From musical theater star to starmaker

MANILA, Philippines - When people talk about local musical theater, the name Audie Gemora is always top of mind. It is very understandable because he, with his immense talent, has consistently awed audiences by breathing life to 40 of the most challenging and colorful characters onstage in his 33-year-old career as a stage actor. This earned him the distinction of being the country’s lone “King of Musical Theater.”

The recent years, however, showed varied sides of Audie — the director in successful shows like High School Musical and Equus, the founder and head mentor of Trumpets Playshop and My Talent, the resident judge in the TV5’s phenomenal show Talentadong Pinoy, and president of STAGES, respected production house and talent management group, which handles the careers of Christian Bautista, Karylle, Sam Concepcion, Marco Mañalac, among others.

These engagements prompted Audie to take the big leap from being the star to a full-fledged starmaker as he takes on his newest assignment as head of TV5’s talent management and development division Talent5.

“Talent5 will be a home for future stars where every single one of them will be accommodated, since I believe that I can only have as many kids as I can love,” adds Audie. “Focusing on less artists will allow us to study our stars’ careers very well, not only stars of the station, but as total stars in the making.”

Talent 5’s first project will be the talent search Star Factor, which hopes to introduce the newest crop of teen idols to the public. Audie, who will be the chairman of the panel of judges, will be joined by Jose Javier Reyes, Raymund Isaac, Annabelle Rama and Ryan Cayabyab. Star Factor auditions will be held on Aug. 1 in SM Davao and Aug. 7 in SM Cebu.

“If you look at my resume, you will see there that I always go back to training, whether students, actors or actresses,” quips Audie. “In the long run, our vision is to have a showbiz school which would impart the vital lessons that stars have to know. It aims to impart what stars before them had to experience or to handle by themselves.”

Audie adds that Talent5, more than just being talent provider for the Kapatid Network, will give equal importance to the stars’ careers outside the network.

Because of this new assignment with TV5, Audie had to resign from being the main man of Stages Talents Group.

“Stages services other networks, so when I applied and accepted this TV5 post, I knew I had to leave the Talents Group of Stages to Carlo Orosa,” explains Audie. “That’s the right thing to do. I know Stages talents are in good hands.”

On being pitted against bigwigs of other network-based talent management groups, Audie politely said he still has many lessons to learn and he looks up to the people who came before him in this profession.

He recounts that in his earlier days in theater, Johnny “Mr. M” Manahan, head of ABS-CBN’s Star Magic, advised Audie to look for a career beyond acting onstage.

“So that’s what I did and now, I am here,” exclaims Audie. “I will always have the highest respect for Mr. M.”

Asked what the first thing he would say to his future talents, Audie quips, “You should continuously study your craft — undergo extensive trainings in all related fields. More importantly, you should treat the profession and its people with utmost respect.”