New talent banks on theater experience

MANILA, Philippines - Mestizo-looking up close and personal, the skin of young actor Acey Aguilar, 22, has to be darkened whenever he plays a “native” in films and stage plays. The fair complexion is due to mixed Filipino, Spanish, Chinese and Hindu blood. Nevertheless, Acey (that’s his baptismal name) is as Pinoy as the districts of Manila where he grew up.

His father, though, is from Kalibo, Aklan, where the family owned some property. And as a child, Acey remembers going every summer to Boracay, at a time when the fabled island was not yet a destination for the rich and famous.

He has been a ramp model in the malls and a commercial model for TV and print ads, guested in ABS-CBN shows, and has appeared in acclaimed Cinemalaya films like last year’s Rekrut and this year’s Amok. His most recent stage role is the current Bombita (last performance Oct. 23), a Tanghalang Pilipino play by Tony Perez.

Acey holds a BS in Computer Science (“I wanted to have this backup”) from Informatics College in Manila, and took up Theater Arts at the prestigious Mt. Makiling Philippine High School for the Arts (PHSA). It was the latter experience which has made a deep impression on him.

“Every year you chose a play in which you acted and directed,” he recalls. And the plays he and his peers selected were formidable indeed: R.U.R., in which robots rule the world; Shakespeare’s The Tempest and a jologs version of Romeo and Juliet; a Rolando Tinio Retrospective; and adaptations of short stories by Bienvenido Santos, F. Sionil José — and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, greatest living novelist.

“At Makiling, I was separated from my family for the first time,” he muses. “I had roommates from Zamboanga, Cebu … ibang region. Ibang religion. You had to deal with different personalities. Ay ganito pala. Meron palang taong ganito. It helped me as a theater actor.”

One role he cannot forget, while still at Makiling, was that of the protagonist in Bent, a grim play by Martin Shermann. He played a Jew in a concentration camp in Nazi Germany struggling against his homosexuality and ultimately hounded to death by the anti-Semitic Nazis.

Later, another role — that of Zelim in Dulaang UP’s production of Balagtas’ epic poem Orosman at Zafira — was also memorable, but for a different reason. As directed and choreographed by Dexter Santos, the play was so taxing physically and emotionally that he collapsed. The alternate (the now popular JM de Guzman) took over.

The play was restaged earlier this year at SM Mall of Asia, with Acey reprising the role. There was no mishap this time.

Danny Añonuevo’s Rekrut, based on the real-life Jabidah Massacre in Corregidor during the late ’60s, recounted the misfortunes of young soldiers-of-fortune being trained to infiltrate Sabah, Malaysia (claimed by the Philippines). Acey played a Muslim who volunteered because he only wanted to help his family financially.

The film ends tragically, with the rookies mowed down by gunfire. There is only one survivor. The character played by Acey is not one of them.

Although a lead role in an indie film or the professional stage has eluded him thus far, the actor is grateful for the opportunities given him thus far. And he pays tribute to his many mentors like Shamaine Centenera, Nonie Buencamino, Rody Vera and Herbert Go.

And he longs for the day when the young will go to the theater in the same way they go to movies, because they want to and not because they are required to write a report. He asserts: “In theater, buhay yung performance, makikita mo buhay na tao, hindi screen. Theater art is a strong tool, sobrang lakas, to educate people, to deliver a message.”