When Henry Luce III and his wife Claire returned to the United States after their 1968 visit to Dumaguete City, the realization of the old dream to have a cultural center in the heart of the small city–which began in the late 1950s–started taking shape for real.
By then, the Henry Luce Foundation agreed to match the P400,000–the target amount to be raised in the Philippines–with P1,200,000 from the United States. “The news was met with rejoicing,” wrote D. Baseleres and R.L. Maxino, in their program note for the auditorium’s inauguration in 1974. “Though the task ahead was gigantic, there was no stopping the project. Dr. Cicero Calderon, then president of Silliman University with his gaining reputation as the builder, launched the Cultural Center Fund campaign with farmer Senator Lorenzo Teves, who is a member of the board of trustees, as the fund campaign manager.”
This is where the Luce truly began not just as an effort of Sillimanians, but as a campaign that brought together members of the Dumaguete community. Baseleres and Maxino write: “The campaign drew the enthusiastic support of Silliman alumni and friends both here and abroad, [as well as the] business communities and faculty and staff of Silliman University.”
The fund-raising campaign, which eventually closed on 31 March 1971, raised more than the total goal of P400,000. As of August 15 of that year, the sum of P429,026.48 was collected for what was called the “Cultural Center Fund.” Of this, P38,787.16 came from contributions from faculty and staff members of Silliman University; P60,914 came from Silliman alumni; P255,134.26 from the business community and friends in Dumaguete City; P3,257.75 from campus organizations; and P28,774.81 from friends abroad. The rest came from the income of its investment.
The complete Silliman Cultural Center was to consist of three units: the auditorium itself, a building to house the School of Music and Fine Arts, and a Little Theater for small theatrical productions. (The last one is still an unrealized dream.)
Construction started on 2 January 1973. The original completion date was March 1974, in time for the commencement program. “The work on the auditorium, however, was hampered by many problem,” wrote Baseleres and Maxino. “Modification of some aspects of the structural plan and lack of materials like cement and reinforcing steel since boats gave priority to prime commodities. In November 1973, for instance, the work went under a skeleton force of 20 men, instead of the usual 200 workers. The reason was lack of cement. The building and equipment of the Luce Auditorium was estimated to cost 12,885,000… When the construction of the auditorium began, the cost of its materials was riding an inflation.”
On 6 October 1974, the Luce Auditorium was inaugurated. (It was finally named in memory Mrs. Luce who had died from cancer in 1972.) One can imagine how the imposing design of the theater must have impressed Dumaguete then. Baseleres and Maxino wrote of that initial impression, which at the same time gives us glimpses of how its halls–now almost 40 years old–were once used and envisioned to be: “Like a hull of a big barge, white-speckled gray against the morning sun, with its brute cement and chiseled shell finish, the Luce Auditorium resembles a big sculpture piece itself. It defies first impression, for its rear, with its columns and windows, can be mistaken as the facade. The facade of the auditorium is that which resembles the prow of a barge, widely agape, supported by big cement pillars.
“The design of the auditorium combines simplicity with comfort and function. Its rear portion has three stories, which are adjacent to the stage. At the back of the stage on the first floor is the ballet room, the costume and observation room on the second floor and on the third floor is the machine room, where six air-conditioning units, with the capacity of 85 tons and in full operation, can pump cool air through the ducts that empty into every nook and corner of the building. At the side of the stage (main floor) is the Green Room, and on the second floor, men and women’s dressing rooms and the dimmer equipment room.
“The stage is almost as large as a basketball court, ideal for the execution of ingenious theatrical devices and techniques. Its acoustic insulation is a fiberglass blanket. It can seat 923 people in upholstered chairs, arranged in 27 rows marked with the letters of the alphabet (letter A on the first row at the ground level, B on the next row and so on).”
Today, 38 years after its completion, the Luce stands proud as the Cultural Center of the South, an important hub of the arts and a major destination for performances in the country. Here, the best of local, national, and international culture gets to be celebrated by a community that dreamed a big dream–and by some miracle, saw it fulfilled.
We in Dumaguete are the lucky inheritors of that dream. What other city in the Philippines has a Luce in their midst? Sometimes we in Dumaguete forget that, and often we do take for granted the sophisticated swirl of culture we have. And that is truly the saddest thing: not to know the treasure of culture right under our noses.
