Theater, ad majorem Dei gloriam 

Theater, like all forms of art, plays a crucial role in the myth- and identity-making of a people. From oral epics and tales of ancient times, Shakespearean classics, Brechtian dramas, to contemporary musicals and everything in between, theater is a record of human life, experiences, and emotions. While the plays and performances are ephemeral in nature, existing only in a certain time and space, their impact can be long-lived. 

The country’s own beginnings with the artform can be traced back to our pre-colonial epics, evolving through time. The Spanish comedia became our komedya; the zarzuela our sarswela. The American occupation brought bodabil (vaudeville) and moving pictures, their government’s presence in the country giving rise to the first ‘seditious’ plays. Post-war and contemporary theater continue to make sense of Philippine history and society: what soothes us, what ails us, what we do about it—or don’t. 

The Filipino has long used the stage to chronicle life, to tell stories of the oppressed and the oppressor, to remember, to heal, to grieve, to learn, to educate. It is a way to escape, a place to get lost in for an hour or two to song, but it is also a tool for social action, a tool to try and effect change where we are. In Ateneo, where humanities and the arts are deeply embedded in the fabric of the university, theater-making is more than just an extracurricular activity. 

This tradition is clearest—and most enduring—in the Ateneo High School. Dulaang Sibol, founded in 1955 by Onofre R Pagsanghan (known to students and the community as Mr Pagsi) is the university’s longest-running theatre group. Originating from the Ateneo High School Dramatics Society, Dulaang Sibol became the heart of Atenean theater. It is most known for Sinta, Mr Pagsi’s translation of The Fantasticks that has been staged by Sibol year-in and year-out since the late 1970s.

Like most of what makes up an Ateneo education, this long-standing reverence for the theater and dramatics is also sewn into the core of Jesuit pedagogy, as mentioned by Fr Miguel A Bernad SJ in his book Dramatics at the Ateneo¹.

In 1972, two decades after Sibol’s formation and just a year shy of Fr Arrupe’s groundbreaking “men for others” speech, Tanghalang Ateneo was established, a student-led theater company moderated in its early days by Salvador Bernal and Doreen Fernandez. Throughout its history, TA would go on to mount critically acclaimed productions of classic and contemporary texts, and Sibol would remain steadfast in its tradition of staging culturally important productions ad majorem Dei gloriam. On its website, TA proclaims: “It sees itself as a theater company in the service of student formation, and by extension – given the Jesuit ideal of magis – a theater in service of the nation.”

Ateneo ENTABLADO (ENterteynment para sa TAo, Bayan, LAnsangan at DiyOs) and Ateneo Blue Repertory, formed in 1983 and 1991 respectively, are also strong actors when it comes to theater on campus. ENTABLADO, known to local audiences as ENTA, has been staging socio-political plays reflective and critical of the ills of Filipino society, acting in accordance with truth and justice. blueREP’s seasons are both entertaining and incisive, their productions ranging from musicals like Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey’s Next to Normal and Carlo Vergara and Vincent A De Jesus’ Zsazsa Zaturnnah the Musical. 

Now more than ever, and in the country especially, theater is experiencing a renaissance. No longer (or rarely) do theater companies play to half-filled seats, and local productions are flocked to just as much as international stagings are. For as long as it has existed, theater has endured even the most tempestuous of political climates, emerging stronger and more resilient always. This is in part due to the people who make it: those who perform and embody the characters we sympathize with, those who write the stories, those who cast light on it, who create the world, who produce the music and play the songs. 

Theater, whether on Ateneo grounds or outside, has the power to change lives. And it has, for a long, long time now—both for its artists and for its audiences. 

“I see theater as an outstandingly humanizing experience,” Mr Pagsi said in 1976, in a letter addressed to Sibol members². “Theater is symbolized by the crying-laughing mask; and the true Sibol man behind the Sibol mask is not an actor merely; but hopefully, prayerfully, humbly—a man lyrically in love with life, a man vibrantly for others, a christ.”

¹ https://www.oocities.org/vonjobi/aboutds.htm

² https://www.oocities.org/vonjobi/aboutdsdream.htm