By Hilda Austria – PNA
ALAMINOS CITY, Pangasinan — Six stage plays by high school students, religious organizations, out of school youths, college students, and professionals are going to compete in the first-ever Hundred Islands Theater Festival here on Dec.16.
The festival aims to promote the value of theater arts in the community, discover talents of theater arts in the city, select performers for the City Fiesta’s Cultural Night, and strengthen the relationship between the city government of Alaminos and culture and theater arts enthusiast, said Ben Jan Natividad, founding president of the Tanghalang Saandaang Pulo and chairman of the festival, in an interview on Thursday.
He said the entries are original stories and to be performed by the actors, ages 15 to 56 years.
“Participants shall consist of members with a maximum of 15 including one director, five to eight stage actors, and other optional members,” Natividad said.
Besides the stage play, a monologue competition is also part of the theater festival.
“We really wanted to strengthen the force of community theater. We wanted the people to see that theater art is open to everyone,” Natividad said.
Monologue act will be within three to five minutes, while stage play lasts 15 to 20 minutes, he added.
Winners in the stage play competition will receive cash prizes: PHP20,000 for Best Stage Play, PHP10,000 for 1st runner-up, and PHP5,000 for 2nd runner-up, while PHP2,500 will be given as consolation prize.
For monologue competition, winners will be given PHP3,000 for Best Monologue Performance, PHP1,500 for 1st runner-up, and PHP500 for 2nd runner-up.
“All the cash prizes are provided by the city government of Alaminos through Mayor Arthur Celeste,” Natividad said.
The judges for the competition are: Frank Rivera, chairman of the International Theater Institute Philippine Centre; Donna Cariaga, winner of ABS-CBN’s talent competition; Angelo Aurelio, award-winning actor and director; and award-winning theater actor Paul Jake Paule.
“The judges are all award-winning in the theater arts and are also advocates of community theater,” Natividad said.
The festival will be held at the Don Leopoldo Sison Convention Center at 12 noon.
