Last Saturday, October 4, dropped by the Woodward Little Theater to catch Teatro Sillimaniana Dos, a series of award-winning plays by Silliman playwrights, directed by the SU Speech and Theatre Department’s senior class.
The last time I was in this black box theater was in college. Good to see it still alive and pulsing with the energy of the community’s creatives.
Two plays by friends were staged that night. First was Ian Rosales Casocot’s The Midsummer of Manuel Arguilla, directed by Merliel Natad Putong. It is a 2023 Palanca-winning one-act reimagining the famous short story writer’s final hours before his execution in 1944. His wife Lydia tries to visit but never gets to see him, speaking only with his fellow prisoner Leon. After torture, Manuel clings to stories to endure, recalling his own “Midsummer.” In the end, Lydia reveals the story’s deeper truth. Lady Lorraine Elmido as Ading was a standout. She was sharp, sly, and fully in control of the story’s rhythm.
Then came Rolin Migyuel Olina’s The Late Mister Real, directed by Jefferson M. Balandra. And my golly, I wasn’t prepared. Set in a COVID-19 quarantine facility, it reunites ex-spouses Boyet and Raquel after years apart. It begins as awkward small talks and then unravels into humor, pain, and lingering regret. Some wounds and the choices that cause them truly never heal. Justine Lawrence Lopez and Julianne Andrea Oyao were phenomenal. No surprise Rolin’s play made it to CCP’s Virgin Labfest XX this year.
Watching both made me wish I could write like that. Plays are a different breed. I wrote one in college and buried it somewhere no one will find. Still, there’s something about theater, how silence and subtext can speak louder than dialogue. Hmmm. I’ll think about it.
There’s more coming from Teatro Sillimaniana Dos this Friday and Saturday. You might want to catch them.
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