The Last Supper Scene of the Buhing Kalbaryo street play at the San Nicolas Parish in Barangay Sawang Calero, Cebu City, on Good Friday, April 19, 2019. | Delta Dyrecka Letigio
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Buhing Kalbaryo: the musical.
This is what Project Director, Niel Odchigue, of the Buhing Kalbaryo envisioned for the street play on 2020.
Odchigue said he would propose a new format for the play to the Buhing Kalbaryo Foundation in order to keep the play new and exciting in the coming productions leading to the silver anniversary on 2022.
He said the transition would not be abrupt but would slowly transition the play in the next two years before it turns into a full blown musical by the 25th year anniversary.
“In preparation of the 25th year, we are developing a complete from start to finish musical Buhing Kalbaryo,” said Odchigue after the wrap-up of the 2019 production of the street play on Good Friday, April 19.
Read more: 1,800 people brave the heat to watch Buhing Kalbaryo 2019
Odchigue said they would be looking into bringing the play into the stage of malls and other enclosed auditoriums so other people who had not been living in downtown Cebu might also witness the Buhing Kalbaryo.
“We are looking into partnerships with malls so we can show the Buhing Kalbaryo to more people,” he said.
He also said that while they had envisioned the play to be such, the street play on Good Friday would continue as per tradition and devotion to Jesus Christ.
Read more: How Cebuanos celebrate Good Friday in photos
Meanwhile, the foundation is also planning to put up another street play for December along V. Rama Street to put into play the birth of Jesus Christ.
Odchigue said the play would be called Buhing Pasko and would go along the narrative of the birth of Jesus from the Anunciation in Nazareth to the Nativity in Bethlehem.
“We would really like to try showing the birth of Christ on the streets just like how we portray His death,” said Odchigue.
He said that the play would be in V. Rama to showcase the street’s Christmas tradition of Pasko sa V. Rama as well which had been a yearly tradition of putting up belens along the road during Christmas.
Odchigue said he was hoping that when the Buhing Pasko would come to fruition, the Cebuanos would support it as much as the Buhing Kalbaryo./dbs