Theater and Travel

When I was teaching a course on tourism planning to college students, I often post a question that goes like this: 'is there any doubt in your mind, that given enough investments in facilities and productions, the Philippines could actually become the MAJOR Asian destination for theater style entertainment?' The usual answer was few moments of deafening silence. Then one, two, three heads would slowly nod until the whole class would cheer, "NONE! Yes, we can!"

Yep, the Filipino has proven itself to be a natural performer. Be it on stage, movies, concerts, and yes, the karaoke (ey, let's make it more modern - the videoke) machine, entertaining is an intrinsic part of the culture of this nation.

I just watched the opening night of Cinderella starred by Lea Salonga and boy, it was like watching a real Broadway play (although 95% of the actors were westerners, but hey, Its Lea who's carrying the show).

Its not an anecdote anymore that when someone hears a good band in cruises and in bars in many Asian countries, there's a good chance that it would be a Filipino band.

Even the Disney in Hong Kong is filled with Filipino performers.

Now if only the industry here gets serious and actually comes up front to match the talents with facilities. Try to imagine a zone filled with theaters and great talents. That could really be something else. Aaahhhh... a little dream here.

Here's a sampler of a western musical done by Filipino talents and starred by Christian Bautista who has followers in a number of Asian countries. I'm crossing my fingers that it would open the eyes of our industry to the possibility of opening up the country to theater tourism (how does that sound?)