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 AUDIE
GEMORA
President and Artistic Director, TRUMPETS
President, Stages
Professional Theater Actor and Producer
Everyone knows
by now that TRUMPETS is a Christian evangelistic
theater company. Please tell us what Stages does.
We handle talents and models
and put them in commercials. We need people that
companies can cast and present them to the advertising
agencies. One needs to have a good eye for talent.
What are the
challenges facing the theater community these days?
First on the list
is the economy. When there is no more stability
in the government and the economy drives prices
soaring, theater will suffer because it is not prime
commodity. Uunahin mo food,
clothing, shelter. If you can afford a little entertainment,
might as well go to a restaurant or eat, a movie,
or palamig ka sa air-con
of the mall.
How do you
face this challenge?
Given the economy and the turmoil,
we need to make enough noise to compel people to
watch a show.
We work harder, harder, harder.
Although we are pulling hairs already. The first
time I tried to produce “The Full Monty”,
we had the Oakwood coup; how can you fight that?
 What’s
different about theater than say, a movie and other
forms of entertainment?
Because there’s
nothing like live theater. A movie with
all its spectacle and multi-billion special effects---it’s
like eating fastfood for the sheer enjoyment of
it but you forget what you’ve eaten. When
you walk out of the movie, there’s no fantastic
experience.
But a live
theater production makes life unfold before your
very eyes, and musical theater has all the elements
like music, dance, truth, life, and an interesting
storyline. You feel what the performers are feeling,
and you react and it’s one artistic orgasm.
There’s the sheer excitement, the energy,
of walking into the lobby of a theater. In Times
Square in Broadway, where you line up for tickets,
when you enter, you hear the orchestra and watch
the curtains open---it’s magic. Live magic.
There’s nothing like it.
Can one make
a living as a theater actor?
If theater lang
ang gagawin, hindi. Kailangan nilang gumawa ng maraming
bagay para gumawa ng theater. Would
I be running an agency that does events and manages
talents if I didn’t need to? I wouldn’t,
I’d rather do theater---but I got to do this
for a living.
To survive
as a theater actor, you’d probably do one
major production a year if you’re lucky and
do a long-term like children’s theater, then
you might have to hook up with a company like Stages
that does many events. In the launch of a major
product, you are an entertainer and it pays well.
There’s also a shorter rehearsal period. You
can do voicing and sing jingles. If you speak Tagalog
well, you can do supporting roles in TV. Some actors
are even teaching English in language-schools or
work in call centers and put on accents. Or you
can go for broke and do mainstream like Christian
Bautista.
Are there
skills that are necessary to become a successful
theater artist?
You have to
train. Hindi mo madadaan sa
good looks. Dancing is a craft
that you need to study. I took years of study in
jazz; when I was in New York, I took ballet. You
also have to train in acting as well. Sadly,
some actors are not like those in the US where kung
wala kang trabaho, balik ka sa workshop
and take a class in acting, dancing, singing---so
when an audition comes in, you are ready. Dito,
because our actors are established, they don’t
do classes any more. They don’t take singing
or dancing, most of them.
What kind
of fulfillment do you find in theater?
I love it
It’s my passion. I am essentially
an actor but as a producer, I remember standing
there in the opening of “The Lion, The Witch,
and the Wardrobe,” and the lines were long,
and people loved the show and it was a hit. The
same thing happened with “The Little Mermaid.”
Ibang klaseng high. It’s
the seed of an idea and it’s there, and people
are buying it. There’s a fantastic feeling
in there.
From being
the prince of Philippine musical theater, you became
a producer. How did that happen?
I had to learn
how to put a show together as producer of Trumpets.
I had to wield the different department together
to mount a show. It was very quick because my first
bat was in “Lion”. Prior to that, it
was Freddie Santos who was calling the shots. When
he left Trumpets, that’s when I challenged
[playwrights] Jaime del Mundo and Luna Inocian to
write “Lion”.
Doing “Lion”
was hands-on. I had to find sponsors. I’d
clip newspaper ads and look for the companies in
the yellow pages. When a sponsor gave three million
pesos, I was screaming with joy! I wrote the articles
for the press releases, set up the press con, had
meetings with the artists---but it was exciting.
