一个剧作家的冥想

［菲律宾］马洛·雅格

(注:作者简介：［菲律宾］马洛﹒雅格，女，菲律宾人，联合国教育科学文化组织国际戏剧协会菲律宾地区主席，国际剧协常务理事，国际剧协执委会委员代表（Philippines Deputy of Executive member of I.T.I.）。研究方向：戏剧戏曲研究。)

（联合国教科文组织 国际戏剧协会I.T.I.，巴黎75008）

摘 要：以宏观的视野看待剧作的主题，剧作家的世界观也随之不断变化着，在不断经历着改变的同时，剧作家对整个人类状况的认识也在不断扩大和加深。剧作家必须通过选择、修饰、增加或删减或改编来向这些素材妥协，从而达成共识。在戏剧领域，必须通过人物性格和戏剧情节来达到这一目的。当剧作家向剧中人物妥协时，实际上已经改变了——尤其是他的世界观。因此，不仅戏剧人物在改变，剧作改变了观众；剧作者本身，也为戏剧所改变着。

关键词:菲律宾戏剧；戏剧创作；戏剧形式；艺术创作

中图分类号：J802文献标识码：A

一

我大概在20或21岁上在PETA（菲律宾教育戏剧协会）学的剧本写作。我的老师是捷克剧作家兼导演Ladislav Smocek，一个谦谦君子。PETA的创始人，Cecile Guidote，一个爱梦想的人，不知从哪个财主那里寻得了赞助，办了个夏季剧场给Ladislav Smocek。为了这个剧场，我写了个短剧——严格来说只是一些场景而已。短剧讲的是一个学生演员和他身为警察的父亲之间的一场冲突。Smocek夸我台词写的不错，但我却不是很明白他的意思。然而我的确是弃演从文了。那个短剧后来被Balintataw拍成了电视剧，片名为“Dapat”。其中Tommy Abuel饰演了那个年轻气盛的学生，导演则是Lupita Concio。当我第一次在电视上看到自己的剧上演时，非常的兴奋。

我的第一个舞台剧同样也是以电视剧的形式出现的，名叫“Timbangan ay Tagilid”。那部剧是和SCC合作的，它是亚洲通讯基地的姐妹公司，由爱梦想的荷兰牧师Father Lagerwey创办。这次我写的是关于Bantay Ora火灾的事。Crisologos一把火烧了一个偏远的小镇，仅仅因为后者没有将选票投给他。这个剧源于《现在》杂志上的一篇文章和一些照片。电视剧制成后，由于戒严令的颁布，SCC遭到了搜捕，因而从未播映过。

就在戒严令之前，电视剧已经以名为“Aidao”的舞台剧在福特﹒圣地亚哥，Intramuros的Rajah Sulayman大剧院上演。这次剧的主题涵盖了土地问题。但是我有了个合作者，Franklin Osorio。因为我不知道如何写其中的爱情场面，所以交由Franklin Osorio负责。而将那部剧改成关于基督教和穆斯林教冲突的舞台剧则是塞西尔的主意。

我当时还太年轻，没法掌控那些复杂的问题；但是将背景从Ilocos搬到民大那峨岛却使我意识到南北方的土地问题是一样的。从那时起，我开始对现代背景的剧感兴趣了。那正是我所处的时代。事实上我的所有剧作都是取材于现代生活。即便偶尔写写历史剧，那也是从20世纪的视角切入的。我的两部独角戏中，其中“Pepe”参照了Jose Rizal，“Teresa”则是Teresa Magbanua.

二

PETA(菲律宾教育戏剧协会)训练了我去写他人——那些比我处境更糟的大众。我不知道这样的思想是从何开始的。当然塞西尔影响了我，还有她一手创办的PETA。但，那个时侯，作为一个Maryknoll大学的学生，我所记得的就是在达沃度假时，看到的一个穆斯林商人，一个老翁，坐在一个小板凳上，而前两年我都在同样的地方看到了他。我记得我被这一场景深深打动了。我猜这就是移情作用吧，虽然那时我还没有听说过亚里士多德的之一术语。

剧作家的移情不仅体现在她对剧作中人物的困境上，更重要的是同情那些她在现实生活中遇到的、见到的人。有一段时间，我一直想当然地认为人人都有移情的能力，直到我年岁稍长才意识到情况并非如此。只有你自己经历了痛苦才能去同情他人。我觉得，一个来自发展中国家，比如说菲律宾的剧作家，他应该不可避免地会受苦，亲眼目睹苦难，因而同情那些同样处境艰难的人们。的确，不管一个剧作家喜欢与否，他终归是他所处时代的产物。

