Hello, Dolly, Lea and Clint!

Ahead of their play, Request Sa Radyo (Wunschkonzert/Request Program by Franz Xaver Kroetz) in October, we were able to meet celebrated Filipino global artists Lea Salonga, Dolly De Leon and Clint Ramos, who gave a glimpse of their professional careers and artistic journey at “Conversations in Spotlight” at Samsung Performing Arts Theater where they talked about a range of topics from how they got started in theater and what to expect in the industry to what really brings them joy. 

On Joy

Working abroad on plays, film and television, they all agreed that happiness is being reunited with family and friends back home.

“Living a peaceful life with no drama,” shared Lea, whose dramatic skills brought her no less than Tony and Olivier Awards. “Drama should be on stage, not in life!”

“Carlos Yulo and our boxers in the Paris Olympics,” added Dolly, the Triangle of Sadness star who made the country proud by being the first Filipino to be nominated for the BAFTAs and Golden Globes.

“Lea and Dolly are actually our Olympians of theater,” declared Clint Ramos, who brought honors to the Philippines by winning a Tony Award for Costume Design, aside from being a six-time Tony nominee. For Request Sa Radyo, he is overall creative director and co-producer, together with Bobby Garcia who will direct, Chris Mohnani for Ayala Land, and GMG Productions. 

How they got started in theater

LEA: “I started young at age seven in The King and I at Repertory where I was brought by my mom to audition so at that time it wasn’t like ‘I want to be in theater or I want to be a theater actress.’ It was only with Miss Saigon that the theater bug really bit me. I was in First Year Biology in Ateneo then and it was a point where I decided—it became my mindset, sign and confirmation that I would do theater.

DOLLY: Same with me, I was just doing it for fun and games and never thought I could make a career out of it till I entered college in UP. For my first play, Isang Dulang Panaginip, I wasn’t even an actress—was a costume mistress and all my batchmates were performing on stage while I was crying at the back saying, “Why am I here?” Eventually, I did a play with Tony Mabesa as director and even if I only had one line, it was incredible to be on stage. The line had only three words—“Tigang ka talaga.” LOL. But sarap the feeling of people reacting to you in real time.

CLINT: In theater there’s really a certain kind of energy that a live audience brings.

LEA: It’s a high. It’s different from TV or film where you have to wait for the release before the audience can react. And you’re at the mercy of the editor who’s putting everything together. On stage you are your own editor so there’s so much responsibility to make sure that the story being told is the right one. There is a joy, though, in that moment when you connect with the audience.

DOLLY: I can really feel the vibe of the audience if they’re engaged or distracted, kung mababa ang energy nila, it’s palpable even backstage. You can feel if they’re in it or not and, for me, that’s the most exciting part of theater.

LEA: Of course it’s easy when the audience is engaged, but if they’re disconnected it’s a fight within yourself not to be affected and just concentrate on telling the story that you’ve been placed there to tell.

Most challenging work

LEA: Sweeney Todd as Mrs. Lovett, but incredibly rewarding and freeing and probably Old Friends also, where you think you’re doing it right then the producer says, “No, no, no…” so you say ‘S**t!” LOL. With Sweeney, the challenge was multi-level, like with the dialect where I get OC about making sure everything is right—one that it’s correct and two that it’s intelligible. With the lyrics coming so quickly, I gave myself anxiety every night performing that song because not even repetition would help. It made me feel better talking with Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) who had just finished a run of Merrily We Roll Along where he had this song, Franklin Shepard, Inc., which is probably twice as terrifying as The Worst Pies in London. He said he has to go through that song every night before he goes on stage but there’s no guarantee it’s going to go well. So it helps for me, anyway, just to go through the lyrics like a speed exercise just to make sure it’s there, that my muscle memory has it.

DOLLY: In Three Sisters by Chekhov, I played Olga the eldest who is the most problematic because it’s harder for me to play characters who don’t have much angst among the three, although she’s going through a lot. All the other sisters are dumping their problems on her so she always has to comfort them. I had to open this play which made it even more terrifying but it all worked out in the end.

Seeing themselves in Filipinos abroad

With the lone actress in Request sa Radyo playing a Filipina caregiver working abroad, it’s important that Lea and Dolly, who alternate in the role, empathize with the experience of the migrant worker, many of whom live alone just like the heroine who goes through a routine of listening to a radio program while doing daily rituals in an attempt to alleviate her loneliness.

LEA: In concerts I do, a lot of Filipinos come, taking off from work, and when they come to watch, they fill up the venue. You can feel their being Filipino, the sense of generosity, giving respect to a fellow Filipino onstage—you can feel it, you can hear it.

CLINT: I share their experience because most of the time they are invisible and what excites me about this play is you get a slice of this life of our kababayans.

DOLLY: In doing Triangle of Sadness, I had to talk to many Filipino migrant workers as part of my preparation for the role. My mother was actually an OFW, although señora na siya when she went, but it’s still that experience.

What excites them about Request sa Radyo

CLINT: This is a wordless play, a hybrid between performance art and theater, a voyeuristic look at one of our kababayans who are “beasts of burden,” caring for strangers abroad. What excites you about it?

DOLLY: Exactly that, the wordless thing. What I hate most about acting is memorizing lines so it’s perfect, LOL. At the same time I’m terrified communicating feelings, and what’s going on to the audience without saying anything. But it’s exciting to show this feeling of a woman coming home with no one to talk to, she has nothing—something I’ve experienced abroad when I go home tired, want to call my kids but with the time difference it’s impossible so I just do Facebook trying to make a connection, but it’s superficial and unfulfilling. It doesn’t make you really happy, and showing that—that’s what I’m excited to do. 

CLINT: When you think of what acting really is, it’s actually this conveyance of human behavior.

LEA: My first reaction is, hindi ako kakanta? Yehey, LOL. But it’s a challenge, because even if there’s a lot going on in this tiny apartment, how do you keep it interesting? Someone actually said, “If Lea’s not singing, then I’m not watching...”

CLINT: People forget that Lea actually won awards not as Best Singer but as Best Actress and both Lea and Dolly are highly accomplished in that field, a fact that really excited me and Bobby for them to do this play, which I’ve seen four times in different cities and it always moved me. It’s also never been more relevant, with loneliness declared by WHO as the next epidemic and that two out of five women are affected not only by loneliness but how it leads to dire consequences globally. I also can’t wait to transform the Samsung Theater like you’ve never seen it before —from a 1,400 seater to an intimate one for 400 to create this immersive experience from the time you enter the venue.

Advice to those who want to join theater

LEA: Don’t get into this because you think it’s glamorous; it’s not. It’s a lot of hard work, you sacrifice your social life, part of your family life, your friends. You better love this more than sex, more than food, LOL. You have to really love it.

DOLLY: If you’re doing this for fame, for money, get out. You’re not in the right place.