appabisonyipyip-blog

[appabisonyipyip-blog]

240 hours was all that I need for me to meet the required number of hours for my internship. 120 for Theater Arts, 60 for Writing, and another 60 for Speech Communication. My mind was set to give up my 2 month midyear break to finish all these before the first semester comes. Of course, who wouldn’t want to graduate on time?

Yet, I spent a good month and a half for my theater arts internship alone. To be exact, I rendered 241 hours in my internship in Sipat Lawin Ensemble. This pushed me to reschedule my manuscript writing to my last semester in the university but it was the price I would gladly pay again if given another chance.

To work with Sipat means having to endure the two-hour commute to QC and Makati from Valenzuela. It means coming home during the late hours. It means 10 hours of strenuous rehearsals. But it also means being with talented artists. It means having to perform with them as well. To work with them means pizza deliveries. It means jumping from one rehearsal space to another. It means having another family far from home.

The things I learned from Sipat Lawin rooted my confidence more in theater and performance-making. For this season, Gatilyo, they presented two full-length plays: “Mad Forest” by Carol Churchill (Translated to Filipino by Guelan Luarca) and “Are You Ready to Take the Law into Your Own Hands”. Both of the plays tell the narratives during the harder times of dictatorship and oppression but not in the same manner.

We were all taught of histories in the light of the biggest personalities. Rarely do we listen to the stories of the dead, of the mere survivors, of those who only stood watching. We only know of the dictators, the biggest of the oppressors, and the martyrs who died fighting. But unlike all these, Mad Forest gave face to the citizens of Romaine. It gave weight to the shared experiences and small nuances that gave birth to the revolution. The play portrayed those who held up guns and those who cowered for their lives alike. And bearing the same importance, Mad Forest posed the question “Did the outcome justify the need for revolution?”

Are You Ready to Take the Law into Your Own Hands, on the other hand, re-introduced the infamous “War on Drugs” with a new light. How would you interpret a theater play that discusses “Oplan Tokhang” with multiple production numbers in between scenes? It all boils down on the audience take on the issue. Personally, I myself can’t say that the play was meant to be satirical as it seemed to bring sense on both sides of the coin. Nevertheless, I see the play as a necessity to once again reflect if hearing the news of killings every day desensitized me enough to see the issue portrayed by the play as something trivial.

I would say that more than the opportunity to showcase myself (and everything I can contribute to the production), the friends I gained during the duration of my internship in Sipat Lawin Ensemble is the reason why I would treasure this experience forever (however cliché that might sound). And for all of these things, I am beyond grateful; I am blessed.