Gugmang Giatay: Cebuano-style love

All embittered hearts, happy couples, the brokenhearted—in short, everyone—will enjoy a musical play that’s close to home. Gugmang Giatay is a Bisrock jukebox musical that tells a tale of love in purely Cebuano style. It features top-rating Cebuano songs from Missing Filemon, Rommel Tuico, The Ambassadors, Cattski Espina, the Visayan Pop (VisPop) Music Festival and many more.

Produced by 2TinCans Philippines and the Offbeat Concepts Production House, the musical stars VisPop 3.0 champion Lourdes Maglinte as Inday, a househelp whose heart is filled with love as she peruses her way between two guys—Ben, a call center agent and Undo, a romantic Bisrocker.

Edison “Jingle” Saynes, the creative director, is proud to say that the production is one big collaborative effort from its creative team and the actors. “We give our actors the freedom to explore and practice their creativity so their acting is very organic and natural,” he said.

Sara Enclona-Henderson of 2TinCans Philippines, the producer of the musical, believed in the cause of the show. “It highlights Cebuano as a language, the Cebuano music and Cebuano artists. Maybe it’s not your everyday love story, but the message is universal. The fact nga ma-igo ka bisag unsa pa imung status sa kinabuhi means that nindot gyud siya nga material (The fact that you can be touched whatever your status in life is, it means that the material is really good),” she said.

Gugmang Giatay will be staged at the CAP Auditorium on Oct. 23, 8 p.m. and Oct. 24 at 2 and 8 p.m.

THE CAST of Gugmang Giatay (from left): Shane Reseroni, Eyre Dumalagan, Aine Abella, Therese Villarante, Lourdes Maglinte, Von Saw, Dion Cecilio, Dave Velez and Kristian Malintad.

THE CREATIVE team (from left): creative director Edison “Jingle” Saynes, book writer and musical director Jude Gitamondoc, producer Sara Enclona-Henderson and dance director Vince Gaton.