Two Filipinos design for Broadway's 'Once on This Island'

By WALTER ANG
Dec. 30, 2017
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Two Tony Award-winning Filipinos are involved in the Broadway revival of the musical "Once on This Island."

Costume design of "Once on This Island" by Clint Ramos.
Photo by Joan Marcus

Lea Salonga plays Erzulie, deity of love, while Clint Ramos designed the costumes.

Variety praised Salonga for her "meltingly sung" role. Hollywood Reporter also commended her voice as being of "ageless purity and light," a compliment echoed by TheWrap.com, which opined that her "singing voice retains a vocal purity that continues to astonish."

Salonga was last seen on Broadway in the musical "Allegiance" in 2015. She won the Tony for best actress as Kim in the Broadway premiere of "Miss Saigon" in 1991-the first Asian and Filipino to win in this category.

READ an interview with Lea Salonga 
about her work in "Allegiance" here.

Surprising places

Ramos, on the other hand, won a Tony last year for his costume design for "Eclipsed" (for which he also designed the set), a play that starred Lupita N'yongo. He is also the first Asian and Filipino to win in this category.

READ about Clint Ramos' Tony win here.

For "Once on This Island," Ramos said his research for the costume design was "mainly of Haiti, which is the French Antilles, a culture that is deeply informed by its relationship to nature and its wrath. I hoped to capture the resilience of a people after a natural disaster like a hurricane. Then, we are hoping that it will veer off to surprising places."

Tony award winner Clint Ramos.
Photo by Dimitrious Kambouris/ClintRamos.com

Ramos said being raised in the Philippines allowed him an informed perspective for designing "Once on This Island."

"Having grown up in the islands and living life under the constant presence of natural calamities made designing for it easily accessible for me. Like Haitians, the Filipinos are one of the most resilient people in the word. Also, the idea that we can tell each other stories to buoy each other's experiences and to catapult us to action is a very Filipino thing."

Off-Broadway beginnings

Before Ramos, another Filipino was involved in "Once on This Island." The musical's Broadway premiere in 1990 had costume and set designer and director Loy Arcenas doing its set.

"It premiered Off Broadway at Playwrights Horizons Theater before it moved to Broadway at the Booth Theater," recalled Arcenas. "The brilliant La Chanze created the role of Ti Moune"-the lead peasant girl who falls in love with a boy from the wealthy set of the island.

Arcenas' design was composed of a backdrop and wings (panels at the sides of the stage) that were painted with imagery of hills and palm trees against a blue sky. The backdrop was actually a scrim that would reveal actions behind it.

The New York Times described the imagery as "Chagall-goes-tropical" with inspirations from "Rousseau, Matisse, Hockney, Mexican and Filipino Christmas ornaments, American weather vanes and Haitian metalwork."

Arcenas, who received an Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Set Design in 1993, recently directed the film version of Ryan Cayabyab and Rolando Tinio's "Ang Larawan," a musical adaptation of Nick Joaquin's "Portrait of an Artist as Filipino." The movie is part of this year's Metro Manila Film Festival (MMFF) and won Best Picture at the festival's Gabi ng Parangal.

Collaboration

Arcenas has also collaborated with Ramos. "I love working with Clint. He is a fellow Cebuano. He designed the clothes in my production of Han Ong's `Watcher' for Ma-yi Theater Company in New York," said Arcenas.

Meanwhile, "I also designed the costumes for his staging of `The Romance of Magno Rubio,'" said Ramos, who received the Obie Award for Sustained Excellence of Costume Design in 2013. "He's a dear friend and mentor and a fellow Cebuano. I would say, Loy is the Filipino designer I look up to."

Ramos moved to the US in 1993 and has designed sets and costumes for over a hundred theater, opera and dance productions. Recent credits include costumes for "Here Lies Love," a musical about Imelda Marcos, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" for The Public Theater's Shakespeare in the Park series, and Broadway productions of "Six Degrees of Separation" with Allison Janney and "Sunday in the Park with George" with Jake Gyllenhaal.

READ about the 2017 Seattle staging of "Here Lies Love" here.

"Once on This Island" runs at Circle in the Square Theatre. Visit OnceOnThisIsland.com. Visit ClintRamos.com.



