The Valenzuela City Center for the Performing Arts (VCCPA) Actors Ensemble, the City’s premiere organization of local performing artists, recently performed at the Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) with the country’s finest performing arts groups at the Filipino Heritage Festival’s tribute to our National Hero, Dr. Jose Rizal, on the occasion of his 150^th Birth Anniversary entitled, “Pepe Rizal: Sa Isip, Sa Salita, at Sa Gawa”.

As part of the annual offering for the National Heritage month, the show is a collage of performance pieces inspired by the life and and enduring works of Rizal.  It also featured poetry reading of literary masterpieces delivered by well-known thespians of the Philippine stage.

Ms. Armita B. Rufino, President of the Filipino Heritage Festival, entreated the audience to a summary of Dr. Rizal’s pivotal role in advocating liberty through peaceful means and how he has inspired others as one of Asia’s first intellectuals. “The staging of Pepe Rizal is a rekindling of our passion for Rizal. After 150 years, Filipinos still thirst to understand his life, his works, his dreams and his visions,” she said.

The Filipino Heritage Festival is a private, non-profit, cultural organization housed at the Museum of the Filipino People in Manila.  It spearheads most of the events related to the country’s celebration of National Heritage Month.

For their part, the VCCPA performed an excerpt of their signature show, Junto Al Pasig. Junto is a one-act Spanish zarzuela which Rizal wrote when he was a student at the University of Santo Tomas in 1880.  It premiered at the Ateneo Municipal in the same year and. It had a revival in the 1970s when the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) staged it in Tagalog in 1974 and later on was translated into English in 1976 by National Artist for Literature, Nick Joaquin.

VCCPA’s Junto was rewritten by Jose Jeffrey Camañag with original music in modern pop-rock style by music maestro Jesse Lucas.  It has been performed year-round at the VCCPA Theater in Valenzuela City, a one-night only performance at the CCP Little Theater, and an excerpt at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute for CCP’s Pasinaya 2011. “This is VCCPA’s first show that has actually toured all of CCP’s theaters” exclaimed Junto director Andre Tiangco.

- Michael King C. Urieta (06-18-2011)

(Photos courtesy of  Franco Laurel and Roy Maala)