Two acting legends talk theater

Lea Salonga and Dolly de Leon will tackle a silent play

THE PUBLIC conversation of actresses Dolly de Leon and Lea Salonga was anticipated with much fervor by theater students and creative practitioners, among others, at the JZA Hall of the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati.

Held on Aug. 7, the talk leads up to the staging of Request sa Radyo, which will have Ms. De Leon and Ms. Salonga alternating in the main role, in October.

“No words are spoken in the play, so that kind of terrifies me. At the same time, it’s a challenge I welcome. I’m excited about it, because that’s really how a person who lives alone lives,” said Ms. De Leon, who has been nominated for a Golden Globe and a BAFTA award.

Clint Ramos, the Tony Award-winning theater designer and the creative director of the upcoming staging, moderated the talk. He said that both actresses are “more than capable to take on the daunting task.”

For Ms. Salonga, also a Tony Award winner and known for her prowess in singing as well as acting, she jumped on the project because it didn’t entail 45-minute vocal warm-ups before the show.

“Even though there’s a lot happening in this tiny little apartment, how do we keep it interesting without saying anything, without music?” she said. The two actresses invited the audience to buy tickets to find out.

TALENT, HARD WORK, LUCK
One topic that resonated with the theater students in the crowd was the key to “making it” in the business.

“You can have talent, but the technique, the training to put on top of that, is the stuff that enables us to do eight shows a week,” Ms. Salonga told the audience.

She was 18 years old when she fully embraced this and gave her all in theater. That was when she joined the musical Miss Saigon, taking on the lead role of Kim in London’s West End.

She added a quote from her brother, the musical director and orchestra conductor Gerard Salonga, that stuck with her all these years: “It’s not about rising to the occasion. Under great pressure, you do not rise to the occasion — you fall to the level of your training.”

Ms. De Leon shared the sentiment. She revealed that she saw her career as “90% hard work and 10% luck.”

“I’ll never forget my first play. It was incredible for me to be acting for the first time in a student production, with director Tony Mabesa, written by Floy Quintos,” she said. “People were reacting in real time. It was like a high. And I said, ‘This is really what I want to do.’”

Since then, Ms. De Leon has acted in over 30 productions and crossed over into film and TV in supporting roles. Her biggest role to date has been that of Abby in the Cannes-winning film Triangle of Sadness, for which she earned accolades.

Ms. Salonga and Ms. De Leon discussed how acting onstage is completely different from acting onscreen — and ultimately more exhilarating.

“In TV, you have to wait around a lot. On stage, you’re your own editor. There’s so much responsibility. You have to make sure that the story that you unfold is the right one,” Ms. Salonga said.

EPIDEMIC OF LONELINESS
Request Sa Radyo, written by Franz Xaver Kroetz, gives them double the responsibility, having to act out the silence and solitude of a woman living alone with no one to talk to.

Produced by Clint Ramos, Bobby Garcia, and Christopher Mohnani, in collaboration with Ayala Land and GMG Productions, the staging aims to be “a transformative experience for audiences.”

Mr. Ramos explained to the audience that the World Health Organization has declared loneliness as the new epidemic.

“This play is meant to be an insight into that,” he said.

Ms. De Leon added that, while the material is daunting, the best thing she and Ms. Salonga can do is trust in their abilities to bring their role to life.

She directed her words of advice to aspiring thespians in the audience who may be too scared to take the leap of faith: “You have to trust that you are equipped with all the tools to be able to deal with all of these crazy challenges,” she said.

“Stop being insecure. You have a seat at the table.”

Request sa Radyo will run from Oct. 10 to 20 at the Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Circuit, Makati, with tickets available via TicketWorld. The full “Conversations in Spotlight” with Dolly de Leon and Lea Salonga will be posted on the State of the Arts podcast on Spotify on Aug. 17. — Brontë H. Lacsamana