VIRGIN LABFEST 5

This is the fifth year of the Virgin Labfest. It showcases a harvest of new plays written by members and participants of the Writer's Bloc and other playwrights who also submitted entries for the upcoming Laboratory Festival. An annual joint-partnership project of the Writer's Bloc, the Tanghalang Pilipino and the Cultural Center of the Philippines, it aims to showcase a crop of new short/one act plays in full production with several added activities such as: public reading sessions of full-length plays and discussions regarding playwriting and theater practice.

SET A School of Life (Mga Dulang Walang Pinag-aralan)

MPC (Mababang Paaralan ng Caniogan)

(Job Pagsibangan)

Felix Bakat is already the brightest student in the sub- standard Mababang Paaralan ng Caniogan or MPC. He and his two other friends, Erwin & Didai, had the misfortune of being the only three students to report to their class one stormy school day. Their teacher, the terrifying Miss Magnaye, prepares them for her teaching demo which she and her students are scheduled to present before their visiting school superintendent, Mr. Catacutan.On the day of the teaching demo, Erwin & Didai plan to steal from Miss Magnaye’s stock of canned goods; a business the teacher keeps to augment what she earns from the profession she herself despises. But just when Mr. Catacutan is already enjoying the teaching demo, Erwin and Didai are found out. Miss Magnaye points to Felix as the one behind the conspiracy. How the children are eventually cleared of the mischief is no small help from the school’s legendary ghost, Pilita and the violent storm that ties Pilita’s fate to that of Miss Magnaye. Rating: 7/10

Ang Huling Lektyur ni Misis Reyes

(Tim Dacanay)

A high school music teacher at the crossroads of life decides to retire. She faces her class for one last session and improvises a lecture on a topic she considers most important for her audience: sex. Rating: 5/10

Isang Mukha ng Pandaraya

(Oggie Arcenas)

Isadora, a student who is about to graduate summa cum laude from a prestigious university is accused of cheating during an examination. The accuser is Amor, an underachieving student, and the campus slut. The two face-off before the Student Disciplinary Tribunal which is hearing the cheating case. As the hearing unfolds, secrets are revealed, and a jaded society’s value system takes the spotlight. Rating 7/10

SET B It's Complicated (The Buhul-Buhol Trilogy)

Salise

(J. Dennis Teodosio)

A laptop was stolen. In a desperate attempt to retrieve it, a soap opera writer discovers a life story that's stranger and juicier than the teleseryes he's been writing. Rating: 9/10

Ang Mamanugangin ni Rez

(Clarissa Estuar)

Enter Pinay’s world, which for most of the day is compressed into a small bag/shoe repair stall she manages at a mall. Here, even simple dreams seem out of reach, and simple Pinay constantly just fades into the background. She makes one last ditch effort for something she truly wants, or rather someone she truly wants only to question why she set her aspirations on that one man, of all people. Rating: 8/10

So Sangibo A Ranon Na Piyatay O Satiman A Tadman

(Rogelio Braga)

A story of love, lost and remembrance. Stella, a hooker from the university belt during the Martial Law years remembers the 1971 Tacub Massacre in Kauswagan, Lanao del Norte, Abdul Rahman who longs for a Ranao he left to pursue a dream in Manila, and Aling Ella a spinster who remembers a lost love that haunts her like a ghost. So Sanggibo a Ranon na Piyatay o Satiman a Tadman is both a story of how ordinary people struggle for love, self-respect, freedom and maratabat amid a nation that harbors a dark past and an invitation to a journey in one of the sordid histories of Filipino Nationalism against the Bangsa Moro people. Rating: 8/10

SET C Blood Sports (Trilohiyang Dinuguan )

Kitchen Medea

(Kiyokazu Yamamoto)

Modern version of Medea, an ancient greek tragedy wirtten by Euripides.The play tells the story of the revenge of a woman betrayed by her husband. Rating: 9/10

Doc Resurrecion: Gagamutin ang Bayan

(Layeta Bucoy)

With the desire to introduce positive changes to his community, Doc Resureccion ran for Mayor. Unfortunately, his cousin, Boy Pogi Resureccion ran as a nuisance candidate challenging Doc Resureccion's chances. Bearing gifts and promises of a better future, he tries persuading his cousin to withdraw his candidacy only to find out that the community he so wanted to help desires a different path for itself. Rating: 8/10

Asawa/Kabit

(George de Jesus III)

Two middle-aged women, Via and Vanessa, confront each other about the man they both loved for more than 25 years. Through a scathing conversation, resentments and regrets surface like land mines forcing both women to evaluate the immutable choices they made in the name of love, the unbearable burden of hope, and the contentiousness of believing in a man's fidelity.

Rating: 8/10

SET D The Family That _______s Together (Tatlong Dulang Walang Diyos)

Boy-Girl ang Gelpren ni Mommy

(Sheilfa Alojamiento)

Two kids, caught in adult infidelity games, took time off away from their errant father's house and spend a vacation one summer in their divorced mother's place in another city and get to know her and her girlfriend.

Rating: 8/10

Maliw

(Reuel Molina Aguila)

How does one close a chapter still to be written? Five years after the forced-disappearance of her eldest daughter, a mother confronts this question. The play is set after her family celebrates her eldest daughter’s 30th birthday.

Rating: 9/10

Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White

(George Vail Kabristante)

This is a document of the times when club entertainers in Japan used to pick yen from the walls of clubs to be remitted to their families back home for saving or for squandering. It zeroes in on former entertainers husband and wife Jay-Ar and Leizl and their dream to go back to Japan which has become an impossibility, given that the Japanese government has absolutely made it difficult now for anyone to work there as club entertainer. Hinting at Chekovian absurdities & humor , the characters continue dreaming and role-playing to relive the good old days. In laughing at themselves and acting “up” and “out” the dark humors and their memorable past in Japan, these two characters find their plight less painful to bear.

Rating: 7/10

SET E Life is a Trap (Three Plays in Search of Escape)

Isang Araw sa Karnabal

(Nicolas B. Pichay)

Zaldy and Toni, two friends whose family members have been the victims of forced disappearances, amble along a jologs Peryahan. They grope in the dark shadow of a world weighed by uncertainties and fear. Engaged in the ritual of forgetting, the two friends' undefined relationship adds a nagging ambiguity in their lives making it difficult for them to define a future. Hope, for them can be a tricky sleight of hand; a slow and treacherous rickity ride to hell. Rating:9/10

Paigan

(Liza Magtoto)

An Afro-American soldier who deserted his camp to fight side-by-side with the Filipino revolutionaries, is wanted by the Americans for the price of $600-- a hefty sum at the time. Desperate for money, Pedring captures Fagen and is set to behead him when Tacio, a former comrade, and the Filipina wife of the captive beseech him. The play explores a possible scenario posed by historical essays on the true-to-life story of the guerilla fighter who defected to our side during the Filipino-American War. Rating: 8/10

Hate Restaurants

(David Finnigan)

This play follows the trials and tribulations of a small pancake restaurant during the biggest breakfast of the year. Head chef and restauranteur Louise is incapacitated after an unfortunate encounter with a giant rat, leaving waiters Louise and Billy and mild-mannered kitchen-hand Toby to handle a booking of 70 businessmen who are suspiciously picky in their requirements. Rating:8/10