Philippine Educational Theater Association's "William" rerun July 27-29, 2012

[Share this news by using the Facebook "Share," Twitter "Tweet this," and Google+ "+1" buttons found at the bottom of this post.]

Announcement from Philippine Educational Theater Association

Philippine Educational Theater Association
presents

William

One-weekend rerun
July 27-29
Peta Theater Center

"William" attempts to familiarize young people with the beauty of Shakespeare's works through rap and hip-hop.  It premiered in 2011 as a primer for high school students who may fear Shakespeare or may not know the Bard at all.

"William" won seven top prizes at the 2011 Philstage Gawad Buhay! awarding ceremonies, including Outstanding Play, Outstanding Ensemble Performance for a Play, Outstanding Original Script for Ron Capinding, and Outstanding Stage Direction for PETA artistic director Maribel Legarda.

It also bagged most of the acting awards, namely Outstanding Male Lead Performance for Ian Segarra, Outstanding Female Featured Performance for Meann Espinosa and Outstanding Male Featured Performance for Jojo Atienza.

Director Maribel Legarda shared that the play's concept came from FlipTop, a Pinoy rap battle league known across the country. "In many ways," Legarda said "rap is poetry."

"I brought in rap and hip-hop as the contemporary voice and language of young people today. I hope that Shakespeare's poetry and today's rap find a point of conversation and evolve into engaging dialogue and drama," Legarda said.

The cast of "William" trained under a true Tondo rapper, Shielbert Manuel, a.k.a "O.G. Sacred" who appeared in the 2007 Cinemalaya Best Picture, "Tribu," an indie film by Jim Libiran.

The rap performances, choreographed by John Tan of the Urban Dance Crew, are topped with hip-hop moves like crumping and breakdance, while also adding ballroom and jazz hip-hop. "William" features ten original rap musical numbers composed by Jeff Hernandez.

"William" runs at The PETA Theater Center July 27-29, 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. Contact 725-6244, 0917-5765400 or petatheater@gmail.com. Visit www.petatheater.com.

What do you think of this production? Share your comments.