Tanghalang Ateneo
Encyclopedia
Company Profile
Tanghalang Ateneo, the longest-running theatre company of Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila UniversityAteneo de Manila University
The Ateneo de Manila University is a private teaching and research university run by the Society of Jesus in the Philippines. It began in 1859 when the City of Manila handed control of the Escuela Municipal de Manila in Intramuros, Manila, to the Jesuits...
, weaves into its work the theatrical traditions of the University’s sesquicentennial past: the devotion of the salon de actos at the Escuela Municipal, the eloquence of the Ateneo Dramatics Guild, the joie de vivre of the Ateneo Players Theatre, and the innovative spirit of the Ateneo Experimental Theatre. Like these companies, Tanghalang Ateneo uses the theatre to foster eloquentia, sapientia, and humanitas – the pillars of Jesuit pedagogy. It sees itself as a theater company in the service of student formation, and by extension, given the Jesuit ideal of magis, a theater as well in the service of the nation.
Since its founding in 1972, and given formal recognition in 1979, Tanghalang Ateneo has grown from a fledgling band of student players to one of the country’s leading school-based theatre companies. Its repertoire of plays is daunting: world classics, Filipino originals, and documentary texts turned into theatre pieces. Its productions are noted for their thought, generosity and energy,
while its lingua franca on stage is Filipino and English. Its members come from diverse academic fields. Many have pursued careers in theater, television, and film; many more use their theater experience to excel in management, law, teaching, human resources, as well as in the media and in the culture industry. Professional theater actors have graced its shows, and several outstanding designers and choreographers have served in its artistic staff. Moreover, its audience base extends outside the campus to embrace students in schools within and outside the metropolitan area.
Tanghalang Ateneo has won Aliw Awards for Best Production and Best Direction. The company has also received production grants from the Loyola Schools, National Commission for Culture and the Arts and the Spanish Program for Cultural Cooperation. Its shows have also been shown in campuses and venues across the country, and recently in international festivals. Its past achievements have also facilitated the creation, in School Year 2000-2001, of a degree program in Theatre Arts within the Fine Arts Program of the Ateneo de Manila University.
Tanghalang Ateneo productions educate and delight; they also stimulate the imagination and provoke thought. Jesuit pedagogy fuses with theatre arts to interrogate the Filipino social world so that students can invent themselves as critical Filipinos – sharp in thought, expressive in action, deep in faith, and attuned to others, fellow players and audiences whose lives intersect with their own.
Ricardo G. Abad has been the Artistic Director and Moderator of Tanghalang Ateneo since 1984. Salvador F. Bernal, National Artist for Theater Design, has served as the company’s Resident Production Designer since 1996.
History of Tanghalang Ateneo
Tanghalang Ateneo descends from a long line of Ateneo theater companies, the Ateneo Dramatics Society and the Ateneo Experimental Theater, among others-which flourished in the college campus since its pre-war days at Padre Faura. It started out in 1974 as a group of friends who wished to stage plays, and having no theater to speak of on the Loyola Heights campus, scheduled performances at the college cafeteria. The group pressed the administration for a more suitable venue, and by 1978, a large classroom, seating about 80 people, was converted to a theater of sorts. In the old classroom, the group constructed wooden grids, light boxes, transformed a huge piece of canvass into a cyclorama, built an enclosed control booth, and draped windows with dark curtains, this is now called the Fine Arts Theatre. However, since 1989, Tanghalang Ateneo has been staging plays in a 250-seater theater called the Rizal Mini-Theater and recently, in other venues within the Loyola Schools such as the Fine Arts Exhibit Hall.The officers drafted a constitution, got recognized as a co-curricular organization in college, and recruited Ricardo Saludo, a faculty member of the Departments of English and of Communications, to serve as moderator. In 1979, under Saludo, Tanghalang Ateneo’s first repertory season began. The repertory season of Filipino plays, original or in translation continued even after Saludo left to join Asiaweek magazine in Hong Kong in 1984.
