With Banaue Miclat-Janssen after the show. Looking for a great play to watch this month? Why not watch one that has been seen by a media colleague several times because of its excellence? The first time I came across Angry Christ, I was intrigued on how a play may be made about a chapel's mural. Honestly, I didn't know much about Alfonso Ossorio. The synopsis promised a good story and seeing that Floy Quintos is the playwright made me confident in it. Upon further reading, I saw the names of great actors such as Nel Gomez, Kalil Almonte, Banaue Miclat-Janssen, a dear friend. Expectations became high. I did go to the theater with much anticipation and those high expectations were surely met! When you enter, you see a stage that has been transformed into the interior of the chapel where most of the story took place. A lecturer breaks your wait as she enters the stage giving you sufficient background on the play. Even if you do not know anything about the story of Ossori...

The staging of The Female Heart marks the end of the 3 year hiatus of UP Playwrights' Theatre, the directorial debut of the highly talented Banaue Miclat-Janssen, and the first time a Filipino-American is featured by the organization. Linda Faigao-Hall wrote a vivid image of how the female heart would do anything to make ends meet. It may transform. become resilient, and makes sure that family comes first. This is shown in how Adelfa puts her family first in practically every decision in her life. UP Playwright's Theatre is known for being housed in Teatro Hermogenes Ylagan (THY), a black box theater located in the Faculty Center. As it is currently not accessible, The Female Heart is being staged at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero theater next door, in Palma Hall. UP Playwrights' Theatre pays homage to THY by giving the audience an exhibit of the surviving materials of the previous productions prior to being led to your seat. The seating also resembles a black box t...

Careers come and go. It is how one makes or breaks it. As a prelude to the forthcoming silver linings of her career in the arts next year, multi-talented artist Banaue Miclat-Janssen has been connecting her heart, mind and soul into a wholistic process as part of her time capsule in order to become a much more meaningful artist. Having worked with many co-artists over the past two decades in Manila and New York, Banaue has been praised for her openness to communicate thoughts, views and ideas by explaining the purposes of her goals. With her high level of intelligence, excellent memory, charming mannerisms, sensitivity, innovativeness, imaginativeness and loving temperament, Banaue’s career will surely fall properly into its place spelling more successes in the near future. But even while others seem to have perceived Banaue for keeping a low profile in her career path, she has actually a very keen interest in its advancement. Quiet competence and consistency, that’s what she ...

Reading through the programme reminded me of my short days in a literary folio. Verses were natural then while my head went and stayed up in the air. I'm more in the ground these days but the appeal of poetry never faded. Losing a loved one is probably the universe's way for everyone to feel pain. It's the inescapable interplay of fates that leave the living with the important task of how to cherish the past. Ginugunita Kita is very personal yet universal. Pain begets pain but pain forces love to grow. Reading the words of Maningning Miclat's verses is an experience of discovery. Seeing its performance is awe-inspiring and knowing the context of her work pierces the soul. In the end, your soul is imprinted with the divine. Under the direction of Roeder Camanag, the genius of Jesse Lucas' music and the pure talents of Renato Lucas and Banaue Miclat-Janssen, poetry and music meets, merges, and evolves. With guests Al Gatmaitan and Delphine Buencamino, indi...