Inquirer.net link:
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/283362/loy-arcenas-clint-ramos-two-cebuanos-design-broadways-island

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Chef Anton Amoncio shows off morcon, bistek, sinigang at Canada beef event

By WALTER ANG
Dec. 28, 2017
USA & Canada Section, Inquirer.net
http://usa.inquirer.net/9056/chef-anton-amoncio-shows-off-morcon-bistek-sinigang-canada-beef-event

CALGARY, Canada — Filipino chef Anton Amoncio presented Filipino dishes using Canadian beef at "Let It Snow," a chef exchange program organized by the Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence.

It's the first time a Filipino chef was featured in the program.

Deconstructed Beef Shortribs Sinigang in Green Mango by Anton Amoncio.

Amoncio prepared Beef Morcon Sliders, Bistek Tagalog on Green Onion Blinis, and Deconstructed Beef Shortribs Sinigang sa Mangga. For dessert, he made leche flan.

"Let It Snow" had three installations held in different luxury resorts to highlight Canada's different seasons: Fairmont Banff Springs (early summer), Fairmont Royal York Toronto (harvest season) and Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise (winter), which served as the finale.

Working with Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise's executive chef Jean-Francois Fortin, Amoncio prepared his recipes during the "Beef Beyond Borders" dinner.

Canada beef

According to Marty Carpenter, president of the Canadian Beef Grading Agency, Canadian beef is classified by its flavor, which comes from the predominant use of barley in their cattle feed. Combined with the almost vineyard-like culture of their cattle industry, this puts Canada beef in a league of the world's premier beef products.

Chef Anton Amoncio explaining his dishes
at the "Let It Snow" program in Calgary.

Amoncio says chefs should never stop learning. During his visit, he went over the finer points of how to prepare the best beef cuts with Carpenter and Abe Van Melle, technical manager at Canadian Beef Centre of Excellence.

His grandmother's cooking, including her signature dish, tinola, sparked his love affair with the kitchen.

Amoncio won the top prize on Asian Food Channel's cooking competition show "Food Hero Asia" last year. As part of his prize, Amoncio was able to host the show "Home Cooked Asia: Philippines" and has since become a regular guest chef for various daytime television shows in the Philippines.

Amoncio graduated from the Center for Culinary Arts in Manila and owns Antojos, a Filipino specialty restaurant in Quezon City.

The "Let It Snow" chef exchange program was part of "Canada 150," the country's series of events celebrating the 150th anniversary of its founding.

Chef Anton Amoncio is a talent of Asian Artists Agency. Visit Fb.com/asianartistsagency.

Astrologers on 2018: Dollar drops, robots and sex rise, Bitcoin swings, etc.

BY WALTER ANG
Dec. 21, 2017
USA & Canada Section, Inquirer.net
http://usa.inquirer.net/8905/astrologers-2018-dollar-drops-robots-sex-rise-bitcoin-swings-etc

SAN FRANCISCO — Astrologer Resti Santiago divines many things from the stars about the year 2018, from politics to business, to sex and technology. Throw in bitcoin, too.

Astrologer Resti Santiago (right) being interviewed
by Star Santo on her radio talk show.

"The value of the US dollar (USD) will likely drop further against other currencies as measured in US Dollar Index. Key periods to watch are January and early March, for a drop in the value of the USD," Santiago forecasts.

US President Donald Trump will likely continue to face more protests against his policies in 2018, he says.

"His popularity will dip but may be saved by some trade deals that will be seen as beneficial to the country," Santiago says. "The political opposition will be more vocal, especially regarding his approach to foreign relations."

Santiago gleans a relational connection between Trump and Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. "There's some form of compatibility if we base it on their Sun Signs."

Duterte is an Aries, a fire sign. Trump is a Gemini, an air sign. "There is fire and air compatibility. There's also the possible bond that springs from the Uranian influence highlighted in both of their birth charts. Uranus' energy is that of the unorthodox."

Investments

For businesses or industries that may do well next year, Santiago advises, "The best businesses in 2018 are those symbolized by Scorpio. Scorpio is a water sign, hence liquids in general are good.

Other liquids include oil, beverages in general and alcoholic drinks in particular. Scorpio is also power and power-generation or power storage. There will be more demand for these."

"Other good businesses to be in are insurance, security, including internet security, recycling and pollution control."

