unSAULicited

Made by Millenials, for Millenials, AP’s Playlist, Track 2: I Remember A Boy, is about a group of friends who reunite at a cafe they once frequented when they were still college students. They shall recall how their friendship came together, how they fell in love and fell apart. While reminiscing on their past - remembering the best and worst memories - they unearth feelings which were once laid to rest. With ties severed and hearts broken through the years, will this short reunion allow them to rekindle old flames and begin anew? This second repeat of this fresh yet nostalgic story of love and friendship that transcends time will be featuring twelve young, experienced and talented performing artists: Kathleen Francisco, Cathrine Go, Philippe Go, Joe Henson, Mariella Laurel, Miko Manguba. Gian Gloria, Nina Macalino, Kendrick Ibasco, Vyen Villanueva, Shalee Vicencio and Jon Abella. With musical direction by award-winning Jesse Lucas, I REMEMBER A BOY will relive to the younger au...

Skyzx Labastilla as the Dalagita during the opening night Currently being staged at the Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero theater, Dulaang UP's Ang Dalagita'y 'sang Bagay na Di-buo is a perfect production for their 42nd season's theme, Honoring Defiance. A bit of a warning, Dalagita is an immensely heavy piece that throughly tackles grief, cancer, rape, depression, empowerment, sexuality, and brokenness. The depth of the material may require a trigger warning for some. There is none given at the theater so consider this it. It may not be blatantly graphic but the intensity of the one-woman performance grips you tightly for almost 2 hours. It will not let you go until the last second of light gives in to the darkness of the minimalist stage. With all the themes present, I commend Dulaang UP for including articles that discuss rape and depression in the souvinir program. Maybe it was me being tired from my workday but the first few minutes had me a bit confused. Having jus...

After producing a string of original Filipino musicals, including 2011’s “Rizal X”, 2013’s “Maxie The Musicale” and 2016’s “Mula sa Buwan”, singer- songwriter William Elvin is set to release a new collection of personal songs on Spotify and Apple Music in October this year. Having gained fan support through his emotionally vulnerable and brutally honest musical works, songs such as Ang Sabi Nila (Mula sa Buwan), But I Love No One But You and Tonight, I Break Some Promises (Rizal X) have garnered thousands of listeners on Spotify. With the new album’s release, William aims to express his musical message on a more personal level and connect with his listeners more intimately. “I think the new album will be an exploration of where I am now as an artist as opposed to where I was creatively when I was just starting out,” said William. “It will contain a mix of songs I have recently written here in HK and some that were from when I was 17 years old,” he revealed. William Elvin start...

Jennifer Lawrence gives the spy genre a whole new spin as she stars in her most badass, highly-sensual and R-rated movie “Red Sparrow” that will open February 28 in cinemas (rated R-16 in PH). Directed by Francis Lawrence (who also directed Jennifer Lawrence in the worldwide box-office “Hunger Games” films), “Red Sparrow” is based on the novel of Jason Matthews, a former CIA operative that also stars Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenaerts, Charlotte Rampling, Joely Richardson, Mary-Louise Parker and Jeremy Irons. “Red Sparrow” trails the journey of prima ballerina Dominika Egorova (Lawrence) as she faces a bleak and uncertain future after she suffers an injury that ends her career. She soon turns to Sparrow School, a secret intelligence service that trains exceptional young people to use their minds and bodies as weapons. In the Sparrow School, the trainees undergo a merciless program that turns them into intelligent killing machines. Egorova soon emerges as the most dangerous S...

I met Noxolo and Calvyn during the open rehearsals last February 8 at the Star Theater. First saw a glimpse of how they perform during the Can You Feel The Love Tonight preview: Immediately, I wanted to learn more about the two people playing the leads! Based on our press brief, Noxolo has been breathing and living theater all her life and Calvyn used to be part of the ensemble in previous Lion King productions. On paper, they promise to be great stars. This was confirmed when interviews started. This was how they reacted when they first learned of their parts: Did you notice the way Calvyn looks at Noxolo? Yes, you have to find someone who would look at you the way Simba looks at Nala! See more of their chemistry here as they try to explain what Lion King is in a sentence: Since you got to this point, here's a bonus: The Circle of Life!

