With ample artistic talents and stagecraft enthusiasm, the Dulaang Filipino (DF), De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde’s premiere theater group, represented the College as well as the country in their restaging of “Oedipus” in the annual Mont-Laurier International Theatre Festival in Québec, Canada last September 10-16.

The restaging of Oedipus as the official entry of DF in the competition was all in Filipino, using the translations of screenplay writers and poets Rolando Tinio and Onofre Pagsanhan. So to overcome the language disadvantage of their production since it was shown in an international audience, DF used ancient Greece inspired mask art in the play.

Dulaang Filipino also focused their expertise in the essence of choreography and movement to produce a compelling stage production. Consisting of 10 actors in their team, they had a mask workshop and intense review on Greek theater to acquire the proper movements of Greek ensemble and how they respect the mask.

Interior Design student Christine Bas who played as “Antigone” was nominated for Best Actress award. On the other hand, DF’s resident director Mr. Riki Benidicto acted as Oedipus in replacement of one their actors who had a problem with his visa.

“The art of theater lets us explore the aesthetics of life and the hollows of the world,” Danielle Cruz, Dulaang Filipino’s resident actor and Digital Filmmaking major, shared in an interview. He commented that having this opportunity to perform internationally only denotes that theater art in the Philippines is not dead at all. According to him, only the appreciation and passion of theater actors will make this art alive. Thus, he encourages every Benildeans to support their upcoming stage plays and learned from those.

This is the second time that Dulaang Filipino acted on an international stage. Their first piece is entitled “Out at the Sea”, also played in Canada.
Mont-Laurier International Theatre Festival is an international stage play competition that showcases the variation of theater genres. Within seven days, at least five plays were performed each day with the contenders exhibiting their pieces in any form of stage play: traditional, non-verbal, lyrical, corporal expression or even in diverse languages. There were 29 teams joined from 19 countries across the world.