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Studies
Philippine 28(1980): 389-419
INDIGENOUS DRAMA
1. Vicente El TeatroTagalo(Madrid:
Barrantes, deManuel
Tipografia GinesHernan-
dez,1890).
2. Wenceslao Noticias
E. Retana, Historico-bibliogra enFilipinas
ficasde el Teatro
desdesusorigines
hasta1898(Madrid:Libreria
GeneraldeVictorianoSuarez,
1909).
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390 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
RITUALS
The many rituals that punctuated the daily life of the Filipino
- his birth, his assuming of a name, his reaching of manhood or
womanhood (marked by circumcision or by menstruation),
courtship and marriage, planting and harvest, illness, battle, vic-
tory over enemies, the assumption of office of a new chieftain,
death - were mostly marked by some mimetic action. In them,
the petitioner offered sacrifice symbolic of himself to seek the
favor of the hidden powers - the supreme being, Bathalang May-
kapal to the Tagalogs; the anitos and other spiritualforces such as
the sun, the moon, tala (morning star), or bahag-hari (rainbow);
even certain powerful creatures, such as the crocodile; and certain
trees, rocks, and birds. The high priest or priestess, called baylan,
babaylan, catalonan, among other names, was at times mediator
and intercessor, and at times the figure of power, and therefore
representativeof the spiritwhose favorwas being sought.
Perhaps the very firstnative ritual recorded and reported to the
Western world was that documented by Pigafetta in his Primer
Viaggio Intorno al Mondo, and seen by Magellan and his men.3
In it two priestesses brought in offeringsof food, made obeisance
to the sun, then chanted, danced, and sacrificed a pig. AfterPiga-
fetta, various friars- Colin, Plasencia, Chirino, etc.4 - incorpora-
ted in their reports to their religious superiors in Spain detailed
reports of rituals for marriage, for going to war, for birth and
death, for plantingand harvest,for illness and victory- forall the
important landmarks in tribal life, all the touchstones of survival
as a tribal community. These reports were later reinforced by
those of the European travellerswho roamed all over the archi-
pelago in the 19th century- Germans, Frenchmen, Englishmen-
a fact which proves that some four centuries of Christianization
had not erased the Filipinos' belief in the power and meaning of
their rituals, some of which survive to this day among the non-
Christian and Moslem Filipinos, and even, in Christian transfor-
mation, among the ChristianFilipinos.
3. Antonio FirstVoyage
Pigafetta, AroundtheWorld Book
(Manila:Filipiniana
Guild,1969).
4. PedroChirino, de lasIslasFilipinas
S.J.,Relación (1604),trans.
Ramon Echevar-
ria(Manila:
Historical
Conservation
Society,1969).
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 391
In 1663, Francisco Colin, S.J., wrote that the natives had songs
"that they retain in their memory and repeat when they go on
the sea, sung to the time of their rowing, and in their merry-
makings, feasts, and funerals,and even in their work ... In those
songs are recounted the fabulous genealogies and vain deeds of
their gods." Dances he witnessed too, "warlike and passionate, but
. . . [with] steps and measured changes, and interposed . . . [with]
some elevations that really enraptureand surprise."
Songs and dances were quite usually part of ritual and, when
outside of ritual, often had mimetic elements of their own. The
Jesuit Alzina, writingin 1668, records that the Leyte-Samar Visa-
yans had at least six song types.5 The ambahan, a seven-syllable
verse of unrhymed couplets, each expressing a complete state-
ment, was sung by a soloist, with a crowd singing the chorus.
The bikal was a verbal joust in song with two girls or two boys
facing each other across a room and, in satirical dialogue, finding
fault with each other for the purpose of arousing laughter. The
audience goaded either participant with "great merriment and
much applause." In the balak, courting was accomplished in met-
aphors, and done either verbally or by means of instruments-
the young man playing the kudyapi and the maiden the korlong
- with the communication perfectly understood. The siday was
sung by ambulant groups of singers, who were paid for their
services and the parahaya were dirges sung by women during
wakes.
One notes that at least some of these songs involved not just
words and music but some form of verbal exchange and mime-
tic action.
