By Regina Elaine Vendivil

Dulaang Sibol Aspirants Batch of 2021 showcased their skills and talents as they unveiled their annual culminating activity, Unang Lipad 2021: Hervacio Tubulan that premiered on Youtube last Saturday, May 29, 2021. 

The traditional structure of Unang Lipad, which has a certain format of different types of plays and segments, was not followed this year as they focused on Hervacio Tubulan, a play by Mikal Rallonza and Lance Martinez.

The story revolves around a high school student named Hervacio Tubulan who strived to find people he can be with by exploring the worlds of the different types of people including the siga, aktibista (activitists), conyo, and the nerds.

And because of his desire to fit in these types of groups, he constantly changed his personality depending on the clique he’s with and gave them different names when he was asked to introduce himself, but in the long run, he was still unable to find where he really belonged. 

Hervacio went crazy in the end because he couldn’t handle the situation anymore due to the struggles of trying to fit in and eventually, forgot what was most important, himself. 

Dulaang Sibol emphasized the message of the play which is the “Challenge to find one’s true self and to discover who they really are,” as they said.

This year’s Unang Lipad concluded with the organization’s rendition of Seasons of Love sung by the Aspirants, originally from the 1996 Broadway musical, Rent.  

In an interview with Dulaang Sibol’s Novice Master Mikkel Valencia, he explained how different this year’s Unang Lipad is compared to the plays held in the past years. 

“In previous years, the Unang Lipad would follow a specific format with a play segment, a song segment, and a dance segment. This is the first time in recent history that Unang Lipad was done through a whole production rather than the usual format it’s known for,” he said. 

Behind the success of this 90-minute play, Valencia stated that the Aspirants have encountered difficulties, especially now that we are still in an online setting, one of the biggest challenges was the adaptation of acting in the current set-up.

“In theater, actors usually feed off of each other’s energy and perform better when they are physically with their co-actors, but now that they are just alone in their rooms, in front of a camera, it was quite the challenge,” he stated. 

Nonetheless, the actors were still able to overcome this as they worked hard and practiced in order to fully adjust to the current situation. 

Another challenge was the editing process of the whole play, but despite that, the organization’s editors were able to pull through and produced an outstanding play. 

Valencia reassured that Dulaang Sibol will still be making more online productions in the coming school year as he said, “The productions veriaren’t final yet but expect both Sibol originals and classic plays.” 

The whole duration of the play can still be watched on YouTube on https://youtu.be/C9-DgE8uZpE

Photo Source: Dulaang Sibol on Facebook