Xn3cTs

Dulaang UP’s Production of Frank Wedekind’s “Lulu”

LULU is a story of a person who has no qualms about the body and its sexual needs. Lulu, who is the alluring woman in the English version and the captivating transsexual in Filipino, is a being able to explore and express her desires without compromise or guilt. Adored and lusted after by men, women and creatures of the world, she takes them to a dance of bodily freedom, of the mind’s liberation and of utter ecstasy. But like any other person, Lulu searches for the other that could accept and understand her seemingly deviant nature.

In her hunt, Lulu meets a myriad of “civilized beasts”: painters, writers, the educated and the ignorant, the rich and poor men, the young and the dying who are upright and honorable by day but transform to hungry animals in the dark. Lulu embraces each person only to find him or her weak and forever trapped by man’s idea of propriety.

English Cast:
Che Ramos as LULU
Angeli Bayani as GESCHWITZ
Jules de la Paz as GOLL / HUGENBERG / HUNIDEI
Missy Maramara as JACK / RINGMASTER
Paolo O’Hara as DR. SCHON / CASTI-PIANI
Meynard Penalosa as SCHIGOLCH
Gabs Santos as ALVA SCHON
Randy Villarama as SCHWARZ / RODRIGO

Filipino Cast:
Tuxqs Rutaquio as LULU.
Acey Aguilar as SCHWARZ / RODRIGO
Alexander Cortez as SCHIGOLCH
Jules de la Paz as GOLL / HUGENBERG / HUNIDEI
Ian Lomongo as DR. SCHON / CASTI-PIANI
Jojit Lorenzo as JACK / RINGMASTER
Andoy Ranay as GESCHWITZ
JC Santos as ALVA

Direction and Choreography: Dexter M. Santos
Filipino Translation: Joel Saracho
Production Design: Tuxqs Rutaquio
Lights Design: John Batalla
Dramaturgy and Additional Text: Patrick Valera
Sounds Design: J Victor Villareal
Photography and Poster Design: Jojit Lorenzo
Poster Art Direction: Carlo Vergara

LULU will open on Aug 5 and will run till Aug 23 at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, UP Diliman.

English:
5 August 7pm - Opening
6 August 7pm
7 August 7pm - Gala
8 August 10am, 3pm
9 August 10am, 3pm
19 August 7pm
22 August 10am, 3pm

Filipino:
12 August 7pm - Opening
13 August 7pm
14 August 7pm - Gala
15 August 10am, 3pm
16 August 10am, 3pm
20 August 7pm
21 August 7pm
23 August 10am, 3pm

THIS PRODUCTION CONTAINS SCENES AND MATERIAL STRICTLY FOR MATURE AUDIENCES.

“2046.”

If you fell in love with Mr. Chow (Tony Leung) and Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung) — who, along with Zhang Ziyi, was in Zhang Yimou’s “Hero” — in Wong Kar Wai’s “In the Mood for Love,” you shouldn’t miss this wonderful masterpiece of a sequel!

If you haven’t seen “In the Mood for Love,” you’d still appreciate the great film that is “2046″ (just like some people must have seen “Before Sunset” without seeing “Before Sunrise”). But I think the weight of our empathy with the travails of Mr. Chow stems from having known what he has gone through in the previous film.

It’s now a toss-up between Claude I-forgot-this-french-canadian’s-surname’s “Leolo” and Wong Kar Wai’s “2046″ as my favorite movie of all time.

Incidentally, doesn’t Tony Leung bear an uncanny resemblance to the late R.J. Leyran?

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Non Sequitur (A Reflection on Wong Kar Wai’s “2046″ and “In the Mood for Love”)
by Michael Ian Lomongo

(For the late R.J. Leyran, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tony Leung)

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I do think that “2046″ is a very worthy sequel to “In the Mood for Love.” At first, it doesn’t appear to be that way. The only connection with the latter film seemed to be that it was the same Mr. Chow (the erstwhile writer of martial arts stories but moved on to writing sci-fi…) and his adventures in love and loving after the ill-fated affair with Mrs. Chan (Maggie Cheung).

After seeing “2046,” I’ve reached these conclusions:

2046 is the number of the room that Mr. Chow and Mrs. Chan stayed in the night she didn’t want to go home. This scene wasn’t shown in both films but Mr. Chow mentioned it in “2046.”

Mrs. Chan probably separated with her husband. The child she was with when she moved to the apartment that used to be occupied by her landlady was the fruit of that one night tryst with Mr. Chow. She went back with the vain of hope of somehow meeting up with Mr. Chow again. When she called up the office of Mr. Chow when he was in Singapore, it was because she was with child. But she couldn’t bear to speak because she didn’t want to be a “bother” to Mr. Chow.