He was succeeded by Dr. Ricardo G. Abad, the current artistic director, who retained the repertory program but added English plays as part of its annual fare. Tanghalang Ateneo productions have also been seen off campus: over the last nine years, the company has performed in the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Metropolitan Theater, the Puerto Real Gardens, the Ninoy Aquino Park, the British Council, the Alliance Francaise, Vigan, Iloilo, Nueva Ecija, and a lot more.
As a college theater company, Tanghalang Ateneo’s primary mission is educational: It seeks to supplement the liberal arts program of the Ateneo de Manila University by exposing students to dramatic masterpieces, both classical and modern, and by instilling in company members the lessons of theater work-cooperation, responsibility, discipline, generosity and truth. One of the criteria in its selection of plays, as gleaned from the season’s repertoire, is a preference for plays that will enjoin audiences to reflect more about their own private worlds and the relationship of these worlds to the larger society.
The 33 Seasons of Tanghalang Ateneo
- First Season (1979-1980)
- Naibigan Mo Sana ang Sauna
- Ramona Reyes ng Forbes Park
- Second Season (1980-1981)
- Kilabot ng Makiling
- Isa Pang Bayani
- Taong Pang Habang Panahon
- Ang Belen
- Ang Sala
- Third Season (1981-1982)
- Ang Inspektor
- Eksena!
- Adriano VIII
- Ang Katubusan
- Fourth Season (1982-1983)
- Naibigan Mo Sana ang Sauna
- Sigwa!
- Kiko Kulang-Kulang
- Banal at Baliw
- Fifth Season (1983-1984)
- 1+1=3/Two Act Plays
- Paraisong Parisukat
- Angel sa Impiyerno
- Kilabot ng Makiling
- Sixth Season (1984-1985)
- A Man for All SeasonsA Man for All SeasonsA Man for All Seasons is a play by Robert Bolt. An early form of the play had been written for BBC Radio in 1954, and a one-hour live television version starring Bernard Hepton was produced in 1957 by the BBC, but after Bolt's success with The Flowering Cherry, he reworked it for the stage.It was...
- Ang KuripotThe MiserL'Avare is a 1668 five-act satirical comedy by French playwright Molière. Its title is usually translated as The Miser when the play is performed in English....
- Artenista: A Trilogy of Plays
- Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio
- Orinola
- Ligawan
- The Good Woman of Setzuan
- A Man for All Seasons
- Seventh Season (1985-1986)
- Beckett or The Honor of God
- Ang InspektorThe InspectorThe Inspector is a series of 1960s theatrical cartoons produced by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises and released through United Artists. The titular character is based on Jacques Clouseau, a comical French police officer who is the main character in the Pink Panther series of films.-Plot:Although the...
- Tatsulok
- The Ugly DucklingThe Ugly Duckling"The Ugly Duckling" is a literary fairy tale by Danish poet and author Hans Christian Andersen . The story tells of a homely little bird born in a barnyard who suffers abuse from his neighbors until, much to his delight , he matures into a beautiful swan, the most beautiful bird of all...
- AngelaAngela- Geography :* Angela Lake, in Volusia County, Florida* Lake Angela, in Lyon Township, Oakland County, Michigan* Lake Angela, the reservoir impounded by the source dam of the South Yuba River-Literature:...
- Usok, Ulap, Ibon, Kulisap
- Eighth Season (1986-1987)
- Pagsabog ng Liwanag
- Antigone
- Two Plays/Benefit Show
- Taong Grasa
- Orinola
- Tatlong Katuwaang Tig-iisang Yugto
- Ang Pamamanhikan
- The Boor
- Ang Anibersaryo
- Ninth Season (1987-1988)
- Paghihintay kay GodoWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
- The Importance of Being Earnest
- Tasulok II
- Gabun
- Alex Antiporda
- Ang Sopranong Kalbo
- Paghihintay kay Godo
- Tenth Season (1988-1989)
- Felipe de las Calas
- Eleventh Season (1989-1990)
- Bb. Julie
- Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All For You
- Doon Po sa Amin
- Twelfth Season (1990-1991)
- Pangarap sa Gabi ng Gitnang Tag-ArawA Midsummer Night's DreamA Midsummer Night's Dream is a play that was written by William Shakespeare. It is believed to have been written between 1590 and 1596. It portrays the events surrounding the marriage of the Duke of Athens, Theseus, and the Queen of the Amazons, Hippolyta...
