The CCP will be adding a new theater Nickky Faustine P. de Guzman OVER THE past two years, the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP) has presented 1,169 productions with 24,000 performances, gathering around 685,000 guests said CCP vice-president and artistic director Chris Millado during the institutional press conference on Oct. 29.    RELATED STORIES CCP to hold literary fest CCP 13 Artists: of bones and dirt Cinemalaya holds open auditions at the CCP Words of Wisdom If you want drama, watchTosca In line with the increases in performances and audiences, the CCP announced that in two weeks it will be breaking ground for its Black Box Theater, the project of an unnamed philanthropist. “I won’t divulge [his name] yet. It’s a feng shui thing. He believes in it,” said Mr. Millado. The 350-seat, multi-space theater, designed by Leandro Locsin Associates, will be built right behind the Production Design Center at the back of the main CCP building.  “We are seeking mid-year next year for it to be completed. With hope, we can use it by September or October,” said Mr. Millado. The Black Box Theater will be part of a bigger, 1,000-seat theater.  The CCP however is still looking for the funding for the bigger theater, whose groundbreaking is targeted for 2017. ENCYCLOPEDIA CCP also announced that it would unveil a new edition of the Encyclopedia of Philippine Art sometime in mid-2016. The first edition was released back in 1994.  The 12-volume book will serve as reference material on the history of the various Philippine art forms (music, dance, theater, architecture, visual arts, broadcast arts, literature, and film), with essays, biographies, and bibliographies. The book has been in the works for the past three years. It will have physical and electronic versions. BUSY YEAR It will be a busy year at the CCP in 2016, with arts festivals, a theater festival, concerts, dances and, or course, its popular film festival Cinemalaya. Visitors will get a taste of what is to come at the Pasinaya, the CCP’s annual free festival which gives visitors a taste of the performances and more that are coming in the year. It will be held on Feb. 6 and 7. Among the year’s major projects are the Manila Fringe Festival on Feb. 10 to 28; a post-Valentine concert called Hugot Pa More, Kakakilig 2 by the Philippine Madrigal Singers; the Virgin Labfest 12 on June 29 to July 10; and Ballet Philippines’ Swan Lake on Nov. 28 to Dec. 12. CINEMALAYA Then there’s the Cinemalaya Independent Film Festival which will be held from Aug. 4 to 14.  Only short films were shown in this year’s festival to give the producers of the full-length movie entries ample time to work on their productions after businessman Antonio “Tony Boy” Cojuanco stopped funding the festival. “Tony Boy Cojuangco stopped putting funds [this year] in subsidizing but he is still part of foundation, which I think is a much better deal.  Now CCP has been given subsidies by the government. Tony Boy is still on top of sustaining the Cinemalaya Foundation,” said Mr. Millado. Given the circumstance for this year’s festival -- the 11th -- the CCP expected a decline in the number of moviegoers.  “We reduced the number of screenings and we only had the short films. But the upside was we had the best attendance in short films.  There was 200% increase in attendance. It’s about time to make audiences realize that short film is a genre,” he said. Next year, there will be 10 full-length films in competition, together with short and Asian movies.