Proudly Green: De La Salle’s history in song and dance

by Nickie Wang

One of the country’s premier universities is celebrating its centennial anniversary, and the key people behind the festivity want to highlight the school’s colorful history in a grand musical that will feature more than 70 talents and performers.

Seasoned director Fritz Ynfante, De La Salle High School alumnus, is proud to announce that he is directing the 90-minute musical called Proudly Green. The musical that is done in lyric theater will kick off the one-week De La Salle University centennial celebration on June 11 at the SMX Convention Center in Pasay City.

The three-act musical will feature the songs “Rainbow Connection,” “I Dreamed a Dream,” “This is the Moment,” and “Power of a Dream,” to name a few. According to its director, these songs were purposely selected to walk the audience through time, from 1911 when the first group of three La Salle Brothers arrived in Manila.

“There will be nine angels in the musical, gossamer-like creatures that come back to earth without their wings to retell a beautiful story,” says Ynfante.

He named two of the angels as Lance Raymundo and JM Rodriguez. Rannie Raymundo, Isay Alvarez and Robert Seña are also part of the ensemble that is mainly consisted of students and alumni.

“I’m going to wear a fantastic gown by Eric Pineda, it’s as big as the SMX [convention center]. That alone made me decide to join this musical although I’m not a graduate of La Salle,” quips Alvarez whose son will go to La Salle this year.

The event itself marks the biggest gathering of the La Sallian community. Around 4000 are expected to flock to the SMX ground floor, which will be for the exclusive use for the school’s centennial kick-off party.

“If you are not from La Salle, the musical will tell you why all La Sallians are proudly green,” affirms one of the organizers who also adds that 17 La Salle campuses will be represented in the musical extravaganza.

The epochal type of musical will be told in three acts. The first act will feature popular rock songs that serve as sound bed for the early years of La Salle. The second act will have gloomy songs to describe a massacre that befell La Sallians in 1945. It will be followed by songs in high spirits where there will be scenes depicting the entry of the first La Sallian females. And finally, the last act will feature the next generation La Sallians singing their dream for world and for the future.

Proudly Green: The Musical revolves around the theme of hope, which the color green symbolizes. But did you know that green is not the original color attributed to La Salle? Blue and gold were the first colors used by the La Sallian brothers but in 1924 when the maiden issue of the student publication called Green and White came out, the school started using the colors. Green was adopted as a tribute to Ireland, where the majority of the first batch of De La Salle Christian Brothers came from.