- Immortal Diamond
- Pangarap sa Gabi ng Gitnang Tag-Araw
- Thirteenth Season (1991-1992)
- Filibustero
- Pagkahaba-haba Man ng Prusisyon sa Simbahan Din ang Tuloy
- Murder in the CathedralMurder in the CathedralMurder in the Cathedral is a verse drama by T. S. Eliot that portrays the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket in Canterbury Cathedral in 1170, first performed in 1935...
- Fourteenth Season (1992-1993)
- Ang Trahedya ni Romeo at JulietaRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
- Tatsulok III
- Cafe Apollo
- Mother's DayMother's DayMother's Day is a celebration honoring mothers and celebrating motherhood, maternal bonds, and the influence of mothers in society. It is celebrated on various days in many parts of the world, yet most commonly in March, April, or May...
- Balasa
- Paghihintay kay GodoWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
- Ang Trahedya ni Romeo at Julieta
- Fifteenth Season (1993-1994)
- AntigoneAntigoneIn Greek mythology, Antigone is the daughter of Oedipus and Jocasta, Oedipus' mother. The name may be taken to mean "unbending", coming from "anti-" and "-gon / -gony" , but has also been suggested to mean "opposed to motherhood", "in place of a mother", or "anti-generative", based from the root...
(in English and Filipino) - The Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being EarnestThe Importance of Being Earnest, A Trivial Comedy for Serious People is a play by Oscar Wilde. First performed on 14 February 1895 at St. James's Theatre in London, it is a farcical comedy in which the protagonists maintain fictitious personae in order to escape burdensome social obligations...
(Filipino) - Isang Bale Walang Komedya Tungkol sa mga Taong Seryoso
- Hamlet, Prinsipe ng DinamarkaHamletThe Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
- Antigone
- Sixteenth Season (1994-1995)
- Oedipus Rex
- The Glass MenagerieThe Glass MenagerieThe Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...
- Cyrano de Bergarac
- Seventeenth Season (1995-1996)
- Isang Pangyayari sa Planas Site
- Tuwaang: Isang Epikong Manobo sa Pantomina
- Doon Po sa Amin
- 2Bayani: Isang Bagong Rock Opera
- Eighteenth Season (1996-1997)
- Dalawang Sulok
- LysistrataLysistrataLysistrata is one of eleven surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War...
- 2Bayani: Isang Bagong Rock Opera
- Ang Apologia ni Sokrates
- Ang Mabuting Tao ng Setzuan
- Ang Kambal
- FreshmanFreshmanA freshman or fresher is a first-year student in secondary school, high school, or college. The term first year can also be used as a noun, to describe the students themselves A freshman (US) or fresher (UK, India) (or sometimes fish, freshie, fresher; slang plural frosh or freshmeat) is a...
- Mga Kahon
- MakbetMacbethThe Tragedy of Macbeth is a play by William Shakespeare about a regicide and its aftermath. It is Shakespeare's shortest tragedy and is believed to have been written sometime between 1603 and 1607...
- Nineteenth Season (1997-1997)
- Tartuffe
- Ang Mabuting Tao ng Setzuan
- EquusEquus (play)Equus is a play by Peter Shaffer written in 1973, telling the story of a psychiatrist who attempts to treat a young man who has a pathological religious fascination with horses....
- Therese ng Lisieux
- Kilabot ng Makiling
- Ang Kambal
- Pangarap sa Gabi ng Gitnang Tag-Araw
- Courtship by Handkerchief and Fan
- Twentieth Season (1998-1999)
- Marisol
- Paghihintay kay GodoWaiting for GodotWaiting for Godot is an absurdist play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait endlessly and in vain for someone named Godot to arrive. Godot's absence, as well as numerous other aspects of the play, have led to many different interpretations since the play's...
