality continues to alienate children who do not do well in traditional and worn-out expectations of the educational system. 

New ways of doing things are therefore necessary if we truly want our children to grow up empowered in helping create a better future rather than merely playing small, insignificant roles in the social structures and economies that have failed many of us. 

Schools, being at the forefront of change initiatives, must in itself change. Gone are the days when a school’s name and family traditions would be sufficient a guarantee for the quality of our children’s education. At its core, schools must embrace the principles of a true learning organization. 

This notion of “a learning organization” was made popular by Peter Senge in his book The Fifth Discipline. He contends that in situations of change, only flexible and adaptable organizations will excel. It is therefore not enough to merely survive in a changing world; organizations also need to advance “generative learning”, or building the capacity to create and re-create their future. Learning organizations have five dimensions that set them apart from traditional organizations – personal mastery, mental models, building shared vision, team learning, and systems thinking. Among these five dimensions, systems thinking is considered to be the cornerstone of a true learning organization.

Using the words of Peter Senge himself, a school or any learning organization which embraces systems thinking is “concerned with a shift of mind from seeing parts to seeing wholes, from seeing people as helpless reactors to seeing them as active participants in shaping their reality, from reacting to the present to creating the future” (1990). 

Here in the Philippines, Benedictine International School advocates the use of Systems Thinking in the classroom. In a systems thinking school, students are trained to see the bigger picture and how the parts of a whole affect each other. Through this way of thinking, a student is able to be more critical in looking at situations and considers an issue fully before coming up with a decision or a conclusion. Students are trained to respond rather to react to situations, and they are more empowered to design their course of action and make responsible choices. Oftentimes, individuals only look into solutions that are close by because of their immediate short term effects on any given situation without taking into consideration their long-term and unintended consequences. Given this context, a lot of the policies that are not well-thought of result to big long-term costs. Students must then take responsibility over their own choices and do not resort to blaming when faced with a difficult situation or a comprising end result. 

In a systems thinking school, students are geared towards finding solutions and are not just relegated to become mere passive consumers of information. They take charge of their own learning and grow beyond the mold of a future good employee, with the backdrop of highly volatile economic times. Students who are products of learning organizations are trained to be more flexible and active agents of change in the 21st Century.

As parents and adults, we are in a position to see the bigger picture in helping our children choose the right school for them. We have the power to choose between allowing our children to merely survive or to thrive in a world that demands so much more from us now. Be more involved in your child’s education by expecting schools to be true learning organizations. To know more about Systems Thinking in schools, you may reach Benedictine international School at 951.7154 / 951.7154 / 951.8960. You may also visit the school website at www.benedictine.edu.ph or its Facebook page at www.facebook.com/BISphilippines. The school is located in Capitol Hills Drive, Old Balara, Quezon City.