10p Portrait, Severino Montano - Singles (65,000)
First Day Covers: Manila
Severino Montano – National Artist, Theatre.
Severino Montano (1915 in Laoag, Ilocos Norte –
12 December 1980).
Considered as one of the Titans of Philippine Theater.
He was a playwright, director, actor and theater organizer
with an output of one novel, 150 poems and 50 plays in his 65-year
lifetime. Through the foundation of the Arena Theater, Montano
institutionalized “legitimate theater” in the Philippines.
Academically, Montano started his tutelage under
a British mentor, Marie Leslie Prising, when he was thirteen. He
studied at the University of the Philippines.
Prising took Montano under
her wing and endowed him with Western literature, the theater
and Shakespeare. He was part of the UP Stage when he studied in the
University of the Philippines. Then a scholarship took him to the
famous 47 playwriting workshops of George Pierce Baker at Yale
University and guided by Broadway names and international
personalities like Komissarjevsky of the famous Moscow Art Theater.
He was conferred a Master of Fine Arts degree in playwriting and
production by Yale University.
In 1946, he went to London to become a student
of economist Harold Laski of the London School of Economics. Not
long after, he was offered a teaching job at the American
University in Washington, D.C. There, he finished his M.A. in
Economic and Ph.D. in management and public administration, at the
same time leading a playwriting-drama program as professor,
playwright and play director. In 1950, 1952, 1962 and 1963,
The Rockefeller Foundation extended him a world travel grant to
visit cultural and art centers in 98 cities in Europe, the Middle
East, South Asia, India, China and Japan.
When he returned to the Philippines, he already
had 16 major plays to his credit. As Dean of Instruction of
the Philippine Normal College, Montano organized the Arena Theater
“to bring drama to the masses”. He used his own money to start the
Arena Theater, a theater-in-the-round. Due to the PNC being unable
to fund the theater, Montano volunteered his services “to plan for a
self-financing national drama program that would serve the
grass-roots, the barrios of the Philippines”.
In 1953, the theater opened with three one-act
plays and broke all records of all performances in Philippine
theater history. The roving troupe took theater to near and
far-flung barrios in 47 provinces across the country. Four of his
plays became tour staples: the full-length The Love of Leonor
Rivera and three one-act plays, Parting at Calamba, The Ladies and
the Senador and Sabina. The Arena Theater also began a graduate
program for the training of playwrights, directors, technicians,
actors and designers. The program was also extended to include a
four-year undergraduate curriculum.
He trained and directed a new generation of
dramatist including Rolando S. Tinio and Behn Cervantes. The Arena
Theater Playwriting Contest also led to the discovery of Wilfrido
Nolledo, Jesus T. Peralta and Estrella Alfon.
His awards include the Kalinangan Award from the
city of Manila (1968), the Presidential Award for Merit in Drama and
Theater (1961), the Citizen’s Committee for Mass Media Award (1967
and 1968), the Pamulinawen Award (1981), and the National Artist
Award (2001). The last two awards were given posthumously.
His published works include The Love of Leonor
Rivera (poetic tragedy in two-parts), My Morning Star (poetic
historical tragedy in three-parts), But Not My Sons Any
Longer (poetic tragedy in two-parts), Gabriela Silang (poetic
historical tragedy in three-parts), The Merry Wives of
Manila (comedy of manners in three-parts), Sabina (tragedy), The
Ladies and the Senador (satirical comedy) and Parting at Calamba (historical
drama).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Severino_Montano