Region-based theater groups will be the highlight of this year’s Tanghal Theater Festival, the flagship project of the National Culture and the Arts’ (NCCA) National Committee on Dramatic Arts (NCDA). NCDA is under NCCA’s Subcommission of Arts.

This festival is a region-focused theater festival in celebration of the Philippine Arts Festival (PAF) as part of the National Arts Month (NAM) every February. It will combine the emerging new community theater groups with the constantly active student theater organizations in a celebration of Filipino icons of Philippine drama.

Tanghal Theater Festival 2013 will be held at the Bicol region, Bohol, Cagayan de Oro and the National Capital Region (NCR) in February 2013. The festival will feature different regional theater groups as it emerged to be active in the past years.

The seventh installment of Tanghal will feature the rich legacy of Philippine theatre and will focus on major drama forms and groups that can be considered as major icons in the field of theatre in the country.

These icons will be selected on the basis of their regional uniqueness, inventiveness, impact, and continuing influence through centuries of theatrical development in the Philippines. These icons include indigenous theater rituals, sarsuela, comedya, moro-moro, linambay, religious dramas, PETA, Tanghalang Pilipino, Tanghalang Mulat, among others.

Also, National Artists for theater will be part of the icons such as Daisy Avellana, Rolando Tinio, Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero, Severino Montano, Honorata “Atang” dela Rama, Lamberto Avellana and Salvador Bernal.

Besides featuring the icons and performances, there will be seminars, workshops, talks and exhibits. Another festival and conference about Asian community theater and the creative industries will be part of Tanghal 2013 to enhance the Asian heritage in the art of the drama.

This flagship project of the NCDA is done to disseminate the knowledge of Philippine theater to a wider audience. It also aims to improve the skills and talents of young Filipinos from all over the countries in the field of the dramatic arts. The festival will also be a venue for interaction among regional and university-based theatre organizations. This is also done as part of NCCA’s commitment to the preservation and the education of Filipino culture and arts.