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.

A SESSION WITH THE JOY LUCK CLUB.....

The Mothers Of The Joy Luck Club.....
















And Their Daughters.....















The Moon Lady And Houyi, Her Archer Husband.....






Stealing The Pill Of Immortality.....






Heading Towards The Moon.....







It came as a surprise to me that Repertory Philippines' initial offering for 2011 will be scheduled this February. The stage group normally opens its calendar year with a performance in January and not this month. Checking out their website for the line up and schedule of their performances, it seems like they have another play to stage on March (Alfred Hitchcock's The 39 Steps), a different one on April (Shakespeare in Hollywood) and a musical for August until December (Seussical). All of these are going to be performed at Greenbelt One in Makati. They also are going to perform at the Meralco Theater from September to October as they present Peter Pan.

Back to the present though. For the start of this year, they are presenting The Joy Luck Club. Written by Susan Kim and based on Amy Tan's novel of the same title, The Joy Luck Club is the tale of 4 women who all come from China then moved to the US as immigrants and their 4 American born daughters. In 1949, the elder women meet one time at the First Chinese Baptist Church in a mah jong session and became friends, calling their mah jong group The Joy Luck Club. Each mother recounts her past and the kind of relationship that they have with their daughters and reveals the events that shaped up what they are now.

The play is directed by acclaimed Filipino professor in the theater arts Anton Juan and the cast includes Pinky Marquez, Rebecca Chuaunsu, Jay Glorioso and Frances Makil Ignacio as the mothers with Lily Chu, Ana Abad Santos, Jenny Jamora and Cris Villonco as their daughters. The play runs from February 4 to 20, Fridays and Saturdays, 8 pm, Saturdays and Sundays at 3:30 pm at Onstage Greenbelt One in Makati.

One thing I noticed about the cast is I am not familiar with the 3 elder female leads. Pinky, Ana, Jenny and Cris belong to a stable of Repertory talents who I am quite familiar with. Part of Ms. Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo's thrust is to make the cast more "open". Perhaps being open means employing theater actors outside of Repertory Philippines' pool of actors.

Repertory Philippines is ongoing a sort of transition at present. Ms.Lauchengco-Yulo is the new associate artistic director and has replaced Ms. Joy Virata. Her vision for the theater company is to make it more up to date by presenting newer plays that has never been shown to Philippine audiences and increase the number of stage play performances, reasoning out that Repertory did start as a stage play ensemble.

I am looking forward to these subtle changes that Ms. Lauchengco-Yulo has done for Repertory. And I do hope that more and more Filipinos will come out, will appreciate and will enjoy these performances.

FIDDLER ON THE ROOF.....

The Manila Symphony Orchestra.....





Tevye (Miguel Faustmann) And The Male Ensemble.....





Golde (Pinky Marquez) And The Female Ensemble.....





Cris Villonco Leads The Teens.....





Tzeitel and Golde.....





Hodel.....





Tevye, The Poor Dairyman.....





Avrahm And Two VIllagers.....





Tevye's Family With Guests.....





Lazar Wolf.....





Lovebirds Tzietel And Motel.....





The Villagers Merrymaking.....





The Matchmaker.....





The Ghost Of Christmas Past?!?.....





Fyedka, Chava And The Villagers.....





An Awesome Wedding.....





The Fiddler on the Stage.....




I first heard and watched this play when I was in highschool. During one of our alloted AVR time in school, my class watched the original film version of it. What I can recall about this film was the beautiful and catchy music, from the song of the main lead character singing, "If I was a rich man, doobeedebeedeebeedee....." to the group singing of "Sunrise, sunset!", what is there not to like? However, I could not recall the film's story line. All I can remember is that it features a fiddler, it involves tradition and is set in a Jewish community in Russia. I also recall that the movie is a great film, or else my AVR teacher, who is a nun, won't be letting her wards to watch it.

As the photo club I belong to reached an agreement with Repertory Philippines as main picture providers of photographs to be used in press releases, advertising and even for their souvenir programs, we were asked to take photos of their dress rehearsals. And this gave me a chance to refresh my memory and watch the story of Tevye unfold once again.

I really am so impressed with the quality of stage actors and actresses that our country has. For an English as a foreign language speaking nation, we can compete and show others that we can produce English speaking theater productions as a native English speaking country can. And we are versatile enough that we can do varied roles.

Fiddler on the Roof is the last theater production of Repertory Philippines for the year 2007. It formally starts on the 9th of November and runs until December 16. Venue is Greenbelt 1 Onstage. Directed by Baby Barredo and Robbie Guevarra.

SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE.....

"Where art thou?"





Two Characters From The Play.....





Hans Eckstein And Jenny Jamora.....





The Female Ensemble.....


















The Boyband.....






Main Actors Nicolo Manahan And Chris Villonco.....





As much as I love theater plays, it seems that I have a limit in what play appeals to me and what doesn't. I once watched a theater play in London, Tennessee Williams' "Cat On A Hot Tin Roof" which featured Brendan Fraser (such a hunk of a man! (swoon!)) as Brick Pollit, an aging ex-football hero who neglects his wife (Frances Mcdermond) and further infuriates her when he ignores his brother's attempts to gain control of the family fortune. I haven't seen it before nor do I have the knowledge about the plot. But I was able to get the gist and plot of the play just like I was watching a movie. Cool! So when I was asked to take photographs of the dress rehearsal of the Repertory Philippines' production of Love's Labor's Lost, I agreed to do so.

I guess I am not a big Bard fan, of his literary works that is! I had so much trouble catching up with the lines and that I couldn't even get the main plot line. Perhaps it would have been better if I was completely focused on the play and not on taking pictures. It might have increased my comprehension to understand it. To think that The Bard happens to be the greatest writer that I even wanted to go to his hometown at Stratford Upon Avon in England to pay homage to him. If the time comes that my headaches clear, that I don't have internet connection, that I don't have a shoot, that I am just inside the house and that I actually have a Shakespeare book with me, then I probably have no choice but read the book and see for myself if I can really dig Shakespeare's words or not! Any suggestions on what story should I read first?

Bart Guingona directed this one. Epy Quizon, Nic Manahan, Hans Eckstein, Gabs Santos, Micah Munoz, Jenny Jamora, Cris Villonco, Crisel Consunji, Caisa Borromeo make up the lead and they are ably supported by Ana Bitong, Oliver Usison, Jejie Esguerra, Kenneth Keng, Pom Docena, Dingdong Rosales and Bonngoy Manahan. Although the play was written and thus patterned during Shakespeare's time, Guingona actually adapted it to fit the present setting which by Bart's choice is the 80's. A part of the play where the female cast sing a song that describes them as a group, they actually where humming and singing rubbish lyrics of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun". Surely the song didn't exist during Shakespear's time. But Bart believed that the play's theme is timeless. Whether the setting is during the time when kings and princeses reign or when people's power is the in thing, the plot will work.

Bless his heart. I hope that people will flock and go to the theater to watch this performance. Hey! They should be! This is a comedy! This is Shakespeare!