Giants in Theater
Well, the past two weeks have been good for two of my old theater friends, Tom and Rona.

Tom is my bro, my best friend... and he's based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Here's the article about him:

From Keith Kreitman of San Mateo Times....

For a small university, Notre Dame de Namur in Belmont has a big-time drama department under the leadership of Michael Elkins, with some outstanding productions in recent years.

The "Labor Day Theatre Festival," held at the school this past weekend, is among the best of them, a wonderful night of funny theater, featuring four super performers in two one-act gut-busters and four well-acted short playlets by local writers.

Directed by Karen Byrnes, "Lone Star," by James McLure, is the kind of original, witty and cleanly-honed script that other playwrights can only dream of.

Featured as the brothers Roy and Ray, two top-notch actors, Tom Earlywine and Will Springhorn, so captured the realistic persona and speech patterns of small town machos in the Lone Star State, that this sometime Texan needed to restrain himself from mounting the stage, grabbing a Lone Star beer from the case, snatching a Mars bar from the bench, dipping some popcorn from the bag and joining in the good-natured, earthy and sometimes tense verbal exchanges.

It is set in the scruffy rear of a roadhouse saloon in the mythical town of Maynard on one star-bright night in the summer of 1971, somewhere deep in the heart of Texas.

Roy, the town's past high school hero, having returned several years before from a tour of duty in Viet Nam, is sloshing down multiple Lone Star beers and speaking to the canopy of Texas stars as he recalls the glory days, now irretrievably lost, that had pivoted about his beloved, bimbo-conquering, 1959 pink Thunderbird convertible.

As his younger, dimly-lit but adoring brother Ray, Springhorn, in a prize-winning performance, is the quintessential, malleable but loveable small-town Texan. Steve Bologna fits right in with his cameo as Cletis T, the sexually-wimpy son of the local hardware dealer, who "borrows" and wrecks Roy's dream car hitting the town's only prairie tree.

In the most original funny sequence, Ray frustrates every attempt by big-brother Roy to successfully demonstrate how a Viet Nam G.I. would stalk and kill the enemy.

As for Rona, here's an excerpt from an article from the Philippine Star (September 8, 2003):

It was during our one-on-one where Banderas mentioned to me about a Filipino in the cast of Nine. As soon as I took my seat in front of him for the TV interview (to be shown on The Buzz sometime next month), Banderas shook my hand. When he learned that I came from the Philippines, he smiled and said, "Oh, from the Philippines. Do you know that there’s a Filipina with me in the musical (Nine, that is) I’m now doing on Broadway? She’s very talented."

Flattered for our world-class Filipino talents, I replied, "There’s more where she came from!"

The Filipina turned out to be Rona Figueroa who played Julliete, one of Guido Contini’s women. At the Eugene O’Neill Theater, Raoul and I didn’t have a hard time singling out Rona who, although petite, stood out among her taller – but, we presumed, not necessarily more talented – female co-performers.

The Nine playbill doesn’t mention where in the Philippines Rona came from but listed down her previous performances: Kim in Miss Saigon, Eponine in Les Miserables, Daisy in Dogeaters, Grusha in The Caucasian Chalk Circle, Turando in Turando, Madeline True in The Wild Party, among others. She was also in such films as Dragonheart: A New Beginning (often shown on the Sci Fi Channel) and Waiting in the Wings; and TV shows like Third Watch, Cosby Show, David Lettermen and Reading Rainbow. Figueroa has a rock band which has recently recorded its first album.

Impressive credentials, ’no! No wonder Banderas was impressed with her.

Yeah, makes me wish for some time to brush up on my rusty acting skills. What fun!

Bye Bye, Bry
Tomorrow, September 9th, Bryan C. is going to Scotland with his wife... Safe trip, Bry! Wishing you all the best... and hurry back when you're done (unless, of course, the Philippines self-destructs before then).