CCP hold second Performatura

TRADITIONAL chants, a costume play or cosplay and spoken-word performances are some of the events included at the Performatura 2017: Performance Literature Festival from March 31 to April 2 at the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) in Pasay City.

A prelude to the celebration of National Literature Month in April, the festival celebrates the richness of Philippine literature, underscores the connectedness of the written and the performative, as well as entices more people to appreciate literature.

The Filipinos generally are not much a reading people but can be eager audience of shows, and performances are ways for them to know the works of Filipino writers. In the couple of years, spoken-word performances became a popular trend in the country. Poems and monologues on love, recited and acted out on stage, found avid audiences, most of them young, in theaters and bars. Literary performances are not recent development though. Many literatures in the Philippines started out being performed, and a prime example is the number of epics which are chanted from memory. And throughout history, poetry readings and performances based on texts have been put up. The traditional performances as well as the latest trends are featured Performatura, which is organized by CCP Intertextual Division, formerly the CCP Literature Division.

Performatura was first held on November 6, 7 and 8, 2015, then called Performatura Festival: Performing Literatures, to celebrate National Reading Month. Its aim was to highlight Philippine literature and its interconnections with other forms of arts, as well as the connection of artists to their audiences, according to writer Herminio Beltran Jr., who was one of those conceptualized the festival.

The festival’s name was coined by the festival director Vim Nadera, a poet who is known for his performance art. It combines the words performance and oratura. Oratura was derived from orature, a term coined by Ugandan linguist Pio Zirimu, who wanted to raise oral literature to the level of written literature. In Performatura, the intersections of the written word and performance, and intertextuality are emphasized.

The three-day biennial this year will be filled with poetry readings, cultural performances, film showings, marathon readings, a book fair, and forums with artists and writers all day long, from nine in the morning to nine in the evening. It will showcase numerous artists—writers, performers and writer-performers. While entrance to the festival will be practically free, the organizers will be requiring attendees to donate a book as admission ticket. Each donation will go to the CCP’s partner libraries.

This year’s Performatura takes on the theme, “Sa loob at labas ng bayan kong sawi” (In and outside my forlorn country), a line from Francisco “Balagtas” Baltazar’s most famous metrical romance, Florante at Laura. While featuring works commenting and contemplating on the state of the country, the theme is really an homage to nineteenth-century poet Baltazar, widely considered the greatest of Filipino poets, and his immortal contributions to Philippine literature.

Performatura wants to make Balagtas, Baltazar’s penname, and his works perennially hip, especially among Millennials. Thus, it will be holding a cosplay or costume play based on his life and works called Franciscosplay. It is a contest where participants must dress up as characters from Florante at Laura and recite at least three stanzas of the character they are portraying. The cosplay event will happen in afternoon of April 2, the 229th birth anniversary of Balagtas, at the CCP’s Little Theater.

Participants will be judged on characterization (how well the cosplayers act or embody the characters they’re playing), costume design, audience impact and delivery (how well the cosplayer delivered the lines they’ve chosen from Florante at Laura). Winners will receive cash prize (as much as P5,000) and gift certificates from Microtel Puerto Princesa and Santo Tomas, Batangas. The audience is also encouraged to be in costume, for they can bag a special prize for being the most creative.

Aside from Franciscosplay, other Balagtas-related activities include marathon readings of his works at the CCP Promenade the whole afternoon. The series includes La India Elegante y el Negrito Amante on March 31 by the children from Dagdag Dunong Reading Center, a civil organization that promotes literacy; the komendya Orosman at Zafira on April 1 by members of the Pinoy Reads Pinoy Books Club; and of the Braille version of Florante at Laura on April 2 by the students of the Philippine National School for the Blind.

In morning of Balagtas Day, April 2, National Artist for literature Bienvenido Lumbera, CCP officials, and Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF) director general Roberto Añonuevo will lay a wreath at his shrine in Pandacan, Manila, where the poet lived part of his life. The program will include performances by Pandacan-based Teatro Balagtas and the past winners of KWF’s Makata ng Taon, Christian Rey Pilares (2015), Louie Jon Sanchez (2006, 2009 and 2011) and Mark Anthony Angeles (2016). This will be followed by a short cultural tour of the district, called “LakbayKamalaysayan,” led by Samahang Sining at Kultura ng Pilipinas. the Lower House will toe the party line the way they’ve done so far, one can even argue that the impeachment complaint against Robredo has a stronger chance of moving forward.

But is there basis for either complaint at this time? Is there a need? For all the noise both proDuterte and pro-Robredo camps have spun on social media, it’s probably closer to the truth to expect that most Filipinos are tired of all this bickering and want nothing more than for political leaders to do their jobs, instead of getting mired in the unnecessary theatrics of an impeachment case. SSCebu