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“He remembered his sadness well, but he could no longer remember what had made him so sad. It was that way with everything: even sadness passed, even pain and despair, as well as the joys. Everything passed, faded, lost its depth, its value, and finally there came a time when one could no longer remember what had pained one so. Pains, too, wilted and faded… Yes, doubtless this pain, this bitter need would also grow old and tired. It too would be forgotten. Nothing had permanence, and he regretted that, too.”

- Herman Hesse, “Narcissus and Goldmund”

—

Am continuing my reflections on the possibility of a “Nietzschean Buddhism”…

Would like to sit again…

I’ve found something valuable in my practice. Hey, I may have not changed much but I detect a glimmer of hope… the possibility of overcoming deeply-ingrained bad habits of old. I’m no superman but like him, “I’m just out to find a better part of me.”

I came to Vipassana as a pantheist with Nietzschean leanings. I had strayed away from the Catholic Christian Church in the mid-1990’s. It was meeting Nietzsche (through his books, of course) that brought about my “conversion.” I found quite a number of my very deepest feelings and thoughts verbalized by this “madman.”

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I remember this film I saw in one of the French Spring Film Festivals, “Chance or Coincidence” about an “eventologist” (or someething) whose “other” job is to find connections/meanings in the chance occurences of life. I don’t remember the details of the story, it’s a love story (I think). I liked it, and also this Nat King Cole song in it, with the words “For all we know/care…?” Ala lang, baka lang alam n’yo. Am being whimsical here. It might have some meaning in the greater scheme of things. Hehehe.

Was also fascinated by “Sliders” (the TV series with Jerry O’Connell?) and “Sliding Doors” (with Gwyneth Paltrow).

In the TV series (based on a scientific theory, the “many-possible worlds” theory), the character played by Jerry, with his friends and professor (John Rhys-Davies), travel through a wormhole that leads to a parallel universe. Same time, different world. In some episodes, they even get to meet their alter-egos.

The movie “Sliding Doors” is premised on this one triviality: whether Gwyneth’s character is able to get on the subway on her way home or not. And the two parallel lives of Gwyneth play themselves out, each radically different from the other — all because of missing/not-missing a train ride. The movie however makes this intriguing, though perhaps unwarranted, conceit. The two Gwyneths (almost meet physically in an elevator) become “reconciled” during this scene by having only one singular experience, implying that the events which would follow from now on would be the same, even if they diverged earlier. Perhaps her inner reconciliation brought about the reconciliation of two divergent worlds? Perhaps she is owned by a destiny that’s greater than all the numerous happenstance of her life?

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Some people say that Christianity has been misunderstood. It looks to me more like it is Christianity which has misunderstood! The world, perhaps even Christ!

I’m not associating Christ with Christianity. When Nietzsche wrote “Der Anti-Christ” (usually translated as “The Anti-Christ”), his polemics was directed more to Paul and Christendom/Christianity, (a note in the translation says that it is probably more fitting to translate it as “The Anti-Christian.”) The same with Kierkegaard, his beef was with Christendom (the bureaucracy of Christianity). Christianity, as we know it today, is according to biblical scholarship, largely the work of Paul the Apostle.

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Personalism vis-a-vis Parochialism

(A Reaction to a Piece on Personalism by Verdman)

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(an old piece written in June 2004)

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“Walang personalan. Trabaho lang.”

- a line from a movie about a cop (played by Rudy Fernandez) who summarily executes a criminal (”Markang Bungo” yata… not sure though…)

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“i think (i could be wrong, most of the time i am), that the root of our problem is our personalistic approach to life. we easily sacrifice objectivity in order to accomodate our personal affiliations, thus negating our chance to cultivate values that are necessary to achieve real progress. personalism is in every fabric of pinoylife. from the moment of birth (kung sino ang magiging ninong), up to the time of death (kung sinong asawa ang may karapatan sa bangkay). whether business, sports, politics, gov’t, etc…. personalism always plays a part. nothing wrong with cultivating personal ties per se, we are a social animal afterall, it’s when personalism is accomodated at the expense of objectivity, this is where corruption starts, first morally, then leading up to plunder.”

- Verdman (a nom de plume), On Personalism

—

What’s the problem with personalism?

The way I see it, there’s nothing wrong with personalism per se. In fact, it is precisely this personalism that makes Noypis so lovable, and as Ninoy put it, “worth dying for.”

It is when personalism clashes with “objectivity” that the problem arises. It thus degenerates to parochialism. Parochialism, i.e., my interests over your interests, my family over your family, my clan over your clan, my my hey hey!… Parochialism, narrow-mindedness, “subjectivism,” bigotry…

The Philippines is relatively a young country. We’ve only started to think of ourselves as one nation during the 19th century, the credit mainly to the ilustrados (which include Rizal). (See Leon Ma. Guerrero’s “The First Filipino.”) Probably no small wonder that we’re still trying to find our bearings… still trying to get our act together.

