Mary Ann R.

Lasquite
History 1
1:30-3pm

Salvador Bernal
(Reaction Paper)
Salvador Bernal was awarded as a National Artist in the field of
theater design because he was the first to develop the designs of stage as
a profession and to elevate it to the level of an art form.
Many Universities does Salvador Bernal or Badong have
attended and graduated with awards as a poet and philosopher. He also,
learned to read a text and imagine its theme as a visual conceit. For how
many years in studying and practicing courses in art and craft of theater
design, he now decided to be a full time into a life of design, which until
then was largely unchartered territory. In the beginning it was difficult to
earn a living from design since the production budgets of most
performing arts companies were often just barely sufficient and
sometimes even less than adequate. But, with his discipline,
resourcefulness, and industry, Badong exceptional talent began to be
noticed. Not, knowing, after a decade, he was acclaimed as the foremost
theater designer of the country and directors were living up for his
services.
After four decades of intense work, he had designed more than
300 productions in ballet, opera, theater, and film, he also mentored two
generations of production designers, trained a pool of artisans
(carpenters, metal workers, painters), initiated and supervised the
building of the countrys first production Design Center at CCP and
founded the first and only professional organization of production
designers in the Philippines. For all of this, Badong has earned the Title
Father of Theater Design in the Philippines.