Tanghalang Ateneo - History of Tanghalang Ateneo

History of Tanghalang Ateneo

Tanghalang Ateneo descends from a long line of Ateneo theater companies, the Ateneo Dramatics Society and the Ateneo Experimental Theater, among others-which flourished in the college campus since its pre-war days at Padre Faura. It started out in 1974 as a group of friends who wished to stage plays, and having no theater to speak of on the Loyola Heights campus, scheduled performances at the college cafeteria. The group pressed the administration for a more suitable venue, and by 1978, a large classroom, seating about 80 people, was converted to a theater of sorts. In the old classroom, the group constructed wooden grids, light boxes, transformed a huge piece of canvass into a cyclorama, built an enclosed control booth, and draped windows with dark curtains, this is now called the Fine Arts Theatre. However, since 1989, Tanghalang Ateneo has been staging plays in a 250-seater theater called the Rizal Mini-Theater and recently, in other venues within the Loyola Schools such as the Fine Arts Exhibit Hall.

The officers drafted a constitution, got recognized as a co-curricular organization in college, and recruited Ricardo Saludo, a faculty member of the Departments of English and of Communications, to serve as moderator. In 1979, under Saludo, Tanghalang Ateneo’s first repertory season began. The repertory season of Filipino plays, original or in translation continued even after Saludo left to join Asiaweek magazine in Hong Kong in 1984.

He was succeeded by Dr. Ricardo G. Abad, the current artistic director, who retained the repertory program but added English plays as part of its annual fare. Tanghalang Ateneo productions have also been seen off campus: over the last nine years, the company has performed in the Cultural Center of the Philippines, the Metropolitan Theater, the Puerto Real Gardens, the Ninoy Aquino Park, the British Council, the Alliance Francaise, Vigan, Iloilo, Nueva Ecija, and a lot more.

As a college theater company, Tanghalang Ateneo’s primary mission is educational: It seeks to supplement the liberal arts program of the Ateneo de Manila University by exposing students to dramatic masterpieces, both classical and modern, and by instilling in company members the lessons of theater work-cooperation, responsibility, discipline, generosity and truth. One of the criteria in its selection of plays, as gleaned from the season’s repertoire, is a preference for plays that will enjoin audiences to reflect more about their own private worlds and the relationship of these worlds to the larger society.