• Road tours receive enthusiastic responses
• "Lawanen" rehearsals on-going
• IPAG Director to Japan
• IPAG in fiesta concert


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photos: Robert Booc

IPAG continues to draw the crowds and much applause in its current tours of  Mindanao campuses. Its performances of "Tales From Mindanao" filled up the MSU, Xavier University, and Urios College gyms in Marawi, Cagayan de Oro and Butuan Cities, respectively. Large crowds have given IPAG enthusiastic responses since it opened its road tours with its first leg at the MSU-Iligan campus. At the MSU-Marawi performance last Dec. 3, cheering audiences filled every space of the 4,000-seat capacity Dimaporo gymnasium. The performances were capped by a repeated curtain calls and standing ovations.

check "Tales From Mindanao" page

"Lawanen" which premiered in February last year will be remounted this year as the Guild's offering to the Millennium festival of Arts and Culture. The neo-ethnic production is IPAG's entry to the celebration dubbed Sandiwaan under the auspices of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts. Planned as a collaborative work among theater companies and artists in Mindanao and Luzon, this new production is planned to be a new Filipino "opera" which will merge segments of National Artist Nick Joaquin's works with this darangen epic. If plans are realized, the world premiere will be held in October in Manila. A preview will be performed for the National Dance Conference in Iloilo in April.

IPAG Artistic Director Steven P.C. Fernandez observed Japanese theater from October 19 to November 2 on a grant from the Japan Foundation.

Fernandez joined a group of leading theater artists from all over the country selected by a committee of the 1999 Observation Trip of Young Theater Leaders. Part of the tour's objectives is to scout possibilities for collaboration with Japanese theater groups and artists. Tibo visited the theater districts (traditional, mainstream, and alternative) of Tokyo, Kyoto, and Osaka. 

IPAG joined two other institute cultural groups in a cultural revue entitled "Kaplila-lilang" last Sept. 25 at the MSU-IIT gym. The dance concert formed part of the fiesta celebrations. Joining IPAG was the Octava Choral Society, the institute's resident choral group, and the ethnic dance-music ensemble Kalilang.

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IN THE NEWS...

25 new scholars selected

The IPAG has selected 25 new and re-applying student performing artists and production staff members. New trainees will undergo the  apprenticeship programs with the IPAG pedagogy. These scholars shall receive a monthly stipend, free tuition allowance, free book rentals, and exemption from certain classes.

IPAG invited to Bulgaria festival

The Pateki Foundation has invited the IPAG to represent the Philippines in the 3rd International Folklore Festival to be held in Bulgaria's old capital Veliko Tarnovo. The festival is scheduled July 2-10, 2000.