Theater

DAISY H. AVELLANA,
NATIONAL ARTIST FOR THEATER (1999)
(JANUARY 26, 1917 – MAY 12, 2013)
-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).
-National Artist for Theater and Music (1987)
(January 11, 1902 – July 11, 1991)
-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 Rosaas
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 has 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.
-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.
-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
 -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 puriand milagros; sarswelas ang mestisa, ako, ang kiri, ana maria; the
komedya orosman at zafira; and larawan, the musical.
 National Artist For Theater (2018)
Birthday: 4 April 1930
-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
 National Artist For Theater (1997)
(January 22, 1910 – April 28, 1995)
-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.
 National Artist For Theater (2001)
(January 3, 1915 – December 12, 1980)
-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
-he established a graduate program at the philippine normal
college for the training of playwrights, directors, technicians, actors,
and designers.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 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 are 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).
 -SALVADOR F. BERNAL designed more than 300
productions distinguished for their originality since
1969
-sensitive to the budget limitations of local
productions, he harnessed the design potential of
inexpensive local materials, pioneering or maximizing
the use of bamboo, raw abaca, and abaca fiber,
hemp twine, rattan chain links and gauze cacha.

-As the acknowledged guru of contemporary Filipino theater design, Bernal shared his skills with
younger designers through his classes at the University of the Philippines and the Ateneo de
Manila University, and through the programs he created for the CCP Production Design Center
which he himself conceptualized and organized.
-To promote and professionalize theater design, he organized the PATDAT (Philippine Association
of Theatre Designers and Technicians) in 1995 and by way of Philippine Center of OISTAT
(Organization Internationale des Scenographes, Techniciens et Architectes du Theatre), he
introduced Philippine theater design to the world.