The prime of Irma Adlawan

MANILA, Philippines - You might say that Irma Adlawan, who hails from Kawit, Cavite, became an actress by accident, all because of a mispronunciation. It happened during her freshman year at the University of the Philippines, where she had enrolled in Speech and Drama because she felt it was closest to the quota-driven course she wanted to pursue: Mass Communication.

Casually one day, while in the corridors, she had asked a classmate, “What time is the cerémony?” emphasizing the second syllable instead of the first. Nearby was Tony Mabesa, director of Dulaang UP, who overheard her and sternly asked: “What is your major?”

“Theater Electives, sir.”

“You want to be an actress and yet you cannot pronounce ‘ceremony’ correctly? See me tomorrow. Audition for my play.”

Irma nervously appeared for audition the following day and, to her surprise, she passed the test and was immediately cast as one of the leads, Helena in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. “I was an upstart,” Irma recalled. “Shamaine (Centenera) was already a big name then but nobody knew me.” She could feel the other actors and actresses, with raised eyebrows, silently asking: Sino ka? Saan ka galing, anong ibubuga mo?

“Mahirap but I enjoyed it,” she said. “That started my love for theater. I enjoyed the discipline. I accepted the intrigues at Dulaang UP, being used to this since high school (at St. Mary Magdalene, Kawit). I felt that so long as I do what I am asked to do, enjoy what I’m doing and not hurting anyone, it’s okay. It took awhile before they warmed up to me.”

From there she went over to Tanghalang Pilipino, the resident drama company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines, TV (she thanks Ricky Davao for fighting for the pay scales of theater actors who branched out to television), and mainstream as well as indie films.

Today, Irma is easily one of our most accomplished actresses. Memorable roles include the raped daughter in Jeffrey Jeturian’s Tuhog (film) and as Teodora Alonzo, mother of Rizal (a monologue on stage). She won a Famas Best Supporting Actress award for the indie film Ataul for Rent, where she appeared as the mother of Coco Martin

Another experience was memorable because of its negative vibrations. It was a musical. The lead actress fell sick, a replacement was hurriedly chosen, worked double time but backed out at the last minute. Finally, poor Irma was tapped to sing the role but, not being Callas, she couldn’t reach the high Cs! And it was decided that she would just lip-synch, and she hated this because she felt the audience was being cheated.

Irma is now in Bohol on location shooting for Baryo, a film about the Philippine-American War by American director John Sayles. She plays the sister of Rio Locsin.

After many years on stage as well as showbiz, the actress considers herself lucky her career started in theater: “It was a good opportunity to learn and relearn other people’s lives. Before, I was very judgmental. Now, I try to look at both sides. And I realize that for every act, no matter how wrong, there is a reason.”

Expounding on her philosophy, she declared: “No matter how hard it is, there are people in a worse state than me. Life is hard but it’s how you live it. This is what I learned from reading scripts and acting them. You’re dealing with people from all walks of life, especially when you’re location shooting.”