Evo & Grace: The WanderLusts

Roselyn Perez returns to the PETA stage with Rody Vera’s Under My Skin , a provocative, relevant, and heart-wrenching drama top-billed by esteemed TV, film, and theater actors Cherry Pie Picache and Roselyn Perez. Inspired by real people and events, the play accurately depicts the realities, triumphs, and struggles of people living with HIV, while  navigating an important conversation about  acceptance and tolerance. Cherry Pie and Roselyn share the role of Dr. Gemma Almonte, an epidemiologist studying the spread of the virus in the Philippines. Through her, we discover different stories of love, pain, and acceptance with a number of characters, who are inspired from real people and events . In 2015, Roselyn took on a similar role of a doctor in yet another HIV-advocacy play, The Normal Heart by Actor’s Actors, Inc. and The Necessary Theatre. Her highly praised performance garnered her a nomination for Best Female Featured Performance in a Play in the PHILSTAG...

The Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) closes its 52 nd Theater Season and welcomes the first quarter of 2020 with Rody Vera’s Under My Skin , a provocative, relevant, and heart-wrenching drama anthology top-billed by multi-awarded actress Cherry Pie Picache. Inspired by real people and events, the play accurately depicts the realities, triumphs, and struggles of people living with HIV, while  navigating an important conversation about  acceptance and tolerance. The play, which is part of PETA’s creative campaign “Acting on HIV”, aims to re-examine the issue of HIV and AIDS, as the numbers of recorded cases rapidly increase every day . “I’ve always wanted to do a play with PETA, so I am very excited to be finally doing it now,” Cherry Pie shares. “Most of what I’ve been doing lately is getting involved with different advocacies. So when our director and my good friend Melvin Lee told me that Under My Skin is going to be an advocacy play on HIV, I ...

This is “The Quest for the Adarna”, REP’s Theater for Young Audiences (RTYA) season-ender for 2019. A musicale targeting the young kids but will also appeal to the not so young (those who had Ibong Adarna in their schools). The play was written in English for a much wider audience. This was Repertory Theater’s first adaptation of a Filipino classic literature. An adventure themed play set in the magical kingdom of Berbania. Relieve the timeless Filipino classic in a visually interactive theatrical play, done the REP way. A very simple yet effective set, paired with some awesome music and choreography and a powerhouse cast complete this highly engaging show. Everyone who have taken Ibong Adarna in high school can relate to the story of the royal family and the three princes’ quest to capture Adarna to cure their father, King Fernando’s illness. All eyes will be at the adventurous journey of the Princes, through the colorful light show, great music and dance easy to absorb li...

Bibeth Orteza is Pilar Tanghalang Ateneo is honoring women in their 41 st season with Dolorosa by Peter Zaragoza Mayshle under the direction of Jenny Jamora, it opens last August 16 at The Doreen Black Box, Arts Wing of Arete inside Ateneo De Manila University campus in Quezon City. They call this season as Ecriture Feminine, Sulat Babae in short The Women’s Season. It is not easy watching Dolorosa, this is a 3-hour play set in three different periods of Philippine history starting at Spanish colonialization, to Japanese occupation and at the present time, it tells a story of a family from a father who artistically creates a Mater Dolorosa statue and later lost it, and her only child Pilar who explore the unknown world trying to find that important missing family patrimony that she can pass to her children. Even though there are breaks in between hour of the play, Dolorosa is full of confusion at first set, giving you many questions on what is going on, you can feel t...

Peña and Villarama’s Outstanding Portrayals of Senga and Ever An original playwright by Mark St. Germain, Dancing Lessons is a contemporary story of two individuals making way-out of their comfort zones, only to find an unexpected relationship. Jill Peña and Randy Villarama on Twin Bill’s Dancing Lessons With the company’s objective of staging acts that stir minds for constructive societal revolution and creating a venue for formal dialogues on issues plaguing man’s current societal conditions, Twin Bill’s Dancing Lessons puts a spotlight on Asperger’s syndrome-a developmental difference characterised by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication, along with restricted and repetitive patterns of behaviour and interests. Inspired by a real people, the play revolves on the story of two individuals ,an injured dancer and a professor with the Asperger’s condition, as they embark on a journey of self-discovery and stepping out of their comfort zone...

