Kids Acts Philippines Stages The Emperor’s New Clothes
Kids Acts Philippines, Inc. (KAPI), with Artistic Director Luigi Nacario at the helm, kicks off its 14th Theater Season Children Musical with “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” which runs May 28 and 29, at St. Scholastica’s College, Malate, Manila.
Under the music direction of Eugene Belbis, the musical plays an outstanding composition, along with simplified dialogues, to be sung by young professional actors and workshop students.
Synopsis
Adapted from the classic tale of Hans Christian Andersen, the story follows an emperor who’s said to be found more often in his wardrobe than in council. He’s overly fond of new clothes as though he doesn’t care about his people. This obsession would unknowingly make him fall into the trap of two tricksters, pretending to be weavers of a magical cloth which is invisible to anyone who’s incapable of doing his job. Therefore, nobody in the kingdom had the courage to admit that neither cape nor pants was made. In the precession, everyone uttered untrue praises until an innocent boy shouted the truth.
The Works of Luigi Nacario
Following successful productions of Beauty and the Beast, Alice in Wonderland and Romeo and Juliet, Luigi Nacario pens another piece of theater story that would make the audience see an empowering look at his contributions to the Philippine’s theater community. Luigi started his theater career when he joined the Cultural Center of the Philippines’ Tanghalang Pilipino productions. He founded Kids Acts Philippines as a theater group that encourages children and young adults to appreciate theater as affective venue for character building. He had written the scripts and lyrics and directed the musical plays of KAPI for 14 years now and these stories are “The Wizard of Oz”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Hansel and Gretel” (won the Best Production for Children of ALIW Awards 2013), “Pinocchio”, “Peter Pan” (nominated as the Best Filipino Musical by Broadway World Philippines 2012), “Jack and the Beanstalk” (nominated as the best production for children by ALIW Awards 2012) and “Mulan” (nominated as the best production for children by ALIW Awards 2014), “Aladdin” (nominated as the best production for children by ALIW Awards 2015), and “Beauty and the Beast” (nominated as the best production for children by ALIW Awards 2015). Eugene Belbis, composer and musical director. Grew up in a very musical environment, at an early age he started studying and playing piano and guitar. His original works for stage includes Kids Acts Philippines’ musical production of the “Wizard of Oz”, “Alice in Wonderland”, “Romeo and Juliet”, “The Little Mermaid”, “Peter Pan” (nominated as the Best Filipino Musical by Broadway World Philippines 2012), “Hansel and Gretel” (won the Best Production for Children of ALIW Awards 2013), “Pinocchio”, “Jack and the Beanstalk” (nominated as the Best Production for Children of ALIW Awards 2012) and “Mulan” (nominated as the Best Production for Children of ALIW Awards 2014), “Aladdin” (nominated as the best production for children by ALIW Awards 2015) and “Beauty and the Beast”. (nominated as the best production for children by ALIW Awards 2016). Eugene won Best Director of the ALIW Awards 2015 for Beauty and the Beast of KAPI.
The CampArt Musical Theatre Workshop
TheCampArt Musical Theatre Workshop incorporates and integrates children’s singing, dancing and acting abilities through intensive training and appropriate application on performing arts. This is one of the best molding grounds to hone talents, to boost confidence, to explore creativity and to develop a relevant notion of observation to different characters and personalities. This guarantees the worth of interaction among children in a very fun and unique way of acting exercises and theater games.
The Musical will be staged with the help of this year’s interns, the theater arts majors from Bulacan State University with the guidance of the production manager, Emmalyn Lorena Doverte, Set design by Joven Estremera, costume design by Luigi Nacario and musical direction by Eugene Belbis.
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For more details about what’s happening in the Manila theater scene, please view our Theater Calendar.
