‘Taong Grasa’ goes to Japan
By Nestor Torre
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 20:01:00 07/04/2008
MANILA, Philippines—In the 1980s, Lou Veloso scored a direct hit with his one-man play, “Taong Grasa,” which was presented more than 20 times in UP, to great acclaim.
This September, Lou is reviving “Taong Grasa” by way of a new production that will have some performances at the Sta. Ana Arts Center. The shows are “farewell” performances, because on Sept. 20, Lou is flying to Japan to perform the short play there, under the auspices of the Japan Foundation.
Second home
Lou’s Japan performances are the result of the actor and Manila City councilor’s close collaboration with ace lighting designer, Shoko Matsumoto, who has made the Philippines her second home for many years now.
Shoko’s light designs are so good that she’s highly respected and sought-after in Japan and other countries, but she likes living in the Philippines so much that she spends many months each year here.
This has been a boon for Philippine theater, which has benefited greatly from Shoko’s acutely artistic and dynamic lighting. In addition, Shoko has put up the Sinag Arts Center to provide a wide range of artistic services, not the least of which are her lighting workshops, which have produced fine graduates who are now active in theater productions here, as well.
Since Lou heads the Sta. Ana Arts Center and Shoko has her Sinag Arts Center, it was easy for them to come to a most compatible and productive meeting of artistic minds. This led to their joint initiative to put up a lighting workshop last summer, which had for its concluding exercise the lighting design for Lou’s revival production of “Taong Grasa.”
We caught the dress rehearsal of the show some weeks ago, and marveled how Shoko’s workshoppers were able to enhance its already striking drama with their beautifully textured illumination.
That’s the key word, because their lighting truly illuminated the hidden meanings in the seemingly throwaway life of Lou’s character, a scavenger who had dropped out of society.
In the eyes of others, he had ceased to be human—and yet, Lou’s portrayal and the play’s production and lighting design made it acutely clear that, underneath all that grime and seeming lack of humanity, a human being continued to exist, think and feel.
Mannerisms
Lou invests a lot of himself in the role, causing his performance to flare with authentic pain, intensity and conviction. He recalls that, the first time he created the taong grasa’s character, he spent two days with an actual scavenger, not just studying him for his characteristic gestures and mannerisms, but also to get under his skin, so to speak—and into his mind and heart. He felt so strongly for this reject of society that, at the end of every show, he found himself weeping copious tears.
While tears are a part of the “Taong Grasa” experience for both actor and viewer alike, the play also has its ennobling aspect, because it shows that even the least “worthwhile” member of the human race never loses his humanity—and worth.
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