Noli, The Musical in LA again

Over the weekend, my two daughters, Mate' and Nenen sent me their Father's Day greeting from Los Angeles where they are presently busy with the restaging of Noli Me Tangere, The Musical.

Of course, I promised them a space here to call out to our readers who may have relatives and friends in that part of the US to go and watch the show at the Cerritos Center for Performing Arts in Orange County with a matinee performance at 2 p.m. and the gala at 8 p.m. July 11.

Apart from my daughters, there are three other Negrenses who are part of the production. Joey Uytiepo who grew up in Bacolod and studied at La Salle will be playing Elias, the same role he did in the LA production last year. His son, Marco, will also be part of the production crew.

This year's producers are Nonie Belarmino and Christina Rosel, and the latter happens to be from Negros as well and related to the Chavez and Locsin clans.

Noli, the musical, is different from Noli, the opera, which had a run at the Resorts World recently. The musical is a product of collaboration of great minds in Philippine arts and culture.

Ryan Cayabyab created the music for Noli while National Artist Bien Lumbera wrote the libretto. Another theater genius, Nonon Padilla, whom I've had the pleasure in meeting in the past, did the original direction for the musical.

We are all familiar with Rizal's novels, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo, reading requirements for high school.

Surprisingly, El Fili, the musical, was created first and its success in CCP led to the creation of Noli and both musicals were toured in Japan where it was widely received and in other parts of Asia.

My daughters were part of the original cast of the musicals and when former colleagues tapped them to help restage Noli for the first time in the US last year, the two agreed and were part of the creation of Teatro Pilipino USA which aims to bring more Filipino musicals and plays there.

Last year's production was a full house in a smaller Aratani Theater in downtown LA and this time, the grander Cerritos which seats 1,400 will be the home of Noli.

What is more interesting is the added attraction of internationally known eco-fashion designer, John Ablaza who will put on display at the lobby the Rizal artifacts he has been touring around the US.

I asked my daughters what is an eco-fashion designer and the explanation was bringing organic to a different level, by incorporating all indigenous materials in his creations, something that of course cannot be copied by other designers since most, if not all of the products can only be found in the Philippines.

In between the matinee and gala performances, Binibining Pilipinas USA contenders will model Ablaza's creations amidst the Rizal artifacts. Now I could not anymore comprehend that but perhaps it may interest your friends and relatives who are now residing in the LA and Orange County area.

In this particular July production my daughters will be co-managing the staging with Nenen as musical director and Mate' as director, still staying true to Padilla's direction with just a few innovations like video graphics to add more color and depth to the play.

I think this will be a good opportunity for our kasimanwas there to introduce Filipino arts and culture to the new generation and I hope more and more Negrenses will join the theater group and help promote sariling atin.*

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