Many dances are quite directly imitative, especially of occu-
pations: wild boar hunting for the Igorots, orange-picking or
mudfish-catchingfor the Tausogs, the finding of a beehive and
getting stung by angry bees for the Negritos. Others imitate the
movements of animals: fish, ducklings, ricebirds. Still others
illustrate native lifeways, as the Maranaw kapi-malongmalong
shows all the possible ways a malong is worn. And finally those
that are part of ritual emphasize - sometimes symbolically or
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392 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
CUSTOMS
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 393
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394 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
COM EDIA
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 395
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396 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
The boys' game may or may not have inspired the play that was
later conceived, but was significant,according to Retana, because
in it "one sees, for the first time in the Philippines, the idea of
moros y cristianospracticed in a theatricalmode . .
On 5 July of the same year, Father Hieronimo Perez's play,
gran comedia de la toma del Pueble de Corralat, y conquista del
Cerro, was performedin church,with the Governor,the Audiencia,
the Archbishop, and the principalia of the city of Manila in atten-
dance.
This play has often been called the firstmoro-moro ever per-
formed in the Philippines. A careful distinction should now be
made. As Retana says, it was definitely the firstcomedia on a
Philippine subject ever to be written or performedin the islands.
It had genuine Philippine moros and Christians in it. However,
it was almost surely in Spanish, and in the Spanish form. There-
fore, it was a comedia and not a native Komedya, which is the
other name for moro-moro. Moreover, this play had Filipinos
(Muslims and Christians) as characters - while, as Retana also
notes, in Philippine literature(dramatic literature,as well as awit
and corrido), the moro was not the Malay Mohammedan of Min-
danao and Jolo, but "always, invariably, the arrogant moro, the
seducer, he of the long thick beard of imported literature, the
moro of Spanish literature; in other words, the unknown moro,
never the moro who for whole centuries attacked as often as he
could the coasts of the Visayas and Luzon" (a referenceto the
Muslim pirates).8
In short, Fr. Perez's gran comedia was significantbecause it had
an actual historical event as its subject matter, and was thus an
early venture into the use of Philippine material for drama. It was
not, however, a moro-moro and not even the ancestor of moro-
moros, except possibly in form.
THE KOMEDYA
8. On themoro-moroseeFelicidad TheComedia
Mendoza, Re-disco-
(Moro-Moro)
vered
(privately 1976).
printed,
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 397
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398 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
and swords shook the timbers of the stage with their fencing
(which used the movements of amis)-, the palasintahan or love
scenes, in which love (as instantaneous as in courtly days) was
declared and accepted in many lyrical, dodecasyllabic rhyming
quatrains; the laugh-provokingscenes where the pusong (clown or
clowns) made jokes, poked fun at personages on or off stage,
drank wine and ate food carried around in knapsacks, or fought
mock battles; the scenes of magic and enchantmentcalled mahiya,
where ingenious "special effects" enabled flowers to bloom,
waterfalls to suddenly spurt, graves to open, birds to fly, en-
chantresses to appear and disappear; the scenes of danger, when
a prince had to do battle with some denizen of the wild - lion,
bear, giant, bandit - met in the forest,or - graverdanger - with
a princess disguised as a man with whom he instantly fell in love
once her identity was revealed; and the scenes of pathos, such as
that of a king deposed, a queen violated, a princess exiled by a
cruel father(ang pagpapalayas ng prinsesa).
By the time the Augustinián Fr. Joaquin Martinez de Zuñiga
arrived in the late 18th century,he noted that the native comedia
tended to "satisfy the sight rather than the sense of hearing,"
something that was probably quite natural for outdoor stagingin
a time without microphones. "If the so-called comedia or show,"
he wrote, "does not have three or four kings, many princes and
princesses and many actors, if it does not have such wonderful
feats and artifices as eagles that appear, lions, bears, and other
animals that are fierce enough to swallow a man; if there are no
apparitions or miracles, then that comedia was no good."9
Zuñiga's account of a comedia has a Christian princess falling
in love with a Muslim prince, and the Christian prince arranging
a torneo (tournament) so that the victor could win his daughter's
hand. The Muslim prince, who befriends the Christian camp, dis-
plays valor and prowess. However, he cannot marry the princess
because of his religion. The play ends after the Moro is converted
to the Christianfaith.
If, Zuñiga explains, a Muslim princess falls in love with a Chris-
tian prince, there is a problem, because the prince will never re-
nounce his faith. He will find himself in dire situations. Agigante
9. JoaquinMartinez Estadismo
de Zuñiga, Im-
, Vol.1 Madrid:
de lasIslasFilipinas
dela ViudadeM.Minuesa
prenta delosRios,1893).
