BAGUIO STORIES

In April 1997, we mounted "Baguio Stories" at the Bulwagang Juan Luna in UP Baguio as part of the Summer Arts Festival that year. The production was comprised of four monologues that I had written specially for the festival. The monologues featured Celing, a widow who yearns for the past as a means of coping between fits of Alzheimer's and lucidity. Victor, the balikbayan who returns home for his mother's funeral and in pouring his heart out to his late mother, he is compelled to stay in Baguio and no longer return to the US. Marie, the young housewife who starts off writing a letter to her older sister in New York, struggles to mask her dissolving marriage and the alienation and entrapment she feels living in Baguio. The fourth monologue is Jefferson, the quintessential Baguio icon. Jefferson is a Pony Boy in Wright Park, and finds himself smitten by a rich, beautiful, charming girl from Manila. Despite the odds, Jefferson is determined to win the heart of the girl.

For the Baguio Centennial on September, the UP Baguio Committee on Culture and the Arts has decided to re-stage "Baguio Stories". But this time we have decided to add four more monologues to the original. And it is fortunate that fellow Baguio Writers Group members, Nonnett Bennett, Frank Cimatu and Luchie Maranan have obliged our request to submit their manuscripts.

Luchie's script is about a Burnham Park Photographer who seems to be locked in the old days of film and has refused to succumb to the digital age. He also discusses the changing mores and values of the youth as he has seen in the countless tourists that sought his services.

Frank Cimatu's script dwells on a Faith Healer. A composite of the different Faith Healers in Northern Luzon, loosely based on their experiences but promises to drop a bomb towards the end of the monologue.

Nonnett will write about Chainus, the first Igorot Carnival Queen at the turn of the 20th

Century as her spirit comes back in the present and reminds us how important it is to take care of the environment.

I am currently working on a storyline for the last monologue which will be about a Folk Singer. I will however have to work on this piece with a lyricist and composer as I envision the piece to be sung all throughout. I do have one person in mind but have yet to ask him, so for those of you who are interested or know anyone who might fit the role -- please do not hesitate to email me.

Auditions on the first week of August will be held for the roles that have not yet been cast. Playdates are on September 4, 5, 6, 11, 12, 13, 18, 19, 20, 25, 26 and 27. Friday Gala shows are at 7 PM and Saturdays and Sundays will have matinees at 3 pm and Gala performances at 7pm.

We hope to see you all during our performances.