I like Lake Sebu, not only because I have friends there and the people are truly friendly, but also, I love the culture. Communing with the T'bolis opens one's heart to the quaint chants of old women and to the rhythmic beat of the tinonggong as men display the dynamic flexes of their hands as they pour out their souls either in a song or in a dance.

I was in Lake Sebu last November 10 and 11, 2005 to celebrate with the people the recent Helobong Festival 2005. A travel to Lake Sebu is a trip to South Cotabato's tourist destination that has no gasoline station. Of course, one can refuel for there are stores selling gasoline in plastic containers or in "litros." Illegally-sourced out? Maybe. "Skylab" (motorbike with modified backseat to accommodate at least three passengers) is the king of the road, climbing up and down the hilly parts of this exotic town whose mayor and "kagawads" rode on decorated horses in their grand regalias like town monarchs during the festival parade.

I enjoyed the intramurals of native games participated by school children and I bought two tickets (I was with my T'boli performer who is a good tinonggong player) at PhP10 each for a "T'boli Cultural Show." I stuffed the tickets in my pocket without reading them and waited for the three o'clock matinee show. I was praying for old women and men to be in the show to showcase rituals and fill up the unfinished gymnasium with chants.

Riding on a "skylab", we went up a hilly part of the town towards the vibrantly-painted municipal hall that one may mistake for a commercial center, and where the gymnasium was located. We were greeted with colorful flaglets. The sides of the gymnasium were covered with wide rolls of plastic sheets, the kind that is commonly used by Mindanao war refugees in evacuation centers to build their tents with. The flaglets planted around the entrance of the gym were just like the pamanays of the Maguindanaons. Ah, I thought, aside from the use of the kulintang (obviously a Maguindanaon influence) the locals were beginning to use pamanays to create a festive atmosphere.

We were too early for the matinee show of Liwa Theater’s twin plays entitled Sla-i (early marriage) and Kesedewey (polygamy). A rehearsal was going on when we entered the place. It was conducted professionally as if it was done in one of the theaters of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), and the whole place gave an impression that the production had staff/crew who had ample technical theater skills. This observation was affirmed when I saw a lady walk down the right aisle of the gym to converse with the light & sound crew—Marili Fernandez-Ilagan, a sexy friend from Davao City.

Tag-Ani, an NGO manned by Marili who was managing the project, along with the respected writer Malou Jacob and their colleagues had a hand in starting and shaping theater productions for women organizations in several areas in Mindanao like Lake Sebu of South Cotabato, Manay-Banay of Davao Oriental, and Marawi City. It started with the conduct of a national scriptwriting workshop for lumad and Moro women. As expected, the National Commission of Culture and the Arts (NCCA) had a part in this activity. I was glad that I would be watching two theater productions that would tackle social problems affecting T'boli women.

As I wanted and expected it to be, a chant opened the first play on early marriage, Sla-I, but it was too short to display the woman's vocal talent and to establish the mood of the play. As narrated, the play, which was directed by its scriptwriter, could generally be classified as a dance drama.

The first play was replete with traditional expressions, which only the locals could understand. I was lucky because my T'boli performer explained those symbols to me, like the strips of abaca, prominently blocked at center-downstage, which the drunk husband tried to cut. But the wife gained strength and pushed the husband away to protect the rolls of abaca. To cut abaca fibers is a taboo. And so the wife, along with her children, left her husband.

That particular scene had tremendous impact on the audience. Everyone cheered for the wife. That single scene carried the intention of the writer and the production. The scene was simply staged with no theatrical embellishment and its strength eclipsed the other parts of the play, which simply displayed the cast's dance talents. The skill and stamina of that old man doing the T'boli mincing steps of a bird so finely and gracefully executed from one side of the gym to the other, could bring the house down were it shown at the CCP. It was a polished gem sparklingly displayed. I clapped enthusiastically and could not stop shout "Galing!" until the old man ended his short solo dance to continue with the story on early marriage. It seemed that the scriptwriter-director was greatly influenced by a dance choreographer.

Long intermission numbers of young lasses imitating the traditional movements of the mythic and revered Kenaban, the elder sister of T'boli epic hero, Tud-bulol, followed. In the audience, our attention was caught by a young girl, aged 4 or 5, who danced madal at the right aisle of the gym, to the delight of her parents and other people who smiled and who were grateful for the interruption. I later learned that the young girl was an Ilonggo, not a T'boli.

The second play, Kesedewey, which was on polygamy, enjoyed a credible cast performance whose characterization met the task. The role of the polygamous husband was spiced with lots of comic touches that successfully caught the fancy of the audience. He gave a good version of a T’boli valentino and provided an effective contrast to the serious approaches of two neophyte actresses who played the roles of the first wife and of dewey or gewu yehen (second wife).

The two actresses who played first wife and dewey were good character studies. The dewey was silent most of the time, pent-up with emotion. Her movements were rough as she seemed to be working hard like a horse. The first wife was also industrious. She worked hard but she exuded the confidence of a first wife, proud of her status. She tackled the marital problems with an “air that is lighter” compared to how the dewey met the problem.

There were two house structures on opposite sides of the stage. This staging was successful in showing how the husband fulfills his marital duties. Instead of showing the husband moving from one mosquito net to another, he transferred from one house to another. It was a hilarious and very visual scene.

However, I don't know if the narration approximated the intention of the play. The narration said that polygamy affected the children more than the wives, but the production had only a single scene on this problem with the scriptwriter-director playing the role of the daughter. It lacked the creative visualization to carry the intention of the play. The earlier scenes showing the competition of wives over the affection of the husband were more effective and had more impact on the audience than the scene extolling the pains of children.

Tag-Ani should not stop helping these organizations. The plays that I saw had lots of potentials to fully embody the social problems affecting T’boli women and families. In spite of their limitations, these two plays were successful in opening a box of social problems which some of the T’bolis, especially the youth I talked to after the show were willing to discuss openly. They acknowledged the validity of the messages of the plays. Their lives were illustrations of the problems created by early marriages and polygamy. The passionate and robust performance exuded by the cast must have come from a belief that their productions had good messages to convey.

I wanted to watch the plays again that night but it rained hard. Riding on a “skylab” in the rain would be very romantic but definitely very, very risky.

I was up early the next day to witness the portrayal of the epic hero, Tud-bulol, and her 12 sisters. I stayed for four hours more to view several groups of women imitating the graceful movements of Kenaban and groups of men doing the masculine prancing imitating their idol, Tud-bulol and various animal movements.

I left Lake Sebu after lunch. On the way to the terminal, I met a lot of happy T’boli women clad in their finest, and adorned with indigenous jewelries. Prominent is the presence of the hilet, which accentuates their graceful hip-swaying movement.

The theater productions proved to be the highlight of my trip to Lake Sebu. I hope another T’boli production is in the offing. And I would like be around to learn other social problems that the T’boli society believe should be changed.

ROMEO F. NARVAEZ reads Philosophy and Theater at Mindanao State University in General Santos City. He plans to remount his production on the T’boli epic hero, Tud-bulol with MSU-Kabpapagariya Ensemble.