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Ceara Agay, Elaine Pesarit, Marion Silva, Michael Ubamos

LIT 193.22/FA 190.2

Prof. Guelan Luarca

December 9,2017

William

I. BACKGROUND OF THE PRODUCTION

Written by Sir Ron B. Capinding, William was initially conceived out of the request of

PETA for a play that would represent Shakespeare but not a Shakespeare play per se. Ron

Capinding has been a teacher and an administrator in the Ateneo Junior High School for the last

24 years.

According to the interview we conducted with him, his commitment with PETA started

with his acquaintance with Rody Vera when they shared a role as Iago for Tanghalang Ateneo’s

staging of Othello. A few years after the production, Vera reached out to Capinding with a

proposition to write for PETA. Rody had been an active adviser and writer for the Theater

organization. Vera specifically requested Capinding precisely because he is proficient with

Shakespeare, he is a writer, and finally his experience with high school kids because of the fact

that he is a teacher.

PETA wanted a story similar to their successful shows ​Mga Kwento ni Lola Basyang​ and

Batang Rizal​. Capinding admitted that at first, it was difficult to reconcile the concept of using a

portal like ​Batang Rizal​ to relating Shakespeare to high school students which were the target

audience of the requested play.

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Capinding realized that the magical element of the portal is not representative of the

teenager. He argues that the life of the high schooler is not about magic but that of bullying,

prom, elections, self discovery, and other things that makes their lives exciting without the need

for magic. For him, it has always been easy for writers to create adults and child characters but

when it comes to the conception of someone in between, the teenager suffers being written as a

two dimensional, shallow character. In writing ​William​ and many other of his plays, Capinding

emphasizes on creating and showing the multidimensionality of the teenager, how complex and

how delicate they are.

On the involvement of Shakespeare, Capinding believes that if one is well versed with

Shakespeare’s texts, it would give him a creative mind and a good foundation on his humanities,

judgement and discernment. For him, learning Shakespeare is expanding one’s mind.

Shakespeare is not only excellent in writing but the content, his ability to construct arguments

and provide closure is astounding.

The 5 main characters in ​William​ interacts with Shakespeare through realizing the

relevance of his texts to their daily lives. Capinding said that the inspiration came from his own

classes with his students wherein he requires them to interpret Shakespeare in a different context.

He realized that Shakespeare was, in fact, flexible to different interpretations.

The PETA production of ​William​ was directed by ​the esteemed Maribel Legarda. Many

of her productions, alongside ​William ​has been recognized in the theatre industry. Among her

notable productions are ​Rak of Aegis‒​that bagged a whopping 11 awards at ​Philstage’s Gawad

Buhay awarding ceremony​‒​and this year’s ​Game of Trolls​. The costume designer was Carlo

Pagunaling, whose costume designs for the play, ​Ampalaya the Musical​, has been chosen to be
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exhibited at ​the 2017 World Stage Design (WSD) to be held in Taipei, Taiwan, under the

category “Emerging Designers” (Ang). The playwright was no other than Ron Capinding who is

also known for his acting and directing prowess. The set of ​William​ was designed by Boni Juan,

known for his work in the musicals ​Pamana​ a​nd ​Isang Harding Papel: A Martial Law Musical​.

Music designer and composer Jeff Hernandez, also known for his work in PETA’s “FnL,”

composed 10 original rap songs, with titles like “O Shakespeare,” “What’s in a Name,” and

“Nosebleed.” Added to the already impressive list of designers in the play ​William​ is their

dramaturg, the great Rody Vera. Among his many awards are, FAS award for best screenplay

(​Die Beautiful​ 2016​)​, Balanghai Trophy for Best Screenplay at the 2011 Cinemalaya

Independent Film Festival (​REquieme! ​2011), and an outstanding number of 10 Palanca awards

for his original screenplays: (​Lakambini, Paalam, Sr. Soledad, and Ismail at Isabel​) (“Rodolfo

‘Rody’ Vera”).

This year, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) is celebrating its 50th

Anniversary. Established in 1967, during a sudden movement for Filipinization, PETA

envisioned a Philippine Theater “engaged in the development of people and society” (“Our

Company, Our Story”). The theater group has always been known for the p​resence of political

and social commentary in its play. After its founder, ​Cecile Guidote-Alvarez, was forced to go

on political exile​—together with the political climate and social injustices being perpetuated in

such a chaotic era in the Philippines—the company ​moved for a greater commitment of the

theater to social change and for the production of plays that will best empower the people,

especially the marginalized (“Our Company, Our Story”). Founded during the Marcos Era,

Maribel Legarda states that PETA did not anymore exist “to assert the importance of cultural
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identity” but had an “obligation to oppose the dictatorship” (as qtd in Prentki 33). They also

chose to stage plays in Filipinos at the famous Dulaang Rajah Sulayman and produced a total of

300 plays by the 90’s.

