ONCE A PANAHON a trilogy of 1 act plays by Juliene Mendoza

Last Tuesday February 25, 2020 ONCE,A PANAHON a trilogy of 1 act plays written by Juliene Mendoza. These 30 minute plays are products of writing workshops conducted by award winning playwright George de Jesus from 2012 to 2017.

Oneof the plays, Collector’s Item even made it to The Virgin Labfest. These stories are pure fiction, slightly odd and surreal: Clowning Around is a quirky love story about a Clown and an emotionally unstable girl. Collector’s Item is about best friends, a bully and a nerd, fighting over a college crush. The third story is loosely adapted from The Selfish Giant by Oscar Wilde, and tells the story of the Gardener of an Enchanted Garden, and his dilemma of choosing life or death in the twilight of his years.

This is the first project of Juliene Mendoza as producer teaming up with his partners at the 9th Studios Creative Hub, one of the newest venues for creative projects. The 9th Studios provides a space for dance, fitness, art and music events as well as workshops, seminars and lectures. With ONCE A PANAHON, the 9th Studios rounds off its image as a theater performance venue as well.

This show is made more exciting with the participation of some of Philippine Theater’s most promising talents. Jon Abella, Matel Patayon, Vincent Pajara, Iggi Siasoco and Abe Autea. Along with Juliene Mendoza, they are also part of the musical DEKADA ‘70 from Blackbox Productions. Lissa del Valle and Jun Ofracio are music and theater performers and partners at the 9th Studios who have impressive performance resumes including local and internationally acclaimed productions. Lissa as member of the band Midlife Crisis, and Jun Ofracio as cast of Miss Saigon for several years.

These stories are brought to life by directors, John Mark Yap, who directed LARO from Artist Playground in 2019, and Fitz Bitaña, co-director of Tanghalang Pilipino’s Lam-ang. Lending his production design talents is music producer, composer and The 9th Studio partner Roy Del Valle of Roar Audio Productions. Original band member Koko Marbella of Labuyo, provides the production’s music score.

ONCE A PANAHON is a production of the 9th Studios Creative Hub, sponsored by Roar Audio Productions, Hues n Cues and Jay Marketing. The show will run on March 21, 22, 28 & 29 at 8:00pm at the 9th Studios Creative Hub, 9th floor, Dominion Building, Arnaiz Avenue, Makati City. Ticket price is only P500 each. For tickets, please call: 02-7299685 / 09177160278 or 09228966869. or message us at our FB page The 9th Studios Creative Hub.


ONCE A PANAHON

THE DIRECTORS

JOHN MARK YAP for Collector’s Item

John Mark is a freelance theater artist. He recently directed the revival of Floy Quintos’ ‘LARO,’ an adaptation of Arthur Schnitzler’s ‘La Ronde,’ under Artist Playground. He also directed ‘READING LAMOUCHE’ and ‘SI NELSON, ANG NANAY, ANG PANCIT CANTON,’ both for the Short and Sweet Theatre Festival.

For the past 11 years, he has also served as a stage manager for various productions under Tanghalang Ateneo, Dulaang UP, the Egg Theater Company, Manila Shakespeare Company, Repertory Philippines, Red Turnip Theater, Tanghalang Pilipino and Writers Bloc’s The Virgin Labfest, Black Box Productions, and a lot more.

Aside from being a director and stage manager, he also serves as the production manager and one of the three producers of One Night Stand, a monthly cabaret which happens every first Tuesday of the month at 12 Monkeys Music Hall & Pub in Ortigas.

FITZ EDWARD TORRES BITAÑA for Clowning Around

Fitz is a BA Theater Arts graduate from the University of the Philippines, Diliman, Major in Directing for stage under Prof. Dexter M. Santos and Prof.  Jose Estrella. He started directing for festivals such Short and Sweet Manila and Imaginarium, (festival of the absurd under Toff De Venecia.) He has directed multiple productions and his past stage plays are “We Choose to Go to the Moon”, a devised play about John F. Kennedy’s “Moon Speech” written by Vlademeir Gonzales;  “Cymbeline R-13”, a deconstruction of Shakespeare’s Cymbeline adaptation in filipino by George De Jesus.  Deathwatch by Jean Genet, adaptation in Filipino by Pat Valera (Matyag); Who is Sylvia by Edward Albee, adaptation Filipino by Eljay Castro Deldoc.  Lam-Ang:An Ilocano Epic is his first musical work, staged in UP Diliman in 2016 and in Tanghalang Pilipino in 2019. He is presently the Artistic Director of Project Mayheim Productions,  a theatre company formed in 2014

JULIENE MENDOZA for Ang Sundo

Juliene is a theater actor, singer, voice over talent for ads and live events, and partner at the 9th Studios Creative Hub. His last performance was in Blackbox Productions’ DEKADA 70 as Julian Bartolome. He is also a playwright and in 2020 his play MULTIVERSE will be featured in Virgin Labfest 16 at the CCP.