‘Creative profitability’: Theater company taps student market

At Saint Scholastica’s College in Manila recently, actors and singers clad in yellow whooped it up joyfully on stage and then hoisted on their shoulders an actress playing Cory Aquino, all hands raised in the traditional Laban (Fight) sign.

This was a scene from the musical “Cory ng Edsa,” which has just won an Aliw Award as Best Musical.

Cut to Adamson University. The bio-musical play being presented this time was “San Vicente: A Zarzuela,” St. Vincent de Paul being the patron saint of the school. Told by the C.M. fathers to make the play “entertaining,” that is just what the director did, throwing in a lot of jokes and contemporary asides.

The students enjoyed the play.

“Cory ng Edsa” and “San Vicente: A Zarzuela” are just two of the many plays the Philippine Stagers Foundation (formerly Dulaang Bedista Alumni Foundation), a professional theater company, has been mounting for 10 years now.

PSF is headed by lawyer Vincent M. Tañada, who is often the star of the show (he acts, sings and dances), and director and writer as well.

He is, in fact, this year’s Aliw Award Best Actor for his role in the Cory the musical.

Theater being his real passion, the lawyer (who specializes in annulments) founded the foundation in 2001 with seven partners who served as members of the Board. To be able to incorporate the company, he invested P500,000, with the others chipping in for a total of P1 million.

And, thus, bravely they started producing plays—only to almost lose their shirts. Five partners backed out, and so Tañada had to contribute more to the coffers and he created a marketing team. “It was necessary for us to sell our products to the schools in order to sustain the company, to make it survive,” he recalls. “We used theater arts as a means to educate the youth.”

The marketing team fanned out. “The members were aggressive,” Tañada says. “Every day we would go to the schools. We lowered the amount of tickets so the students could afford it. DepEd (the Department of Education) has a ‘no-collection’ policy with regard to the public schools. So we told the school authorities to make the selling of tickets voluntary. There was no problem with the private schools.”

Performances are usually held in schools and mall cinema houses in Metro Manila as well as out of town. Students may come from upscale Ateneo and La Salle to the more modest Payatas and Batasan High Schools.

Each member of the marketing team has his/her own specific bailiwick. Tañada takes care of Manila, Quezon City, Caloocan, Taguig, Muntinlupa, plus some provinces. Chris Lim covers Mandaluyong, Pasig, San Juan and Cavite. Elaine Coronel is responsible for Marikina, Laguna, Batangas and Cebu. Jeff Ambrosio’s areas are Novaliches, Malabon, Navotas and Bulacan.

PSF being a foundation, the proceeds at the end of each season are given to beneficiaries, or used as capital for future productions, the scholarship program of the actors, allowances, and monthly salaries of the staff. The actors and actresses are among those who draw a monthly salary.

“I truly believe we can utilize theater arts and draw profits from our creations,” Tañada declared. “You can call it creative profitability. The success [of PSF] lies in the fact that most of the members have a comfortable financial life, financial freedom.”