DIREK FRANNIE ZAMORA SPEAKS ABOUT "KANSER: THE UPDATED VERSION"

direk frannie blows his cake on his birthday last august 21

direk frannie: an updated vision

direk frannie with the BEST cast of the play KANSER!

It was a casual tete-a-tete with direk Frannie Zamora during one of those many merienda sessions we had with this wonderful theater director. His answers with our questions regarding the longest-running play Kanser were all too-efficient and informative. Precise and clear. 

Why 'Kanser: The Updated Version', direk Frannie?

"It's because of the audience of our play which are basically high school students", direk Frannie answered at once. "The play caters to the young and that's the reason I thought of updating it. I added one character there that would connect the past and the millennial youths of today. The character is a take-off character of our President- Digong Duterte. I named that character as Sir Tikong, which is being performed by theater actor Abel Napira on the play."

"Students needs to see the play in a more simple and up-to-date manner", direk Frannie further added. "And all the issues of today, especially the social media issues, will be discussed by the character of Sir Tikong. Like the never-ending problem on corruption and invasion of other cultures. How could this kind of cancer in our present-day lives could be cured."

But the play will still be presented in classic times. Only the character of Sir Tikong is the one that wakes-up the audience in the present times.

According direk Frannie, after years of directing Kanser, he finally got the best cast for this new version of the play.

"It's all too-powerful, the best cast ever for Kanser!", direk Frannie insisted saying. "It's the perfect cast for me that I did able to gather. Very effective silang lahat. With only few instructions, they delivered fully well."

Like the character of Padre Damaso, direk Frannie wanted the character this time to be a little more subdued rather than loud. And theater actor Norman Penaflorinda was able to attack that role the way direk Frannie wanted it to be.

"I want the version of Kanser this year to be more organic", direk Frannie continued on. "I want it to be near to reality, rather than fantasy. It should be then organic in form for me to be able to achieve that. And thanks God, we did."

Tomorrow, Kanser: The Updated version will have its Media Premiere at the Star Theater near the CCP complex by twelve noon. Great rave reviews and feed backs of praise and wonder were already received by the Gantimpala Theater Foundation people and Fullhouse Asia Productions who are the people behind all these, aside from direk Frannie's artistic staff. 

And yes, Kanser continues to soar higher after 36 long years of existence!

(words by robert manuguid silverio)