Theater icon and seasoned arts and culture maven SDGs Manila event, Ms. Cecille Guidote Alvarez is most passionate about the SDGs Resiliart Earth Saving Manila Event that runs until Dec. 10.
As its director, Alvarez believes that this pioneering effort harnesses the power of theater arts to bring about change, healing, and reform,.
“At the same time, the experiencing and realizing of results in the lives of people who have been given the opportunity to be guided and honed by masters as participants of this festival get as they encounter the power and wonder that the theater arts bring in the lives of people,” she proclaims.
The theater arts endeavor and festival, which is under UNESCO Patronage, has been rescheduled three times due to COVID-19. Now, it has a go signal and Alvarez is just glad to announce that the Philippines is the host of this significant event on the occasion of the UN Human Rights Week organized by the Earthsavers UNESCO Artist for Peace and the Philippine Center of the International Theater Institute (ITI) Social Change Network.
“This week-long festival actualizes the roadmap identified in the May 2018 Manila Declaration for the Launch of the International Peace and Climate Justice Movement: Not by Force but by Art, under UNESCO Patronage,” Alvarez says in her opening remarks during the press conference held at the Café Ylang Ylang of the Manila Hotel.
“There is an Art Camp that will be held in the Philippine Normal University. Here, Filipino and ASEAN visual artists will collaborate in the creation of murals and the exchange of best visual arts practices will also be realized,” she adds.
Foreign and local dance groups, musicians, singers, poets, and other artists will come together and grace the festival of performances, which is one of the main highlights of the Manila festival, and it is where a harvest of artistic expressions and manifestations on the SDGs will be set to stage.
Discussions to forge a platform of action for actualizing the SDGs focused on people, the planet, peace, and prosperity through partnerships are part of the Forum component of the festival.
Alvarez and Viktor Sebek, Chair of the South-South Cooperation Council and the Co-President of the ITI Colombian Centre look forward to the workshops.
“The workshops serve as a medium of transformation and healing the trauma of popularizing science and income-generating creative industries among the vulnerable communities namely, Prisoners, PWDs, Health Workers, Refugees, and Indigenous Dislocated Families. The main objective of these workshops is for the participants to experience how the discipline and principles of theater, when put into action and heart, becomes a catalyst of positive change and reform," explains the festival director.
There is also an outreach program component wherein cultural immersion and interaction of delegates and performing groups in the Visayas and Mindanao hubs are made possible.
Supporting this reformative artistic and theater undertaking are the Senate of the Republic of the Philippines, with a grant from the Office of the Senate President Vicente “Tito” Sotto III with the participation of relevant Congressional Committees, an endorsement by the DFA Secretary Teodoro Locsin, Jr. and affirmed by the Office of the President; a city ordinance proclamation from the City Government of Manila, Office of Mayor Francisco “Isko” Domagoso, the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA), Nick Lizaso, Chairman ; Philippine Normal University (PNU), Dr. Bert J. Tuga, President, and Manila Hotel, Former Senator Jose D. Lina, President.
The expected outcome of this festival says Mrs. Alvarez: “The Manila Platform of Action that will incorporate the best practices from varied continents and these documents contain examples of how the arts, especially that of the dramatic arts, with main emphasis on the reformative power of the theater to build bridges between countries and areas of conflict and encourage similar exercises across the globe in the future. The strong implementation of SDGs through the powerful medium of art and media. The importance of the arts as part of the public education system at all levels and environmental protection and climate justice through art.”
Alvarez concludes: “There is more to the theater than just a song that makes you smile or cry or a dance that makes you want to groove and move to the beat. Theater is a powerful medium and tool to shake the status quo and bring about the changes and reform that we deserve, and for the betterment of the lives of our generation and those that will come.”
For more information: https//:manilasdgevent.info Secretariat, Manila Hotel (02) 8527-00-11/ (02) 8301-55-00 Extension 1247 Molave.