Tag-ani means “harvest season.”

The Tag-ani Performing Arts Society performs in the bounty of the people.

To Tag-ani, every performance is a harvesting of works that inspire, animate and uplift artist and audience.

Founding

In 2003, the Concerned Artists of the Philippines produced “Ang Babae sa Ating Panahon,” directed by Marili Fernandez-Ilagan and sponsored by the Cultural Center of the Philippines and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

The production motivated the artists who were involved in it to band together into a theater group. Eventually named Tag-ani, it has since chalked up a number of performances and training workshops in various events and communities.

Perspective on Culture, Society, and Artists’ Rights

Tag-ani affirms that even as culture is bound by society, it must serve to reform and transform society. That is the only way for theater and the arts to fully serve the interest of the people. Beyond entertainment, theater and the arts must enlighten and rouse people to action.

Tag-ani is committed to a nationalist and people-oriented art; only such an art will bring the best in the Filipino artist and worker in the field of culture. Indeed, Filipino arts can only be world class if they first become a class for the Filipino people.

Tag-ani commits itself to safeguarding the welfare, and protecting and enriching the rights, of the Filipino artists and cultural workers.

At the heart of Tag-ani’s commitment is its adherence to the freedom of expression and promotion of artists’ labor rights and economic provision.

Tag-ani Envisions:

• a society where the human potential, especially of the common folk, is allowed to grow to the fullest;
  a citizenry actually empowered to participate in governance and decision-making;
• a nation of socially-conscious and progressive-minded citizens enjoying the fruits of their labors; sharing in the patrimony of the nation; basking in freedom, justice, peace and democracy;
• a sovereign government composed principally of the representatives of the productive sectors who actually work to create the wealth of the nation and who render services to the people; and whose purpose is national progress, not personal aggrandizement;
• and a nation of artists creating works that enlighten where there is darkness, uplift where the spirit breaks down, and impel collective action when people need to act.

Tag-ani Moves:

• to create an eminent organization of performing artists — secure in the practice of their art — who are committed to serve the people by promoting critical thinking and values for long-ranging social change;
• to become a haven for a national aesthetics where the Filipino heritage and its various cultural traditions are protected and kept dynamic;
• to build and propagate a repertoire that is distinguished for its artistry and is responsive to the times;
• and to promote international solidarity through exchanges, interactions and cooperative projects among the people’s artists of the world.

Services

• theater performances
• commissioned productions
• social theme events management
• fundamentals of theater training — short courses
• modular theater workshops [acting, directing, stagecraft (stage management, lights and sound, design), production management, playwriting] – short courses and extended
• indigenous dance workshops
• performance applied visual arts workshops

International Affiliation

Foundation for Intercultural Performing Arts, co-chaired by Dr. Julie Holledge of the Drama Department, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia; and Bonifacio P. Ilagan of Tag-ani, Philippines

Address and Phones

57 Espejo Avenue, Don Jose Heights, Commonwealth, Quezon City, Metro Manila; (Landline) 930-5236; (Mobile) 09175468081 and 09228010792; marilif@yahoo.com

Filipino Translation

Tag-ani, ibig sabihin ay “panahon ng pag-aani.”

Sa mayamang ani ng taumbayan nagtatanghal ang Tag-ani Performing Arts Society.

Para sa Tag-ani, bawat pagtatanghal ng mga likhang-sining ay pag-aani ng inspirasyon, lakas at kalinawan para sa artista at manonood.

Pagtatatag

Noong 2003, itinanghal ng Concerned Artists of the Philippines ang “Ang Babae sa Ating Panahon,” sa direksyon ni Marili Fernandez-Ilagan at sa pagtataguyod ng Cultural Center of the Philippines at National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

Pagkatapos, nahikayat ang mga artistang kalahok sa produksyon para magsama-sama sa isang grupong pantanghalan. Sa pangalang Tag-ani, marami na itong nagawang pagtatanghal at palihang pagsasanay sa iba’t ibang okasyon at komunidad.

Pananaw sa Kultura, Lipunan, at mga Karapatan ng Artista

Para sa Tag-ani, kung ang kultura man ay nakapaloob sa lipunan, dapat itong magsilbi upang isaayos at baguhin ang lipunan. Iyon lamang ang paraan para ang dulaan at ang mga sining ay ganap na makapagsilbi sa interes ng taumbayan. Lagpas pa sa pang-aaliw, ang dulaan at mga sining ay dapat magbukas ng pag-iisip at magpakilos sa taumbayan.

