SEASON TWO: SUN CHASER
HAMLET
February 20-22, 27-28 | March 6-8, 2015
IKARUS was founded to bring life to DITO: Bahay ng Sining’s stage. It is a professional theatre company exclusive only to talented and daring individuals who day-in and day-out stake their lives for beauty and tr uth. IKARUS pursues the sun. Follow us. Join us as we rise. We will never rest even when the time comes for our wings to burn.
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SEASON TWO: SUN CHASER
HAMLET by Jay Crisostomo IV Februar y 20-22, 27-28, March 6-8
NEAR YET FAR, FAR YET NEAR: A TWIN BILL OF PLAYS
by Paolo Apagalang & Enrique Estagle March 20-21, 27-29
BRAVE NEW WORLD Direction & Script by Jay Crisostomo IV June & July 2015
IT’S APRIL, WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE? Script by Rolando Tinio Direction by Ricardo Abad September 2015 THE VELVETEEN RABBIT Script by Joaquin Cerdas Production Design by Claudine Delfin December 2015
DIRECTOR’S NOTES
HAMLET
I
was a high school student when I first encountered William Shakespeare and his texts. I was not the best student of the bard; even having to do a dreaded memorize-and-speak-infront-of-the-class monologue assignment while reading from a clay pot ( “Foul is Fair” Ha ha!). And I remember being afraid of Shakespeare’s heightened Old English. W hat the hell does this mean?! It was only in my college years that I tr ully appreciated Shakespeare’s works--- and believe me, once you put some effort into Shakespeare, it will return wonders to you a-thousand fold---among them Titus Andronicus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and of course, the play we’re staging right now. Hamlet is not an easy piece, this much I can tell you. It demands much from the actors, the director, and of course the audience. Once
you get over the ‘different’ language, you have to deal with questions regarding the ethics and morality of revenge. How far does one have to go to avenge a loved one, in this case, a father? Will all be sacrificed? And, at the end all, is revenge justified? These are the dilemmas that Hamlet wrestles with, he does not end the play quickly by killing the accursed murderer Claudius in Act 1, in fact his lamentations give us five whole acts! In heart, William Shakespeare’s The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a stor y of a man, simple, bright, honest, with good oppurtunities for the future (he is a prince after all). But this man is thrown into oblivion. His father is killed by his uncle, and to add salt, vinegar, and muriatic acid to the open wound, his mother mar ries the vile murderer. The ghost of his father even
visits him! He thus str ug gles with himself. Is he a villain for plotting against the new regime? Is he a coward for not just getting it over with? Action is violent. Once a deed is done, it cannot be undone, thus man must think. These are the defining characteristics of the human animal: to think, to act, and to be woefully culprit to all following consequences. This is why I fell in love with the play. The plot is simple enough, yes, much like most of Shakespeare’s plays, but how the characters, specifically Hamlet, ar rives at those plot points, at those junctures of human action defines Shakespeare as one of the best writers of the world.