南非作家安德列﹒布林克作为一个南非人，当我将种族隔离写进我的作品时，那并不意味着我打算将种族隔离作为一个话题，一个“那儿发生的事”来写。这是一个艰难的决定：那就是我选择了我的写作主题，但同样我的主题也选择了我。通常在和一些来自西方自由社会——像是美国、英国、法国及北欧的国家的作家研讨时，我发现他们几乎是带着嫉妒的口吻谈论南非的作家根本无需为找故事发愁。因为他们时时刻刻都在被动荡不定的时代潮流席卷着，他们身边有的是好故事。

不，我写的绝不是“那儿发生的事”：罪恶的种族隔离吞没了我作为一个人的每一个隐秘的、私人角落。我的住处、工作、朋友和同事、我让我的孩子上哪所学校、买条面包、生活中的一切琐事甚至我的感情隐私都被侵犯了。无时无刻，种族隔离和执行它的机构不在侵犯着我。因此，当我写写这条法令——就它的定义来看，它是一条最为孤独的法令，我并不是脱离政治而是走进其中，沉浸其中。我不是旁观而是身临其境。

从现在起，让我们不要再想当然地认为涉及时政问题的作家都有什么秘密计划，他们都是政府的口舌。

三、调查研究

对于一个正处于学习阶段的、来自中上层阶级的剧作家，调查研究的品质决定了你的作品质量：包括冲突、情节、人物性格、对话。你要敏感。善于观察和聆听。同时要有敞开胸怀、接受外界的意识。这里的调查研究不是你在大学里做的那些客观的、考察智力的练习。这里所指的要多得多。通过发现、挖掘，和那些将会成为你剧中人物的人们面对面地交流，相应地，不管你喜欢与否，你的身心、你的世界观都会发生改变。但是你又会觉察不到那种改变直到某一天，当你出席HS或大学同学聚会时，你才会发现你和昔日同窗的不同。有一天你会不再参加这些活动，你发现那是在浪费时间。你的一些最亲密的朋友想法和你是如此的不同，你会自问这是背道而驰吗？你不得不去另觅知音，然而那却是异常地困难。

四、展示阶段

我最难忘的一次经历是去Cordillera，为戏剧《麦考林》去作调查。这个Kalinga部落首领深深震撼了我。从没有人反抗过麦奥斯，甚至是他那些哈佛、沃顿的政治专家们。可是，突然有一天不知从哪里冒出来的家伙，一个连自己名字都不会写的家伙，对麦奥斯说：“不行！你不能将切克河改建成水坝，那会淹了我们的部落，我们都会淹死的，那些长眠在我们身边的古人也会被谁冲的无影无踪的。”我自问这家伙是真人吗？在我见到他之前他被枪杀了。所以我去了他的部落，见了那些了解他的人们。

见到北方的土著人时，我自我介绍称“Macli-ing Dulag”。4月24日是当地人的节日，用以纪念Macli-ing。那是多年前的事了。凌晨4点我就起床赶往博汉公园参加这一盛事。NGOs组织了好几辆公共汽车开往一个我一无所知的地方。行程整整一天。沿途稍作停息，但是没有餐馆也没有休息室。好几次我都不得不带着厕纸和酒下车就地方便。当时我还胃疼，我真希望我当时是更年期症状。一直到晚上7点，我们总算到达目的地。但这趟行程还没到头呢，我们还得翻越一座山。恰巧天公不作美，开始下起了雨。我们都不得不以手作伞，穿过稻田，爬上了山。那真是漫漫长路的艰苦跋涉啊！我摔倒了好几次。半夜时我们终于到达了山顶。我见到的第一个人便是后来的导演、演员和激进派人士Adul de Leon。当时他已经在休息，喝着酒。我们被带到了不同的小棚子。几乎所有的人放下背上的行囊，倒头便睡，真是累坏了。我不得不求助主人的女儿，让她带我到最近的井边，我得洗个澡。周遭漆黑一片，我就那么洗了个露天澡。毕竟当时已是半夜时分。就在那时，听到什么声音，一个醉汉摇摇晃晃地经过。我当时吓得连忙拿手遮羞，主人的女儿将那醉汉“嘘嘘”地赶走了。

