Immediately Menchu Yulo put her arms around me and held me close, then it was Michael Williams, then Cocoy Laurel and I was surrounded by the warmth and love of the actors who were there to rehearse the musical Man of La Mancha. These were the actors who had began their careers with Zeneida Amador–Bibot as she was affectionately known throughout the entertainment industry–and had known her and worked with her for practically all of their professional lives.
Douglas Nierras arrived and the choreography began. As I watched it progress, marveling at Douglas’s genius and Menchu’s talent, I thought: "This is what her life was about. This is what she wanted to happen. This is what must go on."
I first met Bibot at a workshop of Father Reuter. Bibot was doing Higgins in Pygmalion at St. Joseph (Sonia Roco, wife of the late Senator, was playing Eliza) and I was doing Julie Jordan in Carousel at St. Paul’s College. She asked me to go to see her production (which she also directed) and she came to see mine. When I saw her act I couldn’t believe it. I thought to myself: "Who is this woman? She is fantastic. What an actress!"
At Father Reuter’s workshop we did Brigadoon, Camelot and Once in a Lifetime and she was the male lead in all three. Subas Herrero was also in that play and tells how she actually fell asleep in a tree on stage during a performance of Brigadoon–and even snored–and he could do nothing to wake her up. She said later that she was very tired rehearsing and performing in all three plays.
Sometime later I left for the States to study at Bloomington and Bibot left to join the teaching staff of the University of South Dakota. On her first day of class, she walked into her classroom to find a student–tall, handsome, smart and who turned out later to be a good actor–with his feet up on her desk. She said slowly, deliberately, in a cold, low, voice: "Remove those disgusting objects from my desk." Then she turned to the blackboard, wrote her name and announced: "This is my name. Pronounce it correctly," and added: "You Americans think you are so cultured. What is your culture–deboned American hotdogs?"
The class was shocked. Here was this small (she was quite thin then), brown, woman from…where?...making such a statement. But from then on they knew who was boss. Even the big burly football players were scared of her. But they loved her. When the captain of the football team was asked in a television interview what his favorite subject was, he answered, "Shakespeare under Miss Amador."
She was an excellent teacher and made learning Shakespeare fun. When we were about to leave the US, she was asked to stay to continue teaching and even to become head of the Literature Department and I was asked to stay and build a career in the United States. But we both refused. We said we wanted to go home. We wanted do something for theater in our country.
So we came home. The first production we did was Trojan Women. Bibot played Hecuba. I was in it with Tita Muñoz and Tony Mabesa. Rolando Tinio was production designer and that is when I saw his genius. It was directed by Father Reuter. In those days the only good theater was in school productions. There was no such thing as professional theater.
Then one day Leo Martinez, Subas Herrero, Tony Mercado, Tony Amador, Bibot and I were doing Chocolate Soldier by George Bernard Shaw at St. Joseph’s College where Bibot was teaching. Talking in the wings, we expressed our frustration at having to do other work besides theater and speculated what it would be like to be able just to act and be able to make a living at it. That is how REP began.
We decided we were going to put up a theater company and each of us put up P250. The first play of the first season which we staged at the Insular Life Theater was, believe it or not, a Tagalog translation of Miss Julie starring Ella Luansing. Yes, Repertory Philippines’ first play was in Tagalog. However, we soon learned that we would not survive this way and have done English plays ever since.
Our first office was Bibot’s little yellow Volkswagen. We rehearsed anywhere we could–mostly in friends’ living rooms and sometimes even in a bank. Everything was "TY" and people were encouraging and generous. We begged, borrowed, and stole props.
Once, our very ingenious stage manager, Gil Villanueva, came up with a beautiful ceramic angel. We marveled at his resourcefulness and then discovered that he had "borrowed" it from a cemetery. He returned it after the run. We needed desks for a production of Once a Catholic and discovered he had stolen them from UP classrooms–one by one from different classrooms so that no one would notice. He also returned them later.
From the beginning it was clear that nothing was going to prevent Bibot from pursuing her goal. After the first production, Tony Mercado suggested that what we were doing was madness and we should give up. She threatened to throw him, or anyone who mentioned anything like that again, from the 12th floor of the Insular Life Building.
