Beginnings
Started off as a wild idea of a then newbie writer, Patrick Almaden with his friends Allan Bengco, Ziegfred Tercias, Michael Lu, and Stanley Rovira. These were the first five who thought it was a great idea but thought that it was too ambitious, given their limited resources at that time. Almaden believed otherwise.
After seeking the approval of his friends to help him mount his first production, Patrick was unable to convince any of them except for one, Allan. Known to his friends for being the businessman in the gang, he rather saw it as a good business opportunity. So the fateful deal was closed between the producer and the writer.
The first production the company produced came to life on December 16, 1995, on the little open stage of a small Elementary School in Makati City called Francisco Benitez. The same school where he, his brother paulo and tope navarra, who would later become it's directors, spent their grade school years at.
"Lakas lang ng loob ang puhunan" he states when asked how he managed to convince the school administrators to help him sell tickets of an unknown play from an unknown writer.
He recalls how he even came up with a weird name for a theatre company, AGHAM,which literally meant "Sciences". "Noong tinanong ako ng principal kung ano ang pangalan ng grupo, naisip ko 'shet, wala pa nga pala kaming pangalan'..." (When the principal asked me what the name of the group was I thought "oh shit, I never thought of that"...) With all spontaneity, Almaden responded "AGHAM po", while reading it off the wall of a Science classroom. It took the principal a couple of minutes to realize that it was such a weird name, and it bought the reckless Patrick enough time to think of what it means. - Angking Galing at Husay sa Arte at Musika.
The principal bought the idea, and the date was set, but it didn't end there, the story actually began there.
The date was set and the deal was closed for a script that was never completed. As they rehearsed, Almaden wrote the script in one room while his assistant director and best-friend Ziegfred directed the clueless elementary students on the other room. Among the elementary students was the future director of the company, Christoper Navarra. Tope would then play the character Bulas for the longest running, and signature piece of the company, Patrick Almaden's ALAMAT.
