It takes a village of artists to keep Butuan’s Balangay Repertory Theater alive

To outsiders, Butuan is a  place travelers pass through when flights to Siargao tip into the unreasonable rate, since its airport serves an alternative only two hours from Surigao Port, where one can hop on a ferry to the island. But for those traveling with deeper curiosity, Butuan reveals stories that held more significance.

In 1976, within a stretch of land a kilometer wide, archaeologists unearthed balangay boats, plank-built wooden vessels now regarded as the oldest known ship in the Philippines, and the first of their kind excavated in Southeast Asia. Eleven in total, some carbon-dated to as early as 320 C.E., they paint Butuan as an ancient trading hub. 

The remains of the balangay boats spoke of movement, trade, and a community already established centuries before Spanish colonizers arrived. The succeeding digs only expanded the story: ceramics from across Asia, Chinese pottery from the Tang and Song dynasties, ivory seals, death masks, woven sashes, burial jars, and golds. There is a big reason why the National Museum of the Philippines has a branch in the city.

With a history dating back to pre-colonial times, it is only fitting that the city’s artistic traditions also run deep. It came as no surprise, then, to encounter a theater group whose performance would strike anyone, art enthusiast or not, as exemplary. 

The group, Balangay Repertory Theater Inc., staged its original production, Bagani Hong Lawod, to a packed audience during February’s National Arts Month celebration at the city’s FSUU Gym. Already known among locals and theater enthusiasts in the region, this particular performance further elevated its profile to a wider audience.

The artists behind the curtains 

Many would say that maintaining a theater organization is easy, given that several cities and universities across the country have their own. But staging productions that feel world-class despite being backed by a meager budget, speaks volumes about how this particular theater group in Butuan conducts itself.

It turns out that Balangay Repertory Theater is far from a ragtag group assembled to put on a show. Rather, it is a community of artists, both seasoned and emerging, united by a common goal: to use theater as a platform for advancing the history and artistic traditions of Butuan.

There’s Sai Collado, a former member of Sining Kambayoka, the theater group of Mindanao State University (MSU), and a recipient of the Japan Arts Foundation scholarship in Performing Arts. He now serves as the founding artistic and managing director of Balangay Repertory Theater.

“This was conceived in 2018,” he said, emphasizing the significance of heritage-based theater. “It means a lot since this has been a longstanding dream — to mount a heritage-based theater production.”

Under Collado’s guidance, the production’s authenticity and artistic expression converge: “We do research for accuracy, and the rest is our artistic expression aiming to provide a compelling story to capture the heart of the viewers.” 

He views theater as a tool for transformation: “When you considered theater arts not just for entertainment per se, but rather a device for social transformation, then it is vital, so to speak.” 

Collado’s leadership ensures that theater plays such as their own Bagani Hong Lawod not only entertain but also strengthen cultural identity, civic participation, and community engagement.

The artists that comprise the Balangay Repertory Theater come from diverse backgrounds, even ones without early theater background. One such artist is Cherrie Beluan. 

An HR freelancer and mother of three, Beluan, 45, joined Balangay Repertory Theater when she was cast to play the role of Khayam in Bagani Hong Lawod. She shared that the experience is personally transformative. 

“It is a great avenue for everyone. It is very important to keep the culture and history alive especially for the young Butuanons,” she said. 

Beluan reflected on how the play reshaped her sense of possibility: “The lines I recited were somehow significant for me personally.” She described her theater journey as “Wala ko kini damha sa tbuok kong kinabuhi.” 

“It means that I never imagined this all my life. Who would have thought that at my age I can still be part of this talented artists in Butuan City.” 

Beluan also highlighted how the play allowed her to balance her identity as a mother, wife, and productive member of society while actively contributing to the arts.

One of the youngest members of Butuan’s theater group, Angel Antiquina, did not stumble upon performing arts intentionally. Instead, it came  via her devotion: through youth activities at her parish, where theater plays were part of it.

By 2018, it ignited a yearning for performance arts. Joining the repertory company, she began to shape her craft within a model that puts importance to heritage as much as artistic expression.

Considered as one of Kulture Revival’s ‘babies,” Antiquina said she feel like she had grown through the theater group’s culture-driven principles.

Growth, in her case, is not just the result of experience. It is personified, as shown by her performance in Bagani Hong Lawod, staged during Butuan’s National Arts Month celebration. 

Onstage, she exhibited great teamwork with her fellow ensemble cast. Offstage, she now speaks of culture-based creative processes as a calling, one that allows her to use performance as a language for social awareness and change. 

The community of artists that makes up the group came in different stages of the members’ lives. One of those who got into the group late is Josephine Gabor-Cajoles. 

“My engagement with Balangay Repertory, started with the musical play, Bagani Hong Lawod when I was cast as Bae Diwa,” said Cajoles, a 61-year-old retiree.

“In my elementary years, I have been exposed to acting in a local radio station (DXBC),” she added. Her acting exposure was widened by short program every Sunday. “My Grade 4 teacher was my first acting coach,” she recalled. 

Her acting experience continued through college productions based on Butuanon stories such as May Kabag-ohan ba ang Pasko and Juan Tamban, formative experiences that sharpened her craft. 

“Back then in the ‘80s, community theater started to become an avenue to express and make people understand and make an action of social issues confronting the society,” she said. 

For Cajoles, she hopes that the production of theater plays grounded in localized stories and art, such as Bagani Hong Lawod, will stir the community, the academe, the local government, and other sectors to collaborate and align, if not, to fully institutionalize community theater, then at least to establish stronger support for it in order to keep local culture and the arts alive.

One of the veteran stage performers in the group is Richard Dian Villar, who brings four decades of theatrical experience to the production, having performed in almost every Sining Kambayoka production, where just like Collado, Villar is also a part of.

“Beyond that home stage, I found another family in the Kaliwat Theater Collective, where I joined almost every production and took part in numerous domestic and international tours,” Villar added.

“The stage, it seems, was not done with me yet,” he reflected. His career has spanned directing, storytelling, playwriting, and design, earning him the Kambayoka Gador Award in 2000 and a 2024 recognition for Outstanding Cultural Work in Theater and Storytelling. 

“Call it a call for a continuing practice, or perhaps, destiny,” he said of his role in Bagani Hong Lawod, where he served as director and main storyteller, underscoring theater as a vessel for preserving and communicating local identity.

In addition to being one of the pillars of Balangay Repertory Theater, Villar also serves as the head of the Tourism and Cultural Development Division of the City Tourism and Cultural Affairs Department of Butuan. This role strengthens his desire to promote Butuan’s history as a core part of the city’s identity, with theater being one of the most effective mediums to achieve this.

The village of artists that comprises the Balangay Repertory Theater illustrates the relevance of theater as a cultural force. Each curtain call celebrates the city’s heritage and establishes the important role of artists in keeping both local culture and creativity alive. 

Fifty years after the unearthing of the remains of the balangay boats, the success of the Balangay Repertory Theater demonstrates how theater can connect generations, bridge gaps in understanding, and promote a unique cultural identity. – Rappler.com