Arts for tourism

DIASPORA

Arts for tourism

By Francis Kenn Cayunda

Whenever I watch a performance abroad, more often than not, I get amazed at the spectacle. I see how much effort was put into preparation: the elaborate production design, the on-point lighting, the well-chosen background music, the organized front of house, the precise direction, and so on. As a fan of performing arts and as a former theater actor, I get chills and have that twinge of jealousy. I want to be in the shoes of those artists.

And then I smirk and think that Filipinos can do better than the performers. We are after all, “a race of artists” according to Mikey Bustos, a Filipino YouTube personality. Then like any Filipino, I would think of Lea Salonga, the Jabbawockeez, and all the part-Filipinos who made it big (Bruno Mars, Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat dolls, Rob Schneider, etc) just to convince myself that we really are a race of performing artists. Then I would also remember seeing Filipino performers in Disneyland Hong Kong or Universal Studios Singapore outclass their non-Filipino counterparts.

But if we are a race of performing artists, then how come art is not such a big thing in our country? No one cares about the theater industry except the thespians, who continue to struggle marketing to schools for their plays to be obligatory for the students. Our hit films still rely on overused cliché love stories: a love triangle where one has to choose between rich or poor, a perfect guy versus the best-friend, a new found lover versus the ex, and... basically that’s it. They just switch the actors and directors so marketing will really be based on personalities. Our singing contests only patronize singers who can reach the high notes of standard songs and sing the same way as how the original singer sang it. And of course, the contestant must have a sob story to win.

The truth is there are great artists out here. Have you watched a play in CCP recently? There are a lot of philosophical and defiant plays being shown but only a minority watch these plays. There are also a good bunch of talented filmmakers who either show their films at private screenings or to Cinemalaya. There are musicians who write great music and refuse to sing Karaoke. The sad thing is that they just don’t sell.

But these artists are a minority. So maybe, we are not a race of artists after all.

Or is it because real artists tend to be snobs? They do not really care about selling their art; they just care about doing it. For a playwright, a director, a filmmaker, or a composer, one just wants to showcase it to the people “who matter” than to the masses who wouldn’t get it. Going mainstream isbeing a sell-out.

So in this case, especially in a third world country, artis for those who can afford to appreciate it. More often than not, those who pursue art are those whose families can still provide them or those who have another career just to keep them alive. These people are not necessarily the most talented but because they are the ones who pursue it, they are the ones who eventually develop their talents. There maybe a few people who don’t fall under this category so I salute them for having the guts to do so.

So it’s still possible that we really are a race of artists but most of us just can’t afford this lifestyle. It’s just sad to think that the next Francisco Baltazar (I know he’s a poet and not a performing artist but his works lead to opportunities for performing artists to act) might be somewhere out there studying nursing because he’s the eldest in the family and he has an ailing mother. Don’t get me wrong, I think this isnoble but it’s just a pity he cannot pursue what he really wants. Or a potential Ely Buendia might be forced to sing “Through the Fire” with the exaggerated hand gestures because this will be the only way he can win the amateur singing contest in Brgy. Maliwanag.

But, it does not have to be this way. Artists do not have to give up their passion so they won’t starve. This strength should be banked on. As what Tourism Industry Secretary Ramon Jimenez Jr. said in hisspeech in the latest Advertising Congress, we cannot rely on traditional forms of promoting our country

Our knack for the performing arts could be used to advance tourism. With it, we could lure in tourists, and even foreign artists to perform in our country. We could be the center of performing arts in Asia! Thiscould be a unique selling point against our highly-developed neighbors in Asia.

We, as a people, should support the performing arts in our country because we have a lot of talented individuals. We should give them a venue to showcase their talents on a daily basis and not just for a one-time-appearance in a TV contest. The industry should be sustainable enough so our artists would not hesitate to continue what they are doing.

If we organize our performing arts industry, give the performing artists enough financial and moral support, and develop more raw talents, we could harp on this strength and use this to promote our country. These should be emphasized in our tourism campaigns.

If we do our marketing right, the tourists will come to our country just to watch the performance of our actors, dancers, singers, magicians, comedians, and the like. Then the industry will have enough funding for the artists not to give up. I’m sure the artists would not really be snobs if there is enough support.

We should use these venues to showcase our culture, not just to foreigners, but to the Filipino people themselves who are actually confused on about what our culture is. There are actually a lot of local directors like Dr. Ricardo Abad who have been modernizing traditional cultural acts because we should realize that culture evolves.

I know this is a long shot but if we do it right, our artists can largely contribute to our tourism and economy.

Kenn Cayunda is an International Business graduate student of Ecole Supérieure des Sciences Commerciales d’Angers (ESSCA), a school based in France. He also spent one semester in Budapest, Hungary from January to June.