Since its founding, it has produced classics such as ​Haring Lear​, ​Mga Kuwento ni Lola

Basyang, and Arbol de Fuego​,​ ​and is now dabbling in the production of contemporary musicals

such as ​Care Divas, Rak of Aegis, ​and​ William​ (“Our Company, Our Story”). According to

Maribel Legarda, the aim of PETA was to “develop a new and liberating theater pedagogy that

would lead to the creation of original Filipino dramaturgy at both professional and community

levels” (as qtd in Prentki 32).

II. DRAMATURGY OF THE PRODUCTION

In both interviews with Ron Capinding and Ian Segarra, PETA, at that time, wanted to

have a season-long celebration of Shakespeare. In doing so, the question that emerged was

finding a good way of opening the season and finding the most apt way we can introduce

Shakespeare to the audience especially the masses. This was the entry point of Ron Capinding

where he was brought in to write the play focusing on high school students and their

understanding of Shakespeare.

In doing so, Capinding was able to charge his writing through his own experience as a

Filipino high school teacher, and a veteran Shakespeare actor. The idea that came out became

both the selling point of the production.

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According to Segarra, the production had only time to allot 15 rehearsal days for the

show. At the same time, the script was not completely finished as it had to be doctored. What

helped out was that both the artistic team and the actors were always at a conversation or

collaborating their different ideas in dealing with the material.

Furthermore, What made this production unique as well was that it’s main musical form

was rap. Their rationale for using rap in this musical was to parallel how Shakespeare was a

writer for the masses much as rap is a musical; genre or form that is generally accessible to the

Filipino masses.

In an article posted in GMA News online, Santiago noted that the production was able to

deal with the difficulty of William Shakespeare’s plays without sacrificing its integrity in the

process. The script showed that it was very well aware of the Filipino consciousness and bridged

it Shakespeare making it accessible for the audience to resonate themselves wit his writings and

story. In a sense, this production continued to promote a tradition of appreciating Shakespeare

and seeing the universalism of his writing.

In essence, this production was unique from its idea up until its execution. PETA’s

William makes the successful attempt in encouraging high school readers to look at Shakespeare

out of its distant and so-called high cultured kind of aesthetic as a literary masterpiece. Instead,

the call is to resonate oneself. To strengthen it, PETA utilized art forms that have been identified

well with the general public such as rap and hip hop choreography. Furthermore, the costume

have been categorized according the stereotypes being played out which gave a huge nod to

Shakespeare’s plays. Lastly, the stage saw a well versatile and functional set that it enables to

heighten the story of its characters.

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III. CRITIQUE

PETA’s ​William​ is a text that sticks out, in a good way, among the collection of

Shakespeare plays and translations that exists in the Philippines. For one, ​William ​is not a direct

translation of a play by Shakespeare but rather a pastiche of different monologues that had to be

memorized by the characters in the play. It also involves “Pinoy rap” music.

How then, does a musical about Shakespeare fit in among the current collection of

Shakespeare plays in the Philippines?

Judy Ick’s work, “The Undiscovered Country: Shakespeare in Philippine Literatures”,

describes the historical factors and backgrounds that have shaped how Shakespeare was

translated and presented.

One of the first notable local translations of Shakespeare was done by Juan Crisostomo

Soto. He is from Pampanaga and decided to translate ​Romeo and Juliet​ into Kapampangan. Once

he finished translating the work of Shakespeare, he travelled back to Pampanga in order to stage

it; he found a young woman to play Juliet to his Romeo and, eventually, Soto fell in love with

the actress. However, like in Shakespeare drama, their families did not accept their romance and

Soto married a woman that his family chose (4).

Moving on from Sotto, Ick continues to mention the different translations that appeared.

One of the notable works that she mentions was G.D. Roke’s ​Ang Sintang Dalisay ni Julieta at

Romeo​. She mentions how Roke used the ​awit​ in his translation and noted how Roke used
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different source materials in his creation of ​Sintang Dalisay​ (9). While it was still based on

Shakespeare’s ​Romeo and Juliet​, Roke was able to create something that was original due to the

fact that he based his translations on other author’s translations and chose certain aspects of each

source to create what he wanted to see. An example would be the death of the main characters. In

Shakespeare’s original text, Juliet awakens when Romeo is already dead. In ​Sintang Dalisay​, as

well as in the text of Da Porto, Juliet wakes up as Romeo takes in the poison, giving them a

chance to say their final goodbyes. Roke chooses to deviate again from Da Porto: instead of

Juliet killing herself by not breathing, Roke decides to keep the original image of Shakespeare

(10).

What Roke did in ​Sintang Dalisay​ is what Judy Ick calls “authorial intervention” (10). It

was able to highlight certain Filipino feelings of ill-fated love or, for the lack of a better

translation, “​sawi na pag-ibig​” (10). Roke, while creating his work, took into account his

audience, which is the Filipino, and decided to appropriate it ideally (10). Judy Ick notes that

what happened was not just a translation of Shakespeare’s text, but also a translation of its form

(13). What Roke did with ​Sintang Dalisay​ is the same thing that Ron Capinding.

