Rising from the ashes, the Comedia goes mainstream in Antique
San Jose, Antique -- Much like Aldus Dumbledore’s phoenix in the popular Harry Potter series, the Comedia rises from the ashes and is born again. Resurrected from a half-forgotten culture, this centuries old theater form went mainstream via a four-day “Komedya festival” staged by the Province of Antique during its month-long Binirayan festival in April. The first to be organized in Western Visayas, it also forms part of the cultural awareness program of the Province under the Kalahi Cultural Services of the National Commission for Culture and Arts (NCCA).
According to Dr. Glecy Atienza, Committee Chair for Dramatic Arts of the NCCA, Cultural undertakings like Antique’s “Komedya festival” are indeed very important endeavors and the support of local government units are really needed in such cultural programs. “It is a good start and maybe in the future more should be involved such as schools and non-government organizations. These undertakings, she said, should likewise be given proper orientation as to how cultural work helps in community development.
Atienza says the NCCA encourages such programs and provides support through trainings, documentation, festivals, and linkage building with other cultural institutions.
Last bastion
Better known then as “moro-moro”, this ancient theater form lies in the heart of Antique as it is in its capital town of San Jose where the first documented Comedia in Western Visayas was staged, as recorded by the newspaper El Eco de Panay. And unlike most comedia scripts that are adaptations or whose writers are unknown, it is also here where some original comedia authorship are established. About four of these post war original stories were written between 1950 to 1970 while the last of the pre-war Comedia staged in the province was in late 2003 in the town of Laua-an.
Before comedia’s flickering light snapped out, this province rekindled the flame to remain true to its monicker, as its last bastion. On stage for this year’s festival, were four Comedias. The first three are traditional comedia but reduced from their original 10-hour run to only three hours each. These are “Gugma kag Corona ni Gracia” of Brgy Guinbangaan, Lauaan , “Leonario” of Brgy Madrangca, San Jose and “Ludovico” of Brgy San Antonio, Barbaza.
The fourth is contemporary. Plucking out the best elements from this theater form, Brgy San Antonio uses Comedia to educate farmers on Integrated Pest Management and the benefits of organic farming, thus the title “Ang mga peste sa parayan”
Comedia Revisited
The Comedia is the theater version of the Corrido or metrical romances, a literary form popular in Europe at the time of the Spanish colonization of the Philippines. The Spaniards brought the comedia or corrido’s theater form into the country when they saw this as a powerful medium but instead of the simple romantic themes, these were slanted on the fights between moros and Christians with the later always winning.
As a theatrical performance, comedia is basically characterized by the delivery of the corridos or verses in “awit” (sing-song pattern) interspersed with the “batalya” or war dance.
According to Alex delos Santos, a literature Professor and Executive Director of the Binirayan Foundation, lead organizer of Antique’s annual festival, “While the Comedia is not in sync with the times anymore it is good that such is still alive in Antique. This will enable us to study it and learn from the past particularly in the cultural aspect of life during that period," he said
Contentwise, Delos Santos says most of the traditional comedia has a merry mix of elements drawn from what the unknown writers have seen or read about, such as from Romeo and Juliet, the angels, joan of arc, beggar in disguise. "That the triumph or liberation of a people is through the intercession of a mystical power is an expression of the people that time that they want to be free except that they do not know how so they use this magical power." Delos Santos said.
Delos Santos says: “As theater form, the comedia can also be a coping mechanism for the people then. The plots suggest this. Elements of colonization are present in the story as well as some church doctrines like resurrection. There’s also the feminist slant as in the story of Gracia. Unlike Cinderella and sleeping beauty who have to wait for their prince charming to rescue them, Gracia liberated herself. In a way, it subverted folk and foreign material and brought in their own consciousness.”
These are perhaps some of the things we can look into so we would know how people lived and thought during those times.” he added.
Sustaining Comedia’s lifeline
Here in Antique, it is the community that sustained comedia through the centuries. The re-staging of San Jose’s “Leonario” for instance is made possible by 68 year-old Genaro Encarnacion or Tatay Naro, who wrote the script from memory. Tatay Naro says, “Leonario” was a favorite in the 1940s. He says he practically grew with it and that he knows the verses and the sequences because he would always assist his father Gregorio, who was then the director of the play. His father died in 1962 at 83 years old.
His father’s script which he described as “voluminous” had become too brittle, he said, that they were not able to preserve it. “It doesn’t only contain the verses but also the “batalya” dance steps and the musical accompaniment,” he said. Tatay Naro notes that there are two basic batalya dance steps. One is for the sword and dagger war dance and the other is for the spear and shield war dance.
In rewriting and reducing the script from the two days-two nights full length comedia into a three hour play, Tatay Naro says he removed a lot of : “kaharian” in the story and just concentrated on one protagonist, Don Diego of Albanya to battle with Leonario. Thus, many of the “batalya” were deleted and the original cast of characters was likewise reduced from 30 to 15 people.
Tatay Naro says his father told him that Leonario was originally written in Spanish by an unknown author. But it was a certain Manuel Vasilco who translated it in Hiligaynon and gave it to his father to direct. He says he also acted out a part one time as one of the “Konseros” (soldiers) but more often he would just help out his father in his directing job.
Much like Leonario, Gracia’s author is not known. But the comedia’s acknowledged producer is one Isidoro Yson of Guinbangaan, Laua-an. Yson died in 1967 at age 92.. According to Rebecca Bana, a descendant, oral history in the family says that the old Yson bought the script from someone who writes comedia for a living and that the original script which is still with them till now is one of few things the old Yson rescued from a fire that hit their village then.
The source of script is another dynamics of comedia, says delos Santos. Very often, nobody knows who wrote these scripts. Delos Santos theorize that as some of these comedia are basically written in Hiligaynon, they are likely to have come from Iloilo before reaching Antique.
Beyond this lifeline, Antique has another star in its literary history as it has in its fold the rarity of an established comedia authorship, that of Exaltacion Combong, a grade school teacher at the San Jose Pilot School. She died in 2000 at age 92.
Between 1950 to the 1970’s, Combong was able to write at least four comedia. The titles while in English have their text in Hiligaynon. These comedia have the makings of the contemporized plots as the stories revolve around issues like “ Science vs Superstition,” “Light vs Gambling,” “Noble Lady” and the politically inclined “Bagong Lipunan.” According to delos Santos, “Bagong Lipunan” was a commissioned work but it was never staged.
Even as the storylines have somehow veered away from the traditional “moro-moro” themes, the basic characteristics of this theater form is retained in these post war comedia. Aside from these, what distinguished them is their established authorship. Thus, according to Delos Santos, “In essence, Exaltacion Combong is the only comedia writer because her script are original.”
That said, Antique’s ”komedya festival” is more than a rendezvous with our historical past but an attempt to bring this form of cultural expression into the public’s attention --and perhaps, learn a little more from it about why we are the way we are.