(old letters: May 7, 2000)
Kathleen, Michaell, Jan, Leanne, Carl, and Dante,
Still trying to catch up reading your letters. Congratulations! to Carl, for making it to Steppenwolf and to Jan, for completing your doctorate…
Am annotating a six-week workshop for basic acting (adults), am learning a lot in the process…
Cameron Macintosh’s “Miss Saigon” is going to be staged here… not too happy about that… they are spending a lot of money to do that, money which could have been used to produce shows which are more relevant and “Filipino.” As some have remarked, it’s a western play with a western viewpoint, conceptualized and directed by westerners, utilizing asian talents.
No doubt, because of it, Filipinos came to be recognized as more than mere “domestic helpers.”
And it would certainly be a rare treat for Filipinos to watch big mechanized, revolving stages and helicopters descending on the stage… but the thing is, it won’t help much in the development of Philippine theater. In the process, they’re also displacing the Philippine Philharmonic Orchestra, Ballet Philippines, and Tanghalang Pilipino (where I am a scholar-member of its Actors’ Company) from the Cultural Center of the Philippines (where Miss Saigon’s gonna be staged). Of the eight to ten plays mounted by TP per season, only four would be at the CCP (because of Miss Saigon). The CCP conference room, which has been the regular rehearsal room of TP’s plays, would be transformed into an office of the Miss Saigon guys.
I don’t know, even though I was made in Vietnam (really! my parents met there.), I’ve never really liked Miss Saigon… (I’ve never seen it… but I’ve never seen “Les Miserables,” too, and I like it.)
Am intending to become a freelance writer, while also auditioning for plays, etc.
Salamat.
ian