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Do you believe in love at first sight?

I do.

Saw this little book “The Alphabet of Grace” by Frederick Buechner in the bargain bin of NBS, bought it (for P50), and fell in love with it. Lent it to someone who, of course, lost it. And then, after some time, I serendipitously found and bought a new one (for P300). It’s about the spiritual experience of, in his own words, “a part-time novelist, Christian, pig.” What caught my attention: the title. What I loved in it: a very human, semi-mystical approach to spirituality.

Am thinking of translating it to Tagalog someday. I tried, and never got past the introduction. Will have to find time, someday.

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reposting… Showing uli: Feb. 6,7,8.13,14,15 8pm, Feb. 7,8,14,15 3pm, Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (CCP Little Theater)

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Winner! Ang Lola Mo! (Ang Kagila-gilalas na Sugo na si Zsazsa Zaturnnah)
ni Michael Ian Lomongo

Ano pa ba’ng masasabi ko sa “Zsazsa Zaturnnah ze Muzikal” ng Tanghalang Pilipino kundi pawang papuri?

Gustung-gusto ko ang musika at ang mga nagsiganap; punung-puno sila ng puso. Jologs na produksyon, low-tech. Walang kagila-gilalas sa mga “special effect” nito. Ngunit kamangha-mangha at nag-uumapaw sa puso, imahinasyon, at pagkamalikhain ang buong produksyon. Pasasalamat at papuri sa may-akda (Carlo Vergara), tagapagsalin sa dula (Chris Martinez), direktor (Chris Millado), kompositor (Vince de Jesus), at sa mga aktor (Eula Valdes, Arnold Reyes, Lauren Novero, Kalila Aguilos, Wilma Doesnt,  Vincent de Jesus, Tuxqs Rutaquio, Ricci Chan, Joey Paras, Nar Cabico, et al.).

Nakakaaliw panoorin. Hindi sayang ang panahon at perang gugugulin mo sa panonood nito. Ngunit sa pagtatapos ng tawanan ay ang paghahanap ng kahulugan. Kung kaya pagtutuunan ko ng pansin ang isang tanong na sa palagay ko’y ibinabato sa atin ng kwento ni Zsazsa Zaturnnah:

Paano ba maging isang superhero o kaya’y bayani?

Saan nagmumula ang mga pangyayari upang ang isang tao ay maging bayani? Likas ba ito sa kalooban ng isang tao, o aksidenteng lumalabas ayon sa mga pagkakataon? Galing sa loob o sa labas? Basal (native) ba ito o dayuhan?

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reposting… november, 2003.

best regards,

ian

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Nietzsche, Hume and the Buddha

When I first heard of Nietzsche, it was in association with Hitler and the Nazis. I simply dismissed him as a rabid, power-hungry maniac who probably had an unhappy childhood. A classmate in college wrote a paper on this Nietzsche guy and I was silently chuckling on the thought that a comic book idea (”superman”) can be the subject of a scholarly paper.

But when I did get to read him (years later), I was simply won over by this crazy guy! He says provocative things that, when thought about, actually make sense. He’s probably among the few philosophers who doesn’t come across as an insipid intellectual. He’s got style, lots of it. He doesn’t say things just for effect (although sometimes it feels like that). He’s an artist, an artist-philosopher. He’s very passionate and his sincerity comes across. He also has a weird sense of humor. Indeed, he writes with his blood. Indeed, he’s a dynamite.

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Good thing I posted the whole thing in a forum… powtah. Eto, re-posting…

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The Prom(ethean) Knight: Thoughts on the “Dark Knight”
By Michael Ian Lomongo

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In Greek Mythology, Prometheus is the Titan who stole fire from the Gods and was then punished by being chained to the mountains of Caucasus, where a vulture came every knight to feed on his liver. He is cast by different authors either as the benefactor of mankind or as the one responsible for the evils besetting mankind.

Yes, since childhood, we have known Batman as a comic superhero. Perhaps the most plausible among the superheroes, since he has no known superpowers. He’s just an extremely wealthy guy with superb fighting skills. Plus the machinery and gadgets to supplement those skills.

But he is, in fact, a masked vigilante. A “freak.” Even if his intentions are noble, in essence, he operates outside, or at least within the fringes, of society’s laws.

Bruce Wayne himself recognizes this. He too dreams of a Gotham City without Batman. A time when superheroes and masked vigilantes would be unnecessary. A world wherein justice truly works. Where he would simply be Bruce Wayne.

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