Anino Shadowplay Collective

Company Profile

The ANINO Shadowplay Collective is a group of multimedia artists committed to developing and popularising the art of shadowplay. Towards this end it carries out live performances, exhibitions, video, and workshops.

Its members come from diverse backgrounds; university students, visual artists, and theatre practitioners are among its core members. Since 1996, ANINO has been performing and conducting workshops at the Cultural Center of the Philippines, Museo Pambata, Ayala Museum, the University of the Philippines and other cultural and educational institutions.

Philippine literature, political history, ecology and contemporary culture drive its narratives. Its aesthetic, like Filipino culture itself, borrows from a wide canvas, taking influence from Filipiniana to universal pop imagery and “international” experimental art. Questions of Filipino identity are dealt with through projected images and hybrid theatrical styles.

Core Members

Datu Arellano

Datu calls himself a multimedia monster. He just loves creating stuff. He is a puppeteer, director, performer, designer, musician, sound-engineer, photographer, videographer, and web master for Anino. An Adobe Certified Expert, he teaches web design at the Philippine Center for Creative Imaging, the only Adobe authorised training center in the Philippines. He has been freelancing in graphic and web design ever since he dropped out of college, and when not working, loves to spend his time with his wife and two kids.

Dido Arellano

Dido is a hermit who occasionally ventures out into meatspace to help Anino however he can. Oh, and he is 6-foot and 165 pounds of pure atrophied muscle. He likes taking long walks on the beach while holding hands (pa-swaysway pa) and is as comfortable in a suit as he is in boxers.

Teny Arellano

Teny Arellano is a perpetual mother and grandmother ... even to ANINO.

Andrew Cruz

Andrew Cruz, is an independent theater artist who deems Philippine and international politics abominable. Among the theater companies he has worked with are Tanghalang Pilipino, Dulaang UP, Philippine Educational Theater Association, Adarsari Theater, Okasaki Theaterworks, St. Scholasticas College, College of Saint Benilde, and Collegio de San Agustin. Andrew also acts for television, films and commercials and was a regular host for Batibot (live and on TV). International performances he participated in include Japan-Philippine Expo in Nagoya, Japan and The Tales Of Three Marias in Singapore.

Laya Roman

Laya does visual and character designs along with other ANINO members. He is a puppeteer and performer, among other usual and unusual tasks required of a shadowplayer. He doesn't dance though. He currently teaches Humanities at the Philippine Normal University. He is also a musician and an octavinist in a heavy-mental rondalla rock band called Emanwel. Drinking Yakult makes him strong.

Don Salubayba

DON is NOD in Facebook. A Pinoy visual artist who loves mashing history with pop culture, and pop culture with history, a part time faculty member at the Philippine High School for the Arts, and a newly converted turntable addict. Having experienced the floods caused by typhoon Ondoy (Ketsana), he is now convinced that Mandaluyong was Atlantis. He is ANINO's premier volunteer, quick to commit others but not himself. :) He is currently training his two young children to be among the next generation's ANINO idols... with his loving wife as their stage mom.

Teta Tulay

Teta's devotion to lucifer led her to ANINO's abode. Once there, she found herself quitting her 24/7 job as a professional animator and instead began exploring the myriad wonderful uses of the lowly masking tape, aside from entreating Elmo (Anino's 17-year old ohp) to work when it refuses to light up. Inflicted with a two-tone tinnitus and an incurable optimism, she wishes to mentor as many minds open to the artform as she can and witness Anino's world domination before she retires. These days she is preoccupied with the struggles in an unfairly forgetful world.