Virgin Labfest travels to the Visayas with 7 Hiligaynon plays

The Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) and its partners staged a regional edition of its annual theater festival of untried, untested and unstaged plays in Bacolod City for the first time in 18 years.

The Virgin Labfest in the Visayas (VLF Lab-As) showcased seven one-act Hiligaynon plays. Six were chosen from a total of 18 original entries submitted during an open call in May, and one was a revisited version of a work originally staged in Manila.

Following the theme “Lab-as,” a Hiligaynon interpretation of “freshly cut and freshly harvested” plays written by emerging and veteran Visayan playwrights, the theater festival organized in collaboration with Bacolod-based theater company The Performance Laboratory, Inc. (PerfLab) and Manila-based independent playwrights group The Writer’s Bloc Inc. ran from Nov. 15 to 18, at The Negros Museum’s Black Box Theater.

The four-day festival commenced and culminated with the revisited play “Ang Pag-ulianon ni Olivia Mendoza” by Negrense playwright Rolin Migyuel Obino, which originally premiered in Filipino in the 2019 VLF held at the CCP in Manila.

The six original Hiligaynon plays were divided into three sets of back-to-back performances.

Set A included “Sa Likod Sang Masskara,” written by Fundador Tipon II and directed by Milton Dionzon, and “Ang Sweatshop, Ang Aparador, kag ang Pinakatig-a nga Ismagol sa Bilog nga Kalibutan,” written by Jasper Villasis and directed by Rodolfo Reveche.

Set B consisted of “Dorm 425,” written by Venise Buenaflor and directed by Mai Montelibano, and “Victim,” written by Vicente Garcia Groyon and directed by Jade Snow.

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Set C was composed of “Sin-o Naglansang Kay Kristo,” written by Rocky Nicor and directed by Alejandro “Bundo” Deoma, and “Kapoy Nako Mangin Superhero,” written by Roger Joshua Venzal and directed by Tanya Lopez.

Local organizers are planning a restaging of VLF Lab-As between December and March 2024 at the Gallaga Theater at the University of St. La Salle Bacolod to accommodate a larger audience.

Produced by the CCP, in partnership with its resident theater company Tanghalang Pilipino and the playwright group Writer’s Bloc Inc., VLF is an annual theater festival that is dedicated to provide a venue for new works by aspiring playwrights.