1.

Primary Schooling: Assumption Convent, Iloilo City

Secondary Schooling: In home province
-participated in many plays (and in veladas of her town)
College- University of the Philippines
-First Intercollegiate Girl (1934), bright student and campus figure
-Corps sponsor of UP Cadet Corpos (1935)
-President of Womens Club (1936)
-Graduated Bachelor of Philosophy (1937)
2. Masters- UST (merissitimus= summa cum laude)
Ph. D UST, same year, Doctorate in Humanities (honoris causa)
-outstanding alumna in the humanities
3. Lamberto V. Avellana- married in 1938, she was 21, he was 23
-Graduated in Ateneo de Manila, AB, Magna Cum Laude ,
-National Artist for Theatre and Film, Multi-awardee for national and
international film achievements (Anak Dalita, Badjao, El Legado,
Campana de Baier), Recipient of Tanglaw ng Lahi award, Araw ng
Maynila cultural awardee for film and stage direction in 1964
4. They had 2 sons and 2 daughters All are accomplished and recognized
a. Jose Mari- playwright, scriptwriter, screen play writer, stage and film
actor-director
b. Marivi/Ivi- talented actress-painter
c. Lamberto Jr-sound and musical director
-activities and laurels did not stop her from being a good wife and mother
5. wrote plays, directed, acted, produced and adapted plays for the stage, radio
and television, written movie scripts, did researches
7. Writing: -Society editor of Philippines Herald
-Womans editor Promenade magazine
-Wrote several short stories
-one received 3rd place in Philippine Free Press National Short
Story Contest
-another was listed among the 20 best Filipino short stories in
1945
- Sakay, First Screen Story, won all awards in 1938 and considered the
first significant milestone in the progress of Philippine motion pictures
(also Mr Avellanas first venture in movie directing)
-Articles on Filipino theater for various national magazines used as
college reference materials
-one was utilized for the 1961 seminar of UNESCO in
Manila

-Wrote adaptation of Nick Joaquins play A portrait of the Artist as

Filipino
-Presented by Barangay in 1955, ran for 2 years,
considered by reviewers and audiences as the most notable production
ever to be locally produced
(Author and co-author of films Sakay Anak-Dalita and
Badjao, directed by her husband. These received world acclaim
during their time)
(Scriptwriter of film classics La Campana and all these are
but one)
-Barangay Theater Guild (1939, with her husband)
-Active on stage, radio, television and movies
-Presents plays, dramatic readings, documentaries and replays
-1952= first local dramatic readings, and first Shakespearean
presentations outside of college groups
8. Acting -Drama coach:

St. Paul College (1949-55)

St. Scholasticas College (1959-61)
Centro Escular University (1939)
-Director of Stage Plays:
St. Theresas College
College of the Holy Spirit
UST College of Medicine
Far Eastern University
Assumption Convent
(Director of opera Diego Silang (1968) and Severino Reyes Walang
Sugat (1971-72, highly successful old-time favorite zarzuela) and was
assistant director for Nick Joaquins Camino Real)
9. Played parts. People went to:
Ancient Greece- played Medea and Hecube in Trojan Women by Euripides
Old France- Played Joan of Arc in Joan of Lorraine
United States- as Mary Tyrone in Long Days Journey into Night by ONeill
- As Cristina Mennon in modern adaptation of Oresteia of
Aeschylus titled Morning becomes Electra by ONeill
Shakespeares England- as Lady Macbeth in Macbeth in Black
- As Queen Gertrude in Hamlet
- As Desdemona in Othello
Philippines- as Candida in A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino
- As Dona Lupeng in Tatarin both by National Artist Nick Joaquin
As Gertrude in her adaptation of Gertrude Steins biography
10. Membership -Sole woman member of the Radio Broadcasting Board
-National Commission on Moving Pictures, Radio and Television

-Board of Directors of Documentary Incorporated (family

corporation which produces documentaries and commercial films)
-Cultural Activities Committee chairperson
-Executive board member and member of cultural activities
committee of UNESCO National Commission of the Philippines (1969-1972)
-Board member of executive committee of Drama Federation of
the Philippines
-Vice Chair of the Board of Review for Motion Pictures and
Television
(Judge at Palanca Memorial Awards for Literature)
11. Awards
Magazine, 1952)

-Woman of the Year for Theater (Weekly Womens

-2 Certificates of Merit for Outstanding Achievement in Drama

(College Editors Guild Alumni Association, 1954)
-Outstanding Young Personality in Theater (Sunday Times
Magazine, 1955) all the awardees in the magazine series were men except for the
awardee in theater
-Presidential Award: Ramon Magsaysay Awardee for Outstanding
Work in Theater (1956)
-Woman of Achievement for Theater (Woman and the Home,
magazine section of the Manila Chronicle, 1963)
-Araw ng Maynila Cultural Award for Drama
-National Artist Award (Artista ng Bayan) for Theater
Gifted not only with genuine talent but also with discipline, dedication,
selflessness and love for the art and for people
Lived a fruitful, significant, eminent life as a stage actress a record very hard
to surpass or even equal.
Our rehearsals as the former Avellana home in San Juan were not confined to
hard work. There were, moments of humorous and enlightening exchanges that
showed a loving and motherly person, one who exuded affection without
affectation (Carpio, 2003)
Hardly took no for an answer when she offered you a role.
Perfect lady through and through: prim, proper, unadulterated and
uncorrupted by trivial things, unfazed by envious and unkind remarks that do
happen in art circles every now and then.