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.

WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?.....ROMANCE?.....

Isabel Fox, Played by Ana Santos.....





Charles Norton, Acted Out by Audie Gemora.....





Pinky Marquez as Ruth Norton.....





Chinggoy Alonzo as George Fox.....

















I have never missed a photo op when called upon. Though agreeing to come to shoot one depends on whether I love the subject and the concept enough for me to show up. I have said it a million times (well probably a few times in this blog), I love watching theater plays. And to come across a play that is not a musical and whose storyline I have no idea, is somewhat a challenging task for me.

For the club's next project with Repertory, we were tasked to shoot a romantic comedy. Romance in D was written by James Sherman and is about the tale of two lonely people; Isabel Fox played by Anna Santos and Charles Norton played by Audie Gemora. Supporting the two were Pinky Marquez, who takes the role of Ruth who is George's mother and Chinggoy Alonzo who is Isabel's father George.

I was late for about 30 minutes. By the time I arrived, I had a few minutes left to shoot some frames until the intermission came. I was stuck in a terrible traffic jam, making me wish that I should have taken the MRT going to Makati instead.

Too bad that I didn't get to start the play. It seemed interesting and funny enough for it to even elicit a laugh among the handful of watchers who were there. Me? Well I just decided to concentrate on taking the pictures than watching the play that I didn't start watching in the first place. But I liked the ending though, with each couple finding their true loves..... Sweet!!!!!

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.