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 399
RELIGIOUS D RAMA
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400 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
11. Nicanor
G. Tiongson,"AngDulang TheLiterary
Pilipino," 44 (1976-
Apprentice
77) andhis"MgaAny o ngDulang saDantaong
Pilipino ika-16
hanggang Kasay-
ika-18,"
sayan1 (Nobyembre1977).
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 401
Son has risen from the dead. Different towns with different
budgets and imaginations have evolved differentpractices. It is
said that in the San Roque districtin Cavite City, the cherub used
to be lowered from a tall building by a rope around her waist, but
today a mechanical doll is used to do the job. In other places,
intricate pulley arrangements raise and lower giant flowers or
puso that enclose the "angel"; or a single pulley may pull up a
child's highchair - with the child in it. Still other places are
said to use doves to lift the veil.
The Sinakulo, best known of the full-lengthdramas, is still an
annual institution in towns in Pampanga, Cavite, Bulacan, Rizal,
and the regions of Luzon. It is believed to have originated around
the 18th century, since the earliestpasyon, that of Gaspar Aquino
de Belen, was writtenin 1704, and it is logical to assume that from
chanting the pasyon aloud, some towns progressed to assigning
parts, then to using costumes, and finally to acting out the parts
in costume.
Most sinakulos, however are heavily based on the Pasyong
Henesis (1814), since this provides much dramatic material, start-
ing as it does with the creation of Adam and Eve, and ending with
the Coronation of the Blessed Virgin in Heaven, as many full-
length sinakulos do. Other sources dipped into by folk poets in
search of material have been: other pasyons, like the Pasyon Kan-
daba ; Mártir sa Golgota, the translation of a Spanish fictionalized
account of the life of Christ, from which are taken such colorful
and beloved apocryphal characters as Samuel Belibet and Boan-
erhes, suitor to Mary Magdalen; various awit and short stories.
The opposing forces in the sinakulo are the forces of the good,
represented by the banal, the holy ones (Jesus and Mary, slow of
speech and movement, hands folded and eyes downcast in resigna-
tion and meekness); and the forces of evil, represented by the
Hudyo, the rough, sharp-tonguedsoldiers, and the power - Herod,
Pilate, Annas, and Caiphas - who sent Christto his death.
The religious dramas,performedyear afteryear by townspeople,
were supported initiallyby the church, and eventually by the com-
munity at large, who contributed money or goods for the presen-
tation; who wrote scripts,called rehearsals,made props and stage,
and offered time, devotion, and panata vows to the project. Al-
though at the present they may well be more of folk spectacles
and community projects than religious observances, it is undenia-
ble that they are part of the rural lifestyle and reflectiveof (pro-
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402 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 403
L. Buenaventura,
14. Cristina ofManila:1846-1896
"TheTheaters Stu-
"Philippine
dies27(1979):5-37.
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404 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
and zarzuela actress Elisea Raguer, who arrivedin 1880. They not
only presented plays, but trained the young Filipino actors who
became the mainstays of the Spanish zarzuela in the Philippines:
Práxedes (Yeyeng) Fernandez (who started performingat sixteen
or seventeen), Patrocinio Tagaroma, Nemesio Ratia, and Jose Car-
vajal.
The writing of contemporary plays about Philippine subjects
(as against Moro-Cristiano battles and religioustopics) also started
in the 19th century. Retana makes mention of: La Conquista de
Jolo, a three-act drama in verse by Antonio Garcia del Canto,
first performed on 11 June 1865, and inspired by the exploits
of General Urbiztondo; Una pagina de gloria by Federico Casade-
munt and Regino Escalera, one act, in verse, first performed
23 April 1876, celebratingthe Jolo campaigns of General Malcampo;
Republica . . . domèstica about costumbres manilenses, by Casa-
demunt and Escalera, in one act and in verse, firstperformed
30 June 1878; Jose el carpintero by Juan Zulueta de los Angeles,
about costumbres filipinas, in one act and in verse, published
1880; Jose Rizal's Junto al Pasig, firstperformedat the Ateneo
de Manila, 8 December 1880; the famous Cuadros filipinos,sainete
by Francisco de Entrala, performed 1882, which aroused the ire
of Filipinos who saw it as "savage burlesque of all that is Filipino";
and a comic review by Eduardo Saavedra firstperformedin Iloilo
in March 1896, called A 7 con 7 el pico o La llegada del "peso in-
sular" y el fin de los contratos usurarios, which had to do with
the price of sugar.
