Theater actors, time to show muscle - Anton Juan

A good friend who's also a theater actor, Rico del Rosario, sent me an article by Anton Juan, a commentary on the "Sky Flakes and catfood" issue that is slowly but surely garnering fits of outrage from theater actors especially. That newbie filmmaker Rafa Santos should feel like a total fool right now for uttering the completely idiotic on national TV.

--
Sky Flakes and Cat Food and Grace, by Anton Juan


All utterances being signs of a greater context and foreboding, it is my duty as a Filipino artist and educator to flesh out this “Skyflakesand Cat Food” phrase. Evidently it is a symptom of indifference to the construction of words – a malaise that has arisen from the vast mouth of ignorance that is eating up our society. It is a symptom of a “wala lang” (oh, nothing really] malaise in an ABS-CBN cum GMA cum AFP formula Philippine society, where words are not the sincere and true expressions of ideas and truth. Surely in this world, where the insensitive maker of words simply utters out of formulated taxonomies, equivalences to persons, objects, and things will arise resulting in the inhumanity of meaning and cynicism.

In this case, the theatre actor has been, at the origin of the statement, designated as being equal to convenient and sustainable ---and mind you, these words are so mis-used by art and cultural managers, and we must admit, even by theatre managers. But it is the attitude and the lack of insensitivity attached to the utterance that
changes the utterance into a mockery. If the utterer, Mr. Rafa Santos, had been more aware of the field of attitudes that cloak words, and if in his intent he were to make a self parody as all theatre actors do
to “ennoble” their ridiculous talent fees, then first of all he would own the utterance in defiance of the system. But he does not. First of all he is not a theatre actor. In this case he is a celluloid or digital image-maker, with the celluloid or bullet as the medium of his craft. Secondly, his intent is clearly from the “practical” and
exploitative point of view, which is the origin of his encodification of his “skyflakes and catfood utterance” in response to why he cast theatre artist. The theatre artist therefore is now like, in this case a literal image of a stuffed cat in biology labs, to which a formulation has been attached.

And the formulation of this taxonomy is: Theatre actor= skyflakes and catfood; this equivalence translates to theatre actor = sustainable production; theatre actor = sustainable product.

Ergo: use them. They’re cheap.

But this brings us to a wider context. The question by a T.V. host posed an opposition of categories regarding casting framed in a question seeking the reason for choosing the theatre artist as cast -- Santos’ reason being, the theatre artist is: 1. Never late; 2. Is content being fed skyflakes and catfood.

Clearly in these oppositions, there are other cultural interventions: the TV./film industry and how it looks down or upon theatre artists; the theatre artists themselves who would still continue to shuttle from theatre to film/TV. --- inspite of being treated in a non-equitable way by the film industry till they get to a star level
as say Eugene Domingo and other theatre people who have climbed to the top. This statement is only a symptom of the greater system of exploitation that occurs in the industry, and the Hobbesian choices theatre artists, writers, directors, are forced to make - between the mouth of Hell and starvation. Theatre artists indeed can be treated differently from the way movie artists are. While there is a reverence for their discipline, there is in fact that other condescending attitude that yes they can be fed “skyflakes and catfood.” Yet we
theatre artists must also admit there are those among us who apart from the love of art, also love the limelight and are willing to sacrifice for this. This does not mean however that the carrot stick swung before our faces of bigger roles and bigger parts, of directing serials and advertisements that lie, carries with it the care and
pandering given to the sexy pussies (who certainly are not fed cat food) and cocks (who do not peck on the crumbs of skyflakes) who strut around the animal farm, where they get propped up in the kliegs and smoke machines, fully powdered and legally blonde or dumb. For directors there will be the fear these cocks and pussies and hopefuls hold for the “direk” a fear of not being cast in the serials, and God and those who play gods on every exploitative strata and hierarchies know what body and soul they will give to get parts. For theatre artists there is no choice. You are given this month, this number of days, and there is no pandering. Also they can change their mind if they have already assigned you shooting days. Or they can always cancel a call or a shoot. Or cancel you altogether.

So I am not in any way surprised that such a statement should come from the mouth of a petty bourgeois mouth, one which is starting his career as a film director. In fact if he were aware of histories in theatre, there was a time when we actors and directors fed on “Styrofoam” as we called that left over “kropek” made from who knows rotten shrimp shells and fish ground and made into cans and cans of neither yellow nor cream colored squares of Styrofoam that you had to down with a coke. Or cracked biscuits in cans, the discards of
factories. And that was termed as “lamay” ---KUNG may kapeng ipakain sa iyo. E yung REP nga ni tubig wala. I and Bibot used to have kape at pan de sal during Lear and Our Town rehearsals courtesy of our own
remembrance and pocket. Dulaang UP has a “Bring your own mug” policy and coffee and whatever biscuits or turn-overs from departmental parties will grace the table shared. Or Beth bless her soul, and Judy Ick and Teroy at World Theatre Project rehearsals would bring Spanish bread and pasta yet! -- kung anong meron, share. But all of these are not “institutionalized” sustainability.

THESE ARE NOT “SKYFLAKES AND CATFOOD” PAMATID GUTOM OR Consuelo de Bobo. THESE SHARING IS GRACE. GRACE, BY WHICH THE THEATRE ARTIST
LIVES.

The statement this utterer of sounds made is only a sign that yes, there is a vast exploitation of theatre artists within the system of stars of the Film industry. I also believe that this statement is a result of the contagion of the inability to express oneself in words with a definite logic of framing one’s answer before speaking. This
process is lost because precisely in the media, this is the way they speak and this has now seeped into the veins and cells of these upstarts who think they are being witty, and has seeped into the cells of the people who will, wala lang, accept such statements, wala lang, accept corruption, wala lang, that a dictator or a general thief of the country should be buried as a national hero, wala lang, that Caparas should be National Artist magaling naman cya wala lang, or the woman who gets hit by the pressing iron by a drunken philandering husband should believe he really loves her and that is the way to express it wala lang. and that wala lang, pinatay ko cya kasi wala lang, at direk sige na kahit na anu gagawin ko talaga? Sige kain ka
wala lang, kain ka ng CATFOOD, tanga!

Wala lang, utter any it's okay, people won’t remember anyway. Wala lang leads to no sense of history, to the malaise of forgetting. WE then allow these horrible myths and lies to grow and become the eventual meaning of our country and our race.

Maybe we theatre artists should also start to reflect, get stronger, and say: NO WE DO NOT ALLOW.

It is time to REFLECT, seek within ourselves why this equivalent of the theatre artist has come up from the vast mouth of ignorance. TIME TO SHOW MUSCLE.