Cris emerges from her ‘cocoon’

Curtain-raisers:

• Only two films qualify as contenders for the Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo Best Picture Award for the month of July. They are Katapat, directed by Mel Chionglo, and Pakisabi Na Lang... Mahal Ko Siya, directed by Boots Plata. The winner will get P500,000 cash. The monthly award is given by President GMA as some kind of an incentive to local producers.

• Sorry, Zsa Zsa (Padilla), you sure don’t look like a "Pin Antonio clone" despite your pleasing Pin Antonio hairdo and makeup. But Morning Girls viewers observed – and suggested – that you should perhaps see Vicki Belo more often and let her check you "from the neck down" (the viewers’ words, not mine, believe me!) because on the screen you "seem to look" (still the viewers’ words) "slightly bigger" (still the viewers’ words) than your co-hosts Kris Aquino and Pops Fernandez. Good morning, Zsa Zsa! Good morning, Pops! Good morning, Kris!

• Alma Moreno just came back from an "important" trip to L.A. Could it be true that, according to Funfare’s "Hollywood DPA," she went there to sort out papers/documents concerning real-estate properties (take note, plural)?

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If the presscon the other day at Annabel’s Restaurant for the third staging of Alikabok, the Musical Theater Philippines production put up by Girlie Rodis, Monique Villonco and Celeste Legaspi, were to be the gauge, I should say that Alikabok will be a great and highly-entertaining musical event (slated at the Music Museum starting tonight, with more playdates on Aug. 8, 9, 10, 14, 15, 16, 17, 21, 22, 23 and 24, sponsored by Siemens, Directory Phils., Avon, Talentworks Asia and Asia Society).

With Mama Celeste around for moral support, the four young members of the cast – Cris Villonco as the lead character Bising Vallejo, Jeffrey Hidalgo as the male lead Ignacio, China Cojuangco as Consuelo, and Celeste and Nonoy Gallardo’s daughter Waya Gallardo as Anna – engaged media in a thoroughly enlightening and enjoyable free-wheeling – and no-holds-barred – breezy chat (it didn’t feel like an interview at all).

Because of the news that her parents, Monique Siguion-Reyna Villonco and lawyer Opap Villonco, have recently decided to separate after many years of, yes, blissful togetherness, Cris, 19 going on 20, was swamped with most of the personal questions. Cris managed to field all the questions with a sweet smile, sometimes turning somewhat mataray, saying that, as a Siguion-Reyna and specifically the granddaughter of "Lola Armida," she should be true to form – and to her genes.

In September, Cris (who’s better and more likeable/lovable in her loosened-up attitude than her previous pa-tweetums image) is flying to New York to start a four-year course at Sarah Lawrence, alma mater of, among other celebrities, Vera Wang and Barbara Walters.

"It’s my Lolo (lawyer Leonardo Siguion-Reyna) who’s paying for my tuition," stressed Cris, "and not my father."

Cris topped the entrance test (for any US school) and she plans to take up a course in Psychology and Communication Arts and, for sure, Performing Arts on the side, and will stay at the dorm instead of at the Siguion-Reynas’ apartment in New York.

Has her parents’ break-up anything to do with her decision to study abroad?

"Not at all," said Cris, very sexy in her curly locks. "I’ve been planning to study in New York long before."

Even if she and her sisters are gravely affected by the break-up, according to Cris, they are sure that everything will turn out right for them and especially their mom who, as in the case of most wives, "is the last to know" (no elaboration, please).

"I’m civil to my Dad," said Cris. "When I bump into him at the mall, I say ‘Hi!’ to him. Hindi ko siya binabastos," added Cris who plans to come home thrice a year during school breaks.

Last year, added Cris, she herself broke up with her boyfriend (unnamed) of one year and a half, and just shrugged it off.

Asked why it’s only now that she’s venturing into the performing arts, the outgoing Waya Gallardo confessed that her mom, the Celeste Legaspi, is such a formidable figure to live up to that Waya opted to dabble in another field – creative writing, that is – writing fiction and non-fiction as well as songs.

"My Mom casts such a giant shadow that it frightened me," said Waya. "There was a lot of pressure on me."

Any pointers from Mama Celeste?

"All she reminds me is that the audience is the most important thing," said Waya. "Make the audience fall in love with your songs, not so much with you. Don’t make yourself believe that you’re the star of the show; what matters should be your performance."

Although she has tried television (as KC Montero’s co-host of the GMA 7’s Love Stories from which she quit a few months ago after eight months), China said that she feels at home in theater.

"I love theater," she stressed. "In television, you work for only 24 hours at most and you are not able to create a bond with your co-workers. In theater, we are there all the time, you can be yourself, and in the process you create a lasting bond with your co-stars."

Falling in love again with an actor, added China, is out of the question, "traumatized" as she was by her failed romance with Onemig Bondoc.

"Magulo," said China. "We kept on hiding our relationship lalo na kapag may ka-loveteam si Onemig. Ako tuloy ang lumalabas na kontrabida. A relationship should be fun and not ’yung nakakapagod."

Love is the least of Jeffrey’s problem, even if he didn’t say if he, like his two co-stars, has just ended a relationship, or about to start a new one, or in the thick of one.

In Alikabok, first staged in 1996 and then last February/March, Jeffrey gets to kiss Cris whom he handles with extreme care, especially after Cris told him, "I don’t know how to kiss; you have to teach me."

After the presscon, the four stars gave the press people sample songs from Alikabok, a cappella. They were good at it. Now, with a full orchestra (music by Ryan Cayabyab) and choreography (by Banaue Miclat) at the Music Museum stage, they should even be better – far, far better.