A chain-smoking, alcoholic, gambler of a tree demon called Kapre was the titular character of the 7th Annual Pilipino Cultural Night (PCN) play “Kapre & Me” on May 5, presented by the Kababayan Program and the English 104 class.
The Kababayan Program is a transfer and support program for students at Skyline College for the purpose of increasing English skills, culture, and understanding to succeed in their studies. While the program aims to assist Filipino students, it is open to everyone.
Professor Liza Erpelo’s English 104 class is a production class, in which students collaborate to write and produce a PCN that celebrates Filipino culture.
“This production is entirely student run, written, and directed,” said Erpelo.
Following last year’s lack of PCN due to budget cuts, this semester’s show proved to have quite the turnout.
Written by English student Danica Gutierrez and her writing team, “Kapre & Me” is a two act play that focused on squabbling siblings Jamie and her older brother, or kuya, Alex. Once their grandmother, Lola Reyna, gives them a magical doll called Kapre, they are thrust into a mythical world of adventure.
Led by the tree demon, Jamie and Alex must befriend fairies, battle begrudged demons, and during the process, find out what siblinghood really means.
The challenge for this year’s PCN lay in the fact that what would normally be an year long production was crammed into the space of one semester.
“We doubled up on everything, the dancing, the prop-making, and set design,” said Jacob Tolentino, who played the role of Alex.
Despite the time crunch, everyone involved with the production worked hard to put together a stand out show.
“This is a big accomplishment for us, a big milestone,” said Augie Martinez, who played Kapre.
Originally, I was just supposed to be stage managing the show, then they asked me to audition for Kapre,” said Martinez. “After that, I took the role of two jobs both acting and stage managing.”
The night concluded with an honors ceremony for Kababayan program graduates with a special shout out to departing Fulbright scholar Basil Sali.
Sali has studied for the past year at Skyline through the Fulbright teaching program as a cultural exchange scholar from the Philippines. He will be returning in June.
“I feel so blessed I had an opportunity to study at Skyline; the Filipino community is so well-established here,” said Sali.
PCN will be back in full force during the Fall of 2013.
