BWW Interviews: Vince Tanada Talks Music, Intensity of BONIFACIO

Vince Tanada, PSF's honcho, wants today's audiences to feel what the Filipino heroes felt during the Filipino-Hispanic war.

Manila, Philippines, September 20, 2013--For more than a decade now, the Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF) has been growing steadily by producing original Filipino plays, which not only reaped major awards but have also developed a strong following all over the country. Unlike PSF's earlier productions "Cory ng Edsa" and "Joe, The Filipino Rock'sical," the group's latest production,"Bonifacio, Isang Sarsuwela," seems to have something different compared to its predecessors.

Talk about major throwback: PSF uses an old Filipino theatre form the "sarsuwela" to honor the great Philippine hero Andres Bonifacio. But aside from using the old genre, "Bonifacio" is a more straightforward production, which has a definite time frame, compared to the multi-storied books of "Cory" and "Joe." "Bonifacio" also showcases this strong intensity in its ensemble performances not often seen in the group's previous theatrical endeavors.

According to Vince Tanada, Palanca Award-winning playwright and "Bonifacio's" director/lead actor, "Sarsuwela was the main theatrical art form that spread in former Spanish colonies. Considering that a major part of the play is the Filipino-Hispanic war that Bonifacio initiated, I decided to use this form to essentially set the mood and bring back the audience to the real setting of the play."

Another difference from "Cory" and "Joe," "Bonifacio" does not have the same "play within the play" structure; it only has one main timeline.

"This play is a substantial reproduction of an important part of history," Tanada pointed out. "I used songs and dances to show a faithful interpretation of what happened during Bonifacio's time. I also did that to showcase the Stagers' versatility in presenting different types of plays--story-wise and execution. As a sarsuwela, I made sure that the lyrics of the songs were poetic, complete with iambic stress and meter. The show's musical content also includes operatic arias and operatic harmony with more than eight distinct tunes."

To make "Bonifacio" a modern-day sarsuwela, Tanada told BroadwayWorld.com that he has also added Broadway-type counterpoints into the songs. He also made sure that the music ends on a high note complete with grandiose timpani; the other musical numbers end in minor key.

Morever, Tanada revealed that it was a deliberate decision to make the play intense because history says that the revolt against Spain was well-armed with Filipinos using "tabak" and "gulok" against their oppressors. Tanada wants today's audiences to feel what the Filipino heroes felt during that time. Likewise, he believes that a lot of imagination is necessary to elicit an effective reaction. Internalization of all the actors includes being part of a real revolution and that, according to him, he only realized after an extensive research and an honest round table with his actors.

Book a performance of "Bonifacio" or PSF's next major musical, "Pedro Calungsod," call (63927) 600-6864 or email philstagers2013@gmail.com.

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