Bodabil: From Stage to Screen

‘The Evil Influences of Vaudeville’ warns the title of an article a local newspaper in 1926 comparing the theater movement to the “elevated” Moro-Moro and Zarzuela. He peppers in the words “immoral,” and “Satan’s act,” exorcising any wavering believers of the faith away from the art form. And yet this localized Bodabil continues to permeate Philippine media today in this religious country beyond the theatres, bleeding into popular noon-time shows.

Join Dr. Nicanor Tiongson as he unravels the beginnings of a theater form and its persistence in present day media in BODABIL: From Stage to Screen.

BODABIL: From Stage to Screen is part of HIGHLIGHTS a lecture series presented by the Lopez Museum and Library and the Ateneo Art Gallery.

Image source:

Foto News, p. 31-32. Lopez Library Collection.

"The Dancing Girls Talk of the Patron," Philippine Graphic May 7, 1930. Lopez Library Collection.