'Fake' Leads MyFABE Theater Awards 2011 with Eleven Nominations

Fake by Floy Quintos, a small, talky play from Dulaang UP led this year's MyFABE Theater Awards with 11 nominations, one nomination more than two big and very popular musicals, Care Divas and Zsa Zsa Zaturnnah; the former, a breakthrough hit this year for PETA; the latter, a theater staple of Tanghalang Pilipino of the Cultural Center of the Philippines which both had ten nominations each.  

Repertory Philippines' 39 Steps garnered nine nominations, while Virgin Labfest's Mga Lobo Tulad Ng Buwan and Atlantis Productions' In The Heights got eight nominations each.

Fake got nominations for Best Play, Best Director, two nods for Best Actor (Joel Lamangan, Gerard Pizarras), two nods for Best Supporting Actor (Ross Pesigan, Jerald Napoles), two nods for Best Supporting Actress (Sharmaine Buencamino, Alya Honasan), Best Script for Floy Quintos, Best Costume Design and Best Production Design.

The winners will be announced on December 31, 2011.  This is the first year where the blog is coming out with the MyFABE Theater Awards.  Thirteen different plays and musicals qualified for the nominations.  Only plays and musicals watched by the blogger are allowed to be nominated.

Theater Review: Floy Quintos' "Fake"

I just watched my tenth theatre play or musical of the year, this afternoon, and this time, I decided to hit the universities - this time, choosing UP Playwrights Theatre's "Fake", which is on an extended run this weekend, according to the group's marketing team.  Actually, I read an article about the play in Inquirer, and I decided to check it out since there are big names behind it, like Leo Rialp, Ces Quesada and Tony Mabesa.

Well, it is a thought-provoking play!  It delves with stuff that we've taken as truth and the play has exposed them as fakes (although of course, we know already that they were fakes).  That includes an apparition of the Virgin Mary, the Tasadays, and the veracity of the Code of Kalantiao. 

I especially like the second part of the play where Joel Lamangan, who plays the guy who claims to have discovered the Code of Kalantiao, delivers a tour de force performance along with Alya Honasan.  The kid there, Ross Pesigan, is a revelation and Gerard Pizarras as well, who appears in both acts.

I try not to analyze the play too much since I really just watch this for entertainment, but it makes you think about how easy and gullible we are too accept as truth, those which are actually just fabricated lies.  I remember studying the Code of Kalantiao and the Tasaday tribe in grade school!! And they turned out to be both fakes!! Que horror!!  Where are our historians when you need them?  Anyhow, I think we live in a more meticulous age since everything is eyed with more care due to the advances in technology and the speed of transmission of data. It would be interesting to know if another "fake" event or information comes into our national consciousness - and we accept them as fact - because we really need to - during a moment of collective national weakness!