第二天便是卡诺——庆祝欢宴。但在那之前，客人们都排好队，进行了早晨的仪式——对着一个遮盖好的、地上的洞，地上仅有一堵椰子树叶子堆成的墙。我非常地不适应，只好拼命地安慰自己到晚上我就可以在附近的萨伽达旅馆休息了。我到了山顶的空旷之地，那真是个美丽的清晨。可以听到锣声。人们围成了个大圈，分发着最古老的盘子——半个椰壳，里面盛着水牛肉煮的清汤。肉很老，我压根儿咬不动，但我却不得不假装吃的津津有味，以免冒犯主人。我开始自问经历这些到底是为了什么。当然了要怪也只能怪我自己。为了正在写的剧作，我必须去亲身经历，去调查研究，去感同身受，如此这般剧才能有质量保证。我采访了很多认识Macli-ing的人。最后我实在是筋疲力尽了。我本应该和那些人一起回卡林伽的。我还有这样那样的遗憾，但我实在是太不舒服了，不得已回了家。

这部剧由Socrates Topacio执导，PETA制作完成。在排演前演员们就用心去领会了。导演处理空间的技巧至今仍令我惊奇。此剧在福特﹒圣地亚哥上演，利用了Rajah Sulayman大剧院的外部空间，包括城墙。那真是史无前例的创举！在演员Connie Chua, Nanding Josef, Joel ，Lamangan, Mary Joan Fajardo和合唱团的共同努力下，我的剧真的被演活了。当此剧在UP Baguio一个露天篮球场（遗憾的是我错过了这场演出）演出时，因为观众中土著人民的热烈反响，导演禁不住泪流满面。MACLI-ING是我对土著人民歌颂之情的源泉。

我赞美他们对于土地的观念：“你不能拥有土地；而是土地拥有你。土地比你经受的多，在岁月长河里待的时间远比你长。”我赞美他们的Bodong条约：各个部落聚首通过商讨解决分歧而签署的和平协议。我赞美他们的Dap-ay：部落的长者坐在一起商量问题，达成共识。他们在实行真正的民主。没有诡计，没有我们现代文明社会的权力中心，像Malacanang，参议院、国会里普遍共有的操作。

五、调查研究和展示影响了你剧本的主题

随着你以宏观的视野看待自己所写剧作的主题，你的世界观也随之不断变化着。作为一个人类，你也在不断经历着改变；你对整个人类状况的认识在不断扩大和加深。但是你不可能把你搜集到的全部塞进你的剧作。你必须通过选择、修饰、增加或删减或改编来向这些素材妥协，从而达成共识。

在某种程度上，我想你在其他的艺术形式上也会这么做。但是在戏剧领域，你必须通过人物性格和戏剧情节来达到这一目的。当你向你的人物妥协时，你实际上已经改变了——尤其是你的世界观。因此，不仅你的戏剧人物在改变，你的剧改变了你的观众；你自己，身为剧作者，也为戏剧所改变着。

六

戏剧的的确确改变了我，而我就是一个鲜活的例子。戏剧治愈了我的创伤。当时我二十七八岁的样子，刚刚完成硕士研究生学业；甚至距离和流放的菲律宾人不断联系后的好多年，我仍然受着童年时的精神创伤的困扰。那时，我遇到了已是Juan Tamban的Estong，他彻底改变了我的世界。在我遇到了这个孤儿小男孩后，我怎能继续沉湎于自怨自艾呢？他是一个靠吃昆虫过活的、流浪街头的孩子。一个甚至被上帝都遗忘了的孩子。我开始踏上寻找他的漫漫征途，从Hospicio de San Jose到位于Kapalaran街的他的阿姨家，再辗转到palengke of Mandaluyong，最后又回到Hospicio。当我最终找到他时，我起初有些害怕他。11岁的他却只有7岁的心智，我发现他是我所见到的最温顺的孩子。可以说是一种温顺的野蛮。我以这一孤儿为原型，将他改写成一个被人收养，却被逼去市场行窃，最后成了一个看车童，纠缠上一个有钱的主妇，希望被领养，最终因为被冤枉抢包而死在了拘留中心。他被那些年龄稍长的孩子逼着去吃蟑螂、蜥蜴和老鼠，以此作为踏上他们那条道的仪式。当写下这些场景时我不禁哭了，我涤荡清了自己身上的残忍的一面。我写这部剧时所经历的情绪上的剧变不会再重复出现在我的下一部剧中了。

