‘Proudly Green’

“Proudly Green” is the title of a musical presentation that was the centerpiece of the observance of the 100th year of La Salle’s presence in the Philippines. The musical tells the story, in three acts, of La Salle in the Philippines as told by “nine angels” representing the nine La Sallian brothers who established the order’s presence in the country.

When it was first staged at the SMX Convention Center, “Proudly Green” drew 3,000 alumni and members of the La Salle “family”: brothers and faculty, university personnel, students and family members. It has been described as “the biggest gathering of the La Sallian ‘green’ community,” aptly kicking off La Salle’s Centennial Week Celebration.

On Sunday, July 31, those who missed the first staging of “Proudly Green” will have another chance to partake of the La Salle story with the re-staging of the musical (with a matinee at 4 p.m. and main show at 8 p.m.) at the St. Benilde Gym in La Salle Greenhills.

As La Salle alumni tell it, the road to “Proudly Green” was set last December during an alumni gathering when noted stage and TV director Francis “Fritz” Ynfante talked with his friends about the best way to celebrate the Centennial and there and then conceptualized the musical. He eventually agreed to direct it. Alumnus Adie Pena, who made his mark in advertising, was tapped to create the lyrics and the book, with music culled from musicals and operettas like “Les Miserables,” “The Student Prince,” “Jekyll and Hyde,” and pop and rock numbers. A highlight was a “mashup” of three La Sallian hymns that, to three generations of students, speak of what it means to be “Green.”

Cast members include “Miss Saigon” London veterans Isay Alvarez and Robert Sena (who are sending their son to La Salle), Rannie Raymundo, JM Rodriguez, and more than 70 other performers, both alumni and students.

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THE first act ends with World War II, when the De La Salle campus along Taft Avenue became the site of one of the most unspeakable horrors of the War. More than a hundred residents of Malate and Ermita had sought refuge in the La Salle chapel during the battle for Manila and it was there where they, along with the Christian Brothers giving the refugees succor, were slaughtered by Japanese soldiers with guns, swords and bayonets. “Visit the chapel one day and you will see, in some corners, traces of the blood of those killed there,” senior alumni say.

Bomboy Araneta recalls a classmate of his who, at a very young age, was among the few survivors of the massacre and who had bought tickets to the first staging. “I had to warn him about the scene,” Araneta recalls, “but he shrugged it off, saying he had long reconciled himself with the memories.”

Another generation might have to reconcile, too, with their memories of La Salle during the tumultuous First Quarter Storm and the declaration of martial law, which ends Act Two. Others, though, might relate to another “traumatic” event: De La Salle going coed which, the organizers say, is treated in a “lighthearted” manner.

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BUT Pena says what is most important is that “Proudly Green” ends with a glimpse of the future and a challenge to La Sallians of the past, the present and the future.

Two themes underlie the Centennial Celebration, they say. These are “education and the environment,” which they deem the greatest challenge Philippines society faces. Araneta says he is proudest of the fact that La Salle currently educates some 100,000 Filipino youth in 17 campuses (or La Salle-managed institutions) around the country. The goal of the alumni, through “Proudly Green” and other Centennial fund-raising activities, is to raise enough money to ensure that one in five, or 20 percent, of all La Salle students enjoy full scholarships. After all, the original mission of St. John Baptist de la Salle when he founded the order in 1680 was “to educate the underprivileged and marginalized.”

As for the environment, the La Salle system has just launched “Project Carbon Neutral” which seeks to reduce the “carbon footprint” of each of the 17 campuses, and the “One Million Trees and Beyond” project, with the one millionth seedling planted last June.

Tickets to “Proudly Green,” priced at P300 and P600 (for reserved seats) may be purchased by calling Manny Blanco at 8183021 and 8193963.

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A NOTE of thanks to the Ateneo de Manila University Press for sending me a copy of “If I Write This Poem, Will You Make it Fly,” a compilation of poems by Simeon Dumdum Jr.

I hesitate to describe the book as “just” a poetry collection for it is, in the words of the great poet and teacher Gemino H. Abad, “a work of imagination, work of art, and work of scholarship, all three!” Within the pages of this physically small book are 129 different verse forms that touch on about the same number of birds found in the Philippines, though many are fast disappearing. Scholarly footnotes explain both the verse form and give information about the bird. Many of the verses are likewise accompanied by line drawings, making the book also a convenient and inspirational bird-watching guide.

This is precisely what I plan to do, as I embark on a nascent hobby of spotting birds that nest and twitter, sing and flutter from the trees surrounding our weekend home in the country. My enjoyment has been considerably hampered by failure to identify the birds I do spot, a situation I am sure will be remedied by Dumdum’s daring and charming project, one motivated, I am sure, as much by love of birdsong and birds taking wing, as by words and metre.

As the poet says in his sestina dedicated to rare birds: “Many of us would want to see them fly/So much we would throw caution to the winds.”