The Story
Merging music and theater into a spectacle of joy and wonder, The Magic Staff was one of the most ambitious music-theater events of 1999 — the heroic, heartwarming adventure of Jason and his two friends, Miko and Shumpei, in search of the legendary staff that will save the children of Makarata.
It is a splendid synthesis of the art and music of Asia, produced by Okasaki Theaterworks through the expertise of Victor Henry C. Tejero (director), Jose Gentica V (composer & musical director), Nonoy Froilan (choreographer), Salvador Bernal (sets & costumes), Naomi Shoko Matsumoto (lighting), and PJ Aranador (art director).
The libretto and the full song cycle were written by Cy Tamura, then eight years old, and staged with a company of celebrated Filipino theater artists including Monique Wilson, Fides Cuyugan-Asensio, Sheila Francisco, Bernardo Bernardo, Michael Williams, and the voice of Nonoy Zuñiga.
To break the mirror
and bleed life,
to blur the terror
and bear light.
A division of Okasaki Media, Okasaki Theaterworks sought to recover the memory of Asia — to rediscover its symbols and reveal its signs — by staging original works drawn from Asian myth and legend, infusing the Asian spirit into the world of theater.