Yet Trumpets,
unlike most theater companies now, is still surviving---and
more.
One of the
reasons for the successes of Trumpets is that we
have an ear for the business side. We are still
in the black but it can be hard. We’ve grown
so fast that I had to downscale Trumpets. We left
Shangri-La Plaza Mall [as our office] for example.
I cut the staff now. We’re into cost-cutting.
It’s a conscious effort to bring down the
production costs so you can charge the ticket goers
less.
Because we
do advertising in stages somewhat, we are very much
aware of a company’s marketing needs. We
are not just artists putting forth our art. The
reason why some theater companies and art groups
fail is that it’s only their art that they
are putting forth. And honestly, the corporate world
couldn’t care less; it just translates, “What
is it for us? How will our product and service be
sold by linking up with you?”
The first
sales book I read told me that. That if you go off
selling and rattling off why a person should buy
your product, you’re doing it wrong. You need
to know what they need so you can sell to their
needs. We do it that way. We have to be very aware
of what their needs are, and it changes all the
time.
For example, a sponsor
would be happy if you only show their collaterals
on TV, print ad, OR radio. Ngayon,
they want to be able to sell their products on all
these telecommunication things. You text a certain
message, it adds five pesos to the sponsor’s
pocket, and they will support you if you become
a vehicle to their sales.
In producing Christian
Bautista’s first major concert, we hooked
up with Dunkin Donuts. The way to get a ticket is
to buy 12 dozen doughnuts and you get a chance to
win a ticket. It’s marketing but we
also achieve our artistic goal.
You need to learn
marketing or you won’t survive.
What
advice would you give young people who want to go
into theater?
Don’t
go in it for the business. Go into it because you
passionately love this form. Because you love it,
you will do all that you can to keep it afloat,
including knowing this business side.
There’s such
an aversion from my colleagues about pandering to
the sponsor and the press. You need to. It’s
part of the game. That’s the difference between
us. It’s the only way to produce.
If I didn’t have Stages, I’d be starving
right now. I still have my family land, but I don’t
want to be a farmer.
I put a company that hires
a lot of actors. We have projects all the time.
The only thing we do now is provide the artistic
creative element to that launch.
We discovered Christian
through the workshops so that’s one way to
do it. Auditions are not a very good gauge
for us who are in the industry to see your talents.
You audition, there are 300 other people auditioning,
and you get your one minute to impress us. Whereas
in a workshop you are under a teacher for two months
and his mindset is to cull your talents. We call
it very personal, and it’s very nurturing.
Our teachers are already trained to find the best.
Trumpets does
productions so that we are known and we do our evangelization.
We put up a school where the people who view us
put our kids there. When we see the talented kids
there, Stages picks them up, manages them, and puts
them in productions and corporate shows.
Where do you
from here? Anything else you’d like to achieve?
My dream for Trumpets
is to go abroad. Not necessarily as a company but
for our shows to be produced abroad. Someday, “The
Little Mermaid” and our version of |"The
Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is gonna
be bought up by any high school in Detroit or Pennsylvania
for the school play. May
income na rin iyon.
We can produce more evangelistic stuff without
having to pander to the commercialism. And there
have been inquiries. I’m gonna keep persisting.
I love theater
so much that I want to continue the legacy of doing
it. I want to produce good shows. If our economy
got better, we can work towards people coming here
just to watch. Now people go to Hong Kong to watch
Disneyland, and I went to Singapore to watch “Honk”
three years ago.
I think that
can be done here later on; we just need to get our
act [as a nation] together.
"Footloose", a
STAGES presentation of the musical theater version
of the popular 1985 dance movie, will run at the
Meralco Theater on September 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, 11,
16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25. The show highlights the
‘80s most popular songs like “Almost
Paradise,” “Holding Out for a Hero”,
“Let’s Hear It for the Boy,” and
the theme “Footloose.”Call 631-7252
and 635-4478. For tickets, contact TicketWorld at
891-9999 or email stages_pr@i-manila.com.ph."
_____________________________________________________________________________________
THINK YOU
HAVE WHAT IT TAKES TO BE A HIGH-POWERED EXECUTIVE?
Send your resume to eportfolio@jobsdb.com.ph.
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