He also pointed out the continuing awareness of sex-related matters. "After Jupiter entered Scorpio in October 2017, sex scandals hit the headlines. Businesses related to robots and technology as sex objects may take off big time within this period."

For speculative investments, he says, "The value of Bitcoin will likely rise further, however, there will be wild swings in 2018."

In the cards

For her part, Bles Carmona offers tarot card consultations, aside from astrological consultations.\

Astrologer Bles Carmona.

"The card drawn for 2018 is Strength," she says of her tarot card impressions for 2018.

"It is about discipline and control. The true strength demanded of us for the entire year of 2018 must come from within, our internal compass."

For this forecast, Carmona used the Tarot ng Daigdig sa Balintataw deck designed by Lynyrd Narciso.

"Overall, the crystal for 2018 is Jade. In Chinese culture, jade is the crystal for good luck, good fortune and good health. It helps attract prosperity, happiness, well-being and longevity."

Her recommended mantra for the year is: "As I am grateful for all the good fortune that I have, more blessings flow into my life."

Diwata Oracle Cards

Carmona's tarot divination for each month of 2018 and her weekly astrological forecasts can be found on her website Spiritual Rx (Pilipinasblitz.blog) and on her Facebook page Stargazer Bles (Fb.com/stargazer.bles).

Tarot card spread for 2018 by Bles Carmona.

Based in San Francisco, Carmona says, "Aside from my Fil-Am clients, I see Americans who are white, Latino, African, Vietnamese, Polish, Czech, among others." She also has Filipino clients who live in Europe and the Middle East.

She's also currently designing the Filipino Diwata Oracle Cards. "It will be a 44-card deck of deities from the multi-regional pantheon in the Philippines, with illustrations by Leandro De La Rosa and scripts by baybayin speller Leo Emmanuel Castro."

Auspicious timing

Santiago, who is based in Manila, also accepts clients from the US. His other forecasts for 2018 are in his Filipino Astrologer 2018 ebook.

Resti Santiago's Filipino Astrologer 2018 ebook has a US edition.

He has written a US edition that specifically uses Pacific Standard Time for forecasted timing schedules, i.e. hours and days, to maximize and to avoid for major activities in 2018.

"Filipino Americans in the other US time zones should have an easier time re-computing the times that apply to them from PST/PDT versus re-computing from Philippine time," he says.

The US edition ebook is available as a subscription series and will come with several installments, including a feng shui guide for 2018. The first installment is already available for emailing to subscribers.

Contact Resti Santiago at filipinoastrologer@gmail.com or visit Fb.com/FilipinoAstrologer. Contact Bles Carmona at stargazer.bles@gmail.com or visit Fb.com/Stargazer.Bles.

Fil-Am ballroom dancers at the heart of new play

By WALTER ANG
Dec. 9, 2017
USA & Canada Section, Inquirer.net
http://usa.inquirer.net/8617/fil-ballroom-dancers-heart-new-play

NEW YORK — Linda Faigao-Hall's new play about Filipino American ballroom dancers in Queens, New York, "Dance Me!," will have a staged reading this December by Ensemble Studio Theater (EST).

The play is about a man and his daughter who have opposing views on what to do with the financially troubled dance studio left behind by his deceased father.

Linda Faigao-Hall (center) with writers Francisco Sionil Jose (left) and Mario Miclat.

The play was inspired by Faigao-Hall's exposure to the ballroom dancing culture in Manila, which she became aware of when she visited after many years of living in the US.

Directing the staged reading is Joe Barros whose recent credits include assistant direction for the Broadway revival of the musical "Gigi," starring Vanessa Hudgens.

Faigao-Hall has been a member of EST since 2006. Recent stagings of her work include "The A-Word" in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and San Luis Obispo, California; and "The Female Heart," by University of the Philippines Playwright's Theatre in Manila; both last year.

Pioneer

Faigao-Hall is one of the pioneering Filipino American women playwrights, together with Jeannie Barroga, whose works started being staged in the '80s. Faigao-Hall's works have been produced across the US.

When asked how she became involved in playwriting, she mentioned that her father Cornelio Faigao was a fiction writer, poet and journalist in Cebu City. "It seems there was no choice. It's in my blood. I was exposed to literature in English and Pilipino when I was growing up," she said. "I grew up appreciating Jose Garcia Villa and Charles Dickens."