This theme of thought-actionconsequence r uns through the play and its characters: King Claudius’s murder definitely has dire consequences, Queen Gertr ude’s compliance leads her stray from her son, Lord Polonius’s meddling gets him killed before the inter mission, Ophelia’s love for Hamlet leads her to suicide, and Horatio’s unwavering loyalty to Hamlet leaves him alone and friendless at curtain’s dawn. Choice, action, and consequence--- we are all slaves to these cr uel gods; their verdicts hear no appeals, and there is no one to blame but ourselves. We must man up to them, for we can not r un, we can not hide, what’s done is done, and as the play says, “in the end is silence.” As a director, my sole intent is to tell this stor y as effectively as possible. To put the audience in Hamlet’s shoes as well as I can so that they may wrestle
with him in this arena of thought-action-consequence. Thus I put another work cap on and acted as dramaturg. The play you watched was an abbridged Hamlet--- more than half of the text was cut. Some words were changed to fit the 21st centur y ear, some parts were cut, and some characters were killed even before their names were uttered. Yes, I am sad, like most Shakespeare-enthusiasts to see Rosencrantz and Guildenstern go, but they were unimportant to my cur rent vision of the play-- I say cur rent because I do not know how I would do Hamlet later in my life. What is important stays, what is not goes--- that is the sad and difficult task of an editor/ dramaturg, I lovingly took off what was not needed, and respectfully changed what I did. Hopefully, Mr. Will does not turn in his grave. At last, I offer to you the most taught and accesible Hamlet I can muster. I offer to you, what I believe to be, as director and dramaturg, to be a play that is tr uly poetr y in action. I have come a long way from being afraid of William Shakespeare; I am now
indebted to him and his effect on my life. But I am not alone in this grand daunting endeavor so I end my notes in acknowledgement. I thank my collaborators: The Filipino-Spanish Hamlet, Kuya, who had to str ug gle with the words before he could touch our hearts, and touch our hearts he did. Huzzah! My Hamlet! Tiny, tiny in size, huge on stage; she, who has tr usted herself whole-heartedly with me, even this being our first time working together The wisdom of Danes/ Ada who helped me keep the entire cast in check--- in their pronunciations and characterizations The dancing Andre who is always so generous in his gift of perfor mance, you’ll agree with me on this if you watched the play The beautiful Sky who is always beautiful in movement and sometimes beautiful in thought The mad Jian who has been my brother in madness ever
The gift of JR, the wild card of the play, mesmerizing us with his music aesthetic The quick-witted James, to whom we depend on our lights Br uce/ Christopher of the Lee clan, you kick ass with your photos Arion who has tirelessly tried to herald the coming of Hamlet And of course to Pepe/ Claudine, and the many things she has done for this play; We are the wings of IKARUS, may we burn in eternity since I knew him Gian, the brave, stepping into a role one week before opening night; my friend, you are a hero To Mommy Krix, who unexpectedly had raise 13 children, we suckled from the teat of your stern affection
This is our Hamlet. What we have suffered and bled for (literally). This the Hamlet of 14 idiots. I hope you enjoyed the show. We are IKARUS! Photos in this section taken by Marian Yu
GENERAL SUMMARY
HAMLET
On a dark winter night, a ghost walks the ramparts of Elsinore Castle in Denmark. Discovered by the scholar Horatio, the ghost resembles the recently deceased King Hamlet, whose brother Claudius has inherited the throne and mar ried the king’s widow, Queen Gertr ude. When Horatio and the watchmen bring Prince Hamlet, the son of Gertr ude and the dead king, to see the ghost, it speaks to him, declaring ominously that it is indeed his father’s spirit, and that he was murdered by none other than Claudius. Ordering Hamlet to seek revenge on the man who usurped his throne and mar ried his wife, the ghost disappears with the dawn. Prince Hamlet devotes himself to avenging his father’s death, but, because he is contemplative and thoughtful by nature, he delays, entering into a deep melancholy and even apparent madness. Claudius and Gertr ude wor r y about the prince’s er ratic behavior and attempt to discover its cause. When Polonius, the pompous Lord Chamberlain, sug gests that Hamlet may be
mad with love for his daughter, Ophelia, Claudius agrees to spy on Hamlet in conversation with the girl. But though Hamlet certainly seems mad, he does not seem to love Ophelia: he orders her to enter a nunner y and declares that he wishes to ban mar riages. A actor comes to Elsinore, and Hamlet seizes upon an idea to test his uncle’s guilt. He will have the player perfor m a scene closely resembling the sequence by which Hamlet imagines his uncle to have murdered his father, so that if Claudius is guilty, he will surely react. When the moment of the murder ar rives in the theater, Claudius leaps up and leaves the room. Hamlet and Horatio agree that this proves his guilt. Hamlet goes to kill Claudius but finds him praying. Since he believes that killing Claudius while in prayer would send Claudius’s soul to heaven, Hamlet considers that it would be an inadequate revenge and decides to wait. Claudius, now frightened of Hamlet’s madness and fearing for his own safety, orders that