七、形式

我相信形式是深嵌在一部剧作中的，你要做的就是在费力加工素材时，去发现适合的形式。毫无预计的，我最终以宗教剧的传统形式完成了Macli-ing 。

在剧的开场部分，在必不可少的介绍了卡林伽村庄后，面对着Macli-ing的家，在他的坟上开出了一朵花。这是一个预兆——Macli-ing一定是想和人们交流。他的妻子，萨芒，请来了Babailan。Babailan进行了一套仪式召回Macli-ing的灵魂到她的身体里。她变得神志恍惚。Babailan现在成了Macli-ing。闪回镜头包含了杀头仪式，法西斯主义者的狂舞，战争的狂舞和死神的舞蹈。Juan Tamban，再一次毫不情愿地，成为了菲律宾的布莱希特式的历史剧。写这部剧的时候，布莱希特的学生，Fritz Bennewitz，The Berliner Ensemble的导演，每年都会来菲律宾教育戏剧协会。Anatomiya ng Korupsyon和Country In Search of a Hero成为了社会政治讽刺剧。再一次地，它们没有经过精心筹划就这样形成了。最终我想是这两部剧中的荒谬场景决定了它们的形式。

发展形式是最为困难的，因为你步入了结构的领域——情节。鲁莽而又令人兴奋的调查研究和揭露已经过去。现在是时候让剧作家看看她在准备阶段是否卓有成效了。一个人静静地在房间，写下事件，情节和高潮。问题的关键在于怎样从情节1一直到情节10。对于我而言，这是剧本创作过程中最为艰难的部分。Tinio称之为“脱衣舞表演”——摆出观点和与之针锋相对的反观点；戏剧性的行动和反应；随着新人物的出场和退场而来的复杂情节；在刻画人物性格时的一些事实，这些事实的堆砌带来冲突的上升并最终引向戏剧的高潮。对话和行动之间必须相互影响。和电影剧作家一样，戏剧作家也要有图像思维。戏剧的风格在该剧的高潮部分凸显了出来：涌过来的医生、警察和戴着纸面具的法官出现在Juan Tamban的噩梦中。他最终逃出拘留中心的那一幕被打上了蓝色的灯光。在Macli-ing之死那一幕中，他最终被枪杀，他的妻子背着他的尸体的那一场景中，山被设计成了军绿色。垂死的Macli-ing趴在妻子的背上，他们缓缓从前台隐退，淹没在了观众爆发的热烈掌声中。

观众对于剧作家而言观众至关重要。当剧作家在后台紧张地踱步，等待台前观众的反应时，他肯定已经看过首演的账目了。一部剧的成败取决于观众的看法，取决于观众的评论和批评。Juan Tamban取得了票房大卖的好成绩，它的票房收入支撑了PETA下一季的开销。之后，它又在Pampanga、Bulacan、Iloilo、Cebu、Davao、Cagayan de Oro等多个地方上演。它还被翻译成米沙鄢语。和JT一样，想要观看Macli-ing的人排成了长队。

PEPE，一部关于Jose Rizal的独幕剧，由CCP Tanghalang Pilipino在33个城市上演了。Anatomiya of Korupsyon，首先由CCP Tanghalang Pilipino演出，之后由各种各样的剧团在Iloko, Hiligaynon,Visayan和Bicol的乡村上演。目前，它还通过广播，以一个名叫Sugpuin ang korupsyon的节目在播放。节目名字的意思是戏剧场景来源于听众的真实经历。

八、主题中的讽刺

回顾我的剧作，我开始注意到它们是由讽刺推进的。例如在Juan Tamban中：

Juan Tamban

Bakit ka nagkaganyan?

Ang tatay at nanay mo, nasaan?

Ang bayan mo bay maaasahan?

Ano itong iyong napasukan?

Ikaw bay may patutunguhan?

Anong kabihasnan ang iyong pinanggalingan?

Ipis, butikit daga ang pantawid buhay sa iyoy ibinigay.

Sa bawat araw ikaw ay pinapatay.

Bakit ka pa pinagkalooban ng buhay?

Bakit ka pa pinagkalooban ng buhay?

