Cross-dressing Cris Villonco in PETA’s Shakespeare musical

MANILA, Philippines—Cris Villonco’s acting credentials are impressive for someone of her age. Barely 30, this young woman has two Philstage Gawad Buhay! Best Actress Awards under her belt and has appeared in over 30 productions with some of the leading Filipino theater companies.

Cris is also known for being the star of numerous musicals such as “Sound of Music” as Maria Rainer, “Les Miserables” as Eponine, “Noli Me Tangere the Musical” as Maria Clara and “Jekyll and Hyde” as Emma Carew.

Currently, Cris is preparing for her role in the Philippine Educational Theater Association’s (PETA) “D Wonder Twins of Boac,” the company’s musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s “Twelfth Night” written by multi-awarded writer Rody Vera.

Set during the “decline” of the golden age of Philippine Cinema, “D Wonder Twins of Boac” is the story of two aspiring talents from Marinduque, twins named Viola (Cris Villonco) and Bastian (Chrome Cosio), who were separated in an unfortunate shipwreck going to Manila. Driven by her dream to make it to showbiz and believing her brother to be dead, Viola disguises herself as a boy and auditions to become the ‘Elvis’ of Campanilla Pictures owned by Doc Orsino (essayed by Bodjie Pascua, alternating with Lex Marcos). Doc Orsino hires Viola (now guised as Ceasar) but eventually becomes his boy friday. Eventually, her disguise causes numerous complications when she falls in love with Doc Orsino, while Donya Olivia (Shamaine Buencamino), the unresponsive object of the Doc Orsino and owner of BLV Studios, falls madly in love with her.




On cross-dressing and crossing over
This being her first production with PETA, Cris feels fortunate to have another opportunity to work with a new set of actors on stage.


 Cris points out the advantages of having crossover artists, stating that “different theater companies have different methods and philosophies of acting so it’s really interesting nowadays to watch a show where somebody’s from Tanghalang Pilipino, someone’s from Repertory Philippines, Trumpets, or Atlantis.”

“The challenge for me is to work with a new set of people every time. It’s challenging and yet it’s also such an advantage because everyone has something different to bring to the table. But then again it’s also nice to be with people that you know because you kind of know how they will do things,” says Cris.

As Viola/Ceasar in the play, Cris shares several scenes with Shamaine Buencamino (as Donya Olivia) who Cris considers as one of the great theater actors today. “I’ve also never worked with Shamaine and it’s a challenge because I know that she’s such a great actress and I’m a little nervous”, says Cris.

Playing dual roles as a girl-turned-boy probinsyana from Marinduque in the late 1960′s, Cris admits that she is still in the process of refining her role as Viola and Ceasar.

“Now that we’re going through rehearsals, I am getting into the flow of things. I’m trying to roughen up my Tagalog and trying to acquire an accent to make it authentic. Strangely enough, I have relatives from Marinduque and I am related to the people who used to be involved in LVN (now BLV in the play). It’s now more about research, of how different celebrities were like at that time, and also just the manners and language patterns.”

Another new experience for Cris is performing in an arena stage. Lex Marcos, the play’s production designer has devised four circular platforms which serve as the stage of the play, giving the audience, a 360 degree view of the actors on stage.

“D Wonder Twins of Boac” is directed by PETA Artistic Director Maribel Legarda, who also directed “Care Divas” and “William.”

The cast includes Gino Ramirez, Paolo Rodriguez, Carlon Matobato, Riki Benedicto, Gie Onida, Eric dela Cruz, Roi Calilong, Kiki Baento, Kat Castillo, Tricia Huseña and Divine Aucina. The play’s music is composed by Jeff Hernandez, choreography by Carlon Matobato, costumes by John Abul, and lighting design by Jon Jon Villareal.

D Wonder Twins of Boac will have 30 shows from February 1 to March 3 at the PETA Theater Center. Ticket prices are Php 800 (VIP) and Php 600 (regular). For inquiries, contact PETA through 725-6244, 0917-5765400, or petatheater@gmail.com.

source: interaksyon.com

Dreamworks breathes fire into arena shows with ‘How To Train Your Dragon’

NEW YORK – To Ray Marino, $374 seemed a small price to pay to see flying dragons, a cast of wisecracking, back-flipping Vikings and the looks of wonder from his children as they watched a live stage show — not just a movie.

“You get to kind of feel it, rather than just watch it on screen,” Marino said at the intermission of “How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular,” a massive arena show that played recently in New York and is based on the 2010 film from DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc.

DreamWorks, the studio behind the “Shrek” and “Madagascar” film franchises, is transforming its popular family movies into stage productions, extending their product lives in a strategy used successfully by The Walt Disney Co with its “Disney on Ice” arena show and Broadway shows.

Dreamworks teamed up with theater production group Global Creatures — whose animatronics arm had already made another arena show based on dinosaurs — and promoter S2BN Entertainment to create the live show.

The response from Marino — who with his wife surprised their children, ages 7 and 10, with the front-section seats — is exactly what DreamWorks hopes to get in cities across North America. The show, which recently played at New York’s Nassau Coliseum, is now in Montreal. There are plans to continue to other U.S. cities through 2013, and makers of the show hope to tour next in Europe and Asia.

The show, which made its U.S. debut in June, tells of a Viking teenager named Hiccup and his tribe of dragon slayers. It uses 23 animatronically engineered dragon puppets, some with wingspans of up to 46 feet and weighing over 1.6 tons.

The story, in which Hiccup befriends a dragon and ends generations of war between man and fire-breathing beast, is loosely based on a popular children’s book by Cressida Cowell and follows the 2010 DreamWorks movie that made nearly $500 million at worldwide box offices.

Action scenes are created through projected animation surrounded by real smoke and columns of fire. Cable-suspended beasts lift off the stage to achieve what the show’s makers say may be its best feature, flying dragons.

“It’s almost bigger than Broadway because you can’t achieve what we do in … theater,” said Gavin Sainsbury, head of puppetry. “It’s the DreamWorks version of turning their amazing film into a live theatrical extravaganza.”

Makers of the production would not comment on ticket sales but pointed to full arenas, positive blog posts, and solid reviews as evidence of a good reception.

“We’re excited by the momentum the show has right now,” said Bill Damaschke, DreamWorks’ chief creative officer, noting the show was the company’s largest stage production yet and was still in the early stages.

In 2011, a live U.S. touring show based on the DreamWorks film “Madagascar” was cut short without a reason given by the company. And past DreamWorks stage productions have not been hits like Disney on Ice, which has played for decades, or Broadway stage musicals like “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast,” both based on popular Disney films.

“The Lion King,” for instance, ousted “The Phantom of the Opera” this past April from its long reign atop of the list of all-time Broadway box office hits after generating gross ticket sales of just over $853.8 million, Disney said.

DreamWorks’ “Shrek, the Musical,” which has been playing in London’s West End for over a year, posted a second-quarter operating loss of approximately $5 million, according to the company’s last earnings call on July 31. That show cost $25 million to create, according to a person near the production.

The live “How to Train Your Dragon Spectacular” cost about $20 million, according to Damaschke.

The show’s ultimate success could be helped by a new television series, based on the books and movie, set for this fall on Cartoon Network. A film sequel is planned for 2014.

The challenge in getting people to come to the live shows, said show director Nigel Jamieson, is to get the word out that it isn’t just “people running around in foam suits with a few kites pretending to be dragons.”

The recent performance in the Nassau Coliseum was nearly full. Glowing Viking horns and sparklers punctuated the darkness as families waited after intermission. Children waved replicas of the dragons.

“It’s pretty awesome,” said Abby Marino, 7.

source: interaksyon.com