Arguably the most popular Filipino musical among today's generation of theatre folks, 'Mula sa Buwan' returns this 2022 in a new space, cast, production design, and more. Creators Pat Valera and William Elvin Manzano look back on their journey, which spanned more than a decade, carrying a timeless "story of love and defiance".
Mula sa Buwan (which translates to "From the Moon") returns onstage this August 26 after almost four years of hiatus since it was last seen at the Hyundai Hall of Areté in Ateneo de Manila University (ADMU). With award-winning thespian and musical director Myke Salomon taking over the role of Cyrano, seasoned theatre actress Gab Pangilinan reprising the role of Roxane, and acclaimed theatre, radio, and television personality Markki Stroem as Christian, the 2022 production shifts into full gear in preparation for its restaging at Samsung Performing Arts Theatre in Circuit Makati. Barefoot Theatre Collaborative (formerly Black Box Productions) has launched open auditions earlier this year. It promises a fresh cast of talents who are excited to join the family that Mula sa Buwan nurtured through the years.
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Pat Valera (Dekada '70, Still), partner and co-founder of Barefoot Theatre Collaborative, together with William Elvin Manzano, esteemed singer and songwriter from O/C Records who is currently based in Hong Kong, share with Tatler the incredible journey that their collaborative work has taken:
The First Song
University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman Campus, 2009. After finishing a two-year certificate program, Valera, pursuing a bachelor's degree in theatre arts, was months away from presenting his thesis play, Cyrano: Isang Sarswela, for the following year. On one pivotal morning, he called Manzano—his friend and batchmate at the theatre arts program, who served as co-lyricist and musical composer for the project—demanding at least one complete song that he could finally listen to.
A year before, Valera joined the Sarswela Festival hosted by the said university, where the traditional Filipino theatre form sarswela was revisited and reimagined for the current performing arts scene in the country. For his thesis, he revisited his beloved assigned reading from his high school years in ADMU—Soc Rodrigo's Filipino translation of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac—thinking that it might be a good material for a sarswela.
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Manzano, who had admittedly been pushing the task of writing the songs further and further, hasn't got one yet. Until Valera called him up, and they had to meet. Armed with innumerable reading notes of the material, lyric ideas, and other clue cards here and there, Manzano met with Valera. At the steps of the third landing of Wilfrido Maria Guerrero Theatre, Manzano charged into his creative zone, plucked the first intro notes, and sang the lyrics like nobody else existed there except them two: Ikaw ay isang rosas / na humahalimuyak / at wala ng katulad / sa hardin ng mga bulaklak (You are like a rose / which sweet fragrance / is incomparable / amid the garden of flowers).
Valera up to this day, could recall vividly in his mind that moment. How the song felt. How the words and music touched him that day. Since then, the song "Ikaw" ("You") would remain unchanged and iconic for fans of Mula sa Buwan.