Sunday, August 25, 2013

PAMANA: a docu-musical tribute to NInoy and Cory Aquino A REACTION PAPER


Photo coutesy ng PETA
I.                    Title of the Play
The play as entitled Pamana (Heirloom is a special tribute to the late Senator Benigno ‘’
“Ninoy” Aquino Jr. and to his wife, the late president Corazon “Cory” Aquino.
As what the title itself suggests, it is all about the heirlooms of the two democracy icons in establishing a stronger and freer republic. It enlist the vast amount of contribution the two had made in instilling nationalism in our hearts and of how the values itself, as heirlooms, can be used in the future of the country

II.                  Genre
The genre is a docu- musical, meaning, it showcases documentaries of the past, some important points of history and a collection of facts that makes it aside from being a source of entertainment, it do also serves as a history teller as well.
Yes, it is musical. The show features original songs inserted in every scene that will clearly emphasize its thought. Solos, duets, chorals and even dance choreographies are gloriously pitched throughout the play.

III.                Time and Place
The wat6ching experience is awesome. The time allotted for the play is just right to relax after a busy day. Just simple and is short, not too late for a student like me and not too early as well.
Meralco Theater truly is a really nice place. From the security, accommodators, ushers, and usherettes and even the building work hand in hand for the smooth flow of the program. The most important is, I get comfortable and Miracle Theater gives this majestic watching experience.

IV.                Playwright
The play actually features three generation: past, the present and the modern generation.
The writer, Rody Vera, made it well of how dialogues differ between each generation. The language of the Martial Law, makes it differ from the language of the freer period and is barely different with the ways of the folks, OFW’s and of the cyber generation. The lines made its moods clear, the anger of the activists, the sorrow of a widow, and the longing of a youth.
V.                  Directions
Stage directors Maribel Legarda and Melvin Lee did a fine job in directing Pamana. The play, though lacking of elaborate props, did a simple yet a great spectacle. The stage is organized conquered by the actors and actresses. But the most important point in their directions, message is clearly conveyed and that is success.
VI.                Production
The production is not that really elaborates but is simple as I think it is of what the theme requires. The props are limited but that makes it simple and is, beautiful.
Costumes are just right as it features the fashion of Martial Law and the Post Democratic period of our government. Everything is just right as of what the play needs in order to be justified. Executive Producer Jun Reyes, together with his team added these background videos along with the spectacle. The documentary stuff made it easy to tell the story.

VII.              Musical Scoring
This is a musicale and as expected that it must be a great musical experience. Composers Ryan Cayabyab and Manoling Francisco S.J., two of the country’s great musical pioneers, impacted much on the show as they feature the musicality of OPM.
Singers did well in giving justice on each masterpiece. Everyone deserves a round of applause.

VIII.            The story flow
The story is as great as of how smooth it tells itself and of how it justified the heirlooms of the two.
The play started in the presentation of a short glimpse of history creatively and uniquely showed by monologues of LOLA Ason and Trina. It is based as of how the two are engaged in the historic events.
Lola Aon, a street sweeper, gets mad of activists as they lavishly leave garbages after their programs during the Marcos dictatorship. And being a “tukayo” of the late President, she represented the portion of Filipinos that are greatly affected and moved by nationalism as urged by her husband, Turo.
“Trina”, a teenager, grandchild of Lola Ason, has not witnessed those stuffs but is greatly affected by his Lola and of when she witnessed the death of Cory.
The first part explicitly narrated the two eras simultaneously in their own view of history.
The next part is the Post-Cory era where corruption and poverty arises. Edgar, Trina’s father, moved to Switzerland as an Overseas Filipino Worker (OFW) in his belief that there’s no more hope in Philippines.
His father urged Trina and Lola Ason to go with him. But Lola Ason disagrees and reasoned out that she will better die in Philippines than to leave his country.
Ason died and Trina was pushed by his father but he refused strongly for she believes on her future here at Philippines and the country itself has this future brought by the heirlooms of Ninoy and Cory.

IX.                Symbolisms
The characters in the poem signify something.
Lola Ason depicts the living fervor of nationalism and love of country as cause by Ninoy and Cory
The death of her is an imagery of the death of the generation that signifies democracy.
Turo, her husband, defines the urge in our hearts to fight for freedom as of how Turo encouraged Lola Ason.
Edgar signifies the lost of the fire because of widespread corruption and temptations of poverty. He may be a sort of breeze that stops the fervor burning.
Trina, as a young people, is the symbol of candle rekindling that even without Ninoy and Cory with us, but with their heirlooms instilled in every Filipinos, there is still hope for the country.
Trina’s move to oppose his father is the rekindling of the fire to set up his own stride to continue the walk toward national progress and to still believe that there still hopes for the Philippines.

X.                          Best Performances
Lola Ason depicter got the greatest cheer from the crowd because of her great acting prowess. She has this pristine brightness in giving life on numerous monologues in the play and her character as an inspiring grandmother really touch the heart of her audiences.

XI.                        Lights and Sounds
The scoring of music in every scene is just enough and is creative. The mood and emotional drive in each scene was clearly emphasized and greatly accentuated by the music.
The lights ability to settle the mood of the audience has been perfectly done by the technical staff. Though, therewere some glitches that are quite distracting, over-all, executions, application of each sound effects and light maneuvers was planned greatly.

XII.                     Social Relevance
Ninoy and Cory alone cannot change the nation but with their heirlooms from them imbibed in the hearts of every Filipinos, we can achieve our national goals and aspirations. Greatly shown by of how People Power Revolution was executed to achieve democracy out of dictatorship.
This is the soul of their legacy, and this justifies their dream of having a society with its people helping themselves and striving hard to modify their community to became an ideal society.
This has never been an impossible dream. People Power Revolution had made it before just by a text message that rekindles the fire of the Filipino people.
And to solve today’s dilemmas, there will be no more text message that will remind our social responsibility on our society. It was already passed on by an heirloom. All we need to do is to set our hearts on fire and let the fervor burning.

XIII.                   Recommendations

As a recommendation, extend this stage play to other school and universities so as to the young generation will greatly realize as of how great they had done in building this modern-day society.

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