THEATER artists and practitioners who have experience working in theater but lack skills on special areas of stage production need not worry anymore.
Every summer, Teatrokon—the West Visayas Theater Network—is conducting Pandayan Workshops to develop the skills of theater artists on stage production. “Pandayan” is Hiligaynon for “workshop.”
Four years ago, Teatrokon has partnered with the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), the Negros Museum and the University of St. La Salle to initiate a mid-summer theater workshop in Bacolod City dubbed “Pandayan Workshops”
Pandayan aims to discover, encourage and provide opportunities of learning to theater practitioners lack skills stage production.
Every year since its inception, the annual workshops have attracted theater practitioners from Negros and Panay islands.
It has been able to tap national figures in theater as resource persons to share their expertise to the budding artists.
Teatrokon has also offered other theater courses such as playwriting, theater documentation, directing, marketing and promotions, among others.
This summer, Pandayan will offer three courses on May 16-18 at the Negros Museum. These are Mise en Scene: A Production Design Workshop; Silhouettes: Costume Design for Theater; and Making Faces: Stage Make-up.
The workshops will be held from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Pandayan has just finished the first of the four courses being offered this summer. It was about Technical Theater and Basic Stagecraft conducted last April 22 to 26 at the Negros Museum and at the Gallaga Theater of USLS.
The five-day workshop conducted by Carmel Osmena-Orbida has taught the participants theories and practical applications on some specialized areas in theater such as set or scenery, props or property, costumes, hair and make-up, effects and special effects and all aspects of video: projectors, wall and digital screens. However, emphasis was given to lighting and sound or audio.
Carmel, known as “Checcs” to her friends, is a multi-faceted stage, TV, radio, film, print and web artist who is also an environmental advocate, a teacher on Solid Waste Management to impoverished communities and has conducted several programs and projects that has benefitted mountain schoolchildren.
At certain periods in her life, she has worked as an actress for stage, TV and film, a lounge singer, sound engineer, musical scorer, technical writer, novelette writer, graphics consultant, magazine editor, features writer, columnist, web designer/writer/master, costume designer for film and stage, TV executive producer, TV and theater director, technical director for stage, estate manager, farmer, aqua-culturist and college teacher.
On the other hand, the Mise en Scene Workshop, a French term for “placing on stage,” is an introductory course on the principles of Production Design.
It will be handled by Zard Eguia, a Production Design degree holder from the De La Salle-College of St. Benilde. He is currently working as an associate production designer under ADFIX Production Design for events, theater and print and is the resident production designer of Theater Down South under the direction of Michael Williams.
Zard has recently been nominated for “Best Outstanding Set Design” in the Gawad Buhay! 2012 Philstage Awards for the Performing Arts for his work on the production “Neo Filipino: Anting” of Ballet Philippines.
According to Zard, the course will include principles of design, application of design principles, preparation and procedures for production design and research. The course addresses all the aspects of preparation before the actual drafting of plan, fabrication of models and the building of sets.
For the past 20 years, Dr. Adrian Torres was a production and costume designer for stage, film, TV and commercials. He will share his expertise in the workshop on Costume Design for Theater dubbed as “Silhouettes.”
This Bachelor of Fine Arts, major in Advertising Arts graduate of LCC-Bacolod has worked with some of the top directors of Philippine cinema, including Peque Gallaga, Mac Alejandre, Erik Matti, Tony Reyes and Richard Somes.
He was awarded Best in Production Design for “Ishmael” of Cinema One and “Aishite Imasu” of GMA Network.
The Costume Design workshop will focus on the fundamental process of costume design, giving the participants the tools to design and the resources to execute the design through demonstrations and hands-on exercises.
The workshop on Stage Make-up will be under the supervision of Noel Morales, one of the top facilitators and lecturers of the defunct Negros Summer Workshops. Noel was the make-up artist of two indie films shot in Negros by Jay Abello— “Namets” and “Ligaw-Liham.”
Since its inception in 2009, Pandayan has invited the country’s top theater practitioners as lecturers—Gardy Labad and Glecy Atienza, both former chairs of the Committee on Dramatic Arts of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts for Directing for Stage and Theater Documentation, respectively; Glenn Mas, Ateneo de Manila professor and Palanca awardee for playwriting, among others.
Those interested to enroll in the workshop can contact Tanya Lopez, executive director of the Negros Museum at 0933-588-6421; this writer, who is the president of Teatrokon at 0905-453-0985 or Cleo Patricio at 0915-810-1783 and (034) 433 4764/708 5080.