THE ZARZUELA
15. See,forexample,
DoreenG.Fernandez,
TheIloiloZarzuela
: 1903-1930
(Quezon
City:AteneodeManila
University
Press,
1978).
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 405
theater, and when the more polished Italian operas came to Spain
in 1703, the impresarios branded the zarzuela un arte vulgar,pre-
ferringthe "high" tone of the opera.
In the Philippines, the firstvernacular zarzuela was written in
Pampanga: Mariano Proceso Pabalan Byron's Ing Managpe, first
staged at the Teatro Sabina in Bacolor, Pampanga, on 1 September
1900. Its instant success was encouraging, and within the next
decade, almost every other region developed its zarzuelas. In
Pangasinan, Catalino Palisoc wrote Say limang ag nagketket,pam-
pinsiwan in 1901; in Iloilo Valente Cristobal wrote Ang Capitan
in 1903; and Severino Reyes premiered his one-act zarzuela Ang
Kaiupi in April 1902 (when it was double-billed with his anti-
komedya R.I. P., which caused demonstrationsand stone-throwing
by the komedyantes) and his three-act Walang Sugat on 14 June
1902. 16
The Filipino zarzuela, as it developed, was principally about
domestic life - obedient or disobedient children, negligent or
devoted parents, problems brought about by gambling or drink-
ing or politics or poverty, and, most of the time, problems and
complications involving love (rich boy-poor girl and vice-versa;
conflicting suitors, each favored by a parent; love between ser-
vants, children, parents). Again and again, the Filipino folk writers
- there were no professionalsto speak of except perhaps in Manila
- played variations on the domestic theme, thus reflectingthe
concerns and perceptions of Filipino daily life. ¡
How did the plots unravel? Reyes' Walang Sugat is about Julia
and Temyong, who loved each other but had to be parted because
Temyong had to go to war. Julia, as an obedient daughter,had to
accede to her mother's wish that she marryMiguel, a richbut slow-
witted nephew of the parish priest. A message sent to Temyong
-
brings him back in the nick of time to save her from marriage
througha ruse. A side plot reveals the still-freshresentmentagainst
the Spanish friar,for Temyong's fatherand other villagersare tor-
tured and deceived by dastardly friars.
Servando de los Angeles' Ang Kiri is about a dalagang masaya
who had suitors of wealth and political power, but fell in love with
a country boy. When he marrieshis country sweetheart,she realizes
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406 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
the folly of her ways, and accepts the faithfulJose, poet and long-
time suitor. Precioso Palma's Paglipas ng Dilim is about the ro-
mance between the mahinhin Estrella and the newly-graduated
doctor Ricardo, which the flirtCaridad tries to sunder. Patricio
Mariano's Anak ng Dagat has Nene, who had grown up as a fisher-
man's daughter, finding out that she is a rich man's heir, which
makes Carlos, the poet she loves, stay away (rich and poor being
worlds apart). They findhappiness in the end.17
The one-act zarzuelas had little vignettesabout husbands who
bet at the cockfightsand lost all their money; wives who played
panguingue; widows and widowers planning marriage and hiding
the fact fromtheir respectiveoffspring;possessive fathersguarding
precious daughters; disobedient daughters realizing the folly of
their ways - all the little foibles and fictionsreflectiveof Filipino
familyconcerns.
The zarzuela songs, which functioned as part of the dialogue,
served as exposition (of mood, of situation, of feelings), develop-
ment, comic interlude, or even simply musical pause. As in the
opera, which was beginning to be viewed in Manila at this time,
there were solos, duets, trios, sextets, and grand choruses - de-
pending on the availability of singersand on the lengthand magni-
tude of the zarzuela (a one act-play had a single situation; a three-
act play or zarzuela grande had greaterscope and depth).
