High kicks & High hopes

Talent, these days, is a commodity.

It is valued, marketed, exported. It sells. In this country, homegrown talent flourishes on fertile ground, a year-round harvest for our showbiz culture: variety shows, theater, the entertainment industry, and careers abroad. Our performers are known not only from the brightly-lit marquees of Broadway, but stages in London and Germany, in shows all throughout Europe and Asia. To be a Filipino, one could say, is to sing and dance.

"It’s a gift from God, a natural resource," according to Audie Gemora, president of the theater company Stages. A veteran actor trained under Repertory Philippines founder Zeneida Amador, a teacher and prominent figure in Philippine theater, he’s seen and mentored more than two decades’ worth of aspirants. "Filipinos naturally have rhythm. We love music. We are, by nature, sentimental and emotional. You rarely find a Filipino who can’t carry a decent tune," he says.

This is probably why Filipino performers are in such high demand abroad. And because of the local political and economic crises today, our dancers and actors and artists are jumping at the chance to start careers overseas. These days, many performance companies are experiencing what is being called the Disney exodus: talented local artists are leaving their respective stages to perform alongside Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in the new (and higher-paying) Disneyland in Hongkong.

While performing as a dancing teacup in a daily song-and-dance number for tourists may not be on the same artistic level as, say, a part in a Nick Joaquin play, everything tends to boil down to economics: "[The recent departure of artists] isn’t a reflection of the arts in the Philippines, but of everything else affected by the political and economic crises. If there’s no work here and there’s a better offer abroad, people will go–and artists are not an exception to that," says Gemora.

But he moves on to brighter topics, touching on the latest offering from Stages, Footloose the Musical, in which he is an actor and producer: "[The exodus] is a minor problem at this point. The sister company Trumpets has been holding a summer school called Playshop for 13 years, and every summer we get around 1,200 students. From that number, we cull fresh new talent, so there will never be any point where we actually run out of performers. In fact, I’d rather highlight the fact that we’ve discovered so much new young talent because of the exodus. Footloose is the perfect vehicle for that talent, because it’s about high school students."

Anyone with a clear recollection of the 80s knows about Footloose, a movie released in 1984. A young man and his mother move into the sleepy, deeply religious American Mid-western town of Bumont, a town that seems bent on sucking every drop of fun out of its children’s lives: no dancing, no singing, no partying. The teenager Ren McCormack proceeds to turn the place around by introducing an infectious love of song and dance to the local youth, teaching not only the children but also their parents about freedom, life and love.

In between, there is a joyful frenzy of dance numbers, comedy, love songs, and drama, all set within the colorful beat and setting of the 80s. The musical play is based on the 1998 Broadway adaptation–a smooth transition, as the musically-loaded movie lent itself easily to the musical stage.

Gemora plays Reverend Shaw Moore, the spiritual leader of the town, a rigid preacher overprotective of his flock and daughter, while Ren’s dancing sneakers are filled by popular R&B artist Jay-R and alternate Jonard Yanzon (winner of the 1997 Metropop Star Search).

Veejay Iya Villania, Agot Isidro and Carla Martinez are among the cast. They’re Stages-trained, and several have gone through Trumpets, the sister company that stages family entertainment with a thrust for Christian values. To explain the relationship between the companies, Gemora draws parallels between Disney and its sister comany Buena Vista Pictures, and Trumpets and Stages. "Where Trumpets is like the Disney, more wholesome and family-oriented, Stages is producing a la-Buena Vista. There are no limits, we’re free to do adult themes, and we’ve decided to do Broadway plays. There’s also Playshop, the school, and many of our alumni there eventually move on into the two theater groups. So we have a wonderful triumvirate in place."

It is in this manner that Stages ensures that the well of local talent never dries up. This is how a steady stream of stage and movie actors, singers and dancers joins the local entertainment ocean, and how Audie Gemora can afford not to worry about people leaving.

"That’s life," he says, shrugging. "But you know, when we held auditions for Footloose, we were overwhelmed. Three hundred people showed up. It just goes to show you that there’s a lot of talent out there. Many are still green, and you need to train them, but it’s really exciting to discover another generation ready to shine."

From the training in Playshop, to family-friendly roles in Trumpets, to management and agency services under Stages, the development of the budding performer is taken care of, every step of the way. Gemora goes into detail about plans to expand the companies by opening up more schools.

"We’re opening a music school in October, and we’re planning a sort of academy for language, music and speech. Like if one were to take opera lessons, you’d have to take French or Italian. Wouldn’t it make sense to just move from one classroom to the other, where you learn your French and then go on to doing your arias?" And, with plans for teaching music and instruments, the companies are shaping up into a self-supporting group, synergizing its interdisciplinary efforts to produce quality performers.

The fruit of their more recent efforts, Footloose, is going to be a great experience, Gemora promises. "You should see the kids onstage. All this youthful exuberance, this energy. Ang sarap panoorin. And after rehearsals, we end at eleven, and they still want to go out and they still have to go to school next day. The energy level in the musical is unbelievable."

There are plans on eventually doing straight theater (the non-musical kind) in Stages, though he says that straight theater is more difficult to sell than musical theater. "It’s a mentality we have. Like in the way that my generation was trained, we know that the be-all of being an actor is that you’re acting. In the school, we have basic acting classes which we recommend our students take first, but most parents are just enrolling their kids straight to musical theater. Why? Because it’s singing, dancing and acting–three in one! They feel like they’re getting a better deal," he laughs.

But still and all, he is glad that the interest is still out there. He’s confident that the latent performer in every Filipino is alive and thriving, and that, between the two sister companies, the continuing legacy of performance, onstage and onscreen, is assured.

Footloose the Musical is ongoing at the Meralco Theater until September 25, with Friday and Saturday shows at 8 pm and Saturday and Sunday matinees at 3 pm. For tickets, contact Ticketworld at 891-9999 or www.ticketworld.com.ph or call Stages at 635-4478 or 631-7252.