stephen burdman was the proponent of the arena theater.
stephen burdman was the proponent of the arena theater.
who is the proponent of the arena theater?
stephen burdman
when he returned to the philippines, he already had 16 major plays to his credit. as dean of instruction of the philippine normal college, montano organized the arena theater “to bring drama to the masses”. he used his own money, about a thousand pesos, to start the arena theater, a theater-in-the-round. due to the pnc being unable to fund the theater, montano volunteered his services “to plan for a self-financing national drama program that would serve the grass-roots, the barrios of the philippines”.
severino montano
aquatic arena theater: in addition to the exhibitions there was a water arena that included performances of porpoises, starring whales "willie and winky" and aquatic events. the arena theater section consisted of a huge rectangular pool surrounded by raised bench seating. trained seals would honk out “how dry i am” on a set of bulb horns, and several times a day, dolphins would rescue a clown named "flippy". the show featured james h. crovetti, sr., as flippy the clown. the master of ceremonies would call out, “flippy, where are you?” the spotlights would come on and there was flippy the clown, hanging 40 feet above the waters of the aquarama’s indoor arena pool, hanging from a scaffolding he would roll out from the back wall where the holding tanks that the dolphins were kept in were located.. flippy would throw down various items such as rings, balls, and toys that the dolphins would balance on their noses. at the end of this segment of the show, the master of ceremonies would shout, “ok flippy, come on down, but be very careful!” flippy would push back the scaffolding, he would pretend to forget to let go of one of the hand bars used to push back the scaffolding leaving him hanging 40 feet above the waters of the main show tank! he would hang there for at least 2 minutes interacting with the master of ceremonies saying “hang on flippy, we're coming to get you!” flippy would let go making the 40-foot plunge into the tank feet first so that his flippers would create the biggest splash possible. the dolphins would rescue flippy. there was no belly flop! he would do this dangerous trick 4 times a day. attractive young women would swim in the tank(s) to appear like mermaids and entertain the curiosity of the visitors. as lights went on at show time six porpoises, each weighing about 300 pounds and long would start in a "philly" style dance version of the "twist" made popular by home town recording star chubby checker. philadelphia radio and tv personality gene arnold hosted many shows there, as did the later "voice of the flyers," gene hart.
aquarama aquarium theater of the sea