These songs became the song hits of the period, for example
Hermógenes Ilagan's Dalagang Bukid's "Nabasag ang Banga." The
stars, like Atang de la Rama, were the folk heroes and heroines
of the day. The professional troupes usually opened the new
zarzuelas at the Zorilla, then went on to performat the smaller
theaters, and then to play one-night stands at the town and
barrio fiestas all over Luzon and the larger southern cities. The
towns and barrios generally had their own writers, zarzuelas,
and zarzuela troupes, and these performed at fiestas, and could
even be hired for a fee by other towns not blessed with their
own theatrical companies. The town of Meycauyan, Bulacan, for
example, at one time had eight zarzuela troupes operating in-
dependently of each other. The late Aurelio Estanislao remembers
firsthearing Atang de la Rama sing in his hometown of Bocaue
17. Mariano's
workis takenup byConception AngMgaDulaniPatricio
S. Javier,
Mariano
(Manila: ofNational
Institute 1940).
Language,
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 407
THE DRAMA
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408 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 409
wonder that she warned her children, after the defeat of the
Spaniards, about the new "friend," Malaynatin, the American
government, from whom she begged and whom she eventually
challenged, for freedom.
These plays were staged at a time when the sedition law forbade
"printing, publishing or circulating any handbill, newspaper or
publication, advocating . . . independence or separation," the flag
law forbade the flying of the Philippine flag, and the Himno
Nacional could not be played or sung without risk of punishment.
The playwrights took the risk and were imprisoned for their
valor - some, like Aurelio Tolentino, more than once.20 Pro-
ducers and directors ran other risks, like introducing characters
in the flag colors to form the flag onstage at a given signal; or
suddenly having the whole cast sing the national anthem at the
end of a play; or even having an unscheduled speech or verse,
sometimes by a rebel in hiding. Little wonder that the theater
of that time was so exciting, so unpredictable, and as vital as
a newspaper, since it reflecteddirect and courageous protest.
After 1907, when the first National Assembly was called,
the anger seems to have died down, and the dramas thereafter
played on predictable formulae of family conflict and tragedy,
romantic triangles,and the like. An example would be Jose Maria
Rivera's Esperanza (1916), about a lady who has put a colorful
past behind her, but is still spurned by her husband's rich family.
His illness brings the problem to a head, and a sudden inheritance
brings a happy ending. One of the most famous romantic dramas
would be Cirio H. Panganiban's Veronidia (1919), in which Vero-
nidia has left her husband for Cristino, a childhood suitor, and
now is torn with remorse, especially since her husband is dying
and their only child is with him. Cristino's pride will not allow
him to let her go to Rosauro, and so in the end he stabs her. The
play was firstshown in Panganiban's hometown, Bocaue, but it
became a great hit and "flooded the theater with tears" in 1927,
when Atang de la Rama, then "Queen of the Zarzuela" and in-
deed of Philippine professional theater of the day, and acclaimed
poet Jose Corazon de Jesus played the title roles. The drama type
of plot may still be seen in contemporary survivalin the lachry-
work,seeEdnaZ. Manlapaz,
20. ForTolentino's ofAurelio
ed.,SelectedWritings
Tolentino
(Quezon ofthePhilippines
City:University 1975).
Library,
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410 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 41 1
VAUDEVILLE
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412 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 413
22. CarlosPalancaMemorial
Awards, Winners
ofAward
Anthologies and
inEnglish
I, II,III.
Tagalog
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414 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
published nor staged, but kept filed. A few groups - and theater
groups then came up and disappeared literally like mushrooms -
staged these. Occasionally a playwrightwould exert effortto get
his plays published, or get a school or other group to stage his
play. But it was not till the '60's that the Palanca Awards Commit-
tee started committingfunds for the publication of Palanca plays;
and not till the '70's that funds were committed to production.
Among the prominent winners of Palanca awards for plays in
English were Alberto Fiorentino, WilfridoNolledo, Nestor Torre,
Jesus Peralta, Fidel Sicam, and Estrella Alfon.
23. Forrepresentative
collections
ofFilipino
playssee:Alberto
Florentino,ed.,Out-
standing Short
Filipino Plays(Manila:
Filipiniana 1961)andSimplicio
Publishers, Flores
andM. JacoboEnriquez,Sampung DulangTig-iisang Book
Yugto(Manila:Philippine
Company, 1973).
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 415
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416 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 417
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418 PHILIPPINE
STUDIES
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FROMRITUALTO REALISM 419
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All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions