APA gets to talkin with the cast members of Imelda, who, if nothing else, lend credence to the phrase "the more, the merrier."
The world premiere of Imelda: A New Musical at the East West Players (EWP) in the spring 2005 has received positive critical waves due mainly to the four lead actors, who, in between shows on a Saturday afternoon, sat down with Asia Pacific Arts to discuss the play, their thoughts on its reception and the affable community of Philippine actors of which they form a part. Relieved and energized by the just-finished first performance of the day, Giovanni Ortega, Liza del Mundo, Myra Cris Ocenar and Antoine Reynaldo Diel left behind their characters -- Ferdinand Marcos, Imelda, Cory, and Ninoy Aquino, respectively -- allowing a friendly and relaxed atmosphere to reign supreme. Their familiarity and appreciation of each other's work as Philippine-Americans/Canadian contributes no doubt to the ensemble quality of their work in Imelda, which for Diel, marks his first collaboration with EWP. Not content with their collective theatrical experience as actors though, Diel has directed and taught musical theatre; del Mundo has done voiceover work for several animated series; Ortega has lined up dance experience with Do Brasil and the Akimbo Dance Project; and Ocenar has starred in film (Much Adobo about Nothing, 1999). Buoyed by the mixture of artistic genres provided by Imelda, the cast brings their varied backgrounds to the stage and rises above the stereotypes of the play to show what they are capable of doing, hopefully encouraging other Philippine artists in the Los Angeles community. -- Rowena Aquino
Interview with Liza Del Mundo, Antoine Reynaldo Diel, Giovanni Ortega, and Myra Cris Ocenar
May 21, 2005
Interviewed by Rowena Aquino
Transcribed by Ada Tseng
Video Edit by Michael Kissoon
Click here to view our Imelda interviews using Real Player.
Click here to view our Imelda interviews using Windows Media Player.
Why Imelda as a Musical?
Liza Del Mundo (Imelda Marcos): I think that her life encompasses those things that a musical should have in it. So actually, it's surprising to me that a musical about her life hasn't been done already. And I think maybe with the documentary coming about last year, it got the railroad tracks moving a little faster in that direction
Antoine Reynaldo Diel (Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino): It is entertainment, and what we're trying to do is not necessarily represent history as this -- that's documentaries. This is a point of view from the creators of how they wanted to show Imelda, and then us as actors showing how the characters live through this story.
Imelda: Controversial?
Liza Del Mundo (Imelda Marcos): When you have a character like this, a person, a living person who's larger than life, everybody has opinions about her. I think that Tim's (Tim Dang, the director's) hope was that maybe through this musical, people would get an idea of why Imelda made the choices that she made. And, helping people relate to her as a person, not just as this infamous icon.
Antoine Reynaldo Diel (Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino): If you go in hating her and come away from this musical thinking “Oh, maybe she wasn't that bad,” then maybe it's done something in terms of relaxing your own prejudce about her
Filipino Culture and Uniting Generations
Giovanni Ortega (Ferdinand Marcos): You now have a second generation of Filipino-Americans coming here, and their parents saying, "I have to show this to you." Regardless if they agree on some of the things in the play, if their children see, they can say "Oh, that's what happened in '86” or “That's what happened in martial law." They can leave feeling like, "Oh man this is what you went through when you left our country."
Myra Cris Ocenar (Corazon "Cory" Aquino): To be able to reach that population who can say, "Hey, I can identify with that. I was there." That's exciting! And to have them come to the theater, people who wouldn't necessarily come to the theater, to have the draw of this demographic is so great.
Giovanni Ortega (Ferdinand Marcos): I think it's very important, because we Filipinos and Filipino-Americans are influenced by all these cultures, which was touched upon in the musical in the very beginning, so talent is not hard to find. So you have the new Imagine, John Lennon musical, with Filipinas playing Yoko Ono, Kip/Kim's (??) been played by 5 million Filipinos. Us Filipinos are always represented as a different ethnic group. So, I think this is a good opportunity for Filipino Americans to say that we have this musical called Imelda.
Antoine Reynaldo Diel (Benigno "Ninoy" Aquino): Because of the fact that we are Filipinos, when people come to see it, it's in your face -- that these are Filipinos on stage. So I think that's very important for the next generation, and even for the older generation, to say “Hey, we're up there.” And it's not just us up there, we're bringing in anyone up there who's ever thought or wanted or wished there was some place where they were represented. So whether they agree or disagree with the premise of the show or the details of the show, it's still them up there.
Someone in the audience recently was saying “But I don't have an accent.” But, at the same time, we're not playing Filipino-Americans, we're playing Filipinos in the Philippines. And some of us do have accents. So, we want to bring that flavor in theater and have it shown to the mainstream audience, and to say, it's OK to be hearing that -- that it's not foreign, it's not weird, it's not strange. It is now part of our culture here in America. In some essence we're trying to be true to what it is to be being Filipino and not just a stereotype of what we are.
It's an honor to be chosen to be the first people to do this show. This is not the first Filipino musical to be created in America. But it is the first to get the type of attention and publicity and things like that, and support from the theater.
Liza Del Mundo (Imelda Marcos): There's a line drawn in the sand that says, we're either love Imelda or we hate Imelda, and you can feel it as an actor. And it helps us to realize just how important this piece is....
Click here to view our Imelda interviews using Real Player.
Click here to view our Imelda interviews using Windows Media Player.
APA's review of Imelda: The musical
APA's review of Imelda, the film