Once there was a typhoon and on the way to the theater where we were performing Who’s Afraid of Virginia Wolfe the water began reaching the floor of the car. I suggested that we should not try to get to the theater. She said that as long as there was even one person in the theater we were obligated to go on with the performance. There were 13.
During intermission Leo Martinez, who was prone to fainting spells, fainted and we had to scramble to find an oxygen tank. There was one in the building but no one knew how to use it. A man came backstage and I asked him if he was from Insular Life and he said "yes" and I began berating him for not knowing how to use the tank, calling him stupid, and wondering at the efficiency of the management of the company that was not prepared for such an emergency. I asked him what his name was and he answered, "Jaime Zobel." Well, instead of throwing us out of the building, after seeing the performance he gave us the use of the theater for free. Thereafter I called him "Don Quixote" and he called me "Dulcinea".
Although we found a lot of support from people in the community, such as the Orosa sisters Rosalinda and Leonor and Bien Lumbrera of the press and Aaron and Evelina Pines, Peter and Margaret Go, Paz Yuchengco, the Laurels, Hans Menzi, and many others, we also had our detractors. We were called elitist and were constantly criticized for doing plays in English. Our productions were always being compared to Broadway productions and found wanting. This I thought was very unfair. We had very little money, we had no money for fancy sets or costumes, and we did not have the pick of hundreds of actors as they do on Broadway. None of the actors received any pay for their work. But to Bibot all this criticism was just water down a duck’s back.
There were problems stemming from lack of money. Sometimes there were more people on stage than in the audience. There were emergencies with people having to be taken to the hospital, a fire during a performance (Leo Martinez ran down the stairs in his jockey shorts), an earthquake, an actress breaking her arm on stage during a performance–there always seemed to be one crisis or another.
In Man of La Mancha, Don Quixote fights a windmill which in his mind is a dragon trying to prevent him from fulfilling his quest. Through the years Bibot had to fight many windmills but she never let any of these windmills get in her way. She used to say: "Leave it up to God. He will find a solution." And somehow, maybe because what we were doing was good, He always did.
We began the production of Annie without a star and he sent us Lea Salonga. We had no dog for that production and he sent us Jabar, a marvelous trained dog, courtesy of the late Jimmy Ongpin. Through the years whenever needed an actor, a space, or a friend–something or someone would turn up.
In those first years many actors whose names became recognizable in the world of entertainment saw their start on the REP stage. Besides Leo Martinez and Subas Herrero there was Enchang Agudo Kaimo, Tita Muñoz, Laurice Guillien, Maricris Tabora, Conrad Parham, Tessie Luz, June Keithley, Junie Gamboa, Maan Hontiveros, Tina Santos, Mitch Valdez, Peque Gallaga, Nick Lizaso, Marilen Martinez, Becca Godinez, Julie Andaya, Sonya Joaquin, Adul de Leon, Rolando Tinio, Ella Luansing, Behn Cervantes, Tony Carrion, Ricky Davao, Nestor Torre, Lotis Key, Jose Mari Javellana, Susan Calo-Medina, Benita Steger, Chito Ponce Enrile, Bernardo Bernardo, Jorge Ortoll, Allan Cosio, Ivy Avellana Cosio, Mary Gamboa, Noel Trinidad, Allan Griffiths (former GM of Philippine Refining Company) and so many others. Later Imee Marcos came in and then Celia and Cocoy and practically the whole Laurel clan and then Joy Virata.
As REP continued to grow a second wave of actors began joining REP–Miguel Faustmann, Michael Williams, Audie Gemora, Bart Guingona, Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo, Freddie Santos, Mari Kaimo, Arnel Ignacio, Douglas Nierras, Jaime del Mundo, Francis Maravilla, Tess Dumpit, Junix Inocian, Juno Henares-Chuidian, Robbie Guevara, Gigi and Mikey Virata, Ding Gamez, Raul Montesa, Jaime del Prado, Liza Infante, Tong Perez, Maya Barredo, Jay Glorioso, Karla Gutierrez and many others.
