Performing Banà-banà: The Significations of ‘Hakop sa Kasinatian’ In The IPAG-In-The-Frames Multimedia Exhibit

This paper proposes Banà-banà as a concept for describing the process and the result of a performance or a creative pursuit. With that, three main points are emphasized: 1) Banà-banà is an imminent phenomenon that creative individuals, performers, and actors encounter when dealing with unpredictable factors in the present moment; 2) it holds the potential for serving as a method for executing an evocative performance; and, 3) it can serve as an active lens for describing the quality of its (performance) engagement, as exemplified by the Hakop of MSU-IIT's resident theatre company, IPAG. Along this line, the need for understanding and liberating it from delimiting notions becomes a priority. In a nutshell, the study aims to (1) establish a discourse model for signifying performance experience and (2) develop a culturally-rooted performance method. To make sense of this, the study looks into three phases of the act of Banà-banà in performance: Una, Akto, and Unya, and their corresponding R-model efforts: reflect, respond, react. Through Banà-banà, the study hopes to gain at least a minute view of the complex cultural negotiation, creativity, and culture-building taking place in language exchange and performance, implying discoveries and possibilities in fields like Peace Studies, Language Studies, Public Relations, Politics, and the Humanities.