Captivating advocates by the thousands worldwide since 1978
IPAG ensured its position among the country’s premiere performing arts companies, its presence highlighted in major events focusing its already-established reputation.
Showcasing of the best Philippine companies featured IPAG at various national events: the televised Independence Day celebrations at the Quirino Grandstand (June 12), the 4th National Theater Festival of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (Uwahig, Nov. 8 – 18), Taboan 2013, the National Literary Festival (SugaTula, Feb. 7-9) in Dumaguete City, and Tanghal National University Theater Festival (EpICON, Feb. 13-15) in Cagayan de Oro.
Crossing Poetry, the “transcreation” of poetry to performance bannered Philippine Theatre high when the UNESCO-ITI Asia Pacific Bureau Drama Schools featured the IPAG in its festival in Taipei City in Taiwan last August and September.
These productions received sumptuous reviews and wide acclamations.
Tatlo sa Isa (sequel to Tales From Mindanao perhaps the country’s most travelled dance-theatre work of folk stories), consistently electrified capacity audiences. This season, it drew full standing ovations from two jam-packed audiences at the Legaspi Astrodome in Bicol. “Tatlo” capped IPAG’s prodigious Dragon Year with a two-day, four-show run in November again captivating full-house audiences at the MSU-IIT gym.
At home, the highly-acclaimed Palanca first-prize winner Ming Ming narrating the struggles of three generations of a Moro family drew SRO audiences in its two-week 19-run series last July.
IPAG cemented its commitments with its partners to commemorate the MSU-IIT Charter Day which featured Sarimanok that teased the large gym audience with snatches of its compelling music and choreography.
Complementing the performances, IPAG through its training-resource satellite — the IPAG-Artists Resource Management (or ARM) — offered workshops and lectures in the Humanities, transcreation, production, arts management, among many others, which were availed of by visiting universities and organizations wanting to learn about performance and the disciplines of the Arts.
Notable was the conduct of the pioneering Mindanao Directing Workshop last May by the IPAG-ARM, a two-week residency course which supported young directors coming from all parts of the island.
The IPAG-ARM is in the forefront of the establishment of the pioneering Culture and Arts Studies Program in the Institute that will offer certificate and graduate degree courses to cultural workers who will eventually nurture our nation’s Creative Industry.
Allocating scarce support to continue its advocacies has been IPAG’s perennial challenge, being an entity without any funding and relying mainly on its self-liquidating projects and links to support its existence.
Significantly, the challenges of Marketing and recruitment that sustain the company has been continually addressed with new strategies forged with the shaky assurance that IPAG continues well into the 21st century.
The 36th Season offerings of IPAG will be announced in April.
(photo credits: IPAG and Bong Aniceto)
Topics : ipag