MANILA, Philippines — “Doctor Lea Salonga” — that would have been the fate of the Philippines’ first Olivier and Tony Awards Best Actress winner, if “Miss Saigon” did not come.
In a talk last Wednesday in Samsung Performing Arts Theater, Circuit Makati for their upcoming play “Request sa Radyo,” Lea and her alternate in the play, Dolly de Leon, recalled their beginnings before reaching stardom.
“My story is a little weird,” Lea began.
According to her, she has been doing theater as part of Repertory Philippines even before she knew that it would be her lifelong passion.
“I think I started doing theater before the bug actually bit, if that makes sense,” she said.
“It's weird because I started so young. I was with ‘The King and I’ with Repertory Philippines… I was seven. At that time of my life, I didn’t have the ambition of I want to be in theater. I want to be on stage. Like for me, my cousin who was involved with Repertory Philippines told my mother, you have to let Lea audition for the show. They're looking for children, just bring her,” she recalled.
She said that she was not a shy kid, so maybe she is really meant for the stage.
“I remember bits and pieces of the audition. I remember being taught the speech at the end of the show, which I ended up reciting. And then I remember there's a microphone in CCP (Cultural Center of the Philippines) that came from the floor of the stage that rose up to just my height. When it was time for me to say the speech. So I was amplified with one of those built-in rising microphones from the stage. And I recited my speech into the mic and I remember not feeling any fear even if there were a lot of people in the theater.”
It was not until “Miss Saigon” that Lea realized what she wants in life.
“But the bug, I didn't make the decision to really like, this is my life until I was already deep in the run of ‘Miss Saigon’,” she said.
According to her, she was at her first year of taking a pre-Medicine course, Biology, on her way to becoming a doctor, when she was cast as the lead actress in “Miss Saigon.”
“So I was in (Ateneo de Manila) university. I had finished my first year of pre-Med. I was a Biology student and then ‘Miss Saigon’ happened. And so for the longest time I was like, after this, I'll go back to that. And so that was my mindset for a while,” she reminisced.
She said that after “Miss Saigon,” she was supposed to return to school, but then she received a sign.
“And then I went to mass with my mom and then the priest was like, 'We were all given gifts by God, use the gifts that God gave.' So yeah, OK, I guess that's my sign,” she shared. “That's my confirmation that I, this is what I'm supposed to be doing. Yeah, I did not look back and I haven't looked back. It's weird.”
Since then, Lea won many Best Actress honors for “Miss Saigon,” including one from the Tonys and another from the Oliviers. She has also starred in many films and in Broadway and West End productions, the latest is the upcoming premiere of Stephen Sondheim's "Old Friends."
In “Request sa Radyo,” Lea and De Leon, the Philippines’ first British Academy Film Awards (BAFTA) and Golden Globe nominee, will perform the solo piece in scheduled alternating performances from October 10 to 20 in Samsung Performing Arts Theater in Makati City. — Video by Deni Rose M. Afinidad-Bernardo, video editing by Martin Ramos