Papet Pasyon

I've learned so much from puppeteering with Teatrong Mulat ng Pilipinas: there are the numerous lessons on puppetry and stageplay, there's the giganormous one on teamwork and dedication, and finally there's the sincere belief of being able to open the eyes of the youth to the beauties of our own culture (and the many remarkable abilities of motivated people!), which is actually more like a virus you catch from Amelia Lapena-Bonifacio and her daughter Ami Bonifacio-Ramolete.

L-R: Felipe, Tomas, Juan, Jesus, Pedro, and Judas.

Right now, we're all busy with rehearsing for our annual Palm Sunday show, Papet Pasyon, which is a retelling of the passion and life of Christ in the form of puppetry. The photo above shows what is left of the original 12 apostles. The show has been running since 1984, and through the years the puppets have gotten worn out and replaced, and some got removed from the scenes, because as a trained-volunteer-dependent organization, we can't just turn up puppeteers in mid-air.

The good news is, we're more than ever this year, as some old puppeteers who have "graduated" have made a reappearance. We're working towards doing a complete Pasyon next year, and hopefully it pushes through. How nice it would be to begin the story from Creation!


Papet Pasyon and Mulat are featured this March in Baby Magazine, the first parenting magazine in the Philippines! I got these photos from the images we took for the magazine; Ditas Bermudez was behind the lens. Catch Papet Pasyon on Palm Sunday, March 16, at 3pm and 5:30pm, in Tita Amel's Children's Theater (TACT), 64 Mapagkawanggawa St., Teacher's Village East, Diliman, Quezon City.