User:Knightofjah/sandbox

AGHAM Theatre Company (ATC)
AGHAM Theatre Company (ATC) was founded in 1995 by Patrick Almaden together with his childhood friends (Ferdinand Allan Bengco, Stanley Rovira and Ziegfred Tercias). It takes pride for being the premier theatre organization of the University of Makati. Through the years, this group was able to expand its network of stage performers, painters, musicians, directors and art consultants in the world of academe and the professional world. Today, ATC is progressively building a niche in the world of theater arts. Central to its thrust is grass-root communities. It specializes in creating an all-Filipino and all original scripts, stage designs, costumes and musical scores. ATC has been consistent in advocating for protecting the environment.

Today, ATC are being managed by a group of professional artists which still includes the original founder Mr. Patrick Josel E. Almaden. Here are the current executive directors of ATC: 1.	Patrick Josel Almaden – Founder and Chief Executive Director (1995-Present)

2.	Agnes Medina- Creative Director for Costume & Production Management (1999-Present)

3.	Paolo Cosme Almaden – Musical Director (1999-Present)

4.	Osler Ladia – Creative Director for Stage and Production Design ( 1999-Present)

5.	Christopher Navarra – Technical Director (2000-Present)

6.    Francis Cruz - Dance Director

The Birth of a Childhood Dream
A classic story of how a group came to existence. It all started as a wild idea of a young artist and writer, Patrick Almaden with his friends Allan Bengco, Ziegfred Tercias, and Stanley Rovira. These were the first four who thought it was a great idea but thought that it was too ambitious, given their limited resources at that time. Almaden believed otherwise. After seeking the approval of his friends to help him mount his first production, Patrick was unable to convince any of them except for one, Allan. Known to his friends for being the businessman in the gang, he rather saw it as a good business opportunity. So the fateful deal was closed between the producer and the writer. The first production the company produced came to life on December 16, 1995, on the little open stage of a small Elementary School in Makati City called Francisco Benitez. The same school where he, his brother paulo and tope navarra, who would later become it's directors, spent their grade school years at. "Lakas lang ng loob ang puhunan" he states when asked how he managed to convince the school administrators to help him sell tickets of an unknown play from an unknown writer. He recalls how he even came up with a weird name for a theatre company, AGHAM,which literally meant "Science". "Noong tinanong ako ng principal kung ano ang pangalan ng grupo, naisip ko ' wala pa nga pala kaming pangalan'..." (When the principal asked me what the name of the group was I thought "oh, I never thought of that"...) With all spontaneity, Almaden responded "AGHAM po", while reading it off the wall of a Science classroom. It took the principal a couple of minutes to realize that it was such a weird name, and it bought the reckless Patrick enough time to think of what it means. Patrick went to Ziegfred whose house was then a few blocks away from the School and told him about the weird name of the group “AGHAM.” Knowing that his friend is a natural poet he pressured Ziegfred to give a meaning to AGHAM rather than its literal meaning (Science). With much hesitation and still tired from playing street basketball, he took a piece of paper and said… “Science nga meaning nito Pat. Patay tayo d’yan. Sugod ka kasi ng sugod eh…” After less than five minutes hooray.. AGHAM Means.. Angking Galing at Husay sa Arte at Musika and the two were jumping out of joy as usual. The date was set and the deal was closed for a script that was never completed. As they rehearsed, Almaden wrote the script in one room while his assistant director and best-friend Ziegfred directed the clueless elementary students on the other room. Among the elementary students was the future director of the company, Christopher Navarra. Tope would then play the character Bulas for the longest running, and signature piece of the company, Patrick Almaden's ALAMAT.

(1995-1999) The First Four Years
During the mid-90s “Okay ka Fairy Ko” and” FurnGully-The Last Rain Forrest” were very popular amongst children. Patrick himself (still a very young and inexperienced teenage-artist that time) was a big fan of those kinds of fantasy series and films. He is also a big fan of George Lucas’ Star Wars; No wonder that the first stage-play written by him was inspired by those mentioned above. But Patrick is a very creative and talented writer. He will never copy a script but instead will make his own original script and plot. He has God’s gift of creativity and imagination that can magnify a make believe world

The First Alamat- 1995
It was a play with a strong environmental theme. The original casts include a young boy named Christopher “Tope” Navarra. He is now the resident Assistant and Technical Director of ATC. The play was staged in Francisco Benitez Elementary School IV on December 17, 1995 in Sta. Cruz, Makati. It is the same school where Patrick, Ziegfred and Allan spent their elementary days. Some costumes were provided by the cast themselves or were rented (mostly girl’s dresses or gowns, tights and leotards and fairy wings). Boys’ costumes were made of papers and glossy aluminum foils and others were wearing their best casual attire. However, during the dress rehearsal day, Tope was crying on the sideline. He was crying because his costume was made of dyed gray t-shirt and was very untidy. When Patrick asked Tope why he is crying, he answered with a howling voice and said “Ang pangit po ng costume ko. Bakit sila magaganda?”

Music & Dance
Musical background and songs used for the first Alamat were cover. It varies from popular to underground and alternative music which features the music of Joey Ayala, Buklod, Inang Laya, Queen (Another One Bites the Dust). And BeeGees (Stayin’ Alive). The first dance choreographer of ATC was Heidi Corveau. Heidi's dances include mozart, Beethoven, Bach and Joey Ayala's Music.

The Second Season of Alamat- 1997
It was staged at Pateros Catholic High School grounds with some minor revisions on the original script.

We Must Grow From Boys to Men
After the second run of Alamat the team has decided to part ways for personal reasons. This group of theatre founders realized that there was not enough financial sustainability in theatre production. Theatre is about passion and an advocacy not a business opportunity.

All of them, including Patrick have decided to look for a corporate careers for a more financially stable source of income. Patrick worked in a traveling agency while Ziegfred got hired as a Cultural Affairs Officer at the Makati Cultural Affairs and Tourism Office and has decided to pursue his college degree at the University of Makati. Stanley got involved in a reggae band called" Opressed" as a bassist and also got employed at Yamaha School of Music. Allan focuses on his career as an IT analyst for a multi-national company.