在Macli-ing中：

Bakit ang alagad ng Kapayapaan

Tuwinay namamatay sa dahas?

Ang kasaysayan ng mundoy butas-butas

Sa talim ng punyal at tadtad ng punlong

Umuutang sa buhay ng mga taong hangan lamang

Ay katarungan. Macli-ing, Macli-ing.

以及在Anatomiya ng Korupsyon中，紧张的状态，在上升的冲突中的推动力和牵扯力都来源于讽刺。在有机的情景设置中，人物就自然而然地凸显出来了。但是还是Anatomiya ng Korupsyon将我带入了最伟大的讽刺——那就是生活中的讽刺。这部剧的主要人物都以真实人物为原型。但是剧中人物的挣扎，较之现实中的人物显得苍白。现实生活比虚构的世界要荒诞得多。下面是我的悼词，为我的另一剧作“La Mancha的女人”。

我讲述了我写作的过程。我相信其他的剧作家也有他们自己的过程。这些都必须得以保存，尤其是那些写的人物、情节和主题将会使得菲律宾戏剧真正保有独创的菲律宾风格的作品。这是应对全球化威胁的一个策略。

A PLAYWRIGHTS MEDITATION

Malou Jacob

I

I discovered Playwriting in PETA maybe at age 20 or 21. My teacher was Czech playwright & director Ladislav Smocek. I still have to meet a more unassuming person than this guy. PETA Founder, the visionary Cecile Guidote (nightmare of managers) brought him over through some Rockefeller or Ford Grant for a summer workshop. To qualify for the workshop I wrote a short play just some scenes I think . It was about a conflict situation between a student activist and a policeman father. Smocek said I had a nose for dialogue. I didn't know what he meant exactly . But I dropped acting for writing. That piece became "Dapat" a teleplay for Balintataw. Tommy Abuel was the young,fiery student; Lupita Concio, the TV director. I had butterflies in my stomach-watching my first play on television.

My first stageplay also started as a teleplay, "Timbangan ay Tagilid" with Social Communications Center(SCC) , sister company of Communication Foundation for Asia founded by another visionary, Dutch priest Father Lagerwey who started a TV series . I chose to write about the Bantay Ora burning.The Crisologos burned a remote barrio that did not vote for them. It was based on an article and b/w photos in Now Magazine . The teleplay was produced but never got on air because SCC was raided when martial law was declared.

Just before martial law, the teleplay was already a stageplay "Aidao",being staged at the Rajah Sulayman Theater at Fort Santiago, Intramuros.The theme was expanded to include the land problem. But I had a co-writer, Franklin Osorio. I didn't know how to write love scenes. He wrote them.It was Cecile's idea to turn it into a stageplay on Christian Muslim conflict.

I was still too young to grasp the complexity of the problem; but bringing the setting from Ilocos to Mindanao made me realize that the land problem in the North and the South was the same. This started my interest in contemporary situations.My time. In fact, all my plays draw from contemporary life. But even when I wrote occasional historical plays, they were treated from the 20th猚entury point of view. I am referring to my two monologues- "Pepe" on Jose Rizal and "Teresa"on Teresa Magbanua.

II

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) trained me to write about the other- the majority who are in a worst state than I am. I don't how this particular frame of mind started. Certainly Cecile influenced me and, then, PETA, the organization she founded. But, then, I remember that as a college student of Maryknoll, while vacationing in Davao, and upon seeing a Muslim vendor, an old man, sitting on a stool at the same spot where I saw him last year and the other year, I recall being deeply affected by this. I guess, this was already empathy at work on me, even before I learned it from Aristotle.

Empathy must be developed by playwrights not only for the predicament of the characters in the play she writes, but, most specially, for the people she sees/meets in real life. There was a time I took for granted that everyone had empathy until at a late age I realized that not everyone has it. It has to grow in you through your own pain and suffering. And I guess, a playwright from a developing country like the Philippines can't help but suffer, see suffering, and therefore, empathize with those in a similar plight. Indeed, the playwright whether she likes it or not is a product of her times.South African writer Andre Brink:

When apartheid figures in my writing as a South African it does not mean that I decided to write "about" apartheid as a topic, as "something out there". It is hardly a decision: I am as much chosen by my subject as it is chosen by me. Often, in discussion with writers from the great free societies of the west-the US , Britain, France, the Scandinavian countries-I detect a note almost of envy in them when they discuss the "problems" of the South African writer who has no need to go "in search of" a story but is continually overwhelmed by a great wave of turbulent contemporary history washing over him or her.