The Cast of Dani Girl (Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz) 5 years after, the exhilarating musical by Michael Kooman and Christopher Diamond’s Dani Girl is making a comeback this 2019 still produce by The Sandbox Collective with 9 Works Theatrical. It’s a story of 9-year-old girl Dani Lyon that is stricken with cancer , and her magical and transformative journey, together with her fellow warrior and best friend Marty, they go along with imaginary game shows, to outer space and all the silly games in between. This is a comeback directorial for Toff De Venecia after he first produces and directs it in 2014. This year’s production is very much new in all aspect according to him, there are talkbacks after each show and strong multimedia effects were added in this re-staging. Dani and Marty (Photo by Erickson Dela Cruz) “I love it because it’s about overcoming adversity, I love that it celebrates human agency, parang it celebrates a child's imagination and fighting spirits,...

(Photo by Ericson Dela Cruz)   Artist Playground latest production Laro by Floy Quintos, explore the realness of love and lust of gay life, present in an interlocking story one from another, connecting dots to pieces making you realize that particular scene is familiar, maybe it’s your bisexual friend who has that kind of scenario. Andre Miguel as Callboy in Laro (Ericson Dela Cruz) Set in a dark mood introduce through a smoking character, black background with dice design as stage props, and lo and behold, men in trunks and in boxers that ends in an orgy finale of all the actors. Vince De Jesus as always is prolific in the last two acts, but it was Andre Miguel who gives us a surprise performance, his very natural and should we say organic theater acting made us love him for his portrayal in this play. We feel that Al Gatmatan is somehow looking tense in his performance, he is shaking a bit actually during the press preview. Vince De Jesus and Andre Miguel Af...

 As passionate as the story, Repertory Philippines latest production is a power house casting with no less than Audie Gemora and Teroy Guzman as the main lead, base on the British play by Ronald Harwood that tell a story about loyalty and dedication to theater, staged in war period where a production of King Lear is being mounted. Gemora play Norman, a very passionate Dresser to Teroy Character as Sir, the main star of their play whose life is colorful as the role he plays in many stages show they are doing, it talks about friendship above all its loyalty that matter. The Dresser we must say is a showcase of prowess acting, how great all the actors in bringing life to their characters, plus the challenge of its accent in a beautiful production set believing you are really in a backstage of a theater set. Loy Arcenas of the fame MMFF Best Picture “Ang Larawan” is the Director, in his talk after the show he admit it is something new to him and he became curious of di...

Last April 12, 2018 a press Launch was held at Oriental Palace Tomas Morato for Binondo, A Tsinoy Musical.Produced by Dr. Rebecca Shangkuan Chuaunsu, this musical is based on a love story told to her by a man he met during one of her trips to Mainland China some 32 years ago.She said that the story never left her and is etched on her memory and what better way to retell it more but by making it into a musical.  She then contacted her mentor, Director Joel Lamangan to direct the play and the piece has been translated into a musical by master writer/storyteller, Ricky Lee. BINONDO revolves around Lily, a hopeless romantic who searches for true love.She finds her unlikely true love in the person of AH TIONG, a Chinese man she met on one of the fullest moons ever recorded on the birth date of GE Lao, the Chinese deity of Love. What makes the story even more exciting is the fact that there is a third person involved ( a love triangle) in the person of Carlos, a Chinese childhood f...

Last November 17, 2017, Repertory Philippines (REP) held the opening show of Hair as the year-end grand musicale for its 50th anniversary season. Filling the pot with hippie culture and lots of love, this Broadway acclaimed hit will surely give a high to its audience. Set in 60’s America, the musicale circles around the culture of a tribe that thrives on the idea of society that mainly believes principles of love, peace and freedom. Caught up in an era of cold war, human rights revolution and birth of nuclear age, a flourishing tribe wages its own war against the society’s norm and creating a harmonious world in the age of Aquarius. As Claude, starred by Markki Stroem, found his free-spirited rebirth on the tribe will find himself in a dilemma of whether living up to his tribe’s principle or giving up his anti-war beliefs to please his own parents by signing up for a draft in Vietnam War. Tribal-rock jams and psychedelic lights and moves will accompany Claude and the tribe i...