On a recent Monday at a P75-per-beer-bottle bar in Makati City, five original one-act-plays written by actor-director-playwright-producer Joel Trinidad were the main attractions for the night. Also having a good time with the Makati yuppies and some expats was Noel Trinidad. Gray-haired and still with the perpetually smiling face, the veteran theater-film-TV actor-host-comedian was all but proud of his son.
Local theaterdom is abuzz with Trumpets big musical comeback, “The Bluebird of Happiness” which opened a couple of weeks ago at the Meralco Theater.
It was 1977. The world was going to change for Menchu Lauchengco, 15, a high school student, but she didn’t know it yet.
At the CCP Little Theater last July 5, musical theater actor Audie Gemora candidly recalled to a sold-out house his five-second audition for “Miss Saigon,” back when the musical’s creative team had just discovered the goldmine of homegrown Filipino talent.
“I decided to trace my journey as a musical theater actor from the time I accidentally stumbled onto the stage, to going into it as a profession,” says singing actor Audie Gemora. “I will mark milestones in my long 33-year career with songs relevant to that journey. That’s why I chose to title the concert ‘I Was Here.’”
It is an industry term, we were told the other day. The term “triple threat” in the theater world refers to a performer who can sing, dance and act at the same time.
COUNT THEM—22 productions in just the first five months of the year, from the small two-character drama (“Red”) to the all-stops-out musical extravaganza (“Ibalong,” “Katy”). Local theater is at its most prolific and exciting in years; and so, before the last days of summer ring the curtain down on the old season to usher in the new by June—and with memory the only antidote to the ephemeral nature of theater—we thought we’d look back and salute the performances that lit up the stage and occasioned cheers in the previous months.
This summer, why not bring theater appreciation to the next level by learning how to act? Various theater groups are conducting acting workshops—basic and advance—fit for children, teenagers and adults.
The last time we witnessed Audie Gemora on stage, he was a serial killer-barber in Repertory Philippines’ “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street” (2009), expertly slashing the throats of clueless customers whose flesh then became the main ingredient in pies that London feasted on.
REPERTORY PHILIPPINES presents “No Way To Treat A Lady,” a musical comedy-thriller based on the 1964 novel of the same name by William Goldman, which was made into a motion picture in 1968.
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