'Life after live': PETA Theater and the drama of going digital

Magpakita lang kayo ng name, akala nyo na toto na to. Mismo na pakita kaya ng name, akala mo toto nayon. To ming ikang asas, salami ni Sir Heckler better. A theater and remission last 10-20 minutes, depending on a show is run time. During the break, you stretch your legs, take a quick trip to the bathroom, scan the play bill, maybe discuss the first act with whoever you're with. And then you go back to your seat, wait for the lights to dim and for the curtains to go up, and for the show to go on. The show, the live show at least, has been on pause at the Philippine Educational Theater Association, or BETA, for more than a year. In what might be the longest theater and remission ever? It's obviously very challenging to be able to continue our work in spite of the pandemic, you know. I mean, because the social distancing, that's really the antithesis of what we do. I mean, theater is a public performance. People are coming together, so it's really hard here. That's BETA's artistic director, Maribel A. Ligarda. And the other voice you'll hear in this episode belongs to Lalo E. T. Arsete, BETA's head of public relations. In this episode of Beside, Ms. Ligarda and Ms. Arsete speak with Business Rule reporter Michelle Salimon about BETA theater's transition to the digital platform and online theater content co-existing with live theater after the pandemic, whenever that is. How would you reflect on how it has been for BETA for the last year, 2020? We've tried to survive it by migrating digitally. We were doing workshops for free, and then later on, we started doing gate ed, so small groups. And then we were also doing our storytelling Sundays, which were students storytelling program. And then we were also actually producing digital material for other groups like UNFTA, et cetera, and stuff like that. And then most recently, we had a festival of our work with our communities, as well as new works from BETA Kalinangan and Sam, which we put online also. So that was a three months festival. So it's basically the main thing is we've been really trying to understand the digital platform and migrate there and bring the work that we can online. Did the team actually already think of going digital, even before everything happened last year or around the same time this year? Before the face of BETA online is pretty much digital marketing. We really use the space for our products and services. But again, because of the pandemic, we are really looking at it in a different way. How can we really use this to expand maybe our workshops? That has been a conversation before. How can we do remote workshops with our community partners all over the Philippines, or maybe even do collaborations with partners abroad? Again, it has been in the pipeline, but because we were really so busy doing all things BETA, we didn't really think of it as something that's urgent until this time. But as I've said, because of this pandemic, we were really forced to get into it. But now if you look at our pages, it's really beyond the usual marketing space. It's really now a space where in people can learn how you go to our YouTube channel. You can watch storytelling Sundays and that for families and for young people. And you can also watch some of our shows for free. So that's something interesting as well. How did the actors and also your teachers react to you transitioning online? Well, of course, initially, you know, I think the BETA artist teacher is very resilient. So we needed to go online and we did. And I remember that under a month after the lockdown that we started already, our LGC, you know, let's get creative workshops online. So again, you know, artists, of course, at the back of their minds and in their hearts, they're always like, we miss live, right? But they are slowly transitioning into this new platform. And though there's a level of insecurity, how do we do this? I think there's also this openness and the kind of interest to also study how this platform works now in terms of teaching. But I think what they value is the fact that we're also able to still reach our participants who want to learn. And at the same time we're also evolving and adjusting our curriculum and pedagogies to this new form, right? And there's only something that we can discover there. And I think that's what interests them. It also helped that we had the space. The theater center allowed us to experiment. Of course, originally during the start of quarantine, because it was really so strict, people were doing it at home. And then for a time, we were starting to relax. We were going to the theater center. So we were able to explore doing workshops with, let's say, a two-cam setup. And we were actually able to offer new workshop courses. Let's say we have now acting for screen that Peta wouldn't have offered before or writing for performance. The pandemic is making us realize a lot of possibilities as well. I mean, there's the business side. Of course, the performance is really not able to reach as much compared as to having a theater season. But the experience also allows us to experiment. It has its challenges, even organizationally. Meetings could be long, even if it's just online. It's also more tiring because you are at home. And everyone has their own context at home. So there's that. But we really try to adjust as much as possible. And creativity is at the core of our business. So we really have to be creative in terms of how we will deal with it. So I think we've done that so far. Where do you get the feedback from audiences on what type of workshop to offer next? Well, I guess that's the power of social media. There's really a lot of ways you can do it. I mean, you can do it up front by doing like a small survey or a poll. Let's say Twitter poll. We did that actually. We did the same for Instagram where we asked the top three. Choices in terms of shows to stream. So that's the beauty of social media. You're able to aggregate data. You're able to connect with your audiences. Or if you really want to do, you can even hold an FGD with