Life begins anew as CCP turns 40

By NICKIE WANG/ Manila Standard Today

Along Roxas Boulevard lies one of the country’s greatest treasures. It has been the symbol of Filipino ingenuity, a venue that showcases incomparable local talents, a catalyst for a major leap in cultural development and preservation, and the world’s window to the Philippines as the Asia’s Mecca of culture and the arts.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines, or just CCP to many, marks its 40th anniversary with a year-round celebration that will feature special performances and events. Some of the most talented and well-known artists and performing arts groups will gather together for the celebration.

“The CCP has been the home of the most outstanding performing arts groups in the country. For the last four decades it has helped discover, nurture and support Filipino artists. I think that’s one of the major achievements of the CCP,” president and artistic director Nestor Jardin said during a press conference that unveiled the roster of events prepared by his staff.

The calendar of activities starts with the grand public launch of the 40th Anniversary Celebration tomorrow, Feb. 1, during the annual CCP Pasinaya Open House Festival that coincides with National Arts Month.

Opening salvo

Highlighting the anniversary is the first chunk of activities that will revolve around the fact that the CCP for the last four decades has helped discover, nurture, and support Filipino artists.

“The whole celebration is built around activities that will not only be celebratory but activities that will help the Filipino public recall what is CCP’s role now in the society, and what was its work in the past,” Jardin enthused.

For initial offering, Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino restages the comedy musical Zsa Zsa Zaturna (Ze MuZikal) from Feb. 3 to 8. On the same week (Feb. 6 to 8), a showcase of the country’s dance groups in folk, ballet, contemporary, and street dance will entertain the public with series of motion and steps in a dance gala entitled Turning… Turning 40 at the Main Theater.

Just outside the main theater, a projection bombing light and sound spectacle at the façade of the CCP building will show the latest outstanding works in animation and graphic arts. This display dubbed Skin will take place on the night of Feb. 7.

On Feb. 13, as the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra marks its sixth season concert, a grand musical extravaganza called Gabi ng Musikang Pilipino: A Rendezvous with National Artists at the Main Theater will be staged featuring the works of Filipino National Artists like Felipe de Leon, Antonino Buenaventura, Lucrecia Kasilag, and Lucio San Pedro.

From Feb. 19 till the end of March, the different venues at the CCP will witness an array of different performances, musical, concerts, drama and exhibits that celebrate the excellence and accomplishments of Filipino artists in different fields.

Tribute to Imelda

Formally inaugurated on Sep. 8, 1969, the CCP was the brainchild of then First Lady Imelda Marcos, and as the institution celebrates 40 years of fruitful years, an Imeldific tribute will be dedicated especially to honor the visionary woman who created it.

“You cannot ignore the fact that this was her vision, this was her idea. We’re looking at it from an institutional point of view. For this year we’re not only inviting her, we’re paying her a tribute,” Jardin told the press during an open forum held inside the Main Theater.

Jardin announced that the special tribute is slated on Sept. 8. It will be a whole day event capped by an eight o’ clock gala at the Main Theater. On Sept. 11, the special tribute will continue featuring the artists whom Mrs. Marcos supported in the past.

New logo

With a new logo that still symbolizes katotohanan (truth), kagandahan (beauty) and kabutihan (goodness), a new representation has been introduced that depicts CPP’s transformation from small stones to strong boulders that anchor and support excellence in arts and music in the country within the past four decades. The logo bares the new slogan, “Life Begins Anew.”

“When we were having, I think Christmas mass or another anniversary mass, our parish priest congratulated us on our 40th anniversary and said that when we celebrate milestone anniversaries we should always recall, rejoice, and then renew,” the artistic director recalled.

Jardin said that based on those three Rs (recall, rejoice, and renew), the people in the CCP have built around the next six months a program that would allow them to not only reminisce but also show to the public the accomplishments of the CCP.

“Our projects within the past 40 years have helped create an outstanding body of original Filipino works that speak of us as a nation and has helped define our national identity,” Jardin related.

Through various programs that are not only limited in Metro Manila, the people behind the institution believe that the CCP has contributed a lot in promoting cultural empowerment in the country.

Defining the future

“The CCP has been a catalyst in the creation of original, cutting- edge, innovative work by young Filipino artists.”

In May, a major forum will be conducted to help CCP define its future direction. As it continuously involves and encourages more young artists to promote their works, a series of events is dedicated to acknowledge contemporary talents and art.

For the months of June and July, the theme will be Brave New Works: Original Filipino Creations. New works in literature will be presented in a literary performance series entitled Word Jam: Spoken Word Festival on June 10 to 24 and July 1 to 8. A concert of classical artists in tandem with artists from Philippine cultural communities will be featured in Cultures in Harmony on June 21. Playwrights collaborate with directors, actors and designers in staging their untried, untested, and unpublished works in Virgin Labfest 5 on June 24 to July 5 back-to-back with WI-FI Body: Independent Dance Festival with cutting-edge works by the country’s most exciting choreographers today. New symphonic works will be premiered in Music Underkunstruktion on July 15 in a co-production with the Metro Manila Community Orchestra. Also in July are the Thirteen Artists Awards and Exhibit and the much-awaited Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival and Competition.

