Philippine Theatrical
Forms
Different Theatrical Genres
and Style
The genre of a performance refers
to the type of story being told.
The style refers to how the work is
presented on stage.
Popular Genres and Style
• Theatrical in Education - a performance for educational purposes, often with a message for the
audience.
• Physical Theatre - a mime technique in which actors use their bodies to create props or part of the set.
• Epic Theatre - style or movement of theatre that focuses on political ideas, ensuring that the audience
are engaged and questioning the action.
• Political theatre - a performance that focuses on current events in society.
• Comedy - a light-hearted drama that is played for laughs.
• Tragedy - a type of drama in which characters undergo suffering or calamity and which usually ends with
a death.
• Melodrama - a play or film characterized by exaggeratedly emotional or overdramatic scenes.
• Commedia - often performed outside with very few prompts and an improvised script.
Theater
• Theater is a collaborative
form of performing art that
uses live performers,
usually actors or actresses,
to present the experience of
a real or imagined event
before a live audience in a
specific place, often a stage.
• This type of play uses
puppets made of
separate cardboard
cut-out connected by
strings or wires. Long
sticks are also
attached to the
puppets to allow
movement. These
cardboard puppets
are used as the
characters in the play.
Shadow Puppet
Carillo
• There is an account of the Jose Rizal staging a shadow puppet play he
called "Carillo," which originally referred to the small traveling carts he
used to transport his cardboard puppets around Calamba.
Epic Poetry
• Epic poetry is considered
the highest point of Filipino
folk literature, and dates
back to the pre-colonial
period. These epics, usually
of romance or adventure,
are commonly presented
during festivals and
gatherings such as
weddings, baptisms, and
wakes.
Duplo
• The duplo is a poetic debate presented through song and dance, which originated
from indigenous courtship customs. Poets used proverbs and riddles to present their
suit to the woman of their choice. This ultimately evolved into a more formal debate
on issues and started to be called the balagtasan.
Moro-Moro
• The Moro-Moro is a form of theater
premised on battles between
Christians and Moors performed in
village fiestas in the Philippines from
the Spanish colonial period to the
present. It is a street drama that
usually lasted for several days, and
presented both secular themes like
love and vengeance, and the
Spanish-influenced religious theme
of the conflict between Christians
and Moors.
Senakulo
• This is the dramatization of
the life and death of Jesus
Christ and is usually
presented as a community
activity during the Lenten
season. This still endures to
the present, ranging from
simple productions to more
technically sophisticated
and modernized versions.
Traditional Folk Dance
• A folk dance is a dance developed by
people that reflect the life of the people
of a certain country or region. Not all
ethnic dances are folk dances. For
example, ritual dances or dances of
ritual origin are not considered to be folk
dances. Ritual dances are usually called
“Religious dances" because of their
purpose.
Dance Drama
• The dance drama is a theatrical form that uses dance movements
to tell a story In some cases, it is also accompanied by dialogues.
Although it is more commonly performed in the urban areas, it is
also shown in the rural places with the purpose of pacifying the
supernatural spirits that are believed to control and regulate the
seasons and elements.
Sarswela • The Sarswela is a type of melodrama, usually in
three acts, that uses alternately spoken and sung
words. It was the Spanish influence that started
the sarsuwela, but it was also this colonization
that led Filipinos to incorporate nationalistic
overtones in the art.
Bodabil
• Bodabil featured a variety of musical numbers, comedic and dramatic skits, and song
and dance numbers. Popular Filipino performers such as Dolphy, Anita Linda,
and sarsuwela legend Atang de la Rama got their start in bodabil. It has since died out
with the rise of cinema, but its influence can still be felt in television variety shows.
Make a short video and create your
own shadow puppet.
Procedure:
ARTS • Choose Philippine tale from which you will
ACTIVITY 4.1 base your shadow puppets.
• Draw characters of the folktale on the
cardboard.
• Cut the drawings and attach the cut-outs to the
barbecue sticks.
• You can also make cut-outs of background
setting for your chosen fork tale.