the selective of people from all over the Philippines or all over the globe. So that really allows us to be in the pulse of where audiences are, what they want, what they need. But of course, it is challenging now when it comes to schools as you know pet. As a educational institution, we really deal with the schools a lot of times because we have a lot of materials that are complimenting classroom learning. It's now harder to deal with teachers and deal with the schools specifically because again, the online space compared to before that. You know, we can go to the school and discuss whatever work we have. But teachers as it is, they have, you know, the burden of all this online activities. That remains to be a challenge, but at least for the general public or for our audiences. I think the digital space allows us to be in direct communication with them. And that is probably the reason also why this new class is surfaced because I remember when we did the survey before one of the classes that really surfaced is script writing. We had writing for performance workshop or acting for screen because this is a new space. This will screen this box is an entirely different experience. So that was again a requested workshop. And then we evolved the curriculum based on those requests. So it's also interesting how that relationship now informs our programming as a company. Earlier in the lockdown last year. And we also introduced their YouTube channel and that's where you stream your shows initially for free. And then now you have evolved to doing the weekend shows by being for tickets online and watching online. Something similar to the workshops earlier. How did you decide which shows to actually put online for audiences? Actually, the choice of what we're putting out is not necessarily audience based right now. Also what the state of our documented play is that's one of the things that's driving that more. One of the things that surfaced during our, you know, back and forth with surveys online is that our most recent production under my skin surfaced as one of the requested materials. So actually we produce something that fairly recently you're going to see it soon, but we produce that during the quarantine of course following all the protocols. But we shot the play as part of trying to listen to our audiences and what they need. But primarily Miss Maribel's quite summed it up. It's really a matter of being practical at the moment really looking at our archives and what is broadcast quality. There's still that clamor from our audience and we really try to note what is the most requested materials and see if some things can be restored or some things can still be produced maybe in the future like the case of under my skin. How do you plan to eventually move into digitizing the archive of place and material? It's been a long time plan to digitize all the work and organize it. I mean, we used to have a documentation department in Patas Olendays. I guess it takes resources to do that. So right now I think we're talking too. someone who runs a library somewhere and hopefully make a partnership with putting our stuff there so they digitize it and then they can also access it in their library and stuff like that. We have always had that plan but I guess there's just always so much to do that gets non-prioritized but now we know that that is not a good thing to do but definitely we will be trying to digitize and certainly after this we will be shooting our shows in a much much better way so that we can use it because really what this has shown us is that there's life after life. You mentioned earlier that you produced and shot something in the theater as new material or are there any friends that you've seen from a broad that you would like to or are studying to adapt to the theater scene in the Philippines or specifically for PETA given the restrictions of the quarantine and health protocols. Generally, what does that mean? To be able to produce now you would have to make really small productions or if you notice that's like one or two actors, there are no audiences or very few. I think that's one of the things right now we can't financially invest in a play because we're not in a position to do that. 50% is not going to bring back our investment and since we've already had one year of really subsidizing because remember we have a staff of people so it's really very difficult for PETA to produce new work that's how we really trying to generate income from our existing work. If we will produce online and new work it would really have to be a small cast the way you see it but nothing big or whatever and especially our space sauce is small. It's not that we haven't thought about it we may produce one that we're going to shoot but we haven't finalized it yet so I guess we're also trying to see where the situation is taking us because remember if let's see the vaccines roll out faster and then hopefully maybe by the last quarter there can be a real audience and not 50% seating at least 70 then my inga in your pochamento but if it keeps on going on like this I guess we'll definitely go towards producing something that will shoot because we can't just go on not doing at least in the performance because in terms of our pedagogical and our school work that's really just that goes on and on goes on every quarter we have a workshop but in terms of the productions if it still goes on like this then definitely we will think of producing a new work for the digital platform. Has the theater already thought of also adjusting the venue with regards to social distancing protocols? We've already adjusted that we've taken out the chairs or all the protocols for social distancing so that part is ready but we cannot have a new show at 50% seating because financially we can't afford that it would never recover the post of producing it but I'd rather let people know that our theater is a black box it's really flexible so now we've been renting it out as a studio we've taken out all the chairs and it actually had shoots there not all that stuff and you can rent it for your virtual