A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino Ends with a Tertulia Cast Party
After the last show of A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino on 08 February 2009, the cast and crew trouped to Tita Baby Barredo’s house, where she prepared a Filipino theme party to celebrate one of the most momentous plays in the history of Repertory Philippines — a classic that’s dedicated to three National artists, namely, Nick Joaquin, Lamberto Avellana and Daisy Hontiveros – Avellana.
Tita Baby’s cook, Carmen, is famous among Rep actors for her skillful ways in the kitchen. With stage manager and actor Dingdong Rosales singing her praises, fellow actors Astarte Abraham, Jejie Esguerra, and I squeezed into Jenny Jamora’s car to proceed to Tita Baby’s house.
The wooden gate framed by crawling vines had us instinctively saying a line from the play, “Ave Maria Purisima!”
To my delight, Tita Baby’s house echoed the Marasigan house, with a patio adorned by a gurgling fountain under the starry sky, while the interiors allowed for easy conversation with its groupings of furniture.
The night became a tertulia with people mingling and enjoying each other’s company while sipping from glasses of wine, before eagerly helping themselves to the buffet of kare-kare, liempo, bangus, and pancit. For dessert, there was bibingka, ensaymada, cassava cake and sapin-sapin.
Tita Baby Barredo held court at the head of the table, regaling everyone with her stories. She did not partake of the feast, for she was enjoying herself too much just watching people eating and having fun.
As I sincerely told Tita Baby before we left, and I shall repeat it here, “Thank you for the beautiful party, the beautiful food, the beautiful surroundings… It was a perfect ending.”
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