ESSAY ABOUT THE DIFFERENCES OF PHILIPPINE THEATER FORMS

Theater forms have different characteristics with each other that shows their own
uniqueness. Each one has a distinctive creative feature that showcases their style and
techniques. Today, we enjoy different theater forms just like straight plays and musicals largely
influenced by the West. The Philippines had many types of theater through the years that
enrich the performing arts tradition where folk legends passed down through generations to
intellectual debates as performance art. Our practices are influenced by colonization but still our
own style and identity are enliven.

One of the theater types in the Philippines is sarsuwela which is a type of melodrama,
usually in three acts, that uses alternately spoken and sung words. It was the Spanish influence
that started the sarsuwela, but it was also this colonization that led Filipinos to incorporate
nationalistic overtones in the art. This resulted in the arrest of several prominent writers such as
Aurelio Tolentino and Pascual Poblete, and eventually, the shutdown of sarsuwela companies
during the American occupation. As proof of its importance in Philippine culture, in 2011 the
National Commission for Culture and the Arts designated the sarsuwela as a nominee for the
UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage lists. Some example of these are Mula sa buwan and
Walang sugat. Another one is epic poetry that is considered the highest point of Filipino folk
literature, and dates back to the pre-colonial period. These epics, usually of romance or
adventure, are commonly presented during festivals and gatherings such as weddings,
baptisms, and wakes. One of the most famous epic poems is Biag ni Lam-ang, the national epic
of the Ilocano people, and notable for being the first folk epic to be recorded in written form
after being passed on from generation to generation.

Philippine theater form duplo is a poetic debate presented through song and dance,
which originated from indigenous courtship customs. Poets used proverbs and riddles to
present their suit to the woman of their choice. This ultimately evolved into a more formal
debate on issues and started to be called the balagtasan. For a time, one of the most popular
types of theater in the Philippines was the Moros y Cristianos, which is not surprising for a
country that was under Spanish rule for 300 years. Commonly called moro-moro, it is a street
drama that usually lasted for several days, and presented both secular themes like love and
vengeance, and the Spanish-influenced religious theme of the conflict between Christians and
Moors. The moro-moro only survives in isolated towns today, and though an integral part of
Filipino art history, it may not bear too much close scrutiny these days with its less than
admirable depictions of intolerance.

Another performing art stemming from religious custom is the senakulo or Passion Play.
This is the dramatization of the life and death of Jesus Christ and is usually presented as a
community activity during the Lenten season. This still endures to the present, ranging from
simple productions to more technically sophisticated and modernized version. With its varied
cultures and communities, the Philippines has a diverse collection of folk dances. Some of the
most popular folk dances are the Singkil, a folk dance that originated from the Maranao people
of Lake Lanao in Mindanao, from the epic legend Darangen; the Itik-Itik, which originated as an
improvised dance in Surigao del Sur and was discovered by National Artist for Dance Francisca
Reyes-Aquino; and the Tinikling, which is similar to Singkil with its use of bamboo poles that
dancers must weave through. It is supposed to mimic the movement of the local tikling birds.

It sounds like “vaudeville”, and it is. This form of theater was an American import in the
pre-war era, but became uniquely Filipino with the indigenization of the name. Like its American
counterpart, bodabil featured a variety of musical numbers, comedic and dramatic skits, and
song and dance numbers. Popular Filipino performers such as Dolphy, Anita Linda, and
sarsuwela legend Atang de la Rama got their start in bodabil. It has since died out with the rise
of cinema, but its influence can still be felt in television variety shows.

Philippine theater forms greatly influence the theater that we have right now. It serves
as a big contribution for making our tradition and culture be known from other places.
Eventhough they have different styles and strategies, it cannot hide the essence of the art and
purpose of every drama in each play. You can see that they have differences but still the main
goal of each one is to give importance to tradition and entertain people that probably they
really achieve it through their creative and imaginative mind.