56 years ago, a visionary ‘colegiala’ from St. Paul founded PETA

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) turned 56 years old as the whole nation observed Good Friday.

Meanwhile, its current hit musical, a farce called “Walang Aray” will re-open on April 14 at the PETA Theater Center after taking a month-long break. 

It opened in mid-February as PETA’s comeback production after nearly a three year-long break due to the pandemic. This modern-day adaptation by Rody Vera of Severino Reyes’ classic zarzuela “Walang Sugat” has been described a successor to PETA’s all-time hit, “Rak of Aegis."  

It’s been a long way since PETA was founded by a young, steadfast Paulinian who envisioned a national theater movement. 

On April 7, 1967, then 23-year-old stage actress-director-teacher Cecile Guidote founded a theater group that aimed to champion original Filipino plays and adaptations of foreign materials into Filipino.  

At the time, Guidote just came from finishing her graduate studies at the Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas, with apprenticeship at the Dallas Theatre Centre. She would eventually marry Heherson Alvarez, then a young student leader and freedom fighter from the University of the Philippines. 

Based on her thesis titled “Theater for the Nation,” which envisioned a national theater movement in the Philippines, her 500-page book eventually served as the blueprint for what would become PETA.

PETA had Virginia Moreno’s “Straw Patriot” for its inaugural production on December 29, 1967 at its first home for performances, the open-air Rajah Sulayman Theater within the ruins of Fort Santiago in Intramuros, Manila. As PETA’s founding artistic director, Guidote-Alvarez was also director of the play but first she wanted it staged in Filipino so she asked poet Wilfredo Sanchez to translate it in local language with Moreno’s consent.

Titled “Bayaning Huwad,” the story is about a man who offers his goddaughter to an American soldier in return for his family’s farmlands that have been taken away from them.

Robert Arevalo (center, foreground) and Vic Silayan (far right) with PETA Kalinangan Ensemble actors in a scene from "Bayaning Huwad". Photo from PETA Archives courtesy of CB Garrucho

Guidote-Alvarez thought of getting popular movie actors for the stage and for “Bayaning Huwad” there was Vic Silayan playing the lead role. She also asked Robert Arevalo and Lolita Rodriguez to tackle other featured roles with PETA pioneering actor-members like Lily Gamboa, Nick Lizaso and then still a newbie, Jonee Gamboa. 

Prior to the establishment of PETA, Guidote once produced and directed a Sunday drama series on television titled “Teenagers” which enabled her to get movie actors for her plays.

“Lino Brocka came late in auditions but wanted to be involved so I created a cameo role for him,” Guidote-Alvarez wrote in her memoir. At the time, Brocka was still studying in UP Diliman but she would eventually turn over to Brocka the management of PETA when she left for the US as an exile during the early days of Martial Law. 

This would attest how Guidote-Alvarez pioneered getting popular movie actors for PETA productions, a tradition that Brocka continued and is still being done today like in “Walang Aray."

It was a production ahead of its time, using live sound, a real horse and even a real cannon.

“Bayaning Huwad” was a smash hit at a time when stage plays and musicals being produced were all in English and mostly local adaptations of foreign materials.

In her speech during the 2017 Magsaysay Awards, wherein PETA was one of the six recipients, current PETA president Cecilia Garrucho thanked Guidote-Alvarez and referred to her as PETA visionary and founder and the 1967 original production of “Bayaning Huwad” that she saw at Rajah Sulayman.

Vic Silayan and Lolita Rodriguez in a scene from "Bayaning Huwad," a Filipino adaptation of Virginia Moreno's "Straw Patriot" by Wilfredo Sanchez, directed by Cecile Guidote. It was the inaugural production of PETA at the Rajah Sulayman Theater in Intramuros, Manila that premiered on December 29, 1967. Photo from PETA Archives courtesy of CB Garrucho

“For me, as a young person then, the play was a powerful lesson about Philippine history and heritage. It was my very first time to watch a play where the actors spoke in Filipino. I sat there overwhelmed by the sheer beauty of our own language. I remember asking, how have I become a total stranger to my language and to my culture? That play changed the entire direction of my life. I felt that, as a Filipino, I have finally come home,” Garrucho said.

“Inspired by the play, I joined PETA. We were taught very early on that whatever we learned as artists, we were to share by teaching others, especially non-theater people. We were to use our art to serve,” Garrucho added. 

And 56 years later, PETA forges on with the battle cry, “transforming lives through theater." — LA, GMA Integrated News