MANILA, Philippines - I first met Lucrecia Kasilag during the Christmas holiday of 1976. I had just graduated with a Production and Stage Management course at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art (Rada) in London, and I was presenting my credentials.
As a student of Rada, I enjoyed a full-tuition scholarship from the Cultural Center of the Philippines, through the behest of then Ambassador Jaime Zobel de Ayala. The catch was, I had to come back after the course to work at the CCP?some sort of payback, but with a salary.
Nevertheless, I did not mind. After my London training, where could I share my expertise but at the CCP, the only professional cultural institution in the country?
Six months after I had settled in my job, Tita King asked me to organize a group of Filipino theater artists to represent the country in the first-ever Asian Theater Festival to be held in Taiwan.
We had endless meetings to prepare for the event, and the highlight of our gabfest was Tita King sharing her recollection of superb Taiwanese cuisine. She was a hearty eater, and for her, food should be savored and enjoyed to the last bite.
Once, she summoned me to her office and excitedly narrated what had happened to her the night before. She caught a burglar ransacking her bedroom at about past midnight. With all her baton-wielding might, she boomed, ?Anong ginagawa mo dito? Umalis ka dito! Walang lalakeng pwedeng pumasok dito!?
Video presentation
There was the time she got a memorandum from the First Lady, Imelda Marcos, instructing all the First Lady?s project managers to prepare a 20-minute video presentation summarizing the works and achievements of each project.
Three were assigned to do the job?Ronni Tapia of PR Department; Ray Albano of Art Galleries; and yours truly. As the inspection date approached, we found ourselves working very late into the night.
The evening before the presentation, and at way past midnight, Tita King checked on the progress of our work and I kiddingly teased her, ?Check-in naman kasi sa Philippine Plaza para fresh bukas.?
She looked at the three of us and said, ?I will approve one room only,? and then left. She knew Ronni was safe with me and Ray.
At 5:30 a.m., we were doing our last-minute check when word arrived that the First Lady would see us at the lobby. From the third-floor office, we pulled the plugs and carried the audiovisual paraphernalia in a rush. But as I carried the carousel full of slides, I slipped!
Tita King, in her emerald-green terno, went down on all fours to help me pick up the mess, all the while whispering, ?Tony, bakit hindi mo ni-lock??
Speaking of terno?when my dear friend, fashion designer Joe Salazar, wanted to give her a terno, Tita King said, ?Sabihin mo kay Joe, ?wag akong masyadong pagandahin, baka magalit si Ma?am. Kung pwede, mas sexy!?
And then she would laugh?that girlish giggle accompanied by the twinkle in her eyes. How she loved life!
Tita King was the one who encouraged me to produce the CCP Playwriting winners, and with this encouragement, Bulwagang Gantimpala was born inside the CCP in the late 1970s. For a decade, it was one of CCP?s resident artistic companies, performing inside the experimental theater space now known as Tanghalang Huseng Batute.
Tony Espejo is the artistic director of Gantimpala Theater (formerly known as Bulwagang Gantimpala), one of the babies of the late Lucrecia Kasilag. The 31-year-old theater company has a yearlong season consisting of the Four Classics??Florante at Laura,? ?Kanser? (?Noli Me Tangere?), ?Ibong Adarna? and ?El Filibusterismo??along with the National Artist Production Series of Rolando Tinio?s ?A Life in the Slums?; the Pearl Theater Festival presentations of ?Hiblang Abo? and ?Bien Aligtad?; the touring productions ?Katipunan: Mga Anak ng Bayan? and ?Romeo and Juliet?; and the children?s musical ?Sleeping Beauty.?