Ang Tag-ani ay nasa panig ng makabayan at makamasang sining; tanging ang ganitong sining lamang ang makapagluluwal ng pinakamagaling sa artistang Pilipino at manggagawang pangkultura. Kung hindi muna sila magiging pampilipino sa katuturan, hindi sila magiging pandaigdig sa kahusayan.

Naninindigan ang Tag-ani sa pangangalaga at pagpapayaman ng kapakanan at mga karapatan ng mga artistang Pilipino at manggagawang pangkultura.

Nasa sinapupunan ng ganitong komitment ng Tag-ani ang pagtataguyod ng kalayaan sa pamamahayag at pagsusulong ng mga karapatan sa paggawa at kabuhayan ng mga artista.

Tinatanaw ng Tag-ani ang:

• isang lipunang bukas upang ang potensyal sa pagkatao, laluna ng karaniwang masa, ay ganap na yumabong;
• isang pamayanang tunay na maykapangyarihan sa pamamahala at pagpapasya;
• isang bansa ng mga mamamayang mulat at progresibo; at nagtatamasa ng bunga ng kanilang paggawa; nakikinabang sa patrimonya ng bansa; maligaya sa kalayaan, katarungan, kapayapaan at demokrasya;
• isang soberanong pamahalaan na binubuo sa kalakhan ng kinatawan ng mga produktibong sektor na siyang tunay na lumilikha ng yaman ng bansa at nagseserbisyo sa bayan; na ang layunin ay pambansang kaunlaran, hindi personal na katusuhan; at
• isang bansa ng mga artistang lumilikha ng sining na nagbibigay-liwanag kung saan madilim, nagpapalakas kung may panghihina, at nang-uudyok ng sama-samang pagkilos kung ang bayan ay kailangang kumilos.

Kumikilos ang Tag-ani para:

• makabuo ng isang natatanging organisasyon ng mga artista sa pagtatanghal – tiyak sa kanilang paggawa, na naninindigang maglilingkod sa sambayanan sa pamamagitan ng pagtataguyod ng kritikal na pag-iisip at kaugalian ukol sa pangmatagalang pagbabagong panlipunan;
• maging lunduyan ng isang pambansang estetika, na nangangalaga at nagpapaunlad sa kalinangang Pilipino at sa iba’t iba nitong tradisyong pangkultura;
• makabuo at makapagpalaganap ng isang repertoryang mamumukod sa kasiningan at tumutugon sa panahon; at
• magtaguyod ng pandaigdigang pagkakaisa sa pamamagitan ng bahaginan, interaksyon at mga proyektong kooperatiba sa hanay ng mga artistang bayan ng daigdig.

Mga Serbisyo

• mga pagtatanghal panteatro
• mga pasadyang produksyon (commissioned productions)
• social theme events management
• treyning para sa mga batayang kaalaman sa teatro – maiigsing kurso
• iba’t ibang palihan-treyning sa teatro [pag-arte, directing, stagecraft (stage management, ilaw at tunog, disenyo), production management, pagsusulat ng dula] – maiigsi at mahahabang kurso
• pagsasanay para sa mga katutubong sayaw
• treyning para sa sining biswal ukol sa pagtatanghal

Kaugnayang Internasyonal

Foundation for Intercultural Performing Arts, pinangunguluhan nina Dr. Julie Holledge, Drama Department, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia; at Bonifacio P. Ilagan, Tag-ani, Pilipinas

Opisina, Telepono at Email

57 Espejo Avenue, Don Jose Heights, Commonwealth, Quezon City, Metro Manila; (Landline) 930-5236; (Mobile) 09175468081 and 09228010792; marilif@yahoo.com

Ilagan persisted with the kind of plays that did not exactly endear him with the military. In fact, not only did he do away with being nameless, he also did away with noms de plume, using only these because it was required in the contests that he joined, but eventually acknowledging the works as his. And the plays, though liturgical and historical, were actually thinly veiled assaults against martial rule.

