The director wears many hats

MANILA, Philippines - One fine day in 1969, Feliciana Cortez, owner of a bakery in San Pablo City, Laguna, decided that her teenaged son Alexander (Alex) should go abroad, spread his wings, and learn the ways of the world. And so Alex Cortez went forth to England, the US and France, among other countries, met many celebrities and became an actor, director, and even ramp model.

Regarding the latter experience, Alex recalls with amusement: “I was young and in tip-top shape then, so I modeled for an agency in the US. But it was nothing…”

But first things first. He went to London, and after three years became a registered nurse. But along the way many things happened. A cousin of his in London was “kind of” working for Minda Feliciano, the actress and bon vivant who was then dating Michael Caine.

“Lo and behold, I met Linda… and Michael Caine,” Alex says. “He was very nice, very generous, very very caring. He had a house in Windsor, it was called the Mill House. We would go there on weekends. The Maharajah of Jaipur had a room above us and everytime Minda — Kapampangan yan — would cook adobo, the Maharajah would come down, attracted by the delicious smell…”

With Gary Valenciano...

In New York, Alex stayed with noted author Anne Edwards (biographer of Judy Garland, Vivien Leigh, Rudolf Nureyev and the poet Shelley), and met and watched many famous people — like Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Osawa, Cecile Licad and Andre Watts — perform.

He also enrolled at Harvard University in Massachusetts: “Anybody can enrol in Harvard, it’s true. People say ‘you want to go to Harvard? Check if there is an extension program.’ So I took the extension courses, the same faculty, the same course, Literature and drama. I watched plays, and Al Pacino was there.”

By 1973, the young pilgrim had had enough and he decided to return to the Philippines, where martial law was in force. He took up AB Communication Arts (major in Theater Arts) at the University of the Philippines at Los Baños, but later transferred to UP-Diliman where he joined Tony Mabesa’s Dulaang UP. Theater after all, had always been his priority.

During the ’80s and ’90s, however, Alex, apart from directing plays, found himself acting in films and TV, local as well as international. There was this big TV special on the centennial of oil exploration in Indonesia, a Netherlands production, where he played an Indonesian prisoner. It was shot in Pagsanjan, Laguna. A deluge had destroyed the set, which had to be rebuilt.

“It was a really big project,” he recalls. “A lot of Filipinos there. Tony Mabesa, Susan Africa, Spanky Manikan, Ronnie Lazaro, Joonee Gamboa… you name it, they were there.” But, he laughs, “I had the bigger part.”

Another big TV special was A Dangerous Life, about the EDSA I Revolution, which was shown here and abroad. Laurice Guillen played Cory Aquino, and Tessie Tomas was Imelda Marcos. “We had to shoot in Sri Lanka because (now Senator Juan Ponce) Enrile had a court injunction against the (Australian) production…”

...and soprano Rachelle Gerodias in the show Counterpoint at CCP.

They stayed in an historical hotel once frequented by kings and queens, and at the end of shooting there was a cast party. “It was a wonderful experience,” he enthuses, “and Sri Lanka was wonderful.”

In foreign movies he was usually cast as a villain, say, an interrogator or a member of the Hong Kong Triad. Locally he acted in films by Chito Roño and Marilou Diaz-Abaya. As for local TV acting, it can be a drag, he indicated. Due to preproduction, “it’s just waiting, waiting, waiting… they say you get paid for waiting. It’s not like that abroad.”

Alex was managing director for Dulaang UP for 13 years, and is now its artistic director. He has worked with talents like Eugene Domingo, Isabel Rivas and Jackie Lou Blanco. Eugene then appeared in dramatic plays like Lorca’s Blood Wedding. But “the moment you saw her you knew she was going to be a comedian, to be a star. She would appear in a play without saying a line and people would laugh. That’s why we could call her ‘the lineless wonder.’ I didn’t know what she was doing, maybe subtle actuations, and people would laugh already.”

He also directed the opera Spoliarium by Ryan Cayabyab and Fides Cuyugan-Asensio: “And one of the chorus members was, guess who… Christian Bautista. He was a total unknown then, little did we know…”

What have all these rich experiences taught him?

“Patience…” he sighs. “Also not to let these, whatever, achievements get into my head. There are others who have probably achieved more than me. Ok lang, masaya ako. They say you are only as good as your last production, so I try to do better with each new production.”