Philippine Speculative Fiction by Andrew Drilon Read Free Book Online

enemies—some would say hunters—of
humans. Many mythics, in turn, have retreated into their respective homes in favor of their old way of life.
    Though these little details were not lost on Quiroz, he takes a rather unique attitude when it comes to mythics—one that complements that of his rumored inamorato, Bulan.
    “Thanks to Mama’s work, fascinated
na ako sa Tikbalang at iba pang mga hiwaga noong bata pa ako (
I was already fascinated with mythic beings as a kid),” said Quiroz,
who will bring to life Prinsipe Makisig, the first of Noladi’s ten suitors.
“Pero
she never let me speak to her clients.
Hindi ko ma-
pass up
yung
opportunity
na ‘to para maka-
get to know
ng kahit isang Tikbalang.
(I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to get to know even just one Tikbalang).
    “
Isang katutak na
energy drink
at
good night’s sleep
lang ang katapat niyan
(All you need are energy drinks and a good night’s sleep),” was the
24-year-old’s answer to whether or not the production was fatiguing to an inhumane degree.
“Oo, sobrang nakakapagod siya, pero anong trabaho ang hindi ganoon
(It’s
tiring, but what job isn’t)?”
    When asked what it was like working with mythics, Quiroz had this to say,
“Sobrang layo sa
depiction
nila sa mga sinaunang
textbooks
at pamahiin
(They are not
like how textbooks and superstitions describe them to be). Super nice
naman si
Madirawen—
mas may
class
pa nga sa ibang mga babaeng tao na nakilala ko
(Madirawen is
nice, she has more class than some human girls).”
    His comment is not surprising, considering that during Pizza Sushi concerts, some fans have been known to throw panties onstage.
    A cha-cha with insanity
    AS EXPECTED, MANY of Bulan’s colleagues and contemporaries from the local art and theater scenes are vehemently opposed to his project of epic proportions—not least
of them the former members of his production, who were rumored to have been overworked and underpaid. But perhaps the most interesting member of the latter is Bulan’s former best friend and
Head of Production Design, multi-awarded Elysia Bernardino.
    Bernardino, who uses her marvelously knobby, blue-veined hands in grandiose gestures when she speaks, unwittingly staged a mutiny when in her own walk-out, she was followed by many of the
stagehands, sound engineers, makeup artists. Mutineers included National Artist for Theater props designer Simplicio Dimaculangan and his team, and even multi-awarded costume designer, Maricris
Lobelia.
    “
Hesus,
I didn’t mean any of that,” she said in an exclusive interview granted to
The Archipelago Daily
at her private residence Friday. “How the hell
was I supposed to know they were just looking for an excuse to leave?”
    I could not see any of her sala’s four walls: one face was decorated from floor to ceiling with her awards, plaques, and medals; her favorite sketches were tacked up on another. A third
was covered with pictures of her large family, while the last was obsessively plastered with photos of her and Bulan and her finished mechanical inventions from the four productions they
collaborated in for the last 19 years.
    We chatted about many things found on those four walls, including her partnership with Bulan. The saddest of her stories was how she and Bulan grew especially close after her second husband died
from a mugging incident. Bernardino—who will become a grandmother for the first time next month, recounted how, soon after the funeral, she marched into his office in the Sherwood-Fuller
theater in Makati, four months pregnant and demanding she be given work, and he told her to make the first thing that came to her mind.
    “You have to understand, he never throws anything away,
kaya ang daming kalat sa opisina niya
(his office is a mess),” she shared. “In an hour, I assembled a sloppy
handgun from old computer parts. Then he opened his book of epics to the table of contents, closed his eyes, and pointed randomly. Then he