National Artists for Theater
Daisy H. Avellana
(January 26, 1917 – May 12, 2013)
National Artist for Theater (1999)
Daisy H. Avellana, is an actor, director and writer.
Born in Roxas City, Capiz on January 26, 1917, she
elevated legitimate theater and dramatic arts to a
new level of excellence by staging and performing
in breakthrough productions of classic Filipino and
foreign plays and by encouraging the establishment
of performing groups and the professionalization of
Filipino theater. Together with her husband, National
Artist Lamberto Avellana and other artists, she co-
founded the Barangay Theatre Guild in 1939 which
paved the way for the popularization of theatre and
dramatic arts in the country, utilizing radio and
television.
She starred in plays like Othello (1953), Macbeth in Black (1959), Casa de Bernarda Alba
(1967), Tatarin. She is best remembered for her portrayal of Candida Marasigan in the
stage and film versions of Nick Joaquin’s Portrait of the Artist as Filipino. Her directorial
credits include Diego Silang (1968), and Walang Sugat (1971). Among her screenplays
were Sakay (1939) and Portrait of the Artist as Filipino (1955).
Honorata “Atang” Dela Rama
(January 11, 1902 – July 11, 1991)
National Artist for Theater and Music (1987)
Honorata “Atang” Dela Rama was formally honored
as the Queen of Kundiman in 1979, then already 74
years old singing the same song (“Nabasag na
Banga”) that she sang as a 15-year old girl in the
sarsuela Dalagang Bukid. Atang became the very
first actress in the very first locally produced Filipino
film when she essayed the same role in the
sarsuela’s film version. As early as age seven,
Atang was already being cast in Spanish zarzuelas
such as Mascota, Sueño de un Vals, and Marina.
She counts the role though of an orphan in
Pangarap ni Rosa as her most rewarding and
satisfying role that she played with realism, the stage sparkling with silver coins tossed by
a teary-eyed audience. Atang firmly believes that the sarswela and the kundiman
expresses best the Filipino soul, and even performed kundiman and other Filipino songs
for the Aetas or Negritos of Zambales and the Sierra Madre, the Bagobos of Davao and
other Lumad of Mindanao.
Atang firmly believed that the sarswela and the kundiman express best the Filipino soul,
and had even performed kundiman and other Filipino songs for the Aetas or Negritos of
Zambales and the Sierra Madre, the Bagobos of Davao and other Lumad of Mindanao.
Among the kundiman and the other songs she premiered or popularized were Pakiusap,
Ay, Ay Kalisud, Kung Iibig Ka and Madaling Araw by Jose Corazon de Jesus, and Mutya
ng Pasig by Deogracias Rosario and Nicanor Abelardo. She also wrote her own
sarswelas: Anak ni Eba, Aking Ina, and Puri at Buhay.
LAMBERTO V. AVELLANA
(February 12, 1915 – April 25, 1991)
National Artist for Theater and Film (1976)
Lamberto V. Avellana, director for theater and film,
has the distinction of being called “The Boy
Wonder of Philippine Movies” as early as 1939. He
was the first to use the motion picture camera to
e s t a b l i s h a p o i n t - o f - v i e w, a m o v e t h a t
revolutionized the techniques of film narration.
Avellana, who at 20 portrayed Joan of Arc in time
for Ateneo’s diamond jubilee, initially set out to
establish a Filipino theater. Together with Daisy
Hontiveros, star of many UP plays and his future wife, he formed the Barangay Theater
Guild which had, among others, Leon Ma .Guerrero and Raul Manglapus as members. It
was after seeing such plays that Carlos P. Romulo, then president of Philippine Films,
encouraged him to try his hand at directing films. In his first film Sakay, Avellana
demonstrated a kind of visual rhythm that established a new filmic language.
Sakay was declared the best picture of 1939 by critics and journalists alike and set the
tone for Avellana’s career in film that would be capped by such distinctive achievements as
the Grand Prix at the Asian Film Festival in Hong Kong for Anak Dalita (1956); Best
Director of Asia award in Tokyo for Badjao, among others.
Avellana was also the first filmmaker to have his film Kandelerong Pilak shown at the
Cannes International Film Festival. Among the films he directed for worldwide release
were Sergeant Hasan (1967), Destination Vietnam (1969), and The Evil Within (1970).
