After two years of streaming performances online, the Virgin Labfest is set to return on stage at the Tanghalang Huseng Batute (CCP Studio Theatre) from June 16 to 26
This year's Virgin Labfest (VLF) bears an important message for its staunch supporters. The festival's 17th edition follows the theme "Hinga" [breathe] to "underline the need to be present and feel alive."
In a statement, VLF festival co-director Tess Jamias shares how important it is for Filipino communities to appreciate performance arts in person. "After being isolated in our houses [due to COVID-19], we now focus on the importance of community—the need to share space and time and revel in one another’s presence—and the urgency of theatre and performance."
In case you missed it: Actor-Director Marco Viaña on Philippine Theatre's Transformational Power
VLF 17 also highlights a new component through "Theatre Talks," a curated forum series on theatre and creative processes. This talk, which will be live-streamed during the festival, shares the takes of theatre practitioners on production works. Audiences will also have the chance to elicit a lively dialogue on contemporary theatre-making.
The festival is also set to bring back its mainstay components such as the VLF Fellowship Program, with mentor Glenn Sevilla Mas and director Dennis Marasigan, and the VLF Playwrights Fair under the direction of Rody Vera and coordinated by Beverly Siy.
The festival of untried, untested, and unstaged plays returns to the live stage with 12 new works slated from June 16 to 26, at Tanghalang Huseng Batute (CCP Studio Theater).