The Boy Who Stutters

A play based on the life of Maria Rosa Luna Henson, the “first Filipino to publicly come out as a comfort woman,” Nana Rosa delivers a powerful message and is as relevant as it can be today! Written by award-winning playwright Rody Vera and directed by José Estrella, the play captured the gruesome experiences that comfort women had undergone during the Japanese occupation in the country.  Painful and aggravating might be an understatement to describe the narrative and cruel reality of such cases because what Nana Rosa and other sex slaves have actually experienced is incomparable to any fictive and factual representations. Fortunately, the play succeeded in disturbing the audience by the fact of systemic sexual abuse committed by the Japanese soldiers and the long overdue justice that is yet to be gained after several decades. Nana Rosa, as an impactful play inspired by the story of a strong and brave woman, breaks the hearts of the audience, including mine, and affec...

One of the highlights of my Senior High School is spearheading Stage Plays. Hardcopy Scripts In the duration of three years (2016, 2017, 2018), I managed to direct, to co-direct, to write, and to co-write (even to act) major stage play and school role plays. I was immersed in 6 wonderful crafts which truly enhanced my capability and exposed me to new experiences. (I planned to blog each play individually and to share my experiences in each one but my time then failed me and now I'm doing this one collective blog!) New Yorker in Tondo (August 30, 2016) This is the first major role play that was given to us as I entered Grade 11. The class is divided into two groups with the same play and was basically judged who did it better.  As I remember it, New Yorker in Tondo is a story about a girl who went to New York and is now returning to her home in Tondo. In her baggage is her transformation that stunned her old friends both comically and sensibly.  I ...

What's the purpose of Education? Is it to cure our innocence and ignorance, or just to turn the former into the latter? As I age each day, this idea has sprouted from the reality that life has offered me. I was taught that the main purpose of education is to cure the ignorance of people, to turn innocence into action, and to produce functional people for society. We can all agree with that, I hope. But what if education is just turning one's innocence into ignorance? I once saw a poster that somehow illustrates how education shapes people, especially children. The image shows a line of pupils and a teacher who shapes the round minds of the kids into a box using scissors. It wants to convey a strong message. The way I interpreted it was rather cynical. Education limits the human mind, or it is more right to say that school does. I am not against education, I say that everyone should have one, even a little bit of it; I probably just criticize how school systems work. Are t...

BATANG BATA KA PA Dulang may isang yugto Akda ni Ace Meelan M. Balbarez (Pebrero 15, 2017) TAUHAN ANNE       – 19, panganay sa magkakapatid, matalino, conservative LYKA        – 18, pangalwa sa magkakapatid, matalino, insecure HAZZEL – 17, ikalto sa magkakapatid, maarte, spoiled brat DANIEL   – 16, bunso sa magkakapatid, masunurin, RONALD        – 55, ama ng pamilya Reyes, matutukso ng temptasyon ELENA     – 54, ina ng pamilya Reyes, may sakit sa bato ERIKA      – 54, kambal ni Elena, GILLIAN   – 50, kapatid nina Elena at Erika, CEDRICK– 50, asawa ni Gillian IZA            – 19, kaibigan ni Anne MADEL    – 18, kaibigan ni Lyka         WALTER – 18, kasintahan ni Hazzel LEVI      ...