In a space where everyone is acting, how do you know if it's real?
The Ateneo de Manila University’s Fine Arts Program presents
"AUTHORIAL INTENT" by Itamar Moses, a postmodern romantic comedy that confronts the audience with a rich and self-aware story, written with both insider knowledge of the mechanics of drama and a shrewd grasp of the multilayered ways in which people deceive themselves.
"AUTHORIAL INTENT" puts its audience behind the fourth wall of a condominium shared by a couple, referred to only as A and B. They have just begun to live together. Three days after moving in together, a woman tells a man she doesn't love him anymore --- move out !!!. Suddenly, the play itself undergoes a parallel breakdown, with the two characters speaking their objectives and subtext instead of their dialogue. Finally, the two actors step out of character, to look back and wonder: Is there anything at all behind the artifice?
But the masterful stroke of playwright Itamar Moses' pen further unmasks the layers of truth and craftsmanship behind the encounter, from their character objectives and conversational tactics to the revelation that the condominium is actually the set of a play, where A and B find themselves as actors in a very real world, perpetually in search of something to be sure about. In a space where everyone is acting, how do you know if it's real?
The comic, metafictive approach of "AUTHORIAL INTENT" invites viewers to consider the complex and often adversarial relationship between the vision of the author, the inner lives of the characters (and the actors embodying them), and you, the audience.
But you don't need to be a theater critic or art student to appreciate its perfectly-timed hilarity, its clarity of voice, and its ultimately compassionate outlook on human life in general and relationships in particular.
"AUTHORIAL INTENT" has something to offer anyone who has ever wondered just what it is their significant other wants.
Missy Maramara, MFA-wielding instructor of the Ateneo de Manila's Fine Arts Program and English Department and a member of the Silly People's Improv Theatre (SPIT), plays Character A, a woman In a space where everyone is acting, how do you know if it's real?
Carlo Rivera, who lectures at the Ateneo de Manila's English Department when he's not flying airplanes, plays Character B, a neurotic film geek who knows exactly what he wants – Character A.
In line with the university's desire to open new horizons for deserving and capable neophytes, two young students have found themselves onstage as alternate members of the cast. Ann Nicole Ong, an AB English Literature senior with a talent for painting and a track record of leadership in creative projects ranging from Humanities Week to the InTACT program lends her unique voice to Character A, while Manuel Jan Molina, a Management Engineering sophomore and deploys his acting training from Loyola Marymount University and ABS-CBN's Starmagic workshops to bring Character B to life. Their participation is a testament to the Ateneo Fine Arts Program's devotion to making theatrical dreams come true.
"AUTHORIAL INTENT" was written by widely published New York playwright, Itamar Moses, author of the full-length plays Outrage, Bach At Leipzig, Celebrity Row, The Four of Us, Yellowjackets, Back Back Back, and Completeness, and various short plays and one-acts. His work has appeared Off-Broadway and elsewhere in New York, at regional theatres across the country and in Canada, and has been published by Faber & Faber, Heinemann Press, Playscripts Inc., Samuel French, Inc., and Vintage. Mr. Moses holds an MFA in Dramatic Writing from NYU and has taught playwriting at Yale and NYU. He is a member of the Dramatists Guild, MCC Playwrights Coalition, Naked Angels Mag 7, and is a New York Theatre Workshop Usual Suspect. He was born in Berkeley, California, and now lives in Brooklyn, New York.
The artistic and production team of "AUTHORIAL INTENT" led by Missy Maramara (Director), is composed of Ateneo Fine Arts students, alumni and friends, Miguel Ocampo (Assistant Director), David Mercado (Production Designer), Syd Alcantara (Lights Designer) and Erwin Comendador (Music Director), Arianne Lim and Nicholas Ang (Production Managers), Reg Acquitana (Marketing Manager), Arsenio Armas and Ayen Mendoza (Stage Managers).
The Ateneo de Manila Fine Arts Program continues the University's distinguished tradition in creative writing, theater arts, and the visual arts. It upholds artistic excellence, shaped by a rigorous practice of the craft, a critical appreciation of theory and history, and a heightened sense of imagination and expression in the context of the Filipino sensibility and service to others. In line with the university's desire to open new horizons for deserving and capable neophytes, young students and fresh graduates have found themselves as members of the cast and crew.
"AUTHORIAL INTENT" shall run from June 24 - 26 and July 2 - 3 at 7 p.m. at the Gonzaga Fine Arts Theater, Ateneo de Manila, Q.C.
Tickets are at Php200 (discount prices available upon bulk purchasing) and can be reserved through 09233174852.
For further details, check www.facebook.com/ateneoauthorialinent.
