by ZOE AIRABELLE AGUINALDO
A CREATIVE writing student’s one-act play will be one of the 12 works to be presented by the Virgin Labfest (VLF) in June for its 18th annual festival.
“Hukay” by creative writing student Ophalain Margaux Serrano was one of the 12 one-act plays selected out of 146 entries by the VLF last July.
The selected plays will be staged at the Cultural Center of the Philippines.
Serrano said “Hukay” centers on the themes of “breaking expectations, masculinity, and love.”
“I want people to expect and either get their heart and expectations broken. I want to write a very intimate play where the audience would feel like they are invading such an intimate scene only meant for the characters,” she said.
The creative writing student hopes her opus will “make a good name” for the UST Creative Writing program.
“Given the position I have as a student and being part of a course that was just recently formed, I just want to make people proud,” she told The Flame.
The play will be showcased along with Palanca awardees Layeta Bucoy’s “Tuloy ang Palabas,” and Andrew Estacio’s “Ang Awit ng Dalagang Marmol,” Ang Huling El Bimbo the Musical writer Dingdong Novenario’s “Dominador Gonzales: National Artist,” Tabsing Kolektib theater group co-founder and artistic director Eljay Castro Deldoc’s “Sunod sa Bilang,” Shenn Apilado’s “Hawaii, Here We Come,” Zheg Arban’s “Room 209,” Raymund Barcelon’s “O,” Marjay Manalastas’s “Ang Tuyom,” Juliene Mendoza’s “10 to Midnight,” Jerry O’Hara’s “O’Donnell,” and Jules Pamisa’s “Mga Halimaw Din Kami.”
The Virgin Labfest holds annual auditions for “untried, untested, and unstaged” one-act play scripts that feature the artistry of established and emerging playwrights nationwide.
Established in 2005, the Virgin Labfest stages a series of one-act plays at the Cultural Center of the Philippines. Its shows returned onsite in 2022 after two years of online screening due to the pandemic. F