She immigrated to the US in the early '70s and ignored theater agents who claimed they could never sell plays about Filipinos. In a talk she gave at the 2015 Cebu Literary Festival, she said, "I foolishly proceeded to write my first play. It wasn't even a musical, it had no dancing girls, and nobody sang."

That play, "State Without Grace," about an immigrant Filipina who carries a secret when she visits her strict, conservative grandmother in Manila, was premiered by Pan Asian Repertory Theatre in New York in 1984, then staged by Asian American Theater Company in San Francisco the following year, directed by Dom Magwili. "It was the beginning of a foolhardy career as a Filipino playwright," she said.

Giving back

Faigao-Hall continues to write plays. Some of her works were premiered by Filipino American-founded theater companies Ma-Yi Theater Company in the '90s and Diverse City Theater in the '00s.

She released an anthology of her works, "The Female Heart and Other Plays," in 2013.

Faigao-Hall subsidizes the Terence G. Hall Memorial Award, in honor of her late husband, open to members of Ensemble Studio Theatre for a travel grant to Dublin, Ireland for research or study.

In 2012, she added and has been subsidizing the acting and playwriting component of the Cornelio Faigao Memorial Annual Writer's Workshop in Cebu, a fiction and poetry workshop that has been in existence since 1983.

Another one of her plays, "Dying in Boulder," is scheduled for a full staging at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club for its 2018-19 season.

"Dance Me!" staged reading, 7pm, Dec. 19 at Ensemble Studio Theater, 545 West 52nd St., New York, New York. Visit Ensemblestudiotheatre.org.

Carlos Bulosan Theatre raising funds for 35th anniversary book

By WALTER ANG
Dec. 7, 2017
USA & Canada Section, Inquirer.net
http://usa.inquirer.net/8562/carlos-bulosan-theatre-raising-funds-35th-anniversary-book

TORONTO — Carlos Bulosan Theatre (CBT) has launched a fundraising campaign for its forthcoming book A New World Being Born: 35 Years of Carlos Bulosan Theatre at Gofundme.com/cbtanthology.

Posters from past productions were part of the exhibition at the fundraiser kick-off.
All photos by Bo Fajardo

"The anthology is being created by CBT, its artists and alumni to document Filipino Canadian theater," said artistic director Leon Aureus.

The book will include plays written by CBT's current and past artists and were developed or staged by the company. It is scheduled for publication and launch to the public in late 2018 or early 2019.

"Within these pages are our aspirations and dreams, meaningful and authentic stories, sometimes a reflection of the worst of us, but more often a shining inspiration, a commemoration of the best of us, who we are and who we can be, as individuals and as a community," Aureus stated.

"Be a part of preserving our artistic history and help us say 'We are here' to help the next generation of Filipino Canadian artists and storytellers orient themselves in their journeys," he added.

Celebration

CBT kicked off its fundraising campaign at the Tarragon Theatre Workspace with an exhibition of past production posters, photographs and props celebrating over three decades of original works.

Carlos Bulosan Theatre artistic associate Belinda Corpuz (left)
and artistic director Leon Aureus.

Guests were also presented with a showcase of an all-Filipino Canadian ensemble of actors reading excerpts from past CBT plays and productions, including "If My Mother Could See Me Now," "People Power," "In the Shadow of Elephants," and others.

The group was founded in 1982 by the late Fely Villasin and Martha Ocampo originally as the Carlos Bulosan Cultural Workshop to serve as the cultural arm of the activist organization Coalition Against the Marcos Dictatorship.

The group is named for Carlos Bulosan, who immigrated to the US in 1930 and worked as an agricultural laborer before becoming a writer, becoming one of the first published Filipino American novelists.

Staged readings of excerpts from past CBT productions were performed.

The group has since staged plays and musicals with Filipino Canadian themes and issues, and eventually evolved to a full-fledged theater group.

"For 35 years Carlos Bulosan Theatre has produced theater that reflects the social and political issues affecting the Filipino community in Canada. Through the creation and production of new innovative work, the development of emerging and professional artists, and community engagement, our work is a reflection of the ever-growing, vibrant artistic voice of Filipino Canadians," said Aureus.

Reasons to support

Belinda Corpuz, artistic associate, said, "Filipinos are one of Canada's fastest growing cultural groups. It's the third largest Asian Canadian group.

