MANIILA -- (UPDATED) Multi-platform and much-awarded director-actor-lighting designer-writer Dennis Marasigan is the new vice president and artistic director of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP).

“I am happy to be back at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, and privileged to be given the chance to serve as its Artistic Director at this time,” Marasigan told ABS-CBN News on Thursday.

Marasigan, who officially assumed office on November 2, has been working with the CCP and its resident companies for decades in various capacities.

“We welcome the return of Dennis Marasigan to the CCP. This time as artistic director. I am confident that with his leadership he will implement new programs that will make arts matter to more Filipinos,” CCP president Margarita Moran-Floirendo told ABS-CBN News.

Marasigan first served as technical director-division chief for technical services from July 1989 to September 1994.

He was promoted and served as assistant vice-president and department manager for theater operations from October 1994 to February 1997.

He was associate artistic director-department manager for the performing arts from March 1997 to July 1998 and back again from June 2000 to August 2001.

He was promoted as assistant vice-president for marketing and department manager for marketing from August 2001 to November, 2006.

“I officially worked at the CCP from 1987 to 2006, then with Tanghalang Pilipino (TP), 2006 to 2008, with a break from 1998 to 2000 when I was seconded as executive director to the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB),” he said.

Marasigan was also president of the Philippine Legitimate Stage Artists Group (Philstage), composed of the country’s biggest professional performing arts companies.

He was secretary of the Philippine Association of Theater Designers and Technicians (PATDAT) and the Artists Welfare Project Inc (AWPI). He was also interim vice-president of the National Live Events Philippines (NLEC PH).

He was artistic director of TP, the resident theater company of the CCP, from November 2006 to July, 2008.

Being an actor, director, production designer and lighting designer, it was with TP that he collaborated more often over the years.

He will be directing the upcoming re-staging of TP’s “Ang Pag-uusig,” the Filipino translation by Jerry Respeto of Arthur Miller’s “The Crucible.” The play is scheduled in April 2023 as the final TP production for its 36th season.

It was first staged in 2017. Due to popular demand and rave reviews, it was re-staged in 2018.

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In early 2022, also for TP, Marasigan directed the re-staging of Layeta Bucoy’s “Doc Resurrecion: Gagamutin Ang Bayan,” which was shot like film for online streaming. It had a one-day live staging for select members of the media and another day for actual filming.

Technically, “Doc Resurrecion” holds the record of being the first play to be staged at the CCP after the two-and-a-half year-long closure of the building because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Marasigan graduated from the University of the Philippines with a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Degree and Master of Public Administration. Never ever tired of expanding his knowledge and expertise, at the Asian Institute of Management, he finished its Managing the Arts Program.

Through various grants and scholarships, Marasigan observed theater and film practices in Moscow, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, and Canada, including attachments and residencies at the Royal National Theatre of Great Britain, Royal Opera House, English National Opera, The Banff Centre, the Shaw Festival Theatre, the Harbourfront Centre, and the National Film Board of Canada.

He has served on the faculty of the University of the Philippines (Diliman and Manila), De La Salle University, the DLSU-College of St Benilde, DLSU Graduate School of Business, Institute for Culture and Arts Management, as Chairman of the St. Scholastica’s College Department of Mass Communications, and Meridian International College, handling classes in film and audio-visual production, writing for mass media, arts management and marketing, and theater techniques and production.

He has received awards from the Philstage Gawad Buhay (Outstanding Lighting Design, Outstanding Direction, Outstanding Ensemble Performance), Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature (3rd Prize, Dulang May Ganap na Haba; 2nd Prize, Screenplay), CCP Literary Awards (Honorable Mention, Special Adaptation), UP Diamond Jubilee Playwriting Contest (3rd Prize), Golden Screen Awards (Best Adapted Screenplay), Cinemalaya Film Festival (Best Screenplay), Cinema One Originals (Award of Distinction), and ToFarm Film Festival (3rd Best Picture).

At present and with more than 800 production credits in theater, film and television, he serves as chief creative officer of Great Media Productions, head of the Theater Arts Program of Meridian International College of Business and Arts (MINT College) and adviser of the Mapua Tekno Teatro and TP.

With his new position at the CCP that would need utmost attention, he said he will be serving those mentioned, like with MINT College and Great Media, in “reduced role.”

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