Rep goes golden–with a Bibot blast

Zeneida “Bibot” Amador

Theater buffs have thought up different ways to celebrate Repertory Philippines’ 50th anniversary, starting with a big show at the Solaire on Jan. 11.

For our part, we’re marking the landmark event with a personal tribute to Rep’s founder and prime moving spirit, Zeneida “Bibot” Amador. Bibot may no longer be with us, but her feisty influence and inspiration live on!

We shared an early “Fr. James Reuter connection” with Bibot. As one of Fr. Reuter’s students and stage managers, we first met Bibot on his “Family Theater” live drama show on ABS-CBN, as well as on “Sta. Zita and Mary Rose.”

We were just a kid from the province while Bibot was already “somebody,” but she must have seen “something” in us worth nurturing, because we were soon acting in her productions, including “Luv” in the first season of Repertory Philippines.

We costarred in the zany comedy by Murray Schisgal with Conrad Parham and Maricris Tabora, and went on to being directed by Bibot in many other shows, quite a number of them topbilling Rep’s “signature” female lead player, Baby Barredo.

Our costarrers with Baby included “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Little Foxes,” “Night of the Iguana,” “A Chorus Line,” “Mother Courage”—as well as one of Bibot’s very few productions in Filipino, the mod sarswela, “Kay Tamis ng Bawat Sandali.”

In addition, we guested in Baby’s weekly musical showcase on ABS-CBN, where we performed songs from musicals (no kidding).

In the process, we became good friends, with Bibot inviting us to her house in the Kamuning area, where we saw a side to her that few people were “permitted” to glimpse at the time: Bibot without the raging roar and strict demeanor, just the simple, funny and sometimes even sweet friend she became.

What did she see in us that made her single us out from the madding throng? We think it was the fact that we were both deeply in love with the best that theater could be.

That was why, in her own candid declaration, she made it a point to include us in the cast of her best efforts, the “special” plays she loved to stage “for the heart and soul.”

This shared love for theater at its best also enhanced our friendship, so that, many years later, when Bibot was tapped to head the Film Ratings Board, she insisted that we should be her vice chair.

She was already not in the best of health by then, so her confidence that we would have her back on her bad days moved us to our core.

Indeed, Bibot eventually left us, and we were asked to stay on at FRB—but, we declined, because Bibot had been the prime reason why we had agreed to be the vice chair.

Summing up, when Bibot passed away, some Rep talents lost not just a leader, but also a friend.

But, her inspiration and influence in both spheres was so feistily strong and fierce that it’s enabled her theater group and its spinoffs to—go golden with a Bibot blast!