All venues of the CCP Complex will be part of the grand event including Star City and the Manila Bay.

One-man show retells engaging story

By NICKIE WANG/ Manila Standard Today

The story itself is an engaging tale of a personal struggle and a quest for identity. It chronicles a journey that covers the time when the character was just a kid seeing a hula dance for the very first time until it became a permanent part of his life. Dance, music, humor, and cultural values are integrated to essay the fascinating life of Keo Woolford in a stage production entitled I Land.

Fresh from his off-Broadway outing, Keo is here in Manila to stage his semi-autobiographical journey in a one-man show set to run at the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino starting Jan. 22, 8 p.m.

Accentuated by Keo’s exceptional talent, I Land is a moving search for the meaning of heritage in a post-modern world weaving together traditional Hawaiian hula, hip-hop, Hawaiian talk story, and spoken word.

“The story starts when I first saw hula which I was a kid until I would be in my early to mid- twenties,” acclaimed actor and hula dancer Keo Woolford shared during an interview with Standard Today.

His story

The show chronicles Keo’s first exposure to hula and how he came under the instruction of his idol, whom he dubs the “Hula god.” In the production, he also describes his fleeting brush with fame as a member of a boy band that almost hits the big time; his subsequent descent into a world of drugs and partying; and his rediscovery of the dance that connects him to both his culture and to himself.

“It’s a one hour and twenty minutes of performance,” Keo, who is fit to be an undergarment model with his chiseled physique, said and continued: “So it’s more of the adrenaline rush that keeps me going. I can’t see them [audience] and I’d rather not because it makes me nervous, but I feel the audience. It’s actually the audience that keeps me going. Audience is the key to my every performance.”

I Land as a one-man show also features original songs and choreography done in the ancient or traditional style known in Hawaii as kahiko. The one- hour-and-twenty-minute production will give the audience an experience seeing an engaging actor, who was born and raised in Hawaii to a Filipina mother and to a Hawaiian father, morph into a dozen characters.

The actor’s passion in music, dancing and acting began at a very young age that being a multi-disciplinary artist is no longer surprising.

“Acting is my passion. It’s so funny because when I was younger, right before I got into acting, I never thought that I was going to be an actor. When I was sort of figuring out what I was going to do with my life in music, I wanted to be a pop star,” Keo laughed as he sipped his coffee.

Aside from being an actor, dancer, and a musician, Keo is also a prolific writer. In 1995 in Los Angeles, he penned the one-man show He Hawai‘i Au. The show earned him praises that opened new windows of opportunities.

Keo’s remarkable performances include a plum role in a production entitled In My Father’s House that earned him a Virgo Award for Best Actor. In New York, he has been seen in Karaoke Stories, The Greeks, References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, Sonnets for an Old Century, and The Remarkable Journey of Prince Jen. His film and TV appearances include East Broadway, Hawaii, True Vengeance, and Happy Texas.

Turning point

In 2007, before the off-Broadway staging of I Land, Keo’s mother passed away. It was one of the defining moments for the actor because he had to stage the show a day after the funeral.

“The off-Broadway run is ironically the toughest run I have ever did. The thing that was really really tough, I don’t know if I should talk about this, is when my mom passed away right before opening night. The funeral was a day before the performance so from my mom’s funeral I went straight to the theater,” the actor narrated.

Despite the loss, his mother’s death pushed and inspired him to pursue his performance and thus his career. He found his self-salvation through music and claimed: “Dancing is therapeutic. Dancing with music is a way of self-salvation because it’s so raw and natural that people celebrate with it. You could be by your self; listen and dance around and it’s like you’re connected to the universe.”

He lands

I Land was created by Keo in collaboration with director Roberta Uno. Uno encouraged him to write something again as to follow up his first self-penned show more than a decade ago.

“I’m really grateful that I have gone through what I have gone through because it enabled me to share my experiences. I actually turned her [Uno] down at first because I said, ‘What am I going to say and who will care to hear about it,’” he affirmed.

The production will highlight the hula dance that has been famed for its unique style. According to Keo, hula is like a bunch of different things because it involves history, language, and values. A hula dancer also needs to learn a language and a history that are essential in telling a story.

“Hula is more about expressing the story you are telling more than the actual body movements and that it’s the key or the correlation between hula and acting. Before you even learn anything else, you need to learn the basic steps and that took me a long long time. Some people don’t have the patience, skill, and the attitude,” Keo concluded, disclosing that hula doesn’t work for everyone.

I Land’s limited run from Jan. 22 to 25 at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino is a fundraising activity spearheaded by the Asian Cultural Council Philippines for the benefit of the ACC Philippine Fellowship Program and the Makiling Academic and Research Institute for the Arts (MARIA) Scholarship.

Call the CCP Box Office at 832-3704 or 832-1125 loc. 1409 or call Ticketworld at 891-9999 for more information.