- TA Lab I
- Ang Punong Inspektor
- The Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas Seditious Love Musical
- TA Lab II
- Twenty-First Season (1999-2000)
- The Kahapon, Ngayon at Bukas Seditious Love Musical
- Ningning sa Silangan
- The Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of VeniceThe Merchant of Venice is a tragic comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1596 and 1598. Though classified as a comedy in the First Folio and sharing certain aspects with Shakespeare's other romantic comedies, the play is perhaps most remembered for its dramatic...
- TA Lab III
- Artenista: An Ateneo Theater Festival
- Twenty Second (2000-2001)
- Twelfth Night: Kung Ano'ng Ibigin
- The Mistress of the InnThe Mistress of the InnThe Mistress of the Inn , also translated as The Innkeeper Woman or Mirandolina , is a 1753 three-act comedy by the Venetian playwright Carlo Goldoni about a coquette. The play has been regarded as his masterpiece...
- Santa Juana ng mga Kural
- Twenty Third (2001-2002)
- La Vida es Sueno (Ang Buhay ay Isang Panaginip)
- Mirandolina: Ang Senyora ng OtelMirandolinaMirandolina is a comic opera in three acts by Bohuslav Martinů, with a libretto by the composer after Carlo Goldoni's comedy The Mistress of the Inn ....
- When the Purple Settles
- Ang Pagpapaamo sa MalditaThe Taming of the ShrewThe Taming of the Shrew is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1590 and 1591.The play begins with a framing device, often referred to as the Induction, in which a mischievous nobleman tricks a drunken tinker named Sly into believing he is actually a nobleman himself...
- Twenty Fourth (2002-2003)
- Ang Bagong Damit ng Dakilang BahaghariThe Emperor's New Clothes"The Emperor's New Clothes" is a short tale by Hans Christian Andersen about two weavers who promise an Emperor a new suit of clothes that is invisible to those unfit for their positions, stupid, or incompetent...
- Isang Buhay sa Tambakan
- Rhinoceros
- Ang Bagong Damit ng Dakilang Bahaghari
- Twenty Fifth (2003-2004)
- Bawat-Tao
- Ang Palilitis ni Mang Serapio
- Don Juan: Ang Babaero ng Sevilla
- An Enemy of the People
- Twenty Sixth (2004-2005) The Fighting Season
- An Enemy of the People
- Re-Isyu: Santuario & Linya
- Lam-angBiag ni Lam-angBiag ni Lam-ang is an epic poem of the Ilokano people from the Ilocos region of the Philippines. Recited and written in its original Iloko, the poem is believed to be a composite work of various poets who passed it on through the generations, and was first transcribed around 1640 by a blind...
- 3POThe Threepenny OperaThe Threepenny Opera is a musical by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht and composer Kurt Weill, in collaboration with translator Elisabeth Hauptmann and set designer Caspar Neher. It was adapted from an 18th-century English ballad opera, John Gay's The Beggar's Opera, and offers a Marxist critique...
- Twenty Seventh (2005-2006) The Season of Flight
- Bayan-Bayanan: Pinoy sa Diaspora
- Nasaan si KaliweteWaiting for LeftyWaiting for Lefty is a 1935 play by American playwright Clifford Odets. Consisting of a series of related vignettes, the entire play is framed by the meeting of cab drivers who are planning a labor strike. The framing situation utilizes the audience as part of the meeting.While this was not the...
- Ang Nilalang ni Victor Frankenstein
- Twenty Eighth: (2006-2007) The Season of Awakening
- Ang Buhay ay Isang Panaginip
- Ang Aksidenteng Kamatayan ng Isang Anarkista
- STArting 5: Iba 'to!
- Middle Finger Po
- The Glass MenagerieThe Glass MenagerieThe Glass Menagerie is a four-character memory play by Tennessee Williams. Williams worked on various drafts of the play prior to writing a version of it as a screenplay for MGM, to whom Williams was contracted...