Hamlet be sent to England at once. Hamlet goes to confront his mother, in whose bedchamber Polonius has hidden behind a tapestr y. Hearing a noise from behind the tapestr y, Hamlet believes the king is hiding there. He draws his sword and stabs through the fabric, killing Polonius. For this crime, he is immediately dispatched to England. However, Claudius’s plan for Hamlet includes more than banishment, as he has given sealed orders for the King of England demanding that Hamlet be put to death. In the after math of her father’s death, Ophelia goes mad with grief and drowns in the river. Polonius’s son, Laertes, who has been staying in France, returns to Denmark in a rage. Claudius convinces him that Hamlet is to blame for his father’s and sister’s deaths. When Horatio and the king receive letters from Hamlet indicating that the prince has returned to Denmark after pirates attacked his ship en route to England, Claudius concocts a plan to use Laertes’ desire for revenge to secure Hamlet’s death. Laertes will fence with Hamlet in innocent sport, but Claudius will poison Laertes’ blade so that if he draws blood, Hamlet will die. As a backup plan, the king decides to poison a goblet, which he will give
Hamlet to drink should Hamlet score the first or second hits of the match. Hamlet returns to the vicinity of Elsinore just as Ophelia’s funeral is taking place. Stricken with grief, he attacks Laertes and declares that he had in fact always loved Ophelia. Back at the castle, he tells Horatio that he believes one must be prepared to die, since death can come at any moment. The sword-fighting begins. Hamlet scores the first hit, but declines to drink from the king’s proffered goblet. Instead, Gertr ude takes a drink from it and is swiftly killed by the poison. Laertes succeeds in wounding Hamlet, though Hamlet does not die of the poison immediately. First, Laertes is cut by his own sword’s blade, and, after revealing to Hamlet that Claudius is responsible for the queen’s death, he dies from the blade’s poison. Hamlet then stabs Claudius through with the poisoned sword and forces him to drink down the rest of the poisoned wine. Claudius dies, and Hamlet dies immediately after achieving his revenge. Fr om Sparknotes; edited to fit the abridgement of the perfor mance text
PERFORMERS PROFILES
HAMLET KUYA MANZANO Kuya is a Spanish-Filipino actor and singer who has been into show business for the last 17 years perfor ming internationally in Spain, Portugal, Netherlands, China and the Philippines. His latest hits have been one of the major roles at GMA’s TV SERIES Katipunan, one of the lead roles of Amor y Muerte feature film for Cinemalaya and the lead tenor role in Noli Me Tangere, the opera. In his words “Playing the role of Hamlet is the big gest challenge of my life and I thank director Jay Crisostomo IV for his tr ust.”
L AERTES/PL AYER SKY ABUNDO Sky enjoys acting, even more so if it’s with friends. He has been enjoying acting and friendship ever since high school thanks to Teatro Baguntao, Tanghalang Ateneo, Shaharazade, Ikar us and other companies unnamed but greatly remembered. Sky stumbled across Hamlet late last year.
PERFORMERS PROFILES
HORATIO/LIGHTING DESIGNER JAN LEYSON Jan loves to tell stories but has always had a technically centered mind. Choosing the colorful world of lights design, a combination of technicalities and creativity, he is able to express himself in subtle and mostly unnoticeable ways. Although when he himself takes the stage, he switches gears and becomes big, animated and exag gerated. Always a little from both extremes.
GERTRUDE NATALIA GO Natalia started acting under the direction of the late Fr. James B. Reuter in St. Paul University Quezon City. Her professional acting career began in 2012 as a guest artist in Gantimpala Theater Foundation’s children’s musical play, Jack and the Beanstalk, as the animated cow. She has been perfor ming in musical theater since then. She actively asked to be part of Hamlet and was given the role of Gertr ude.
PERFORMERS PROFILES
POLONIUS JOSEF RAFAEL MIKANDRE CANIZA ALCANTARA Josef Rafael Mikandre C Alcantara is more commonly known as Andre to his family and friends. Andre loves role playing in theater and in the games he plays. He often gets lost in these and at times mixes up the worlds he puts himself in.
OPHELIA DANIELLE DE LEON Danielle is a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in BS Communications Technolog y Management. She was a member of Entablado and usually worked backstage as part of the production design and stage management teams. She finds acting unner ving, yet she volunteered for this role.
