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As the hundred year celebration of the state
university draws to a close, I have had the opportunity to listen to
two centennial lectures in Diliman: one by partylist representative
Satur Ocampo and the other by University Professor emeritus Amelia
Lapena-Bonifacio.
I had commented earlier on
Satur’s remarkable lecture on the continuing role of UP activists
in the nationalist movement. It is to the credit of the organizers
for including two “outsiders” in the centennial series, one from
the progressive sector and the other (Ramon del Rosario Jr.) from
business.
Amel Bonifacio, “the grande
dame of children’s theater for SE Asia,” (Krishen Jit of
Malaysia) recently gave her centennial lecture on “The Challenging
Art of Puppetry in Medicine and Education.” Six reactors were
invited to the lecture: Dean of Medicine Alberto Roxas, Dean of
Education Vivien Talisayon, English department chair Naida Rivera
(all three from UP), Terry Arellano, Ony Carcarno, and Danny Liwanag,
and Lolit Aquino, all involved in puppetry. I was asked to give the
introduction.
In introducing the speaker, I
said Amel and I belonged to that generation that survived the war,
and were eager to finish our interrupted schooling and find
ourselves as writers. The late National Artist NVM Gonzalez took our
group under his wing, and initiated us to the writers workshop.
Her model story Death of a Baby
was emblematic of the stories we wrote dealing withthemes of
disenchantment and coming of age. Some of us were also artists
called the Primitives (including Amel, Alex Hufana, Andy Cruz and
Larry Francia) who held exhibits in and outside the campus. In 1957,
Amel went to the University of Wisconsin, Madison where she took her
MA in theater and won first prize for her innovative play Rooms.
This I suppose started her on a career in theater while continuing
to teach at the English department.
She was one of the founders of
the UP Creative Writing Center (now an Institute) and became
director (after Franz Arcellana and Alex Hufana) for a decade,
conducting workshops in all genres and putting out many
publications. She herself has written 47 plays, staged here and
abroad, 155 stories, some prize-winning and translated into many
foreign languages, 24 poems for children which she has illustrated.
At present she is writing her first novel under a UP grant. Doing
research on the zarzuela, she came up with a book The
‘Seditious’ Tagalog Playwrights: Early American Occupation.
I remember her social realist
plays Sepang Loca and the Short, Short Life of Citizen Juan which
were put on stage with the help of Behn Cervantes and Anton Juan
during the tumultuous early 70s. While abroad during martial law, I
heard about her play Ang Bundok staged at the time of the Cordillera
struggle when Macli-ing was killed for opposing the Chico dam
project.
At her last summers workshop in
1994 she assembled 20 young writers and 15 young illustrators to
produce books for children. Out of these two groups were formed two
important children’s book organizations, Kuting (writers) and INK
(illustrators) that have created “a boom in the children’s book
industry,” in the words of former student Lara Saguisag.
Amel’s crowning achievement is
her Teatrong Mulat which she began in the late 70s. For a long while
she was artistic director, playwright, costume and set designer of
the theatre company that has introduced the Asian style of puppetry
depicting Filipino as well as Asian stories. Since then, Teatrong
Mulat has had 21 productions staged here and in Japan, India, Korea,
Pakistan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, USA, France, China, Taiwan
and Taskhent, Russia where Ang Paghuhukom (Judgment Day) had the
longest running show.
Now Teatrong Mulat is housed in a
museum theater adjoining her residence in Teacher’s Village—a
tribute to her dedication to children’s puppet drama.
What is remarkable is her
nurturing of young talent of several generations in puppetry,
directing, and all aspects of theater production. With full support
from husband sociologist Manuel Bonifacio, she has inspired her
daughter Amihan , son-in-law Raymund, and grandchildren Aina, 10,
and Roel, 7, to become involved in Teatrong Mulat. Amihan, now
teaching drama in UP, is Amel’s valuable surrogate.
The centennial lecture was capped
by the launching of Amel’s prize-winning Ang UnangKayumangging
Lalaki at Unang Kayumangging Babae (The First Brown Man and First
Brown Woman) beautifully illustrated by Bernadette Solina-Wolf, who
as a student in fine arts joined Teatrong Mulat as artistic
assistant and puppeteer. She trained further in puppetry at the
Institut de la Marionette in France. This is the third book that she
has illustrated for Prof. Bonifacio.
For her pioneering work in
children’s theater and literature and touching the lives of
children as well as adult spectators, Amel Bonifacio is truly a
national treasure.
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