No, it is decidedly NOT "something out there" I write about: the devastating politics of apartheid engulfs every hidden, private corner of my existence as an individual. Where I live, where and what I teach, my association with friends and colleagues, the choice of a school for my children, the buying of loaf of bread, the minutiae of my life and the privacies of my love are all invaded, every moment of my waking and sleeping life, by politics and the power structures from which it emanates. So that, when I write, this very act-which is also, by definition, a most solitary act-becomes not a withdrawal from politics but an entry, an immersion into it. I do not write from " out there" but from " in here".

From now on let us please stop thinking that playwrights of social issues have hidden agendas and are propagandists.

Ⅲ RESEARCH

For you budding playwrights from the upper and middle classes,the quality of RESEARCH determines the quality of your PLAY : Conflict, Plot, Characterization, Dialogue. Be sensitive. Observe. Eavesdrop. And lay open your soul/your consciousness to take in the truth that is out there.This RESEARCH is not the objective, intellectual exercise that you do in the university. No, it has to be more than that. With the discovery, the unearthing of data, with coming face to face with people who will become composite characters in your play, there is a corresponding change in your heart and mind. You undergo a change of worldview, whether you like it or not. But you don't even notice this change until suddenly, when you attend HS or college reunions, you're different from your classmates. You have outgrown them. Time will come when you will stop attending these events because it's a waste of time.Some of your closest friends think so differently from you or is it the other way around? You have to find some soulmates which can be very, very difficult.

IV EXPOSURE

My most memorable exposure trip was to the Cordillera for the play, MACLI-ING. I was really fascinated by this Kalinga tribal leader. Nobody ever defied Marcos, not even his technocrats from Harvard or Wharton. Then, this guy who could not even write his name, appeared from nowhere and said No to Marcos: "No! You can't convert the Chico River into a dam because this will flood our communities; and we will all disappear including our dead who are buried around us." I asked myself, is this guy for real? Well, he was gunned down by the military before I could even meet him. And so I traveled to the people, the communities that knew him.

"Macli-ing Dulag" was my introduction to our Indigenous Peoples in the North. April 24 Cordillera Day is a day of celebration honoring Macli-ing. I woke up early to be at Burham Park at 4am some years ago to join this event. Several buses were going to I didn't even know where-organized by the NGOs. It was a whole day bus ride. We had some stops but there were no restaurants nor restrooms. And I had to go down several times with my toilet paper and alcohol. I had stomach pains and, oh, how I wished I were menopausal. At 7pm, we final reached our destination. But it was not the end of the travel, we still had to cross a mountain. It started to rain. We all held hands and we crossed the rice terraces, going up the mountain. It was a very, very slow trek. I slipped several times. At midnight, we reached the top of the mountain. The first person I saw who was already resting and drinking water was the late director/actor/activist Adul de Leon. We were brought to different huts. Almost everyone put down their backpacks on the floor and just slept out of sheer exhaustion. I had to ask the daughter of our host to bring me to the nearest artesan well because I had to take a bath. It was pitch dark and so I just took a bath in that open space.After all it was past midnight. Then, there were noises, a drunk was passing by;I froze with my tabo in my hand but the daughter was able to shoo him away.

The next day was the CANAO-the festivities. But before this, the guests lined up for the morning ritual-a covered hole on the ground with barely a wall of coconut leaves. I had to forego this to my discomfort, assuring myself that before night fall I will be in a Sagada hostel nearby. I went to the open space on top of the mountain. It was a beautiful morning. Gong music could be heard. There was a big circle and they passed around the most anticipated dish-boiled carabao meat in a very clear soup served in a half coconut shell. The meat was tough; and I couldn't bite on it but, I had to pretend that I was eating it so that they will not take offence. I was beginning to ask myself why I had to go through all this. Well, I had no one to blame but myself. I had to leave no stone unturned for the sake of the play that I was writing which was going to be only as good as the quality of my research and exposure. I interviewed a lot of people who knew Macli-ing. But I could not go the extra mile. I should have joined the group that went back to Kalinga. I should have done this. I should have done that. But the discomfort was too much, I had to go home.

