Romeo and Juliet, the Ilonggo touch
Friar Laurence, Lady Capulet
and Romeo
* Kathy Villalon talks to Seven Malaga as regards the staging of the classic, Romeo and Juliet in Iloilo City, through his outfit called Will Mark The Sport Productions. Take a peek at the production outfit and the play through this interview.
KMV (Kathy M. Villalon): Please tell us more about Will Mark the Spot Productions and its major players.
Seven Malaga (SM): Will Mark the Spot Productions Company started last March driven by the desire to produce Romeo and Juliet in Iloilo. The owner is myself. It is put up to, hopefully in 10 years time, make Iloilo a theater capital of the Philippines. Maybe flighty but an idea that is determined to be materialized. The supporters are my friends who are in theater as well, hence though the owner is myself, my friends support me in my endeavor via this community/professional theater company wherein we can provide an environment for our passion for simultaneous education and entertainment.
KMV: Who will play the roles of Romeo and Juliet. Give us a background of these actors.
The Capulets are Peter, Tybalt, Lady Capulet,
Lord Capulet, Juliet, Nurse and Juliet (understudy)
SM: Romeo will be performed by myself,Seven Malaga after two failed actors hired due to school schedule conflict and the other of a medical condition. Juliet is performed by Roxanne Prieto and the understudy is Bianca Gonzales. I've been in theater since I was in high school in the United States. I only had a hiatus for the last six years due to my employment in the call center industry where I worked in the training department managing both training and operations. Roxanne Prieto is a UP student taking up community development. This is her first professional theater experience. Same goes for Bianca Gonzales who studies Nursing in WVSU. Both auditioned for the role.
KMV: Who directed the play?
SM: I directed and edited the play. The inception of the production of this play started around six years ago after I came back from Chicago, working in Chicago Shakespeare Theater and in independent theater groups there.
It started with Arnis due to my personal embarrassment from my American friends who asked me to show them some Arnis stunts but I did not know any Arnis. So I decided to educate myself with Arnis and started pondering what play I can do where in I could incorporate Arnis. And Romeo and Juliet came up, being one of my favorite stories from watching it many times in IBC 12 when I was a kid and studying it in California.
KMV: In what way will this play differ from other Romeo and Juliet productions?
Romeo and Juliet
SM: The play will still be the same as it is about love. But in this version, it's abridged to two hours keeping only the progressive scenes that concern the two protagonists. This play will feature a semi-Shakesperean stage called a thrust stage, it will be in semi-round. Moreover it will incorporate Arnis for the fight scenes, and the costumes do not state a specific period but only elements of different periods as love is a universal theme that was and still is and will still be experienced in the future. Some scenes have been deleted in consideration of the Ilonggo audience keeping their attention span in tact (it's quite hard to sit watching a play in a different archaic tongue for five hours as a general experience for any full length unedited Shakespeare story.)
KMV: In what way can Ilonggos relate to this play?
SM: I incorporated a Filipino societal setting (though not verbalized in the play). Lord Capulet is portrayed as a former Moslem datu during the first stages of Legazpi's expedition who married to Lady Capulet that is characterized as a Western settler. The Nurse is characterized as an Aliping Namamahay who couldn't pay her debt to her brother (Lord Capulet) and in charge as a governess to Juliet. Tybalt is characterized as a nephew of Lady Capulet from her sister or brother who may also have married into a native's family. Friar Laurence as a missionary brought by the Spaniards. The Prince characterized as an Encomiendero in charge of the encomienda in which the barangay of Lord Capulet is included in a big encomienda granted by Spain to him. Paris as a Western settler who wants to marry into the native royalty and has his eye on Lord Capulet's daughter. Juliet a native princess from Lord Capulet's previous marriage being Moslem and all. The Montagues are characterized as a multi-national Asian native family who are the nouveau riche having some conflicts with the old rich as Capulet's family. Romeo is a son of a half Chinese and half Malay family who became the spiritual son of Friar Laurence with the onset of Christianity. This play differs in its treatment of the family setting that Ilonggos may hopefully see that even a global classic such as Shakespeare is not something to be over-estimated. They should not be intimidated by Shakespeare because his stories are not new to us. It is also experienced by us Ilonggos or by Filipinos in general. The love between the lovers is still existent, there's still some Chinese parents who hate their scions marrying to a pure Filipino. There are political families who do not like each other. And there are friends who also continue this hatred just for the sake of the conflict instead of really understanding it. And confidantes still make mistakes in giving advices. I do hope that with this, we can introduce that Ilonggos is no different from Shakespeare characters.