“The Shape of Water” brings its audience into a mysterious government facility in Baltimore where, in the deepest recesses of the lab, an amphibious creature (played by Doug Jones) is being studied for its unusual abilities. As Agent Strickland (Michael Shannon) demands for it to be killed and autopsied, Dr. Hoffstetler (Michael Stuhlbarg) insists that the creature’s secrets can only be revealed with a lighter touch. But it’s the facility’s quietest employee who realises the truest connection to the creature. Mute cleaner Elisa (Sally Hawkins) feels a strange affinity with this mysterious visitor from the deep. And as the men in charge prevaricate, she resolves to release the creature from its captors, with the aid of her colleague Zelda (Octavia Spencer) and her next door neighbour Giles (Richard Jenkins). The movie is directed by award winning director Guillermo Del Toro who is best renowned for his three inspired Spanish-language films that reinvent and upend the very notion o...

For the love of her daughter, a mother takes action into her own hands to help solve the murder of her daughter in this year’s highly-anticipated award-winning film “Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri”. An entertaining dramedy featuring an extremely talented cast as Frances McDormand in the lead role, along with Woody Harrelson, Sam Rockwell, Abbie Cornish, Lucas Hedges, John Hawkes and Peter Dinklage, “Three Billboards Outside, Ebbing Missouri” all begins with Mildred Hayes (McDormand) and the three billboards she rents on Drinkwater Road. Mildred is an aggrieved mother who is strong, determined and raging, yet also broken inside because of what happened to her daughter. A last stand erupts between Mildred and the small town’s Chief of Police, Bill Willoughby (Harrelson) has failed to solve the murder and left her with no solace. But the more one gets to know Chief Willoughby, the more it becomes clear that the man Mildred is going to war with is already fighting a priv...

On its 42nd Theatre Season, Dulaang UP brings to stage Ang Dalagita’y ‘sang Bagay Na Di- Buo, Rody Vera’s Filipino translation of Eimear McBride’s haunting novel A Girl is a Half- formed Thing. The play is based on Annie Ryan’s adaptation, originally staged by The Corn Exchange Theatre Company in 2014. Skyzx Labastilla, Missy Maramara, and Opaline Santos alternate as The Girl in a solo- performance of the harrowing piece that tells the tragic story of a Girl plagued by the appalling iniquities of sexual abuse and power. Bringing to light pressing issues on gender and mental health, DUP is partnering with the UP Diliman (UPD) College of Social Work and Community Development, the UPD Gender Office, and the UPD Office of Anti-Sexual Harassment. This powerful piece on gender and mental health is also part of the UPD’s Kat(h)awan: Bodies, Society, Culture, the campus wide celebration of the National Arts Month. The Philippine premiere of A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing ...

More announcements soon!

 The much-anticipated (94% in Rotten Tomatoes) horror-thriller movie “The Cured” starring Ellen Page (“X-Men” films, “Inception,” “Juno”) sees a post-zombie world as an antidote is finally found and brings zombies back to life after a virus turned them into cannibals. In “The Cured,” the treated zombies are brought back to an unforgiving society that is not willing to give them a second chance. The movie traces back to writer-director David Freyne’s short film entitled “The First Wave”about an outbreak of a zombie virus that introduced a possible cure. From this short film now comes his full-length feature “The Cured” that follows Senan (Sam Keeley), a young man who is now haunted by the horrific acts he committed while infected. As he tries to restart his life along his widowed sister-in-law Abi (Page), Senan soon finds himself in an angry world not willing to give second chances to the cured. From recent interviews with director Freyne, the filmmaker shared about how t...

Can you have a relationship with a soul who inhabits a different body every day – sometimes boy, sometimes girl, sometimes the school quarterback, sometimes the outcast? Find out the answers in the preternatural young adult movie “Every Day” directed by award-winning Michael Sucsy. “Every Day” is based on David Levithan’s tome that resonated so deeply with his readers that it spent months on the New York Times bestseller list and spawned online chat groups, fan art and writing. The movie tells the story of Rhiannon (Angourie Rice), a 16-year old girl who falls in love with a mysterious soul named “A” who inhabits a different body every day. Rhiannon and A work each day to find each other, not knowing what or who the next day will bring. The more the two fall in love, the more the realities of loving someone who is a different person every 24 hours takes a toll, leaving Rhiannon and A to face the hardest decision either has ever had to make. Rhiannon is a good 16-year old – she ...