PETA announces new company leaders
ENDING their creative tenure are the “Tres Marias” who have led Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) for decades, Beng Cabangon, CB Garrucho, and Maribel Legarda will be passing the torch to a new set of leaders who will carry on PETA’s vision: Melvin Lee as president, Anj Heruela and Michelle Ngu-Nario as executive directors, and J-mee Katanyag as artistic director.
Keka Enriquez, Yvonne Quisumbing, Renato Orara at Silverlens
THE first exhibitions at Silverlens Gallery in Manila this year will be Keka Enriquez’s Points and Endings and Yvonne Quisumbing’sSanctuary, running from Jan. 9 to Feb. 5. On display at the same time will be Renato Orara’s Entangled Pairs, ahead of its Silverlens New York run from Jan. 16 to March 1. Mr. Orara’s collection consists of 100 lifelike ballpoint pen drawings of everyday objects. The consecutively made renderings are paired and split from their counterparts across two continents.
Sunset Boulevard set for Asia premiere in Singapore
THE new production of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Tony Award-winning Sunset Boulevard, starring Sarah Brightman, will be making its Asia Premiere in Singapore on Feb. 7. It will run until Feb. 23 at the Sands Theatre of Marina Bay Sands. Ms. Brightman as Norma Desmond will take the stage alongside Draxl as Joe Gillis, Robert Grubb as Max Von Mayerling, Ashleigh Rubenach as Betty Schaefer, Jarrod Draper as Artie Green, and Paul Hanlon as Cecil B. DeMille. The production is presented by Base Entertainment Asia.
MM Yu, Julieanne Ng exhibits at MO_Space
FROM Jan. 11 to Feb. 9, two artists will be presenting their works at the MO_Space Gallery in Bonifacio Global City, Taguig. At the Main Gallery is MM Yu’s either/or, highlighting the artist’s unique approach to photography and image-archiving through the concept of recollection in personal snapshots. At Gallery 2, Julieanne Ng’s A Glimpse Across the Fleeting Light invites viewers to the periphery of the artist’s incense series, with a focus on the candle as a tool, which she transforms into a printmaking matrix. Both exhibits will run until Feb. 9.
NCCA spotlightspiñaweaving in its annual calendar
THE heritage practice of weaving the piña fabric of Aklan is featured in the 2025 wall calendar of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA). The handloom weaving of the pineapple textile, estimated to be about two centuries old and practiced by the Aklanon people in northwestern Panay Island in the Visayas, was recently inscribed in the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The calendar features the different steps and stages in making the textile, through photographs taken by Gerald Marcfred Dillera and texts by cultural researcher Roel Hoang Manipon.
Silverlens brings Pacita Abad, Pio Abad to S.E.A. Focus
FOR its first art fair of 2025, Silverlens Gallery will return to S.E.A. Focus with a presentation of Filipino diaspora artists Pacita Abad and her nephew Pio Abad. It will mark the first time they are presented together in Singapore, with the elder Abad represented by prints produced during her three-month residency in Singapore in 2003 and the younger Abad contributing his ink-on-paper drawings that examine personal and political entanglements. The show runs from Jan. 18 to 26 at Tanjong Pagar Distripark, Singapore.
The Lord of the Rings – A Music Tale in Singapore
ASIAN FANS of J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic fantasy saga will soon have the chance to see the critically acclaimed The Lord of the Rings — A Musical Tale which will make its Asia premiere in Singapore starting Aug. 12 at the Sands Theatre of Marina Bay Sands. Tickets will go on sale starting Jan. 10.
