The Abatan River Theater Project or Teatro Abatan concept-design has been chosen to represent the country to the world’s most prestigious theater and drama design competition in Prague next Month. The Prague Quadriennale (PQ) which attracts the best entries from across the globe is also the world’s top scenography exhibition. National Curator and Scenography Chairman Rolando de Leon of the International Theater Institute (ITI) UNESCO Dream Center – Philippines broke the news to Gov. Edgar Chatto who, on Thursday, convened the Abatan River Development Management Council (ARDMC) at the Governor’s Mansion. Nationally-acclaimed Boholano artist Lutgardo Labad and theater architect German Janus Guidaben presented in the meeting the teatro concept and design, which will have their formal performing launching on the opening night of the unprecedented Bohol Tourism Summit on June 9.

Top cabinet men related to tourism, investment and culture and the arts will grace the summit. Labad, a Gawad Urian awardee, was behind the impressive performances of Teatro Abatan talents, also known as the Abatan collectives, in last year’s founding anniversary of the province. He heads the Philippine Committee of the Prague Quadreinnale 2011 and has also been coordinating with ITI Dream Center – Philippines President Cecile Alvarez. De Leon said the Prague Quadriennale, a global event in every four years, will not only promote to the world the Abatan theater program and its community life tour but also the myriad cultural tourism assets of Bohol. Prague is a city and the capital of the Czech Republic in Europe.  The affair will once again put Prague---and Bohol as a consequence---at the center of the world of performances in 11 days from June 16 to 26.

The project concept and design received impressive responses from the Abatan council chaired by Cortes Mayor Apolinaria Hangad-Balistoy.  The leading council members include Mayors Roberto Salinas of Catigbian, Dominisio Chatto of Balilihan, Jose Mario Pahang of Antequera, and Leoncio Evasco, Jr. of Maribojoc. Emilia Roslinda of the PROCESS Foundation is the head of the council’s Project Management Office. Provincial Tourism Council chair lawyer Lucas Nunag, who is also a national tourism policy body director, hit the nail on its head in describing the project as a “crying need” of Bohol tourism. The Teatro Abatan has been so conceived and designed to show how the inland water body of the Boholano life, culture, heritage and nature can amaze day and night spectators. Chatto yearns for it to be one and only in the Philippines while it rivals, if not surpasses, its long matured likes in Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Thailand.

Labad is set for fellowship study and tour in Indonesia, Thailand and Japan where he can gain more ideas enriching his own concept of Teatro Abatan. The Philippines may have 10 select entries for exhibit in the Philippine Pavillion in the Prague expo, but the Abatan project is already assured of being one of the main entries to the competition. Guidaben will build the Teatro Abatan scale model for the competition, a venue for yet another Bohol eco-cultural tourism milestone after the province was declared last year as the ASEAN Cultural Capital for July 2010, the birth of the Chatto governorship. Also known as the Prague Quadrennial of Performance Design and Space, the competition gathers the world’s best contemporary works in various performance design disciplines and genres. These include costume, stage, lighting, sound design, and theater architectures for dance, opera, drama, site-specific, multi-media performances, and the performance art.

This 12th Prague edition has forseen a record country participation to the traditional competitive exhibition of performance design and architecture. Its unique outdoor performing exhibition dubbed the “Intersection: Intimacy & Spectacle” will present 30 globally-renowned artists, including Romeo Castellucci, Anna Viebrock, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Nathaniel Mellors and Josef Nadj. While it remains confined in the drawing, the Teatro Abatan can---for now and at most---limitedly boast of its distinct cultural collectives comprised by talents from the five towns bordering the river. The dreamt theater will float on the river, specifically in the area of cruise pavillion in Cortes, while the spectators are seated in the docking area. The Teatro Abatan will be the official performance home of the cultural collectives that show for the river community life tour. The Abatan council approved the counterpart shares of member LGUs at P500,000 each, the provincial government at P500,000, and Rep. Rene Relampagos at P1 million in support to the life tour’s operationalization. (Ven rebo Arigo)