ANG SISTEMA NI PROPESOR TUKO

The global health crisis has forced millions of students to continue their education from home amidst a nationwide lockdown that has been both a cause and a result of multifaceted socio-political issues that continue to plague the nation.

This recurring condition springs within the context of Ningning and her friends Kiko, Bodyok, and Bondying who are now forced to attend class together online.

One day, adding to the already burdensome experience of online learning is the sudden absence of their most loved adviser, Miss Jackie. They hear on that same day that the assigned substitute teacher is a mysterious Mister Tuko. Anxious on what to expect, the class stalks him online, and the class is left baffled yet wonder at the ardent declaration in his social media profile: “The Brighter Future is here!” As such, this online adaptation is deeply rooted in the context surrounding the original play, Ang Sistema ni Propesor Tuko by Al Santos, written during the Martial law regime of the Marcos administration. This adaptation incorporates the concept manifested in the original play of viewing the classroom as a microcosm of society and as a stage that dramatizes the multifaceted issues that persist in our current social context. Ateneo ENTABLADO seeks to discuss the social conditions that have inspired the original play and how the societal ills that have existed then have resurfaced within our own context today. We seek to engage our audiences in critical dialogue in the face of an ongoing dialectic of social trends that are transforming our own realities, including the advent of fake news and social media. In the context of a pandemic, Adrian Soriano’s adaptation of Ang Sistema ni Propesor Tuko by Al Santos seeks to be a platform to lay current and critical issues forward, within and beyond the bounds of an adapting educational system in the country.