Floy Quintos, Award-Winning Playwright, Passes Away at 63
Family and the arts and culture community mourn his sudden passing.
(SPOT.ph) Floy Quintos, beloved multi award-winning playwright, died suddenly due to a heart attack on Saturday, his family announced. He was 63.
“It is with the heaviest of hearts that I, on behalf of my family, announce that Floy Quintos, esteemed playwright and director, but more importantly beloved brother, son, uncle, cousin, nephew, and friend, has returned to the arms of the Lord,” said his niece Celina Quintos in a Facebook post. “We ask for your prayers, love, and support as we navigate this tremendous loss."
Celina is the daughter of Floy's brother Joji. Floy is the eldest of three siblings. According to Celina, Floy's father passed away in 2022 and his mother in 1996.
A Cultural Icon
Quintos, winner of multiple Palanca awards, is behind some of the Philippines’ most thought-provoking plays that tastefully blur the lines between history and fiction.
“Floy Quintos was a beacon of Philippine culture and the arts, but also shone so much firelight for the people closest to him. The country, the world, and our home are much darker with this light snuffed out too soon. We hope to share our light with each other through this time,” wrote Celina.
Just before Quintos’ death, his new play Grace, which tackles the supposed 1948 Marian apparitions at the Carmelite monastery in Lipa, Batangas, was scheduled to take the stage.
Speaking to SPOT.ph earlier this month in what was perhaps one of his last interviews, Quintos said of Grace:
“My last two plays, The Kundiman Party and The Reconciliation Dinner dealt with the ways in which we resist the established powers. Soc Med (social media) played a large part in these two plays. The story of Lipa Carmel was a chance to explore the idea of Faith and quiet, personal Resistance in a culture where the ‘spirit of death’ was a pervasive factor that was used to silence Sister Teresing and the nuns of Lipa Carmel,” he said.
His 2017 biographical opus Angry Christ tackles how the Filipino-American artist Alfonso Ossorio created his masterpiece The Last Judgement, which depicts an angry Jesus Christ, hence the name it eventually became known for.
The play ventured into Ossorio’s internal struggles throughout his creative process, and how these inevitably lent themselves into his artwork depicting Jesus Christ in a pensive mood-- one rarely seen in Catholic imagery.
In Kundiman Party (2019), he talks about resisting the establishment through the central character Maestra Adela, a rebel soprano who used music as a form of activism.
Remembering Floy Quintos
Upon hearing of his passing, those who had the privilege of working with Quintos took to social media to mourn his death and recall their times with the playwright and stage director.
Actor Audie Gemora memorialized Quintos on X, sharing a photo of himself and Quintos in a tight embrace.
“A giant in Philippine theater has suddenly passed. So hard to let go, Floy Quintos,” he said.
Historian Xiao Chua, meanwhile, shared how Quintos was a joy to work with. He said Quintos treated him with respect despite his stature and seniority in cultural work.
"Direk Floy, sobrang gaan mong katrabaho. I felt respected kahit mas nakababata ako sa iyo tapos anlaki-laki mong figure sa kultura natin, tapos kahit magaling ka sa history lagi mo akong tinatanong pa rin, at kahit minsan pinapakita mo inis mo pag makulit ako, hindi ka naman nagsasawang pahalagahan ako sa iyong mga magagandang komento. Branding mo nga sa akin “People’s Historian.” Marami ang malungkot ngayong araw na ito because your kindness knows no bounds. It is the honor of my life to work with you,” he said in a post on X.
The Quintos family is finalizing arrangements for his wake at the Arlington Memorial Chapels.
Also Read: Floy Quintos' Take On 'Lipa Miracle' Is Next Big Theater Event