Perhaps what somehow provided a shield to Ilagan was the recognition that his series of political plays acquired: “Pagsambang Bayan” (1977) won in the Palihang Aurelio V. Tolentino; “Katipunan,” retitled “Sigaw ng Bayan” (1978) won first prize in the Palanca; and “Langit Ma’y Magdilim” (1979) was first prize in the Cultural Center of the Philippines contest. Even as his subsequent plays continued to garner awards, what was more fulfilling to Ilagan was that the plays were actually produced and came out alive onstage to be experienced by audiences.

As writer for television and the movies, his scripts have won in the Catholic Mass Media Awards (Best Television Historical Drama, “Bisperas ng Kasaysayan,” 1985; “Heneral Antonio Luna: Pag-iimbot o Paglilingkod?,” 1984; “Duyan ng Magiting,” 1983; and “Panagpo sa Pasong Tirad,” 1982); the Philippine Movie Press Club Star Awards (“Bisperas ng Kasaysayan,” 1995) the Film Academy of the Philippines (“The Flor Contemplacion Story,” co-written with Ricky Lee, 1996); and the Gawad CCP (“Bisperas ng Kasaysayan,” 1995).

Two of his plays are featured in the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art as major works in Philippine theater.

During the commemoration of the centennial of Philippine independence, Ilagan was
conferred the CCP Centennial Honors for the Arts, one among the 100 awardees chosen from among “the most outstanding Filipino artists and cultural advocates in the last 100 years for their contribution to the development of the nation through cultural work and the arts.” Ilagan was UP Creative Writing Center National Fellow for Drama in 1989.

In the just concluded sarswela writing tilt of the College of Arts and Letters of the UP, Ilagan, together with music composer Lucien Letaba, was given a Special Prize for “Ang Señorita at ang Hukbo,” the only entry that seemed to come up to some standard set by the jurors who decided that no one deserved the grand prize.

Ilagan awaits the judgment of the audience when his latest play is finally mounted.

Marili Fernandez-Ilagan is one such, compelled to become one under the circumstances of the theater of poverty in Mindanao where she honed her artistry, theater organizing and management skills in the island’s vibrant people’s cultural movement in the 1980s.
She was active in Kulturang Atin Foundation, Mindanao Community Theater Network, and the Davao Popular Aesthetics and Traditions. She is among the pioneers of the Kaliwat Theater Collective, performing in all its major productions until she migrated to Manila in 1986.

Aside from doing the whole gamut of theater work both in the rural and urban settings in her home front and overseas, she has conducted multicultural workshops participated in by Japanese communards and students; artists, migrant Filipinos and drama students in Australia and England; gypsies in Ireland, development workers in Cambodia; artists of the International Theater Institute-Unesco and the Women Playwrights International (WPI); and of course, cultural activists in the Philippines. She also had a stint as resident artist with the Drama Department of Flinders University, Australia in 1995.

Fernandez-Ilagan’s plays on women’s issues and the indigenous peoples have been performed extensively. A series of monologues about women which she directed in 2007-2008 had been presented in the Philippines and Indonesia. Last May, she did the music and stage design for “Sa Ngalan ng mga Naghihirap” mounted by the community group Teatro Oasis in Payatas, Quezon City.

Some of her feminist essays on theater and the indigenous women were published in various journals, including those of the Cultural Center of the Philippines.

In television, Fernandez-Ilagan was in the children-oriented shows “Tara Let’s” & “Jr Watch” as cameraperson and researcher, the public service “Nora Mismo” as researcher, and the histrorical pageant “Duyan ng Magiting” as dancer and researcher for RPN-9; “Children Living in Asia” and “Balik Kalipay” as researcher for NHK; and “Malaala Mo Kaya” as production consultant for ABS-CBN.

She is currently dramaturge and project director of “Empowering Indigenous Women to Write their Own Plays” in the Saving the Babaylan Program of WPI-Philippines in Mindanao. This December, she did “Uyayi sa Digmaan,” a co-production of CCP and Tag-ani Performing Arts Society, Inc. as a choreographer-director.

Fernandez-Ilagan is the founding chair and artistic director of Tag-ani Performing Arts Society, Inc; and also a board member of Bagong Lumad Foundation, Kodao Productions, and WPI-Philippines. She is taking up her master’s studies in theater arts at the UP Diliman.