WHEN FAIRIES BECOME FILMSTARS.....

Hans Eckstein as Oberon.....






Red Concepcion as Puck.....






Miguel Faustmann (Willie Hayes, Left) And Robbie Zialcita (Max Reinhardt, Right).....








Caisa Borromeo as Olivia.....








Cris Villonco as Lydia.....






Arnel Carrion is Jack Warner.....




Reuben Uy plays Dick Powell (Left), Topper Fabregas as Daryl (Far Right).....






Nick Campos is Joe E. Brown....






Joy Virata plays Louella Parsons (Right).....







I am fascinated with Shakespeare! It is amazing to see his works adapted into movie screenplays then turned into films. The movies make me understand his stories better, as I do find his way of writing dialogues a little complicated for me. I admit, I haven't read a single Shakespearean book and I think that my unfamiliarity with his written works is the reason behind this difficulty.

But I do not like some of these Shakespeare films. I have to check the director of a movie before I decide whether I would watch it or not. Films like "Romeo and Juliet" which had Leo DiCaprio and Claire Danes and directed by Baz Luhrmann was fantastic. So was "Shakespeare in Love" which starred Joseph Fiennes and Gwyneth Paltrow with John Madden as director. But I can not say the same of "Much Ado About Nothing", a film that boasts an all star cast led by Denzel Washington and Keanu Reeves. Its screenplay was written and at the same time directed by well known Shakespearean actor Kenneth Branagh. Branagh's roots made him stick to the conventional treatment of Shakespeare. And this meant sticking to the fast pace cadence when the actors speak their long, rhyming lines.

This is not my first time to watch a live Shakespeare play. Surprisingly, I quite enjoyed it. I guess me keeping an open mind and not letting my bias get the best of me made me appreciate the play more. It also was awesome to watch local actors show their acting chops and adapt to the Shakespeare line delivery that I mentioned before. Some, like Cris Villonco, even portrayed a character out of her box, that of a blonde bimbo who is the movie producer's girlfriend, hence her inclusion in the movie set.

The title of the play is "Shakespeare In Hollywood". Set in 1934, Shakespeare's most famous fairies Oberon and Puck have magically materialized on a Warner Bros. Hollywood set of Max Reinhardt's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". The two get instantly smitten by the glitz and glamor of show business as they are ushered onto the movie to play, who else but themselves!

Oberon unexpectedly falls in love to a mortal, Olivia who is the actress playing Hermia. The villain in this story is Willie Hayes, the motion picture censor who wrote the Hayes Code. Hayes thinks that the script of the movie does not conform to his prudishly restrictive code and threatens to shut down filming of the movie. With his movie career and love in jeopardy, Oberon orders Puck to find the flower that "makes a man/woman madly dote upon the live creature he first sees". The merry go round starts but all is sorted out in the end.

Hans Eckstein plays Oberon with Red Concepcion as Puck. Robbie Zialcita is director Max Reinhardt and Arnel Carrion plays movie producer Jack Warner. Miguel Faustmann is the hilarious Willie Hayes and Reuben Uy is cast as Dick Powell. Topper Fabregas is Daryl, Jack Warner's PA. Nick Campos is Joe E. Brown while Rem Zamora has a cameo as James Cagney. Female leads are Caisa Borromeo as the actress Olivia, Cris Villonco plays blonde bombshell Lydia and Joy Virata is Louella Parsons. The production is directed by Jaime del Mundo.

A quick note. Some of the photos may seem blurred, but this is intentional. The actors are constantly moving and I wanted to show movement in some of the pictures hence the blurry output. Besides, if I wanted a perfect portrait, I could have asked them to pose in their costumes but I do not want to be a nuisance to the actors.