Then there were those who began as children on stage and grew up–Raymond Lauchengco, Monique, Jamie, Gina and Trixie Wilson, Lea Salonga, Rajo Laurel, Cris Villonco, Antoinette Taus, Sheila Lina, Arnel Carrion, Charlie Barredo, Cara and Dino Barredo–to name just a few.
Today there is a third wave of actors that have augmented REP’s roster of actors–a list that includes Liesl Batucan, Ana Bitong, Niccolo and Bonggoy Manahan, Rem Zamora, Robert Seña, Joel Trinidad, Ayam Barredo, Jack Salud, Oliver Usison, and those who have joined REP productions in recent years but have gone on to productions abroad–to Miss Saigon and to Hong Kong Disneyland.
And yet, despite this roster of actors past and present, Bibot had to face the accusation that REP "uses the same actors all the time." Again this windmill meant nothing to her. REP continued and still continues to hold auditions for each production–making new discoveries with each audition and putting time and money into their training.
Things are different now at REP. It has grown and, just as Bibot intended, so has the industry. Actors get paid–perhaps still not enough but they get paid. When we did Over the River and Through the Woods a few seasons ago–bringing back Noel Trinidad and Subas Herrero after so many years, they were shocked when they were handed their first week’s rehearsal fees. "Do you mean we actually get paid for rehearsals?" they asked in amazement. "Boy, REP has gone a long way, Baby."
Yes, REP has gone a long way. From a 200-seat theater rented for 40 performances a year, it must now fill an 800-seat theater nine months of the year. We spend heavily on equipment, sets, and costumes. From Bibot’s little yellow Volks, borrowed rehearsal space and no staff, we now have a staff of eighteen, an office and our own rehearsal hall.
The industry has grown too. Monique, Audie, and Bart have their own companies producing plays in English. Jay Glorioso and Karla Gutierrez have an opera company. Other production companies–old and new–have productions during the year. Actors have at least three or four production opportunities a year for work–not to mention international hiring. This was Bibot’s impossible dream. This was her quest–begun out of love but always with this goal in mind–to create an industry where actors can find work.
On November 11 at 8:00 pm the lights will go up on Man of La Mancha at REP’s Globe Theater at Onstage in Greenbelt I. This will be the last production she ever planned. She died on November 28, 2004.
As soon as REP was given performance rights for La Mancha and before she became ill, Bibot had asked Michael Williams and Menchu Lauchengco-Yulo to do the roles of Don Quixote and Aldonza. When he visited her in her sick bed, Bibot and I asked Cocoy Laurel to do the role of the Priest. I wanted the production to be a special tribute to Bibot so I called in Audie to alternate with Michael, Robbie to play the part of Sancho, Joy to recreate the role of the Housekeeper, and Miguel Faustmann to do the Innkeeper. I asked Cathy and Niccolo–representing the younger REP actors–to join the cast. They will play Antonia, the niece, and Dr. Carrasco, her fiancé. I wanted only the finest voices and the best actors for all the cast–leads and supports–Arnel Carrion, Raul Montesa, Boyd Tinio, Alan Alojipan, Oliver Usison, Jack Salud, Carlos Canlas, Edwin Cruz, Harold Cruz, Lorenz Martinez, Ralph Perez, Boyd Tinio, Rem Zamora, Aireen Antonio, Maria Soria.
Her old friend Jun Cumagun who designed REP’s sets for so many years until he retired some years ago has come back to do the set. Through the Linas we have engaged the Manila Symphony Orchestra. Through Jay Glorioso we have been able to include international dance artist Clara Ramona in the cast.
We are all lovingly dedicating this production to our "Bibot of La Mancha" who lived her whole life for actors and to enrich Filipinos’ lives with the best of international theater. But we are also dedicating it, in her name, to the Filipino people with the hope that it will boost their resolve to keep seeking their "impossible dreams" and reaching for that "unreachable star".
Man of La Mancha goes onstage at REP’S Globe Theater at Onstage in Greenbelt I from Nov. 11 to Dec. 18. For inquiries call the Rep office at 8870710 or Ticketworld at 8919999.