The play was produced by PETA with Socrates Topacio as director. The PETA actors did their own exposure before rehearsals. I still marvel at the attack on the space by the director. It was performed at Fort Santiago, utilizing the space outside the Rajah Sulayman Theater, including the ramparts. It was an incredible use of the space never done before. My play really jumped out of the pages and took on a life of its own with actors Connie Chua, Nanding Josef, Joel Lamangan, Mary Joan Fajardo, and the Kalinangan Ensemble giving it authenticity. When it was performed at UP Baguio open basketball court (which I missed) the director burst into tears because of the electrifying response of the Indigenous Peoples who were part of the audience.MACLI-ING is the root of my appreciation for our Indigenous Peoples.

I admire 1.their Concept of Land : "You can't own it; it owns you. It outlives you." their Bodong: the peace pact arrived at after the various tribes come together to discuss and resolve their differences. the Dap-ay: where the elders of their community sit together to discuss and arrive at a consensus on how to solve their problems.True democracy at work. No machinations. No manipulations so common in the corridors of power of our modern civilization -Malacanang, Senate &Congress.

V RESEARCH and EXPOSURE impact

on the theme of your play

Your worldview is constantly changing as you gain a macro view on the subject matter of your play. You are also changing as a human being;expanding and adding depth to your grasp and understanding of the human condition. But you just don't convert the data you gathered into a play. You meet your material half way by selecting, modifying and adding/expanding/ fictionalizing.

In a way, I guess you do this, too, in the other artforms; but in Drama, you have to do it thru characters and the situation (plot). As you meet your characters halfway, you have actually undergone a change already-especially in your worldview. So, your play not only has characters who are undergoing changes; the play changes your audience; it also changes you, the playwright.

VI

Theater has, indeed, changed me. I am a living proof that Theater for healing/therapy works. I was 27 or 28, just back from MA Studies; and even after years of DGs with Filipinos in exile on the Philippine situation, was still traumatized by my childhood years. Then, I met Estong who became Juan Tamban and turned my world upside down. How could I still indulge in my angsts, in self- pity after meeting a boy who was an orphan. A streetchild who ate insects to survive. A child, forgotten even by God. I sought him out from Hospicio de San Jose to the house of his aunt in Kapalaran street to the palengke of Mandaluyong and, then, back to Hospicio. Then, when I finally met him, I was at first afraid of him. Eleven years old with a mental age of seven, I found him to be the gentlest child I had ever met. The gentle savage, so to speak.And as I transformed him from an orphan into a child of a scavenger and a food vendor, who was tasked to steal in the market; who ended up as a watch your car boy, who pestered a rich matron by begging her to adopt him, and ended up in a rehabilitation center after being wrongly accused of bag snatching; undergoing an initiation rite inflicted by the older boys to eat cockroaches, lizards & rats, I purged myself of my own demons finding myself crying while writing some of the scenes of the play. The emotional upheaval I experienced in writing this play was not going to be repeated in my next plays.

VII FORM

I believe that the FORM IS EMBEDDED IN THE PLAY, you just have to find it as you wade through your material. Without intending to, I ended up writing Macli-ing in the tradition of The Ritual Theater. At the opening scene, after the obligatory introduction of a Kalinga Village, they notice that a flower has blossomed on topof Macli-ing's burial ground fronting his family's hut. This is an omen. Macli-ing must want to communicate with them. The wife, Samun, asks for the Babailan. She performs a ritual calling on Macli-ing's spirit to enter her body. She goes into a trance. The Babailan becomes Macli-ing. The flashback scenes include a beheading ritual , a dance of the fascists, a dance of war, and a dance of death. Juan Tamban, again without willing it, turned out to be an example of Philippine Brechtian Epic Theater. It was written when the disciple of Brecht, Fritz Bennewitz, a director of The Berliner Ensemble, came to PETA every year. Anatomiya ng Korupsyon and Country In Search of a Hero/ Bayang Pinagtaksilan ng Panahon became social/political satires. Again, they just turned out that way.In the end, I guess the ridiculousness of the situations in both plays dictated the form.

