Garie gives acting a try

As the daughter of Gabby Concepcion and sister of KC, Garie Concepcion is no stranger to showbiz. She could have everything served to her on a silver platter, have her pick of roles and coast easily through the industry, but that’s never been her way.

Garie prefers to work for what she has. Two years ago, she auditioned for plays being mounted by Atlantis Productions. Unfortunately, she didn’t get cast in a single one, not even in the ensemble. Looking back now, she knows why. “The first time I auditioned, it wasn’t something that I prepared for,” says Garie. “I acted on a whim. I just said, ‘Okay, I’ll try to audition.’ I wasn’t vocally ready. I could sing, but my voice was not vocally ready for a musical. I still needed to work on it.”

She didn’t allow failure to faze her. Garie had a point to prove, not to others who might have compared her to her sister, but to herself. But she made sure she learned from the mistakes of the past. Garie enrolled in voice lessons, and also took jazz and hip-hop classes with Powerdance so that the next time she auditioned, she would be ready. “Not getting in made me feel bad, but it helped me push myself. So I did. I took voice lessons, jazz and hip-hop classes with Powerdance. I needed dance lessons because I’m not confident when it comes to dancing. I worked on it, and auditioned again. I wanted to try again, because I thought, ‘Who will I be if I don’t try? I don’t want to wake up the next day and say ‘I should have done it.’ I don’t want to live in regret,” says Garie.

Last year, when Atlantis called for a new round of auditions to cast for its forthcoming productions, Garie was ready. She tried out, then got a callback, and finally got cast in an ensemble part as one of the mean girls in Carrie. Her character’s name is Helen, and she is one of the tormentors of Carrie. Carrie, which was made into a Hollywood film, will be on stage at Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium RCBC Plaza Makati until Oct. 6.

This role in Carrie is just an ensemble part, but Garie is proud of what she’s achieved. She knows that eventually — if she is patient enough, and works harder at it — the lead roles will come. For now, she is content to be part of the chorus. In fact, she’s quite excited to be in her first musical.

“It’s my first theatrical production, and I’m very excited and nervous,” she says. “It’s very different when you’re performing for theater and when you’re singing (pop). I’ve been wanting to do theater ever since, but dancing is my frustration, and that’s one thing that has held me back from being in theater. You have to know how to sing, dance and act. When I auditioned for Atlantis two years ago and didn’t get in any of the plays, I told myself I’ll try again. Now I’m very lucky to get a role in Carrie.”

So what happens to her singing career now that she has gotten into theater? “I still want to sing, but if an opportunity comes that I can do acting, I want to try that,” she says. “I’m open to that. I did an album two years ago, and that was a dream come true, but now I’m leaning more towards acting.”

But even after Carrie, Garie plans to continue her dance classes. “I really want to push myself because it can help me grow as a person,” she says. “But the thing is, I’m really loving theater right now, but my learning doesn’t stop here. It just goes on.”