Guelan Larca: 2022 Gawad Rolando S. Tinio sa Tagasalin Translator’s Prize
Guelan Luarca is a playwright and translator, actor, and director for the stage. He has twice won First Prize in the Don Carlos Palanca Awards for Literature for his one-act plays “Mga Kuneho” and “Bait,” which both premiered at the Virgin Labfest.
He recently adapted and directed Desaparesidos, based on the novel by Lualhati Bautista (cited in the Best Theater of the Decade by the Philippine Daily Inquirer, and an adaptation of Mike de Leon’s film Batch 81, under the title AKO: Alpha Kappa Omega (cited as Best Original Filipino Full-length Material in 2019).
He last directed Malou Jacob’s Batang Mujahideen for Tanghalang Pilipino, about the Moro conflict during the 2000s in Mindanao, which won the 2020 Aliw Awards for Best Play. He also recently won the Philstage Gawad Buhay! Award for Best Translation for William Shakespeare’s Coriolano (2020), which was staged by Tanghalang Pilipino under the direction of Carlos Siguion-Reyna. His plays The Happiness of Nelson (and of Others too) and Ardor have been anthologized in international publications.
He teaches Directing, Shakespearean Performance, and Theater Theory in the Fine Arts Department, Loyola Schools, Ateneo de Manila University. He is the current director of Tanghalang Ateneo, the longest-running college theater company in Ateneo.
You may want to read: