By Raphaella Sarangaya

The members of the Dulaang Sibol exhibited their exceptional skills and talents in acting and performing arts as they unveiled a modern morality play written by Joel and Onofre Pagsanghan, Sa Kaharian ng Araw, which premiered on Youtube from February 4 to 6. 

It followed the narrative of two friends in their pursuit of worldly splendor in the mythical kingdom of the Sun (Kaharian ng Araw) and, in the process, discovered the bounds of their friendship, as well as the weight of one’s aspirations. 

The two friends, Ponce, played by Justice Bacorro, and Paolo, played by Gab Mactal, symbolize the two facets of every man: the one who is object-oriented, seeking fortune in reaching Araw— Ponce; and person-centered, selfless, and cares for the well-being of his friend— Paolo

Together, they faced three kingdoms of Ulan, Hangin, and Dilim, which represent the hurdles and vicissitudes that tantalize, even agonize, success-seekers to plod on with greater abandon. 

The Kaharian ng Araw is symbolic of worldly success that beckons beguilingly, then burns the beguiled. In his search for the Kaharian ng Araw, Ponce becomes a vessel of a human being’s own desires and aspirations, and as it concluded, a question falls on the audience to answer: “What are you willing to give in the face of your deepest, sincerest dreams?” 

In an interview with the Junior High School Moderator and Co-director Austin Gonzales, and Co-director Matti Letaba, they emphasized the story’s message, “confronting the distance between a life lived for one’s self and a life laid down for others.” Furthermore, according to Gonzales and Letaba, the story takes the audience on a journey to answer the perennial question: “What is the cost of a dream?”

Behind the success of this 90-minute play, Gonzales and Letaba stated that the production team encountered various challenges and difficulties of acting in an online setup, considering that they wanted Sa Kaharian ng Araw to be quite distinct from the typical “Zoom call” layout play.

“Because of the online setting, this rendition of Sa Kaharian ng Araw maximizes the tools of the online setting of theater like no other production that we’ve released in the past two years. We wanted to stray away from the usual ‘Zoom call’ layout that we’ve been utilizing for most of our productions during the pandemic. Since we could not meet and do the play in person, we explored and integrated multiple cinematic techniques into the production and from this, stemmed a beautiful work of art that will hopefully serve as a standard for our coming productions,” they stated. 

“Staging a play takes the help of an entire village, and staging the same play online takes a miracle. Dulaang Sibol has been navigating, exploring, and marking the pavements of the online theatre space we found ourselves in since the start of the pandemic, and each production we build unearths a new set of challenges and learning opportunities for the organization,” they added.

The co-directors also mentioned that for the production of Sa Kaharian ng Araw specifically, Sibol wanted to experiment with their visual artistry’s creativity, hence the play’s vision to be shot ‘film-like’ in nature. They spent two to three months recording the scenes, with every member of the organization giving their best efforts to come to terms with doing theatre online. 

“Our members learned skills uncommon to live theatre such as video editing and post-processing, setting up home studios and acting in them, we were even faced with logistical concerns to ensure shot continuity. Most times, we find ourselves tiring from the long hours in front of the screens only to remember that we have classwork and activities still waiting for us,” Gonzales and Letaba declared. 

“Good communication is what saves theatre work from becoming burdensome,” they added. 

To conclude the interview, Gonzales and Letaba emphasized that theatre should strive to be a creative and collaborative process wherein each members’ voice can be heard to provide insight into the progress of the production. Hence, Sa Kaharian ng Araw was not one’s story of triumph, but an entire community’s redemption at living and accomplishing their aspirations.

After premiering the play for three consecutive days, Mikkel Valencia, the Dulaang Sibol Head, reassured that the organization is set on making more productions with integrated face-to-face interactions in the coming months. 

“With more research and findings of the COVID-19 virus showing a steady decrease in cases and decline in severity, we plan to include short face-to-face interactions in our productions, or maybe even the production as a whole,” said Valencia. 

Photo source: Dulaang Sibol on Facebook