Cecile Alvarez is the only Filipino awardee in La MaMa’s ‘Remake A World Gala’ in New York
PHILIPPINE THEATER actress Cecil Guidote-Alvarez honored at La MaMa Theater in New York City
NEW YORK – As founder of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) and for her
lifetime commitment as cultural caregiver, Cecile Guidote-Alvarez was
one of the seven outstanding honorees and the only Southeast Asian at
the Remake a World Gala last November 10 at La MaMa Theatre in New
York City.
Though she has long retired in PETA, nowadays Guidote-Alvarez, a President Ramon Magsaysay Award recipient,
continues to do theater through the Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble,
whose members are the differently-abled, street children and the
indigenous youth.
The award cited her work for Earthsavers in providing free arts training
to these often marginalized sectors of society. Guidote-Alvarez had also served as executive director of the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)
The Earthsavers Dreams Ensemble has been consistently renewed as
UNESCO Artist for Peace since the award was given in 2003.
Guidote-Alvarez, who hosts a DZRH program in Manila, also busies herself these days as president of the Global
Social Change Network of International Theatre Institute. One of her
recent accomplishments in relation to ITI happened in September this
year when she presented to UNESCO in Paris the successful holding of
the Manila SDGs ResiliArt Earthsaving events as the country’s techno
arts modelling for lifelong learning to assist our country’s fulfillment of
the UN 2030 SDGs agenda.
La MaMa is marking its 61st Anniversary Season this year as a creative
home for experimental artists. The Remake a World Gala is a
celebration of La MaMa’s global community: the artists and audiences
who have long been part of its “One World Vision”.
Among the artists nurtured at La MaMa have become big names in the
industry like Diane Lane, Bette Midler, Sam Shepard, Philip Glass,
Harvey Feirstein, and a lot more.
At the Remake A World Gala, Guidote-Alvarez’s co-honorees were:
1. Belarus Free Theater from the landlocked country in Europe, the
Republic of Belarus. BFT is being honored “for pioneering an award-
winning global model of activism that unites artistic, geopolitical,
environmental and human rights concerns, using theatre to build a
movement for democracy, human rights and artistic freedoms. BFT is
the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political
grounds.”
2. Richard Lanier from the United States is being honored “for his
commitment to forging connections through cultural exchange over the
course of his career, and his invaluable contributions to the global
dialogue as president emeritus of the Asian Cultural Council and a
founding trustee of the Trust for Mutual Understanding.”
Colombia’s Alvaro Restrepo is an honoree “for his passions for
contemporary dance and social justice, founding Cartagena’s The School
of the Body, with a unique interdisciplinary focus on respect for the
body that cultivates dances while at the same time addressing topics
ranging from human rights to sexuality to drug addiction.”
3. Beka Vučo from The Balkans for “her work to support and encourage
people to build a better, more just, and open democratic society in the
Balkans and South Eastern Europe using arts, culture, and education
through her organization My Balkans, and three decades of work with
the Open Society Foundations.”
4. Duk Hyung Yoo from South Korea is being honored for his “significant
contribution to the international understanding of Asian arts and his
visionary commitment to using digital and emergent technologies to
explore new forms of artmaking and cultural exchange across distance,
creating a global network of artists and communities; that was the seed
for what would become CultureHub.”
Incidentally, Duk is Guidote-Alvarez’s contemporary at the Dallas
Theatre Centre when she was student in the early 1960s, the same time
La MaMa was established by Stewart.
5. Serhiy Zhadan from Ukraine is being honored “for his work as an
internationally recognized poet and novelist, a theater maker, and a
revolutionary through on-the-ground action and establishment of the
Serhiy Zhadan Charitable Foundation to provide aid to the front-lines.
Zhadan currently remains in Kharkiv to provide humanitarian aid in his
hometown.”
