Philippine Theatre in English

Abstract

in 1901. The United States, through the American Insular Government, introduced into its new territory American ideals and the American way of life through a nationwide educational system, then later through the print and broadcast media and via film. Over the course of four decades, and beyond the end of American rule in 1946, American forms of art, plus their English and European counterparts, were introduced through the language and media and became accepted, assimilated, and used as models. The American influence on Philippine theatre is found in what was then called bodabil, in the Western plays staged in the original English or in English translation, and in the original plays written by Filipinos in English and in Philippine languages and produced by contemporary theatre groups, using such styles as theatre of the absurd, epic theatre, expressionism, and various forms of realism. The American tradition entered the Philippine stage principally through the educational system established in 1901, and since then has continued, developing with fresh inputs, merging with or transforming traditional theatre, siring translations and adaptations, sparking the emergence of new playwrights, new trends, new theatres, and on the whole contributing ideas and energy to Philippine theatre. The colonizers who arrived to establish the American