KE-DOSSIER-BACKGROUND

MSU – KABPAPAGARIYA ENSEMBLE: A DOSSIER

MSU-Kabpapagariya Ensemble is the official performing arm of Mindanao State University in General Santos City. The troupe serves the university as its Ambassador of Goodwill to showcase the dominant culture of its immediate environ and to fulfill the institution’s mandate by its cultural extension activities. Kabpapagariya holds office at the Office of Physical Education, Sports & Cultural Affairs (OPESCA). Its officers are Cultural Manager Alma Celesthia Dumalag-Aguja, Production Artistic Director Prof. Romeo F. Narvaez, OPESCA Director Prof. Estellita A. Aquino and University Chancellor Dr. Macapado A. Muslim.

Office Address

MSU-KABPAPAGARIYA ENSEMBLE

OPESCA, Mindanao State University

Fatima, General Santos City

PHILIPPINES

9500

Contact numbers: +639172020467 – mobile phone of Alma Aguja, cultural manager

(083) 3013102 – fax number – please state attention: Alma Aguja

+639212292731 – mobile phone of Romeo Narvaez, artistic director

kabpapagariya@hotmail.com - e-mail address

msu_ke2005@yahoo.com - e-mail address

Membership:

The university does not offer a degree in theater or any other related field of arts. As a result, the membership of Kabpapagariya are composed of college students with various academic backgrounds, many are education students, some are engineering and some are in the technical courses; but this fact does not stop them from becoming potential cultural workers, aside from honing their performance skills.

It is the member’s cultural background that guides and strengthen their exploration and creation in the cultural field. Many of them are lumads, members of the T’boli and B’laan tribes, the dominant ethnic tribes in the provinces of South Cotabato and Sarangani. Many are also moro, of the dominant muslim groups (Maguindanaon, Maranao, and Tausog) in Mindanao. Likewise, the settlers (Cebuano, Ilonngos, Boholanos, etc.) are also represented in the group. Oftentimes, the people from Luzon are also represented, many of them are of mixed blood.

General Santos City is a melting pot of tri-people – settlers, moro and lumads. MSU – Kabpapagariya Ensemble is also a tri-people group.

Background

Kabpapagariya is a Maranao / Maguindanaon word for brethren. Founded by Mrs. Emeberta Ambalong-Nazareth in 1980s, the troupe started as a student group which regularly put up skits for lunch-time performances at the university cafeteria. The activity gained popularity and soon other groups in the campus joined in. Later, the troupe became part of the Cultural Affairs Department of the Students Affairs Office. At present, the group is officially connected with the Office of Physical Education, Sports and Cultural Affairs (OPESCA).

Kabpapagariya is a theater group that has a ready repertoire of songs, dances and rituals.

Its strength is anchored on its full-length theater productions. It has continually enriched its repertoire of dances, songs and rituals for which it is also considered as a leader locally. It has maintained its indigenous music pool composed of ethnic musicians and meticulously, it maintained a list of indigenous music. At the same time, it encourages its members to compose original musical compositions that are contemporary in its beat but its color and texture are traceable to its cultural roots.

Thrust

MSU – Kabpapagariya Ensemble would like to be part of the cultural development of its immediate and external environment by undertaking projects or activities that would stimulate critical awareness and promote communal participation.

Productions

a. Mindanao folklore is a constant source of materials mounted into full-length theater productions. Some of the productions were the Maranao trickster character Pilandok in Si Pilandok, a character among Visayans in Lanao del Norte, Torong-Torong in Si Torong-Torong, a production on the acculturation of the B’laan culture, Ulad de Tana, a production on the epic hero of the T’bolis, Tud-bulol

b. Contemporary productions were also ventured into by the troupe. Some of them were Kawing is a contemporary critical look on the tradition of buya or bethrothal culled from many true stories; Saranggola is a political satire; on the squatters in Gensan, Mga Itinagong Buhay part I and Part II, and its latest is Banay ni Crisanta (Reunion) which is the deconstruction of the Greek classic material, Medea. In this production the present Mindanao conflict is brought to prominence with focus on the refugees of Mindanao. It is a production-on-process which being toured in the provinces. Its final shape will be a product on the group’s interaction with the audience during a forum every after performance.

c. Though the troupe is basically a theater group, it has continually improved its production entitled Soara/K’dol which is a repertoire of songs, dances and rituals of the moro , lumads and the settlers. The production projects the harmonious existence of the tri-people.

Venues

The group has brought performances to the legitimate stage of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Folk Arts Theater, various colleges and universities in MetroManila, to several hotels and university gymnasiums in Mindanao, down to the cockpit area in Bulacan, Luzon, to the basketball courts, not only in Quezon City, MetroManila but also in many barrios in Mindanao, to the grassy open field in Lake Sebu, South Cotabato, down to the seashore of Barangay Sangil (Sangil is a minor Muslim group) and Barrio Daliao with the Maguindanaons in Sarangani province and other makeshift platforms made available for the troupe.

Training

Kabpapagariya averaged a performance every month. The troupe through its alumni has maintained workshop facilitators and its training staff is also regularly sourced out. In all its workshop activities, the group’s facilitators always encourage participants to use local folklore materials and infused it with contemporary issues or use community problems as the germ for their workshop showcases. The basic thrust of the group’s training is

theater exercises through + community problem

games, movements,

songs

The belief is the strength of a good output in a workshop is when its major showcases present a picture of its community, when performance becomes a vehicle of raising critical awareness of communes and make them realize their capacity to evaluate problems and encourage them to present social solutions and at the same time become a strong and effective performers in a cultural action. All these are possible due to the confidence imbibed in the performers since the characters they are playing and the stories they mounting are found in their immediate environ.

Many of the troupe experiences ranged from training a school theater guild (faculty and students) to serving as production consultants, be it in dance-theater, variety show, straight drama, or art workshop In workshops like this, facilitators encourage the school or the participants to use folklore and make the production approach contemporary by infusing problems existing in the school and community. In art workshop for children from depressed areas, out-of-school youth, prostituted women, the approach is more of

Person ------------ Organization

Problem State -------------- Desired State

This direction is explored, expressed through theater exercises. Plans are in the oping for formulating theater modules for family values, gender issues.

Networking

The troupe through its alumni has organized Kalimudan Center for Culture and the Arts, a non-government organization recognized by the Security Exchange Commission in preparation for establishing local networking as its contribution to the national and Mindanao wide networking. So far, the organization handled the theater activities of Kalilangan Festival of General Santos City – Kalimudan Theater Festival in 2003 & 2004 and a forum on culture development.