To be or not to be Ana Bitong

There is nothing more exciting than the thrill of the new. Ana Abad Santos-Bitong, the shining star of our local theater scene, is taking on a new role, a most challenging one for the Repertory stage’s most sought after actress. This time, after years of taking on the lead in countless stage productions, she now takes the role of ... a director.

I have always been very vocal about my admiration for Ana Bitong as an actress. In fact, one of my first jobs in my young life was in the theater, as part of the production crew in Ana’s first lead role in a musical, “Little Shop of Horrors.”  Always awestruck by her presence, I would quietly watch Ana from the sidelines of the stage as the thespian’s every move would never fail to captivate, amuse and amaze.

In short, I was a fan.

These days, Ana has become a good friend, and along with her sister Cris Albert who runs Fila, we would have nice, long leisurely lunches talking about our lives and loves — from the sporting life to the arts, there is nothing that these two sisters cannot accomplish. Next week, Feb. 1 to be exact, I am making a mad dash to the Globe Onstage Theater to witness Ana’s directorial debut. “This is Hamlet, Mad Max style,” explains Ana, her eyes beaming with excitement.

I last saw Ana on stage as the feisty reporter Barbara Avila in Jessica Hagedorn’s “Dogeaters” by Atlantis Productions. She was the narrator of the show, and in between scenes, she would transform from a reporter to an NPA rebel to a party girl — the whole gamut of roles showcasing the broad spectrum of a seasoned actress. “That show exposed me to several actors from different disciplines of the craft. I realized that the marriage of all these different backgrounds results in a great synergy of magic onstage,” Ana continues to describe the actors she admires from other local Filipino theater companies like Tanghalang Pilipino, Peta, UP Theater and other independent new ones and the like that she got to work during her stint with Atlantis Productions.

With her new turn as director, she used this new knowledge and inculcated it into this production. She kept her mind open for new inspirations and did not want to settle for the tried, tested and boring formulas that worked for other productions that only made audiences yawn and not go back to the theater. At first she even went up north to the Cordilleras because she was thinking of making the setting and costumes inspired by that region of our country. She would always bond with director Floy Quintos (another one of those constantly inspired souls) and she finally decided to set Hamlet in the chaotic, post apocalyptic era of Mad Max, the cult classic ’70s nuclear holocaust flick about a man who had to fight against the world.

For Ana’s version of “Hamlet,” she chose another rising star of the theater, Niccolo Manahan, Repertory Philippines’ IT boy. “Hamlet is always played by all these old actors — nothing against that but I wanted it to have a younger feel — and to highlight the vengeance theme of the role.”  Not only did Ana cast Nic as Hamlet, she also chose a supreme team of highly creative, innovative and dynamic artists — Faust Peneyra for costumes, Denis Lagdameo for the set and Jethro Joaquin to compose music just for the show. She even hired a fight choreographer, Paul Morales, for this landmark staging of one of Shakespeare’s most famous works about revenge.

“I’m in the company of 12 boys in this cast, and we are using real weapon on stage,” says Ana, the director obsessed with details. “I wanted it to be a more primal Hamlet — but still look fashionable,” she says with an honest laugh. Looking at the photos by Jojit Lorenzo, you can feel the post war feel of the show — a sort of 28 Weeks Later meets Pirates of the Carribean imagery. “We made our own world, took out what we felt wasn’t needed. We took out the accents and just focused on our reality.”

What did you learn from this new experience? I asked my favorite stage actress slash director: “Just stripping a material to its core is something all artists should do, and we are sometimes so engrossed with the costumes and the whole imagery — set, accents and all that that we forget the core. Doing this show got me to my core.”

And that is to be, Ana Bitong.

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Hamlet runs from Feb. 1 to 17 at Onstage Greenbelt 1, Ayala Malls, corner Makati City. Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. with Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3:30 p.m.

For tickets, showbuying, and reservations call 887-0710 or log on to www.repertory-philippines.com. Or you may also call Ticketworld at 891-9999 or log on to www.ticketworld.com.ph.