Guelan Luarca, Glenn Mas, and Ricky Lee

Guelan Luarca is an award-winning playwright, translator, actor, and director. He recently adapted and directed Lualhati Bautista’s Desaparesidos and Mike de Leon’s Batch 81 for the stage. He was awarded this year the Gawad Rolando S. Tinio for Translation prize by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts for his work on the plays of Glenn Sevilla Mas, his playwriting mentor. Guelan’s plays have been anthologized in local and international publications. He teaches at the Fine Arts Department of the Loyola Schools and is the current artistic director of Tanghalang Ateneo, the longest-running theater company in Ateneo.

Ricky Lee is the author of almost 200 screenplays, three novels, seven plays, a collection of short stories, and a scriptwriting manual. He has also been conducting free scriptwriting workshops since 1982. At various times he was a professor at UP, Ateneo, and other universities. He was a Creative Manager for ABS-CBN for almost 20 years and is now with GMA.

Glenn Sevilla Mas is a 2015 Asian Cultural Council Fellow and a 2003 Ford Foundation International Fellow who was recently awarded the Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas by the Unyon ng mga Manunulat sa Pilipinas (UMPIL). His profile and plays are included in the Theater Volume of the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art. He is a 9-time Palanca winner for his plays and has three books published by the UST Publishing House. He is Ateneo de Manila University’s Theater Arts Program Coordinator who teaches theater and playwriting classes full-time in the university’s Department of Fine Arts and Department of English.

Talakayan is a series which presents how scholarship merges with practice by highlighting innovations, creative solutions, or responses to the complexities, ambiguities, and vulnerabilities we collectively face today. It is produced and shared for the benefit of learners everywhere. Talakayan is available on Arete’s YouTube channel for free.

Talakayan is an Areté Production done in partnership with Loyola Schools Department of Communication and the Eugenio Lopez Jr. Center for Multimedia Communication.