The musical marks Jeffrey’s third theater undertaking, albeit his first major English production. Before All About Men, he also shared stellar billing with Cris Villonco in Musical Theater Philippines’ Alikabok in 2002.
In Once on This Island, Jeffrey plays Daniel, a rich boy who lives on the other side of an island in the French Antilles, while Fil-Hawaiian theater prodigy Kristian Lei plays Ti Moune, a poor girl who dreams of exploring the rich part of the island and prays to the gods that she be freed from peasant life. An accident brings these two characters together and they fall in love, but their class differences get in the way of their relationship.
Working with director Bart Guingona and the rest of the Actors’ Actors team proved to be an enlightening yet intimidating experience for Jeffrey. "It was a wonderful experience and I learned a lot from everyone in the cast and creative staff," he says.
"Seeing how they perform even just during rehearsals made me strive for my best so as not to stick out like a sore thumb. Their high performance level really rubs off on you."
Compared to the rest of the cast, Jeffrey still considers himself a stage greenhorn.
"Of course, I was honored to be offered the role but nervous at the same time knowing that I would be working with seasoned stage actors like Bituin Escalante, Michael De Mesa, Jett Pangan, Michael Williams, Menchu Lauchengco, Bodgie Pascua and the rest," he adds.
With the stage’s more stringent vocal requirements, Jeffrey had to shift to high gear. "It’s pretty challenging because we all know theater singing is different from pop singing, and being the pop singer that I am, I had to make a big adjustment when it came to the placement of my voice. My personal singing style is very airy and laidback. You can’t do that on stage because you won’t be heard. It’s definitely a lot different from singing with a handheld mic."
Thanks to Bart’s liberal, open-ended directorial approach, Jeffrey got ample space and freedom to interpret his role. As he relates, "We experimented with different perspectives for the role. The thing with theater is you can create different characterizations. The character, Daniel, has its essential elements that are restricted by the story but the mannerisms and subtexts are all up to the actor."
In time, mentor and ward were sharing pointers and acting tips.
"That’s the thing I like most about Bart’s directing style," Jeffrey asserts. "He wants everything to be natural on stage. He doesn’t want us to be a different person. He told us to act out the character in such a creative way. He told me to think of how I would react to certain situations if I were in Daniel’s place. In that way, I’d be very truthful to myself and not pretend to be just acting out my character."
Like most local theater veterans, Jeffrey feels the industry deserves better support from the masses. "I for one am not a theater fanatic," he says. "But I definitely think the theater audience in the Philippines should be broadened and this comes with educating people. When it comes to the arts, there are other ways to be entertained aside from watching TV or movies. Theater creates a whole new world you can live in and experience for only an hour or two where the connection is a lot more real than staring at a silver screen because it’s like real-life happening in front of your eyes."
(Once On This Island runs from May 13 to 29, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays, 8 p.m. and Sundays at 3 p.m. at the Carlos P. Romulo Theater, RCBC Plaza, Makati City. Tickets are available at Ticketworld, tel. no. 891-9999, AAI, tel. no. 536-5844 or Silang Productions, tel. no. 751-7674).