The main cast of ​William ​are stereotyped high school students with certain Filipino

aspects such as one of the characters having a parent abroad. Katrina Santiago summarizes each

character’s struggle and characteristics wonderfully:

Richard (John Emmanoel Moran) is gay, not necessarily in the closet, but not

declaring it to the world either. He is a stereotype familiar to us: overachiever,

batch leader, intelligent in the classroom. His crisis happens when the bully TJ

(Inno Martin) pushes him out of the closet by writing it on the bathroom wall, at
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around the same time that TJ decides to put Erwin (Ian Segarra) through some

suffering, signing up the shy stuttering outcast as candidate for batch

representative.

TJ’s back story as bully is one that’s about abuse, while the two girls of the group

are in crises all their own: Estella (Anna Luna) is angry at her mother for leaving

her father to marry someone else in London, and is the overachiever quiet girl

worrying too much about her grades; Sophia (Imee Katanyag) is part of a social

climbing family, forcing her into friendships rich enough for their newfound

stature as lotto winners, creating an image of her that’s all about being larger and

louder than life. (Santiago)

As Santiago states it in her article, the whole characterization of ​William​’s characters are spitting

images of people in a soap opera. But that is why it works: Filipinos love their soap operas. The

audience can easily identify and connect with the characters onstage. The play’s plot also delves

into the idea that Shakespeare’s works are not for everyone and that it is difficult to understand

him. What ​William ​achieves is that the work of Shakespeare is universal and that the problems

that his characters faced are still the same problems that we face.

Going back to Judy Ick’s essay, it is clear that Ron Capinding’s ​William ​is a valuable

work that adds to the many forms of Filipino Shakespeare works. It was able to highlight the

problems of Shakespeare’s original characters by using the problems that the ​William​’s

characters are facing and was able to show that Shakespeare in Filipino theatre need not to be a

work that directly translates a single work of Shakespeare, but that it can be a different story

altogether and still maintain the integrity of Shakespeare’s plays. Capinding was able to create a
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text that the Filipino audience can easily relate to and was able to show Shakespeare’s

universality. In the same way that the romance that Sato faced was similar to ​Romeo and Juliet​,

Capinding has made the problems of the characters of ​William​ seemingly face the same problems

that come out of Shakespeare’s work. Truly, life imitates art.

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Works Cited

News, ABS-CBN. “PETA Brings Back Award-Winning 'William'.” ​ABS-CBN News​, ABS-CBN

News, 16 July 2012,

news.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/07/16/12/peta-brings-back-award-winning-william.

Alvares, Leanne. “William – a Shakespeare Rap Musical at the PETA Theater Center.” ​When In

Manila​, 30 Aug. 2011,

www.wheninmanila.com/william-a-shakespeare-rap-musical-at-the-peta-theater-center/​.

“PETA's William at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.” ​Cultural Center of the Philippines​,

culturalcenter.gov.ph/press-room/petas-william-at-the-cultural-center-of-the-philippines/.

Ick, Judy Celine. “The Undiscovered Country: Shakespeare in Philippine Literatures.” ​Kritika

Kultura​, 21/22, pp. 1–25., doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.13185/KK2013.021.

INQUIRER.net. “Peta's 'William' at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.” ​Inquirer Lifestyle

Petas William at the Cultural Center of the Philippines Comments​,

lifestyle.inquirer.net/68496/petas-william-at-the-cultural-center-of-the-philippines/.

“PETA Presents William.” ​YouTube​, YouTube, 23 Feb. 2017,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=SCYy_5xpjJI​.

“Rodolfo ‘Rody’ Vera – Carlos Palanca Awards.” ​Carlos Palanca Awards​,

www.palancaawards.com.ph/Testing3/rodolfo-rody-vera/​. Web.

Santiago, Katrina Stuart. “Why PETA's ‘William’ Works.” ​GMA News Online​,

www.gmanetwork.com/news/lifestyle/content/241515/why-peta-s-william-works/story/​.

Walter Ang. “John Carlo Pagunaling's Costumes Make It to 2017 World Stage Design

Exhibition.” ​Inquirer Lifestyle John Carlo Pagunalings Costumes Make It to 2017

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World Stage Design Exhibition Comments​, 1 July 2017,

lifestyle.inquirer.net/266949/john-carlo-pagunalings-costumes-make-2017-world-stage-

design-exhibition/#ixzz50UTt0ufa. Web.

Philippine Educational Theater Association. “Our Company, Our Story.” ​PETA Theater,

petatheater.com/about. Web.

Prentki, Tim. “History and Origins of Theatre for Development. ” London: ​Applied Theatre:

Development.​ Bloomsbury, 2015. Print. 7-55.