A Play for Millenials
UP Dulaang Laboratoryo presents Coro De Los Diablos, a Filipino adaptation by Layeta Bucoy based from the novel “Lord of the Flies” by William Golding. The theater play is directed by Joey Ting. It was held at Tanghalan Hermogenes Ylagan, College of Arts and Letters Building, University of the Philippines Diliman on September 25, 2015, 7pm and September 26–27, 2015, 3pm and 7pm starring Charm Aranton, Lei Ann Quinquileria, Kyrstynne Vargas, Mark Mirando, Gabo Tolentino, and Vincent Pajara. The production and artistic team includes Io Balanon for set and props design; Mark Mirando for costume design; Pamela Phy for lights design Arvy Dimaculangan for sound design; Joyce Garcia for video design; Mikko Angeles and Carlo Aranton for poster design; Vlad Gonzales for photography; Kyrstynne Vargas for production management; Nica Marcelo for stage management; and Ryan Nunez for technical direction.
Theatrical elements of the play showed the creativity and criticality of the director and artistic team to create the production remarkably and successfully present the story. Regarding the set, the type of theater applied in the production is called theatre-in-the-round or arena theatre in which the audience surrounds the stage area. The stage area is a cage-like structure. Other parts of the set at the sides are scaffolds made of metal, one built with ladder and slide, and other built like monkey bars. Costumes represent the characters and their situation. Costumes worn by the actors are red robes, gray army like tops and bottoms and green cropped/tattered tops and shorts. The lighting of the set consists of dark surrounding, yellow light at the center stage and red lights strobes. Music played is together with a song that has a positive and light vibe expressing hope. It is sung by the actors at the beginning of the play. Sounds produced are different sound effects that follow different situations and emotion. Some of these sounds are electric sound effects, scary sound effects, and more. There are six actors in the play. The characters are youth of the millennial generation. They are leaders in their respective groups. They are high school students who participated in the World Future Leaders Convention. Migs, portrayed by Vincent Pajara, is an athletic and charismatic guy who is regarded as an intelligent and kind person. He is also considered and looked up as an older brother by other people. Pat, on the other hand is played by Charmaine Aranton. She is a competitive and articulate kind of person. She is strict in her decisions and tough in actions. Donna, acted by Lei Quinquilleria, is very adventurous. She acts boyish and wanted to be cool and strong. Kyrstynne Vargas played as Girlie who is the youngest among the girls. She always has with her a doll given by her grandmother whom she loves the most. Mark Mirando portrayed as Jules, the gay among the three boys. He is clever for he was able to invent functional equipments. Lastly, Gabo Tolentino acted as Sam, the youngest of the boys. He is a fearful boy. He always feels bad spirits and become scared of them.
Looking through the theatrical elements of the play, Coro de Los Diablos exemplified a notable execution of the elements. The use of theater in the round has increased rapport between the audience and the actors. The audience is closer to the actors and the set. The border between the audience and the actors are broken. The set pieces are applicable to the setting of the story. It successfully creates the visual of an isolated island with many obstacles like mountains and trees. The costumes are important in representing the characters and their situation. The costumes worn showed the days past as first they wore full clothes with red robes then taken out with gray tops and pants and then shattered to ragged green tops and bottoms. The lights add to the intensity of the mood happening in the story and the emotions of the characters. For example when there is an electric sound, there are fast red light strobes that created the feeling of pain and shock. The music at the beginning of play sets the mood of a light and hopeful feeling as delivered by the message of the song sung by the actors. It is impressive how the music actually served as a separator of the realm of ideas which is the youth being hopeful on the better society and on the other hand, the youth became hopeless when they gone to the island. Sounds create effectively the desired effects or moods the play wanted to express. When the character feels fear, there are scary sounds at the background. The acting and portrayal of the actors are remarkable. They deliver their lines full with emotions necessary in the situation. Each character showed distinct personality, age, appearance, beliefs, socio economic background, and language. The approach of the play provides physical, emotional, and psychological attributes of the actors in their characters. This effectively appeals to the audience because it was compared to the best-selling novel “The Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins which is popular to the millennial generation. The play gives science-fiction and futuristic mood. The set, costumes, its music and its sound, lights, and acting have been unified to clearly state the current conditions of the Philippines.
To further support the evaluation of the theater elements, various studies are consulted. According to Britannica, it has been theorized that the informality of the theatre-in-the-round increased rapport between the audience and the actors. Quoted from the study on theater-in-the-round, it said that, “Beginning about 1930, with the productions of Nikolay Pavlovich Okhlopkov at his Realistic Theatre in Moscow, theatre-in-the-round began to gain favour with stage designers who were dissatisfied with the limitations of the proscenium. Advocates of theatre-in-the-round maintain that it offers a wider range of stage size and activity and allows for a larger audience in a given space. In general, such theatre requires less scenery and scenic space and fewer stage hands and storage rooms and is less expensive to build and maintain than a proscenium-stage theatre.” It paved way in exploring various forms of “popular” theatre. Theater studies explain that the spectacle such as lights, music, and sounds should create the mood and emotions necessary as indicated in the story. Actors’ portrayal of characters shall deliver the personality, attitude and emotions effectively as described in the story. Each character should have own distinct personality, age, appearance, beliefs, socio economic background, and language.
Layeta Bucoy’s Coro de los Diablos presents dark humor as it tells the story of youth in their survival on a mysterious island which tests leadership and psychological state of mind. Coro de Los Diablos is a theater production that challenges the Filipino youth of millennial generation about leadership. It poses questions on what is a good leader and how to choose a leader. And made them realize the essence of leadership in survival of life. Moreover, the play shows the reality of a person’s character. There is good and evil inside us. Quoted from the playwright, “Golding wrote that the beast is in all of us. And now we have to decide on how to tame the beast.” Millennials are future leaders of this society. As early as now, they should understand the meaning of leadership to be able to attain the future of a better world that is long desired by people. The play contributes to the strengthening of the Philippine contemporary theater.
References:
Adair-Lynch, T. “Elements of Theatre and Drama.” Web. Retrieved from http://homepage.smc.edu/ adair-lynch_terrin/ta%205/ elements.htm.
Cartalaba, J. “Ting reunites with Bucoy in ‘Coro de los Diablos’.” JudeisHere. Web. 31 August 2015. Retrieved from https://themodernscribe2010. wordpress.com/2015/08/.
“theatre-in-the-round”. Encyclopædia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. 06 Dec.2015. http://www.britannica. com/art/theatre-in-the-round.
UP Dulaang Laboratoryo’s Coro De Los Diablos. www.facebook.com/ CoroDeLosDiablos/