The COVID-19 pandemic has presented immense challenges to industries around the world. With mobility restrictions in place, business owners had to rethink their operations and adjust to navigate the uncertainties in the new normal. Although some companies were able to adapt and seamlessly shift to the new norm, the process was not easy with many struggling with financial losses and temporary business closures. A survey from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) released September last year reported that the Philippine economy experienced the worst impacts of the pandemic. The Philippines logged the highest number of business closures and layoffs among its peers in Southeast Asia. Despite that, Jovy Hernandez, ePLDT President & CEO and SVP and Head of PLDT & Smart Enterprise and International Business Groups, said that resilience is one of the core values that helped businesses conquer the challenges of the pandemic. This ‘unbreakable spirit’ of enterprises allowed them to embr
The classic Broadway dance musical is here in Manila for
a very limited season run, West Side Story is produced many many times all over
the world, from Broadway to west end including international tours for the last
60 years.
West Side Story is inspired by Shakespeare’s tragic love
story of Romeo and Juliet, written way back 1950’s it is set in New York
presenting gangs of boys from upper west side known as Jets and the Sharks,
plus the teenage love of Maria and Tony torn in between the two enemy gang.
Music of this musical are called immortal now a days, from Tonight, America and
that somewhere still haunt me after watching.
The Manila season that open last August 10 will last
until August 27 only, yes limited 3 week season so you better get those dancing
shoes and hit The Theatre at Solaire, and experience this musical with all
young American cast, many of whom come direct from Broadway. Presented by Globe
Live along with Novuhair, OOCL, Victory Liner, Lyric Piano and Diamond Hotel.
West Side Story Manila season is a Michael Brenner
production, produced by BB Promotion GmbH in association with Sundance
Productions, Inc. NY, Lunchbox Theatrical Production, David Atkins Enterprise
and Concertus Manila.
Here are some qoutes of our interview with the cast during
its press presentation, about their roles, the characters, the trials and the
challenges they have to face.
Jenna Burns and Kevin Hack
Jenna Burns as Maria: “The most difficult part are the
emotional scenes that we have to dive into, the characters are younger than us,
its thinking back what is like the first time you fell in love, those feeling
for someone else and the discovery of that, which when we get older were used
to that feeling, those are the biggest thing we have to do.”
Kevin Hack as Tony: “For me it’s not very difficult, I
find a lot of line very natural in Tony, I just had to put the shoes and
costumes, make sure I can sing the notes and I’m good, the only time I have to
prepare to something is the last scene in the show.”
Keely Beirne and Kayla Moniz
Keely Beirne as Anita: “I’m so honored to play this role,
it’s the role I always admired as a person, as a woman, as a female lead
character in theater and I think she is so strong, its impressive for me that
it is written in 1950’s, and a woman had such power, control and confident.”
Lance Hayes and Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva
Lance Hayes as Riff: It’s an amazing show to get part of,
I could see the world.
Waldemar Quinones-Villanueva as Bernardo: “ We are
sending a message, the show is really sending a message about tolerance, love
and how hate gonna finish it.”
West Side Story is suitable for a PG audience and
contains no profanity. Tickets prices and show details are P7,000- VIP, P5800-A
Reserve, P4500-B Reserve, P3500- C Reserve and P1500- D Reserve. Tuesday-8pm,
Wednesday-8pm, Thursday-8pm, Friday-8pm, Saturday-3pm and 8pm, Sunday-3pm and
8pm. For tickets are now on sale at www.Ticketworld.com.ph .
Princess Laura, Prince Florante, Prince Aladin and Princess Flerida. Amidst innovations and new techniques in presenting play, the Gantimpala Theater Foundation, Inc stand in delivering the Filipino classic story “Florante At Laura” in a traditional way as they open 38 th Season. They use the Komedya complete with majestic marches and grand batalia for the entire run of Florante and Laura. Theater thespian Roeder Camanag told us that they have preliminary talks and briefing with schools on how the classic way of theater production on stage. Camanag direct this year’s Florante at Laura with Paul Jake Paule playing Florante and Ellrica Laguardia as Laura. Ace Urieta is Adolfo, Jeffrey Carpio is Aladin, and Sharlene Rivera and Ira Ruzz is alternating for Flerida. Florante At Laura as well know is written by Francisco Balagtas, it’s one of the most epic and enduring Filipino literary masterpieces. Boni Ilagan write the script for the staging that Camanag claim a very
Spoliarium, an opera with libretto by Soprano Fides Cuyugan-Asensio and with music by Ryan Cayabyab was the first production I saw pertaining to the life of Juan Luna. Originally staged at the CCP in 2003 starring Robert Seña at the titular role, the opera was staged in Tribeca Performing Arts Center in New York thirteen years later. Philippine Stagers Foundation (PSF) current production of "Obra Ni Juan " was my follow-up. This original Filipino musical entertainment was written by Atty. Vince Tañada, PSF President and Artistic Director and with music by Peter Paul "Pipo" Cifra, president of UST Conservatory of Music Alumni Association Incorporated, marked as my first production I saw from PSF. Established in 2002, PSF is a professional theater company with an objective of helping the poor, elderly, sick and even the forgotten, has been consistently conducting free theater workshop in schools nationwide and continuously organizing outreach programs to va
JOIN the Pinoy Readers Toastmasters Club in the online book discussion of Ani 41: Lakbay on June 5, 3pm, via Zoom. A speech club and a book club in one, Pinoy Readers Toastmasters Club was chartered as a club by Toastmasters International on March 29, 2021. Aside from their desire to improve their communication and leadership skills, the 28 members of the club are all passionate lovers of literary works, especially those written by Filipino authors. The Ani 41 book discussion will be moderated by Beverly Siy, club treasurer and head of the CCP Intertextual Division. Edited by award-winning writer and editor Herminio S. Beltran, Jr., with Mia P. Tijam as the special section editor, the latest edition of Ani, the official literary journal of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP), features multilingual Philippine literary works on travel. It contains 146 literary works in various literary genres, selected from over thousands of submissions from different parts of the coun
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