FEATURED ARTIST: Audie Gemora, Theater Actor and Producer

AUDIE GEMORA
President and Artistic Director, TRUMPETS
President, Stages
Professional Theater Actor and Producer


What follows is an interview with Audie Gemora

Everyone knows by now that TRUMPETS is a Christian evangelistic theater company. Please tell us what Stages does.

We handle talents and models and put them in commercials. We need people that companies can cast and present them to the advertising agencies. One needs to have a good eye for talent.

What are the challenges facing the theater community these days?

First on the list is the economy. When there is no more stability in the government and the economy drives prices soaring, theater will suffer because it is not prime commodity. Uunahin mo food, clothing, shelter. If you can afford a little entertainment, might as well go to a restaurant or eat, a movie, or palamig ka sa air-con of the mall.

How do you face this challenge?

Given the economy and the turmoil, we need to make enough noise to compel people to watch a show.

We work harder, harder, harder. Although we are pulling hairs already. The first time I tried to produce “The Full Monty”, we had the Oakwood coup; how can you fight that?

What’s different about theater than say, a movie and other forms of entertainment?

Because there’s nothing like live theater. A movie with all its spectacle and multi-billion special effects---it’s like eating fastfood for the sheer enjoyment of it but you forget what you’ve eaten. When you walk out of the movie, there’s no fantastic experience.

But a live theater production makes life unfold before your very eyes, and musical theater has all the elements like music, dance, truth, life, and an interesting storyline. You feel what the performers are feeling, and you react and it’s one artistic orgasm. There’s the sheer excitement, the energy, of walking into the lobby of a theater. In Times Square in Broadway, where you line up for tickets, when you enter, you hear the orchestra and watch the curtains open---it’s magic. Live magic. There’s nothing like it.

Can one make a living as a theater actor?

If theater lang ang gagawin, hindi. Kailangan nilang gumawa ng maraming bagay para gumawa ng theater. Would I be running an agency that does events and manages talents if I didn’t need to? I wouldn’t, I’d rather do theater---but I got to do this for a living.

To survive as a theater actor, you’d probably do one major production a year if you’re lucky and do a long-term like children’s theater, then you might have to hook up with a company like Stages that does many events. In the launch of a major product, you are an entertainer and it pays well. There’s also a shorter rehearsal period. You can do voicing and sing jingles. If you speak Tagalog well, you can do supporting roles in TV. Some actors are even teaching English in language-schools or work in call centers and put on accents. Or you can go for broke and do mainstream like Christian Bautista.

Are there skills that are necessary to become a successful theater artist?

You have to train. Hindi mo madadaan sa good looks. Dancing is a craft that you need to study. I took years of study in jazz; when I was in New York, I took ballet. You also have to train in acting as well. Sadly, some actors are not like those in the US where kung wala kang trabaho, balik ka sa workshop and take a class in acting, dancing, singing---so when an audition comes in, you are ready. Dito, because our actors are established, they don’t do classes any more. They don’t take singing or dancing, most of them.

What kind of fulfillment do you find in theater?

I love it It’s my passion. I am essentially an actor but as a producer, I remember standing there in the opening of “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe,” and the lines were long, and people loved the show and it was a hit. The same thing happened with “The Little Mermaid.” Ibang klaseng high. It’s the seed of an idea and it’s there, and people are buying it. There’s a fantastic feeling in there.

From being the prince of Philippine musical theater, you became a producer. How did that happen?

I had to learn how to put a show together as producer of Trumpets. I had to wield the different department together to mount a show. It was very quick because my first bat was in “Lion”. Prior to that, it was Freddie Santos who was calling the shots. When he left Trumpets, that’s when I challenged [playwrights] Jaime del Mundo and Luna Inocian to write “Lion”.

Doing “Lion” was hands-on. I had to find sponsors. I’d clip newspaper ads and look for the companies in the yellow pages. When a sponsor gave three million pesos, I was screaming with joy! I wrote the articles for the press releases, set up the press con, had meetings with the artists---but it was exciting.

Yet Trumpets, unlike most theater companies now, is still surviving---and more.

One of the reasons for the successes of Trumpets is that we have an ear for the business side. We are still in the black but it can be hard. We’ve grown so fast that I had to downscale Trumpets. We left Shangri-La Plaza Mall [as our office] for example. I cut the staff now. We’re into cost-cutting. It’s a conscious effort to bring down the production costs so you can charge the ticket goers less.

Because we do advertising in stages somewhat, we are very much aware of a company’s marketing needs. We are not just artists putting forth our art. The reason why some theater companies and art groups fail is that it’s only their art that they are putting forth. And honestly, the corporate world couldn’t care less; it just translates, “What is it for us? How will our product and service be sold by linking up with you?”

The first sales book I read told me that. That if you go off selling and rattling off why a person should buy your product, you’re doing it wrong. You need to know what they need so you can sell to their needs. We do it that way. We have to be very aware of what their needs are, and it changes all the time.

For example, a sponsor would be happy if you only show their collaterals on TV, print ad, OR radio. Ngayon, they want to be able to sell their products on all these telecommunication things. You text a certain message, it adds five pesos to the sponsor’s pocket, and they will support you if you become a vehicle to their sales.

In producing Christian Bautista’s first major concert, we hooked up with Dunkin Donuts. The way to get a ticket is to buy 12 dozen doughnuts and you get a chance to win a ticket. It’s marketing but we also achieve our artistic goal.

You need to learn marketing or you won’t survive.

What advice would you give young people who want to go into theater?

Don’t go in it for the business. Go into it because you passionately love this form. Because you love it, you will do all that you can to keep it afloat, including knowing this business side.

There’s such an aversion from my colleagues about pandering to the sponsor and the press. You need to. It’s part of the game. That’s the difference between us. It’s the only way to produce. If I didn’t have Stages, I’d be starving right now. I still have my family land, but I don’t want to be a farmer.

I put a company that hires a lot of actors. We have projects all the time. The only thing we do now is provide the artistic creative element to that launch.

We discovered Christian through the workshops so that’s one way to do it. Auditions are not a very good gauge for us who are in the industry to see your talents. You audition, there are 300 other people auditioning, and you get your one minute to impress us. Whereas in a workshop you are under a teacher for two months and his mindset is to cull your talents. We call it very personal, and it’s very nurturing. Our teachers are already trained to find the best.

Trumpets does productions so that we are known and we do our evangelization. We put up a school where the people who view us put our kids there. When we see the talented kids there, Stages picks them up, manages them, and puts them in productions and corporate shows.

Where do you from here? Anything else you’d like to achieve?

My dream for Trumpets is to go abroad. Not necessarily as a company but for our shows to be produced abroad. Someday, “The Little Mermaid” and our version of |"The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is gonna be bought up by any high school in Detroit or Pennsylvania for the school play. May income na rin iyon. We can produce more evangelistic stuff without having to pander to the commercialism. And there have been inquiries. I’m gonna keep persisting.

I love theater so much that I want to continue the legacy of doing it. I want to produce good shows. If our economy got better, we can work towards people coming here just to watch. Now people go to Hong Kong to watch Disneyland, and I went to Singapore to watch “Honk” three years ago.

I think that can be done here later on; we just need to get our act [as a nation] together.


This interview was taken from JobsDB Executive Breed, August 2005 issue.