Text by James Edgar Sia
Photos by Xavier Center for Culture and the Arts
What are you willing to sacrifice in the name of love? Time? Money? Happiness? Your very self? What is the price of an unrequited affection? How far are you willing to go to prove your love to the other person?
These are the questions explored by the play Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala, the latest theater production by The Xavier Stage (TXS), a resident repertory theater company of Xavier University.
Maria Isabella, played by XU alumna Gerikha Kate Amper, is a young girl who sets off on a lengthy quest, spanning six decades, to gather a plethora of exotic materials to build a huge kite for her to ride on — all to catch the attention of a handsome astronomer she once saw, however briefly.
Fellow XU alum Jason Rey Limbaga joined Amper on stage as the nameless, hapless, and unreciprocated butcher boy who hopelessly falls in love with Maria Isabella, accompanies her unflinchingly on her winding quest across mountains and seas, and faithfully waits on her until the end.
Moving some members of the audience to tears, Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala ran for two days, on July 22 and 23, with three performances each day.
As with previous TXS productions, the play proved to be a hit with the XU community. TXS members reported that the XU Little Theater was filled to capacity during the play's performances.
TXS artistic director Hobart Savior expressed hope that the theater arts will come to be appreciated more and more by poeple from different walks of life.
“We hope that you will continue supporting this kind of endeavor because we believe that the universities have really the most potent power in sustaining the arts,” Savior told the audience, mostly composed of students, at the end of the July 23 performance.
Savior also shared that he looks forward to when people will recognize Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala and other theater plays alike as worthy alternatives to today's pop-culture romance stories on television and film.
Part of TXS’ ninth season with the theme “Existential Experience,” Maria Isabella at ang Guryon ng mga Tala, penned by playwright Eljay Castro Deldoc, was first staged during the Virgin Lab Fest 11, directed by Ed Lacson Jr.
The play was an adaptation of Dean Francis Alfar’s Palanca Prize-winning short story Kite of Stars. ∎
