MANILA, PHILIPPINES — While the new “virgin” plays are the major highlights of the Virgin Labfest, the side events and other educational components are equally riveting.
For this year’s edition, the festival of untried, untested, and unstaged one-act plays brings back its mainstay components – the VLF Fellowship Program, the VLF Playwrights Fair, and the Theater Talks. These will all be held at the newly minted VLF Lounge located in the basement of the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez.
The VLF 18 Writing Fellowship Program is a two-week mentorship program on the study and practice of dramatic writing for the stage. The fellows take part in lectures, discussions, and workshops on playwriting and script critiquing. They are given tickets to this year’s festival plays, as well as the opportunity to participate in the talkback and interaction with the festivals’ playwrights and directors.
Under the mentorship of award-winning playwright Glenn Sevilla Mas and CCP Artistic Director Dennis Marasigan, the fellowship program will be held from June 13 to 25, onsite at the CCP, and will culminate with a staged reading of the fellows’ works on June 25 at 5 pm.
Learn about theater and its creative processes in Theater Talks, a forum series where theater practitioners and the audience will have lively discussions on contemporary theater-making. Invited theater practitioners will share their wealth of experience and know-how in Lighting Design, Acting, and Marketing. Through Theater Talks, the VLF hopes to nurture discussions on the fertile possibilities of performance creation. This will be held on June 09, 16, and 23, at 5 pm, in the basement of the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez.
A staple of the festival, the Playwrights Fair returns with more conversations with award-winning playwrights. Under the direction of Rody Vera it is slated on June 10, 17, and 24, at 5 pm, at the basement of TIG.
On its 18th edition, the VLF returns with 12 new plays from both veteran and upcoming playwrights to be staged from June 07 to 25 at its brand-new home, the Tanghalang Ignacio Gimenez (CCP Blackbox Theater).