Guests viewing props used in past productions at the exhibition.

"Canadians need to have a resource that reflects and celebrates the Filipino Canadian community's rich history in and contributions to Toronto and the rest of the country," she added.

"This collection of all-original work will add to a growing pool of Philippine and Canadian theater publications," said anthology co-producer Isabela Palanca.

"Celebrating diverse stories and voices that work within the mosaic of the multi-cultural country that is Canada."

She added, "The book will allow Filipino-Canadian artists and storytellers will see themselves reflected in the work they access in libraries and schools. They need this to be able to stand on the shoulders of artists who have already blazed trails and cleared paths."

Visit Gofundme.com/cbtanthology.

Chuck Marbella: 9 going on 10 years in 'Miss Saigon'

By WALTER ANG
Dec. 2, 2017
Philippine Daily Inquirer

Several Filipino actors joined the "Miss Saigon" global network of productions for the first time this past July. Making their "Saigon" debuts via the United Kingdom and Ireland tour were Red Concepcion (Engineer), Joreen Bautista (Kim alternate), Aynrand Ferrer (Kim cover-"cover" is the British term for "understudy") and Gerald Santos (Thuy).

Chuck Marbella

Welcoming them into producer Cameron Mackintosh's universe was longtime "Saigon" actor Christian "Chuck" Marbella, who has been alternating as the Engineer, and is approaching his 10th year, collectively, as part of the "Saigon" machinery.

Marbella started out in the ensemble in the 2000 Manila staging (for six months) and graduated to playing Thuy and the Engineer as he went on to join the Asian tour (six months) and the first two UK tours (five years). During the recent 2014-2016 West End revival, he alternated with Jon Jon Briones as the Engineer. (Briones plays the same role in the current Broadway revival.)

Favorite subject

Marbella took up medical technology and was about to enroll in medical school when he decided to audition.

"Parasitology was a favorite subject in college," he says. He still remembers the scientific names of some of them. "The great triumvirate of enteric nematodes are Ascaris lumbricoides, giant roundworm; Trichuris trichiura, whipworm; and Enterobius vermicularis, pinworm."

While his academic training might not have come into play during the auditions, everything else he'd done in his youth led him to his seize-the-moment opportunity.

Marbella collects Marvel action figures and Monchhichi dolls.

"I started singing quite young," he says. "Weddings, Christmas parties, fiestas and every event you can imagine, you name it, I've done it," he adds, laughing.

It was because he wanted to look physically better that he got into dance as well. "I got offered free ballet training after being spotted at a jazz dance group competition. I was a very lanky college freshman. I said yes because I was convinced it would help me tone my muscles."

As is the usual case with male dancers who come into ballet training in their teens, he went through an accelerated curriculum. "You're supposed to start at age three or four to gradually improve technique one level at a time. I did an intensive five-year course from elementary ballet to intermediate partnering just because there weren't any boys interested in ballet."

Photography

In between "Saigon" productions, Marbella appeared in "The King and I" and "Cinderella" for Resorts World Manila, and in Ballet Philippines' restaging of "Rama Hari." He has also done several musicals for Village Theater Washington in Seattle, where both his sisters live.

He also collects action figures.

When he's not busy performing, he takes photos of his travels and his collection of Monchhichi dolls. Inspired by his father ("He was into photography and bought a lot of photography books. I used to flip through them to admire the pictures"), Marbella developed some of his skills as a photographer for his high school paper.

These days, he uses his iPhone. "I invested in good lens attachments like super wide angle, fisheye, macro and polarizer. I also bring my GoPro Hero4 Black whenever I travel," he says.

Monchhichi dolls

He first became enamored with the monkey dolls while living in London. "I saw a Monchhichi in a hobby shop that looked so adorable."

He started searching for more online and now has about 22. "I even have an original 1974 doll from Japan. I also have Marvel action figures. I'm friends now with other collectors all over the world."

He has separate Instagram accounts for his travel photography (@CRMarbella) and Monchhichi shots (@chuckiemonchhichi). "I wanted to share them with the world. And it's always fun to look back at photos from time to time."

For "Miss Saigon" UK and Ireland 2017-18 tour schedule, visit miss-saigon.com.

Inquirer.net link:
http://lifestyle.inquirer.net/280668/chuck-marbella-9-going-10-years-miss-saigon

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