Tres Marias: A collection of plays

• Main Author: Alvarado, Jose Manuel G.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2017
• Subjects: Comparative Literature
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/2815
• Institution: De La Salle University

Folktales and legends portray much about particular a communities' culture, which are used to convey artistic interpretations of historical events. Tres Marias is a collection of three one-act plays which retell the stories of three Philippine deities of the same name: Maria Cristina, the spirit of Maria Cristina Falls Maria Cacao, the deity of Mount Lantoy, and Maria Makiling, the guardian of Mount Makiling. Western mythology and fantasy traditions have always sparked an interest in contemporary audiences. However, Filipinos often fail to realize the beauty in their own cultural narratives as we give more attention to these Western stories. This collection of plays reinvents the image of folktales and legends across different timelines through various forms of the retellings of the legends of the Marias which are based on folk literary history. Though different styles of retelling would be used to portray a diffrent perspective of each narrative, these retellings would show the richness of Philippines legends and mythologies through highlighting concepts and themes from the original, and then incorporating modern ideas.