Developing the form is the most difficult. One enters the realm of the structure.Plotting. Gone are the heady, exciting days of research and exposure. Now, the playwright will find out if she has been sloppy in the preparatory stage.Alone in your room, you write your inciting incident, point of attack, and the climax.The problem is how to get from plot point 1 to the plot point 10. For me, this is the most laborious stage in playwriting. The "striptease act" as Tinio called it-the placement and built up of the arguments and counter arguments; the dramatic action and reaction; the complications that arise from new characters coming in and out; the facts from the character sketches that become dramatic devices that bring about the rising conflict so necessary to arrive at the highest point in the play.There has to be an interplay of dialogue and action. Like the screenwriter, the playwright has to think also in pictures. And Spectacle/ Theatricality comes inat the climax of the play: the coming in of the doctor, the policeman, the judgeholding huge paper mache masks on the pole attacking Juan Tamban in a nightmare scene lit in blue before he finally escapes from the detention center or the dance of death of Macli-ing when he is finally gunned down and carried by his wife in a choreographed movement up the stage, a mountain designed in green army fatigue.The dying Macli-ing is carried on his wife's back as they slowly disappear fromupstage to the spontaneous outbreak of applause.

AUDIENCE:The audience is very important to the playwright. Surely, you have read accounts of opening nights when the playwright paces nervously at the back of the theater waiting for some reaction from the audience. A play is a success or a failure depending on how it is received by the audience which is reflected in reviews and critiques.Juan Tamban was a box office hit. Its ticket sales supported the next productions of the season of PETA, then, it was produced in Pampanga, Bulacan, Iloilo, Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro and so forth. It has been translated into Visayan. Just like JT, Macli-ing had people lining up to watch it.

PEPE, a monologue on Jose Rizal was performed in 33 cities by CCP Tanghalang Pilipino. Anatomiya of Korupsyon was first produced by CCP Tanghalang Pilipino and, then, in Iloko, Hiligaynon, Visayan, and Bicol, produced by various theater groups in the country. Currently, it is on radio, with a spin off program, Sugpuin ang korupsyon-which means the situations now being dramatized come from the experiences of the listeners.

IRONY in the THEME

Looking back at my plays now, I start to notice that they are propelled by Irony. In Juan Tamban:

Juan Tamban

Bakit ka nagkaganyan?

Ang tatay at nanay mo, nasaan?

Ang bayan mo ba'y maaasahan?

Ano itong iyong napasukan?

Ikaw ba'y may patutunguhan?

Anong kabihasnan ang iyong pinanggalingan?

Ipis, butiki't daga ang pantawid buhay sa iyo'y ibinigay.

Sa bawa't araw ikaw ay pinapatay.

Bakit ka pa pinagkalooban ng buhay?

Bakit ka pa pinagkalooban ng buhay?

In Macli-ing:

Bakit ang alagad ng Kapayapaan

Tuwina'y namamatay sa dahas?

Ang kasaysayan ng mundo'y butas-butas

Sa talim ng punyal at tadtad ng punlong

Umuutang sa buhay ng mga taong hangan lamang

Ay katarungan. Macli-ing, Macli-ing.

And in Anatomiya ng Korupsyon:The tension, the push and pull in the rising conflict has resulted from the ironyso organic in the situation the characters are in.But it is Anatomiya ng Korupsyon that has introduced me to the greatest ironyof all-the irony in life. The main character of this play is based on a real person. But the struggle of my character in the play pales in comparison with struggle of this person in real life giving teeth to the very common saying:Life is stranger than fiction. And this is my continuing lament. My lamentfor my "Woman of La Mancha."

I have decribed my process of playwriting. Other playwrights, I am sure, have developed their own. These must be preserved, especially in the writing of characters, plots, and themes that will make and preserve Philippine Theater as truly Philippine Theater that produces original Filipino works.This is one way of dealing with the threat of Globalization.（责任编辑：郭妍琳）

A Playwright's Meditation

［Philippines］ Malou Jacob

(International Theatre Institute, Paris,75008)

Abstract: As you regard the theme of your play from a macro perspective, your worldview changes. As a human being, you are also experiencing changes; your understanding on the human condition is continuously broadened and deepened. But it is impossible for you to put all you have collected into your plays. You must compromise with these materials by selection, modification, addition and deletion so as to reach agreement. To some degree, I think you will do like this in other artistic forms. But in the field of drama, you must achieve this through characters and plots. When you compromise with your characters, you have actually changed already-especially your worldview. Therefore, not only your characters are changing and your play has changed your audience; you, as the playwright, are also being changed by the play.

Key Words:Philippine drama; dramatic creation; dramatic form