- Twenty Ninth: (2007-2008) The Season of Truth
- Ang Litisang Bilog ng CaucasusThe Caucasian Chalk CircleThe Caucasian Chalk Circle is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a better mother than its natural parents....
- TABAKADA!: Tanghalang Ateneo Brings Alive Komedya And Drama Anew
- The Death of Memory
- Hakbang sa HakbangMeasure for MeasureMeasure for Measure is a play by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in 1603 or 1604. It was classified as comedy, but its mood defies those expectations. As a result and for a variety of reasons, some critics have labelled it as one of Shakespeare's problem plays...
- Ang Litisang Bilog ng Caucasus
- Thirtieth Season: (2008-2009) Echoes
- May Day Eve
- ?: Two by Ionesco
- Otelo: Ang Moro ng VeneciaOthelloThe Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...
- TALAB: Tanghalang Ateneo. Live. Act. Beybeh!
- LysistrataLysistrataLysistrata is one of eleven surviving plays written by Aristophanes. Originally performed in classical Athens in 411 BC, it is a comic account of one woman's extraordinary mission to end The Peloponnesian War...
- Thirty-First Season: (2009-2010) Bayanihan
- MetamorphosesMetamorphoses (play)Metamorphoses is a play by American playwright Mary Zimmerman adapted from the classic Ovid poem, Metamorphoses. The play premiered in 1996 as Six Myths at Northwestern University and later the Lookingglass Theatre Company in Chicago...
- Baha-Bahang Buhay: Mga Kuwentong Ondoy
- Walang Sugat
- Metamorphoses
- Thirty-Second Season: (2010-2011) The Season of Ardent Pursuits
- La RondeLa Ronde (play)La Ronde is a 1900 play by Arthur Schnitzler. It scrutinizes the sexual morals and class ideology of its day through a series of encounters between pairs of characters . By choosing characters across all levels of society, the play offers social commentary on how sexual contact transgresses...
- Walang Sugat
- Ang KambalMenaechmiMenaechmi, a Latin-language play, is often considered Plautus' greatest play. The title is sometimes translated as The Brothers Menaechmus or The Two Menaechmuses....
- Confessiones: Pag-Amin at Papuri ni San AgustinConfessions (St. Augustine)Confessions is the name of an autobiographical work, consisting of 13 books, by St. Augustine of Hippo, written between AD 397 and AD 398. Modern English translations of it are sometimes published under the title The Confessions of St...
- What You Will
- La Ronde
- Thirty-Third Season: (2011-2012) Undaunted
- Sintang DalisayRomeo and JulietRomeo and Juliet is a tragedy written early in the career of playwright William Shakespeare about two young star-crossed lovers whose deaths ultimately unite their feuding families. It was among Shakespeare's most popular archetypal stories of young, teenage lovers.Romeo and Juliet belongs to a...
- Para Los Jovenes: Mga Pangkabataang Kuwento ng Nakatatandang Rizal
- Fireflies
- Sintang Dalisay
About Tanghalang Ateneo
Theatre excellence derived from deeply-rooted tradition and the fundamentals of eloquentia, sapientia and humanitas. This isTanghalang Ateneo.
For more than thirty years, Tanghalang Ateneo has entertained and delighted the many audiences inside and outside the Ateneo with its productions ranging from Shakespearean classics to Filipino originals. But what sets TA apart is its holistic approach to theater. It has its members undertake tasks beyond performing like stage management, stage execution, sponsorship and publicity that requires discipline, hard work and devotion. Members are given the opportunity to work with successful TA alumni and other esteemed individuals in the theater community like Salvador Bernal and Ricardo Abad. Tanghalang Ateneo is also family. Late nights, hours of production work and the same passion for theater, help foster amongst members a bond that goes beyond the theater.
This year, come aboard and be part of Tanghalang Ateneo’s long-standing theater tradition. Join us in our thirty-third season, Undaunted!