Rolando S. Tino
(March 5, 1937 – July 7, 1997)
National Artist for Theater and Literature (1997)
Rolando S. Tinio, playwright, thespian, poet,
teacher, critic, and translator marked his career
with prolific artistic productions. Tinio’s chief
distinction is as a stage director whose original
insights into the scripts he handled brought forth
productions notable for their visual impact and
intellectual cogency.
Subsequently, after staging productions for the
Ateneo Experimental Theater (its organizer and
administrator as well), he took on Teatro Pilipino. It
was to Teatro Pilipino which he left a considerable
amount of work reviving traditional Filipino drama by re-staging old theater forms like the
sarswela and opening a treasure-house of contemporary Western drama. It was the
excellence and beauty of his practice that claimed for theater a place among the arts in the
Philippines in the 1960s.
Aside from his collections of poetry (Sitsit sa Kuliglig, Dunung – Dunungan, Kristal na
Uniberso, A Trick of Mirrors) among his works were the following: film scripts for Now and
Forever, Gamitin Mo Ako, Bayad Puri and Milagros; sarswelas Ang Mestisa, Ako, Ang Kiri,
Ana Maria; the komedya Orosman at Zafira; and Larawan, the musical.
Amelia Lapeña-Bonifacio
Birthday: 4 April 1930
National Artist for Theater (2018)
Known as the Grand Dame of Southeast Asian
children’s theatre, Tita Amel is the founder and
playwright-director of the Teatrong Mulat ng
Pilipinas, which has placed the Philippines on the
artistic map of world theater. She has written most
of the plays performed by the group based on
materials culled from painstaking researches. She
has also been involved in the production and
design of puppets. All in all, what she has achieved
is an indigenous fusion of puppetry, children’s
literature, folklore, and theater.
Notable Works:
• 6 na Dulang Filipino Para Sa Mga Bata, 1976
• Tat-lu-han (Three Plays), 1975
• Ang Paglalakbay ni Sisa: Isang Noh Sa Laguna, 1998
• Isang Kyogen sa Pritil, 1977
• Sepang Loca, 1957
• Papet Pasyon, 1985
• Abadeja: Ang Ating Sinderela, 1977
Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero
(January 22, 1910 – April 28, 1995)
National Artist for Theater (1997)
Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero is a teacher and theater
artist whose 35 years of devoted professorship has
produced the most sterling luminaries in Philippine
performing arts today: Behn Cervantes, Celia Diaz-
Laurel, Joy Virata, Joonee Gamboa, etc. In 1947,
he was appointed as UP Dramatic Club director
and served for 16 years. As founder and artistic
director of the UP Mobile Theater, he pioneered
the concept of theater campus tour and delivered
no less than 2,500 performances in a span of 19 committed years of service. By bringing
theatre to the countryside, Guerrero made it possible for students and audiences, in
general, to experience the basic grammar of staging and acting in familiar and friendly
ways through his plays that humorously reflect the behavior of the Filipino.
His plays include Half an Hour in a Convent, Wanted: A Chaperon, Forever, Condemned,
Perhaps, In Unity, Deep in My Heart, Three Rats, Our Strange Ways, The Forsaken
House, Frustrations.
Severino Montano
(January 3, 1915 – December 12, 1980)
National Artist for Theater (2001)
Playwright, director, actor, and theater organizer,
Severino Montano is the forerunner in
institutionalizing “legitimate theater” in the
Philippines. Taking up courses and graduate
degrees abroad, he honed and shared his
expertise with his countrymates.
As Dean of Instruction of the Philippine Normal
College, Montano organized the Arena Theater to
bring drama to the masses. He trained and
directed the new generations of dramatists
including Rolando S. Tinio, Emmanuel Borlaza,
Joonee Gamboa, and Behn Cervantes.
He established a graduate program at the Philippine Normal College for the training of
playwrights, directors, technicians, actors, and designers. He also established the Arena
Theater Playwriting Contest that led to the discovery of Wilfrido Nolledo, Jesus T. Peralta,
and Estrella Alfon.
Among his awards and recognitions is the Patnubay ng Kalinangan Award from the City of
Manila (1968), Presidential Award for Merit in Drama and Theater (1961), and the
Rockefeller Foundation Grant to travel to 98 cities abroad (1950, 1952, 1962, and 1963).
