Filipino and Japanese stage actors combine creative talents in Philippine Bedtime Stories.
Filipino and Japanese stage actors are combining thespian talents through a collaborative presentation entitled, Philippine Bedtime Stories, from February 1 through 4 in Morishita Studio, Tokyo, AI Hall in Itami City, Shizuoka Pref and CCP Tanghalang Huseng Batute in Manila.
After the successful staging of Philippine Bedtime Stories (1st version) in 2004 and Philippine Bedtime Stories 2 in 2006 as joint projects between Filipino and Japanese theater groups in Tokyo, Theater Company RIN KO GUN will present this time a reprise of Philippine Bedtimes Stories , drawing from the themes of the previous series.
Short plays in the two previous productions are reorganized with a new cast. Among the plays included in this re-creation are Walang Iwanan by Rene Villanueva; Isang Libong Tula para sa Dibdib ni Dulce by Lallie Bucoy; Ang Unang Aswang by Rody Vera; Single Brown Female, by Vic Torres; and Ligaya sa Isang Pinoy Bar by Shungiku Uchida. The play will be performed in Tagalog and Japanese with English subtitles.
Among the Filipino cast members are Rody Vera, Mailes Kanapi, Raye Baquirin, Angeli Bayani, Jojit Lorenzo and Marj Lorico. Their Japanese counterparts are Yuko Miyamoto, Mari Nakayama, Kenjiro Kawanaka, Tenshi Kamogawa, Takashige Mukai and Hideyuki Sugiyama. The play is directed by Toshihisa Yoshida.
Theater Company RIN KO GUN has long been engaged in exchanges with Southeast Asia and Filipino theater groups. This collaboration began in 1999 when company members joined a workshop run by Rodgardo Labad of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) in Yokohama.
In turn, Nor Domingo of PETA was invited to two of the company’s productions: Tokyo Trial 1999, produced together with Setagaya Public Theater in 1999; and Whalers in the South Seas, produced together with The Japan Foundation, in 2000.
Whalers in the South Seas had an international cast composed of seven actors from Indonesia, one from the U.S. and one from the Philippines.
RIN KO GUN member Toshihisa Yoshida spent one year in the Philippines as a fellowship student from the Agency for Cultural Affairs in 2002. He returned to Japan in 2003 and continued his cooperation with theater professionals in the Philippines. For more information on this production, you may check out their website.