Miyerkules, Setyembre 5, 2012

EPICSERYE “INDIO,” 2ND PART OF SUZETTE DOCTOLERO’S TRILOGY OF FILIPINO HISTORICAL FICTION





By GEORGE VAIL KABRISTANTE
PMPC (Phil. Movie Press Club)
From my blog “ Manila Showbiz & Lifestyle” farmed out in different versions to www.pmpcstarnews.com ,  Remate Online, Pilipino Mirror,  CMT (Columnists Monitoring Team) Update, etc.

SUZETTE DOCTOLERO 
Finally, after the long wait scriptwriter Suzette Doctolero of GMA-7’s Kapuso network has delivered the Part 2 from her most recent text message to me of her historical fiction trilogy billed this time “Indio.”  Great I must say! This leaves us waiting for her Part 3 if and when.  
        I got wind of this through the recent audition of “Indio” handled by Director Dondon Santos himself at GMA turf.
The Kid In Suzette's Facbook
       Suzette must have referred to the top-rated oeuvre, an epic serye “Amaya” of hers on GMA as her Part 1 which had among others in the lead Marian Rivera and the iconic actress Angie Ferro who would not want to be called “character actress” even if she is so because she insists she is an “actress” per se. 
Just making light of the issue, though. Angie is a good friend way back our Balintataw days with Suzette. In fact, I got her to  play the female lead ever of my debut film  "Uod Sa Laman" as a battered wife along with thespians Ronnie Lazaro, Pen Medina, Aurora Yumul. The hot squeeze that time was Criselda Volks who played her  daughter  and Allan Paule's love interest. Up to now,  it's replayed with regularity on PBO Destiny Cable Channel. "Amaya" by the way  is Angie Ferro's biggest role so far on TV, thanks to Suzette.  
VACATIONING MAVEN
       From the grapevine I heard “Amaya” is in the shortlists of top award-winning bodies  for this year’s award for TV in some categories like Best (Epic) Teleserye, Single Performance of An Actress/Actor, Best Script, etc.
This is not surprising at all because “Amaya” has left a remarkable track record as a no-nonsense historical fiction which became a staple among primetime televiewers   
       Not to forget way back “Amaya” yet, Suzette Doctolero was the hand behind the longest-running “Daisy Siete,” among others.
THE ONLY ONE ANGIE FERRO
       Who is Suzette Doctolero you may ask? I used to see her around in the coterie, okay group of the internationally and locally multi-awarded film Director Lav Diaz who then was writing scripts for the National Artist for Theater Cecile Guidote Alvarez’s revived Balintataw TV Drama Anthology when the latter with her husband Sen. Heherson Alvarez came back from her exile (both were on a shoot-to-kill order during Martial Law) in the States.
       In that Balintataw drama anthology Suzette with Lav Diaz must have collaborated writing script for directors Nick Lizaso, Joe Marie Avellana, Maryo Delos Reyes, etc. other than her involvement in theater activities with former actors/members of PETA (Phil. Educational Theater Assoc.) Directors Joe Gruta and  Siegfred Sepulvida who were the Artistic Directors of  a theater group they put up called Dulaang Balintataw based at PAWB (Parks &Wildlife Bureau), Q.C. under the auspices of PETA founder Cecile Guidote Alvarez who is the Executive Director of the UNESCO Phil. Center for International Theater Institute, a worldwide association of theater artists and professionals.
       At that time Cecile Guidote Alvarez had her bailiwick  at PAWB where she first put up the UNESCO Peace Awardee, the Earthsavers DREAMS Ensemble made up of differently-abled youth performing artists (deaf, mentally and physically challenged, street kids, etc.) upon her return to the country.    
One of Alvarez’s “ babies” from pre-Martial regime PETA days Marcelino D. Cavestany, Jr. (now based in Sydney, Australia) got me to join him at PAWB which saw us putting up another theater group we called Balintataw Film & Theater Arts that put up plays for a specific purpose (one of which was the Movie Reporters On the Loose series) and joined Alvarez’s themed theater workshops (on environment, reproductive health, human rights, peace, tolerance, good governance, oh name them she has it)  in our capacities as  facilitators which she conducts both here and abroad usually at the Theater World Conferences of the UNESCO International Theater Institute.
       On the side, Mars and I have workshopped some aspiring actors for theater and films, some of whom are now making a name for themselves in the movie industry, to name some of them Emilio Garcia, Glydel Mercado, Francine Prieto (former Ana Marie Falcon), Zoren Legaspi,   Gardo Versoza, including Angelica Panganiban who was then a child star under the care of talent manager Baying Decena, etc.
       In any case, Suzette in the company of Lav Diaz went on to write the screenplay of the critically- acclaimed “Hubad Sa Ilalim Ng Buwan,” and others.   Lav Diaz went to the States and stayed for awhile at Cecile’s theater conduit in New York, the famous La Mama Theater, ETC. under Ellen Stewart where we also pay homage and stayed when vacationing in New York.
       Suzette meandered into the world of TV and movies. Soon I would be reading her byline on TV.
And for good reasons she is here to stay, perhaps to put some sense of balance to writing for TV which as well all know is being dominated by an all-too romantic and escapist soap operas/ teleseryes that are a bit far removed from the realities and sensibilities  of our time.
Now you know why I am doting on this maven and doing a Suzette Doctolero 101 yet of who she is from my own personal point of view. You may add on from her if you are a fan of hers.



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