Valentino Zubiri Blog

I used to be a member of a theater group in Chicago, Pintig Cultural Group, where I designed the posters, postcards, tickets, and souvenir programs. However, the most memorable work I did for the group was not the posters. It was when I froze and forgot my lines in the middle of a performance.

What happened was, we in the production side of things were already running around doing nothing, while the real play, scenes from an unfinished country, was already running. We got invited to perform a 20-minute excerpt at the University of Michigan, about 3 hours away, and so the production people were elected to do it. I did the main role, and in the middle of the thing, I forgot my line. I’m really good at making posters. The next time I act, it will be in Hollywood. At least there, someone can shout “Cut!”

Bells of Balangiga, Pintig Cultural Group, Chicago, Illinois

The Bells of Balangiga, a musical, was about the Filipinos in Balangiga, a town in the Philippines who rebelled against the Americans, during the Filipino American War. The Americans took three bells from the local church belfry after the bloody battle, I don’t know when, but two of the bells are now in Wyoming and one is in Korea. There is currently a movement of Filipinos and Americans who want the bells to be returned to the town. I’m not so sure about all this now, I could be wrong, so Google the history for more accurate information.

You will notice that my painting has a mountain of ghostly faces in the horizon, which do not distinguish between Filipino and American. The two arms holding the bell above the embers are actually the current Filipino and American flags. When I learned about this, I felt that the best way I can give tribute to Balangiga was to paint the bell. Because I felt that the United States and the Philippines are both equal players in the battle, I made a symmetrical work broken only by the wavy flame and smoke. I also wanted the title to sit right in the middle of the bell.

Oops, I almost forgot. Bob Couttie, author of Hang the Dogs, the True and Tragic History of the Balangiga Massacre, published in 2004, actually used my painting as a cover for his book. He is part of the Balangiga Research Group. I actually hit the mark, with the ghosts in the back, in my painting. There really have been ghostly apparitions in the graveyards of both the Americans and Filipinos. I just learned about it now, April 7, 2008. Google it.

Below is Bob Couttie’s book cover.

Hang The Dogs: The True Tragic History of the Balangiga Massacre, Bob Couttie, 2004. Bob asked me if he could use my painting as part of his book cover. I’m glad he did.

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Wa Etching! Pintig Cultural Group, Chicago

Wa Etching! This is another poster which I am very proud of. Jaime Almonte, who wrote the play, was and still is a friend of mine, and I was so proud of his work, that I made sure the design for the poster was good. I also believe that the graphical poster, posted all over the city was the first to sell a play, even before play-goers look at the local papers. I believe I succeeded in designing this poster, because it was constantly being stolen, and every three days we had to revisit the local store windows and coffee shops to repost. It hurt me to suggest that we should slash the posters. We did on our third repost, and the stealing stopped. Before this play, Jaime had also written about one or two more plays which the theater group staged.

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Nanay Isog and Her Children Poster, Pintig Cultural Group, Chicago

Nanay Isog and Her Children is a Filipino reinterpretation of Bertolt Brecht’s Mother Courage and Her Children.

Scenes from an Unfinished Country, Pintig Cultural Group, Chicago, Illinois

Sorry for the moire on this poster. Because the budget for printing was tight during this production, I opted for a monochromatic color. This double-sided poster only used one color ink, like a dark reddish sepia, and I played with the gray scale.

There was a good number of Pintig posters that were double-sided. They were actually fold-out posters, so that historical and other related information can be read on four separate pages, and then the final fold-out would be the poster. Bells of Balangiga was also double-sided, but I was able to get a deal with the printer, so we had a big fold-out poster, another smaller poster and postcards. I did not want my painting to go to waste.

Flipside, Pintig Cultural Group, Chicago, Illinois

Flipside was two separate, but related, short plays.

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