MANILA -- Like a breath of fresh air amid the migraine-inducing headlines, the theater scene at the Cultural Center of the Philippines is getting exciting every year and 2019 has a lot of surprises to entice audiences.

Coinciding with its 50th anniversary celebration next year, the CCP recently announced the much-awaited opening of the new black box theater.

"I know, in every press conference, I announce that the black box theater will be opened but now it's finally pushing through, " Chris Millado, CCP president and artistic director, recently announced. Without going into details, he said the delays were caused by the release of building permits.

With much confidence this time, Millado said there will be a soft opening in February next year and the formal inauguration will happen in October with the start of its own season of shows and performances. As of posting, Millado said they are still finalizing the list for the inaugural season.

To be named -- what else -- the CCP Black Box Theater, it is erected on Magdalena Jalandoni Street, beside the Philippine International Convention Center.

"It's a milestone because there have been no arts infrastructure built at the CCP complex since 1969," Millado said.

He took pride in revealing that the 300-seat new theater is equipped with the world acclaimed Nagata acoustics. Technically, the 240-seat Experimental Theater or Tanghalang Huseng Batute has served the CCP as its black box theater.

The initial funding of the theater was around P50 million donated by businessman-art parton Ignacio B. Jimenez and engineer Roberto Olanday. Jimenez, in several interviews, said his roots were in theater at the University of the Philippines (UP) Diliman, having been president of the UP Dramatics Club and was a scholar in his undergraduate years of the late playwright-director Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero.

The Wilsons do TP, CCP

A much-needed adrenaline boost for Tanghalang Pilipino, the resident theater company of the CCP, is the guesting of Jamie Wilson and his sister, Monique, for the re-staging of its two much-awarded musicals next year.

Millado announced that Monique has agreed to take the role of Apolinario Mabini in "Mabining Mandirigma." TP has decided since the first run that Mabini should be played by a female thespian.

TP artistic director Fernando "Tata Nanding" Josef told ABS-CBN News in a follow-up interview that Millado, who directed the play, paralleled people's reaction today asking 'bakit babae?' to people's reaction during Mabini's time asking why he was considered Brains of the Katipunan.

"'Bakit siya ang 'brains' eh pilay at saka mahirap? (Why he who is poor and a paralytic?)'. It also answers the question, 'Why not?' Why not a female Mabini? Or, why not Mabini as Brains of Katipunan?'" Josef said.

In its initial staging in the middle of 2015 as part of TP's 29th Season, Mabini was essayed by Delphine Buencamino. When it was restaged in February to March in 2016, Liesl Batucan took over.

Read ABS-CBN's review here.

There was a clamor for an immediate rerun so TP had to re-stage it again in December 2016, this time as part of its 30th season. Hazel Grace Maranan, a great, great grandaughter of Mabini, played alternate to Batucan.

Buencamino has declined to do the role after its 2015 run for personal reasons. When Batucan took over, she was associate artistic director of TP for about two years but has since transferred to Repertory Philippines as its managing director.

With Monique playing Mabini, it will make "Mabining Mandirigma" one of the must-watch original Filipino musicals in 2019, even for those who've seen it in the past. Monique is founder and artistic director of the New Voice Company, best known for bringing to local audience "Vagina Monologues," the Obie-winning play by Eve Ensler, among other groundbreaking and daring theatrical productions.

Meanwhile, Monique's brother Jamie will take on the role of Tikbalang or the shapeshifter in "Aurelio Sedisyoso," a rock sarswelo based on the life of Aurelio Tolentino, the playwright-actor-seditionist during the American occupation and, incidentally, for whom the Little Theater of the CCP was named after.

"It's gonna be my first time with TP and my first time performing at the CCP, also my first time being under Direk Chris Millado," Jamie told ABS-CBN News in a follow-up interview.

"I've done production work at the CCP but never got to perform on their stage," he added. He remembered doing a performance art piece with a group he formed with Carlos Celdran called Walang Pamagat but never a full theatrical production that is part of a TP season.

"I can't wait, the character (Tikbalang) sounds like a lot of fun!"

"Aurelio Sedisyoso" ran at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino from August to September last year. Tikbalang was alternately played by Baron Geisler and TP resident actor Jonathan "Tad" Tadioan. Geisler, in his debut for the stage, won last year's Gawad Buhay Awards for Male Featured Performance in a Musical or the equivalent of best supporting actor in a musical.

Read our review here.

Millado directed "Mabining Mandirigma" and "Aurelio Sedisyoso," both written by UP professor and award-winning playwright Nicanor Tiongson. Both were also under the credible hands of musical director and composer Joed "Jed" Balsamo.

The twinbill production of "Mabining Mandirigma" and "Aurelio Sedisyoso" will happen from August to September 2019 at the Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino.

Virgin Labfest to the province

Millado also announced that the annual Virgin Labfest (VLF), a festival of untried, untested, and yet-to-be-staged plays, will have an off-site version starting with Cagayan de Oro City as the first venue.

"The year 2019 is going to be the first to have VLF in the region," Millado revealed. Next year will be the 15th anniversary of the labfest.

As of posting, he told ABS-CBN News in a follow-up interview that there are still no definite number of plays. "It will depend on the submissions and the number of directors and actors who can work on [the project]."

When the Labfest started in 2004, it had less than a one-week run at the Experimental Theater or Tanghalang Huseng Batute (THB) at the CPP but as the number of plays and audiences grew over the years, the festival was extended to two weeks. Every year, it has been staging nine new one-act plays from aspiring and veteran playwrights and three "de-virginized" plays from the previous year under the set called Revisited.

Still more entries and patrons came and so a couple of years ago, Virgin Labfest had to add another week and transfer to a bigger venue, the neighboring Tanghalang Aurelio Tolentino (TAT). Now running for three weeks, the festival usually runs from mid-June to first week of July. Every week, the nine new plays run simultaneously at TAT with the Revisited set at THB.

Millado said "VLF in the Region" in 2019 will happen three weeks after VLF at the CCP so if everything fell into place, it will start in the first week of August. As of posting, Millado said the target venue and partner would be Xavier University-Ateneo de Cagayan.

"Cagayan de Oro was selected because of its capacity to host the event, the location and the community of theater artists that could participate," Millado told ABS-CBN News.

"The move encourages playwriting and production outside of Manila and in languages or dialects other than Tagalog or Pilipino," he added.

In the previous editions of Labfest, this writer could only recall Dominique La Victoria's "Chipline" in 2013, the first one-act play in pure Visayan or Binisaya language to be staged in the festival. She followed it up with her Palanca-winning play, "Ang Bata Sa Drum," written with a combination of Binisaya and Tagalog, staged in 2016 and was part of the Revisited set in 2017. La Victoria, incidentally, is a proud Kagay-anon writer, hailing from Cagayan de Oro City.

In the early years of the Labfest, there was also Glenn Sevilla Mas' "Rite of Passage," which was written in English with some dialogue in Ilonggo. Except for "Chipline," there were none so far written in pure Visayan, Bisaya, Binisaya, Cebuano, Bicolano, Hiligaynon, Pangasinense and Ilocano, that was staged at the festival.

As early as now, Millado said in 2020, they might bring a couple of productions from the CCP Virgin Labfest to Cagayan de Oro City and vice versa.

Being the premiere arts institution in the country, over the years the CCP has been consistent in bringing performances, lectures, workshops and healing arts programs beyond Manila Bay, reaching people in economically challenged communities in Metro Manila and in the countryside.