Tony Mabesa

Antonio Ocampo Mabesa was born in Los Baños, Laguna. He entered high school at the University of the Philippines Rural High School, where he first directed a school production. He finished his degree in Agriculture at the University of the Philippines Los Baños, where he was mentored by Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero.^[3] He was a member of the Upsilon Sigma Phi.^[1][4][5]

He pursued a master's degree in theater arts at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in 1965, and a master's degree in education at the University of Delaware in 1969.^[1] He took further studies in dramatic literature at the University of Minnesota.^[6] While in the US, worked as a stage manager to Sir Tyrone Guthrie, where he "observed up close how a campus-based theater organization should be run and could work."^[6]

Upon his return from studies abroad, Mabesa was offered a teaching position at the UP Diliman's Department of Speech Communications and Theater Arts. As an educator, Mabesa pushed for the establishment of a Baccalaureate program devoted to Theater Arts, which began in 1978, and a Master of Arts in Theater Arts Program at the UP Diliman Campus.^{[citation needed]}

He founded the theater groups Dulaang UP (DUP) in 1976, the UP Playwright's Theater in 1980, and later on founded the Angeles University Foundation Repertory Theater in 2005.^[1] In 1978, he served as Theater Director of the Manila Metropolitan Theater.^[6]

Over the course of his career, he directed and produced over 170 productions. He mentored some of the country's most prominent theater artists, such as Shamaine Centenera, Irma Adlawan, Nonie Buencamino, Eugene Domingo, Frances Makil-Ignacio, and Neil Ryan Sese.^[3]

Mabesa died on October 4, 2019, aged 84, in Manila.^[7]