He heard from the New York-based May-i Theater Company, composed of Filipino-American actors, that auditions for the play Dog Eaters was open. Joel tried out, and you guessed it. He won the role of Senator Avila, a Ninoy Aquino-type character in the play, which attracted a full house for two months, and was even extended two weeks.
That Broadway experience was nothing short of exhilarating for the committed actor in Joel. The one that tells him there are no small roles, only small actors.
He hurled himself to the challenge. He started rehearsals in the morning, and finished deep into the night. Never mind if in-between, Joel had to do something he rarely did in the Philippines: ride the subway. It was tiring, but what the heck? Every minute was worth it.
The Joseph Papp Public Theater, venue of the play, was packed for the two months the play was shown there. It was such a success, the producers extended it for two weeks.
Besides, Joel found himself in good (acting) company. His fellow cast members’ acting experience was nothing to sneer at. One was Ching Valdez, Eartha Kitt’s understudy. Another was the understudy of B.D. Wong in M. Butterfly.
Joel was in acting heaven. Broadway is a place every actor worth his salt will give his right arm to act in, where audition lines snake through an entire block, where actors’ companies are as many as basketball courts in the side streets of Metro Manila, and where actors are revered.
And, as if that’s not enough, Joel had another acting chore waiting for him after Batang Westside. But this time, it was not as taxing as the daily grind (which included Saturday and Sunday matinees) of Dog Eaters.
Joel played a cancer-stricken old man who asked his son to help him commit suicide in Crossing the Rubicon. The short film which Joel shot in three days, was based on an award-winning script.
No wonder Joel can’t wait to sink his teeth into a meaty role again as soon as he returned to Manila. And luckily, just like in New York, roles were waiting for him.
Joel plays the violinist-composer Belinda Bright’s character falls in love with in the sizzling Ang Kapitbahay. Here, Joel’s smoldering sensuality comes to the fore, attracting the very-much-married Belinda (to Albert Martinez’s character), and provoking a fit of jealousy that leads to a bloodbath.
Joel’s other assignment, Blood Son of Ilocos (based on the life story of former Ilocos Sur governor Chavit Singson), is the offshoot of a long-standing friendship with the producers, Donna Villa and Carlo Caparas of Golden Lions Films.
Joel calls his participation in the Cesar Montano starrer (that of a factory worker) as one that has something to do with a belief in lucky charms. It’s a concession to the amiable couple who cast him with Vilma Santos in The Lipa Massacre years back, and whose friendship Joel values.
Before the year ends, he will again shock moviegoers, not with another sexy movie, but with a horror film, Sanib.
"Good thing I was never stereo-typed as an actor," Joel observes.
A career that has spanned 21 years, a long list of checkered roles and a string of awards (Brussels International Filmfest, Urian, Cine Manila) cannot be otherwise.
It has also given Joel the right to direct TV drama anthologies, which, by his own reckoning, has numbered about "a dozen or so."
He started directing for TV in 1993, via ABS-CBN’s Star Drama Presents featuring Zsa Zsa Padilla. Since then, he has directed a segment of Maalaala Mo Kaya (thanks to encouragement from Rory Quintos), Mother Studio Presents and others.
In his hands is a script which he himself developed over the years, and which he plans to make, together with a New-York based partner on a 50-50 basis. Joel plans to direct the film, and is looking at the US as potential market.
"I will take a sabbatical from acting once I start directing the film," says Joel. "That way, I can really concentrate on the job."
This means he will be sorely missed, on the big and small screen (he plays John Lloyd Cruz’s father in Sa Puso Ko Iingatan Ka), albeit temporarily.
Meanwhile, Joel has decided to don a totally-new hat: that of restaurant entreprenuer. He is busy attending to his newest ‘baby’: Manukan Grill, which he opened yesterday, with wife Cristy right across the old Sampaguita Pictures compound in San Juan.
The business is close to this true-blue Ilonggo’s heart since it specializes on the famous Bacolod chicken, from his homeprovince. "I transported a cook all the way from there and tried various recipes," Joel proudly talks about how he made sure the restaurant will bring in the crowd.
And, just like its owner, who has retained the low-profile values of a country boy, Joel’s Manukan Grill has no pretensions. You can come as you are (indoors or out, take your pick).
In Joel’s book, as it is in his enduring career, it’s not the bigness of your name in the marquee that counts. It’s how you make the most of what you get, in good times and in bad.