This year's Virgin Labfest will focus on the power of education and embracing new possibilities as the artistic community grapple with the adverse effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
For many of the country's playwrights, the Virgin Labfest has been an important event and venue where they can present their unpublished, untried, untested, and unstaged works to the theatre-going public.
As it turns 16 this year, the Virgin Labfest, hosted by the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), the Writer’s Bloc, and Tanghalang Pilipino, will focus on education, with festival components on FFF–Fair, Fellowship, and Flashback.
In a dialogue with the press, CCP President and National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) chairman Arsenio “Nick” J. Lizaso thanked the local arts community for being committed to the fest. "We take pride in the Virgin Labfest, which takes on the theme 'Yakap,' this year's festival focuses on education as well as other festival components including a playwright's fair, a fellowship writing program and flashback," he said.
"Since it started in 2005, we have seen how the Virgin Labfest spearheaded processes and new possibilities of staging performances through the years; even following the online trend at the onset of the COVID-19; thus reaching audiences across the Philippines and the world. I commend everyone involved in the Virgin Labfest for continuously committing themselves to the exploration of the new expressions in the theatre," he added.
More from Tatler: CCP Encyclopedia Digital Edition 2020: Explore CCP's Vast Philippine Art Archive Online