performance as a virtual event and that's the way you can also help beta because that would really be great if we can rent out our spaces so if there are groups out there institutions corporations who want to do their virtual stuff you can please get in touch with us that's really a great way to help beta and arts. How do you think things will change once we go back to watching live theater again and with the advent of digitizing material online how do you balance which goes live versus what kind of content goes online? I'll talk about audiences quickly I think it's not a choice of the other I think it's going to be both being in quarantine for a year I think people are yearning for that live experience I don't know if people will immediately you know jump into being inside the pack theater maybe not but slowly and in time I think that that will still have a space in people's lives especially after you know being so isolated for such a long time but having said that of course now that we understand that there's this digital aspect there's really an audience outside of our 450 cedar and that goes beyond just Kesson City goes beyond Metro Manela goes beyond Luzon and that's the beauty of it you know you can be an OFW in Saudi and you can watch a beta play at your own time anywhere you are and the fear missing the Philippines that's something that you can do with your family so maybe that is really something that we can explore you know probably just still getting and inviting and you know enticing our audiences to come back to the theater of course support the theater that's still the goal but be global recognise that there's an audience much bigger than the live audience in our theater hopefully have your artist also suggested any inputs regarding how to stay creative at the time like this during the lockdowns I think what our artists are really trying to do is get involved with the stuff the productions that we're doing or teaching they stay productive and creative because they're still participating in all our activities of training online and the time we've shot performance as like participating storytelling or remember we had five new works in the KEPOP festival that we held as it so they were involved in creating new works in the pandemic so we've actually been very busy and our members have actually already said we're really tired and terrorised already from so much work because part it's also studying and our mode of production also changed I'd like to say that you know if before live like but now when we produce we have to learn about camera about editing about sound and we've had to do that on the job though PEPA has always had that in its program our younger members have not been training exactly like that except for a few whose courses in the university was like that so it's really interesting so you're also learning a new way to produce performance, the new platform, new knowledge is always your knowledge as artists we're always experimenting and welcoming new ideas so it's really a bangdaan of that, it's like wow and damning bangga going but at the same time wow and damning banggaan ma tututunan what have you learned from a year into the pandemic and the quarantine for me honestly it's really just be creative and in being creative you have to be resourceful you have to make ways and find the means to do it because we have said earlier it's really a completely new arena and the training and what's happening is happening together so I think it's really trying to make do it what you have learning along the way trying things out being unafraid to do it I'm doing an experiment learning from it evolve it do it better the next time nobody knew that there's going to be a pandemic and while this is a learning experience for PETA we cannot simply stop and study and you know apply what we have learned when the next pandemic happens we have to do things now so I think the beauty of it is that we have remained connected as a company so the collaboration and the creation while it's different it's happening little boxes but from marketing digital to the artists to the teachers there's always that connection and collaboration and the creative energy is still flowing and I think that's the important part and PETA also as a company has you know really tried to keep us connected just making sure that everybody is okay just checking up on each other and I think that's important as we have said we are in the business of live entertainment and the human connection that's really important so I think the collaboration and the creative energy is always important how would you imagine audience's perception when we go back to the theater again provided all the vaccines are already available I think people are yearning for that experience that energy there's nothing like being inside a packed theater and just feeling the energy of the audience you know even when you watch something that's taped and you hear the audience laughing at the same time crying at the same time or singing to the musical at the same time it's that experience there and I think we all yearn for that and we all want that oh hopefully again we would be trying to say this all along um you and all of this is sorted out we are really positive that the Filipino audiences will go back to the theater because there's really nothing like being in a space with other people and having the same experience so we hope to see everybody again soon and that concludes another episode of BSI once again you heard Lelloi Arsete head of public relations of beta theater and Maribel Aguarda its artistic director speaking with business world reporter Michele Somimun nothing beats a live performance but in the meantime streaming content will have to do one takeaway from this episode is that digital documentation is important in the context of theater that means video there's life after live as Miss Laguarda said and if you visit beta's YouTube channel you can watch a couple of their past productions no need for intermissions this BSI'd episode was recorded remotely on March 5th this is Sam El Marcello thanks for listening