Tags: Dance, Performing Arts, Theater
By Anna Valmero
QUEZON CITY, METRO MANILA— Aside from inspiring young viewers to read more, the musical play “William” wants students to understand – not merely memorize – their lessons in school.
The musical production is one of the most famous and widely celebrated plays by Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) to date. More than its popularity, however, the play highlights significant life lessons that students and even adults can learn from reading Shakespeare.
In brief, the play is about a class who finds it hard to study Shakespeare. But with the right motivation and drive for creativity from their teacher, they found that they can relate to Shakespeare’s characters and that his message is universal, they were not just reading him before with a heart to appreciate his works and his lessons.
Emelou Therese Gorecho, who played the role of the English teacher “Ms. Lutgarda Martinez,” urged the educators in the country to “be more creative in teaching lessons” to stimulate the minds of young students.
In the play, Teacher Martinez always harped on students the importance of understanding the lesson of homework instead of memorizing blocks of texts copied from the Internet.
She also encourages them to be more concerned of reciting the lines with heart instead of mastering the speech delivery with an American accent but not understanding anything at all.
It took about five meetings before the students got the wisdom on the importance of studying Shakespeare, whom they referred to as “William” and how relevant his kilometric sonnets and plays are up until today.
This method of teaching is refreshing considering that some if not most teachers would just allow students to memorize texts, instead of paraphrasing them on their own to understand them.
“I encourage teachers to use whatever medium of instruction they are comfortable with in teaching,” said Gorecho.
“For the play we used rap and hip hop to reach out to the youth. For the students, they could try singing the literary works into songs or internalize the characters and look for someone that they can relate to the most, just like in the play.”
Among the gems of wisdom that “William” teaches is about passion for life and the importance of taking risks and being optimistic instead of being afraid to change, both of which were directed to the timid character of “Erwin” portrayed by Inno Martin.
“My favorite line from my role as Ms. Martinez is, “Mabuti pa yung bigay na bigay na palpak kesa ingat na ingat na tumpak.” It says it doesn’t matter if you fail as long as you put your heart into whatever you’re doing. Doing things passionately is as important as learning lessons from failures,” Gorecho said.
All the actors who played the roles of the five protagonist students – all of whom interestingly wore colors reminiscent of the popular Japanese series BioMan – aid they, too, can relate to the fright and awkwardness in reading highfaluting literary prose.
“I am averse in reading Shakespeare back in high school. Through the play, I learned to understand his works and I loved his poems because they are inspiring. The lessons from his works were translated to simple terms and ideas in this play so students can easily absorb and relate to them,” Martin said.
For John Moran, who played the character of junior batch representative and closet gay “Richard,” one of the strongest lines delivered by the cast is not be afraid of Shakespeare.
“One of the strongest lines we had is at the closing: ‘Wag kang matakot, di kailangan sa kanya ay mangamba (No need to be frightened, He should not be feared)’ to erase the fear of Shakespeare as we did the play. This play presents him in cool manner,” Moran said.
Moran added that students should take the advice of Ms. Martinez to deconstruct literary works by translating them into Filipino before reading the original text again. Using the phrases in conversational manner and passion is more important than adopting a foreign accent, he said.
Moran said he hopes that the promotion of the value of reading in the play would translate to more students reading literary classics, including those written by great Filipino authors.
For Norbs Portales who portrayed the character of class bully TJ Domingo, one of the lessons of the play is to teach the audience, especially the youth that they have the power to determine the outcome of their life.
“My favorite line in the play is this: ‘Tayo ang gumagawa ng sarili nating mga dula, sa entablo ng buhay na tayo ang lumilikha.’ Kasi ang buhay natin ay isang malaking drama at kung paano natatapos yung kwento, sa mga choices naten nakadepende,” he added.
Overall, the two-hour play is hit among the audience. Even the three bugoys or supporting cast composed of Cheeno, Carlon Mtobato and FeliciaConstantino played their roles very well and proved that there is no such thing as a small role in any play.
Since its play date started, throngs of high school students and theater fans have watched the show, with at least 800 people watching on a single day, said Leloi Arcete, PETA press relations supervisor.
So if you love Shakespeare or any of his play, or you went there out of a school requirement or sheer curiosity, the play is sure to inspire you and enlighten you about life. Let the play show you how.
“William” will run from September 23 to 25 at 10a.m. and 3p.m. For tickets and other details, contact the PETA Theater Center at 725-6244, 722-6911 or 410-0821
Get more information about the PETA Theater Center
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