Alberto Florentino was 23 when, as an accounting student at the University of the East, he won a Palanca award for his play, "The World is an Apple." This success at his first serious attempt at playwriting made him abandon his accounting
studies to become a writer. He has since written more than 50 plays for stage and more than 100 for television, besides having published seven collections of his own plays and more than 70 titles by other Filipino authors. He is today considered
one of the foremost Filipino playwrights in English.
Alberto Florentino is one of the best and certainly well known Filipino playwrights. He won the Philippines' prestigious Palanca Award in 1954 with his play, "The World is an Apple". From that time on, he has been incredibly prolific and a listing
of his works can fill a small booklet. As important as his art, however, is his personal effort to get published the works of numerous emerging as well as fairly established Filipino writers, often times using his own resources. In addition,
he has attempted to share the art world with a mass audience, through a television art show called "Balintaw" series. The Philippine American Foundation honored Mr. Florentino for his "philanthropic" efforts to assist other writers over the years and
to share his vision of art with as many people as possible.
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