PERFORMERS PROFILES
CL AUDIUS GIANCARLO PATELO Giancarlo Alfredo Tarcelo Patelo IV is a freelance theater actor/ production staff. He graduated in 2014 from the University of Santo Tomas with the degree of Bachelor of Arts, major in Communication Arts. He is a member of UST’s theater guild, Teatro Tomasino. After graduation, he has been involved in several professional theater productions including Tony Mabesa’s The Countr y Wife, Alex Cortez’s Measure For Measure and George de Jesus’ Maniacal. He aims to be in more professional theater productions and desires to get to work with a lot of other different theater companies.
LORD/ LIGHTS BOARDSMAN JAMES VIC ALLEN PANGAN James is from the University of Santo Tomas and is a member of Teatro Tomasino. He has been in the theatre world since he was just in grade school. He enjoys singing acting dancing, internet surfing, playing video games. If he is not doing anything regarding theatre, you would see him wandering around the world looking for anything that makes sense. Or just sitting around doing nothing.
ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION TEAM PROFILES
DIRECTOR/DRAMATURG JAY CRISOSTOMO IV Jay graduated from the Ateneo de Manila University with a double degree of BFA Theater Arts and BFA Creative Writing, winning the school’s prestigious LSAA for both degrees. He was mentored under Laureate Director, Dr. Ricardo Abad, in an uncountable number of productions, and has went on to win two Carlos Palanca Memorial Awards for the Arts (God of the Machine- 2010 1st place Full Length Drama, and End of the Gallows- 2013 1st place Full Length Drama). He now proudly owns and manages both IKARUS and DITO: Bahay ng Sining with his partner in crime, Claudine Delfin. He spends most of his time getting or dealing with pancreatitis. He is happy he has a cat family to support him.
PRODUCTION DESIGNER/ GRAPHIC DESIGNER CL AUDINE DELFIN Claudine graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in BFA Infor mation Design. She is a founding partner of Pushpin Visuals, a freelance illustrator, and graphic designer.
ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION TEAM PROFILES
STAGE MANAGER KRIX FRANCINE UNTAL AN Krix graduated from Ateneo de Manila University with a degree in European Studies, majoring in International Relations. She was an active member of Tanghalang Ateneo. She is especially keen on Stage Management and has since her graduating, volunteered to be a stage manager for various theater companies and organizations. She cur rently works as a Defense Analyst for the Ar med Forces of the Philippines.
SOUND DESIGNER JONATHAN QUINTO RODRIGUEZ Jonathan Rodriguez, or JR to his friends, loves music. He often goes gig-hopping, and can often be seen moshing and grooving within the crowd, or seated in front of his desktop, surfing the Internet or playing video games. He became part of the Hamlet production with the help of Andre, Leyson, and Sky.
ARTISTIC & PRODUCTION TEAM PROFILES
PHOTOGRAPHER CHRISTOPHER LEE When Br uce knew that BJ and Claudine were looking for a photographer for the production of Hamlet, he didn’t want to let this opportunity pass. Bringing their ideas into life with his photography style, Br uce has always found this to be a fun and challenging process. Especially that the play is Hamlet, he knew this was going to be something as great as the literature is.
MARKETER ARION SANCHEZ Arion Sanchez is a freelance theater artist who has dabbled in the many aspects of theater. Aside from acting, directing, and being an instr umentalist at times, he also tries different positions in the production. His experience with BJ, staging his thesis Gintong Kamao also in DITO: Bahay ng Sining, was one of the connections that allowed him to join this mer r y band of poets and artists. Oh, and Magic: the gathering. They love to play Magic: the Gathering.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Patelo family Untalan family De Leon family Sar miento Family Delfin Family Dr. Jay Ctisostomo Dra. Marietta Crisostomo Naldo Barbadillo Yolanda Benosa Zernan Fernandez Tina Atienza Kaye Hipolito Bing Fernandez Mina Solas Heidi Cleofas Ate Glo Ate Lisa Emily Marian Yu Uzziel Perez Ar rian Labbios Hans Pagaduan Raelians Philippines Wencel Angeles Elfrida Tan Trippy Padilla Roll Jer vis Manahan Lara Louise Gabrielle Antonio Ryan Gonzalez
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