Pinoy New Yorkers to reminisce with Lorli Villanueva

Award-winning veteran actress Lorli Villanueva — who has appeared in a string of important films in the ’70s and ’80s including Oro Plata Mata, but is probably best known in Pinoy pop history as Maxima Labandera in the Ajax laundry soap commercial — is once again taking the spotlight in a benefit concert on July 18 (at 7 p.m.) at the Kalayaan Hall of the Philippine Center on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.

Lorli’s show, Reminisce: A Musical Journey, aims to raise funds for Lorli’s favorite charity, the Asilo de Molo under the auspices of Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, which houses and cares for the poor elderly in and around her native Iloilo City.

Presented by Sitting Cat Productions, the show will also benefit the Youth Access Global Foundation, which helps pre-K to high school students with special needs; and the Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matara focused on caring and housing the most destitute children in the slum area in Bagong Barrio, Caloocan City.

Lorli will be accompanied in the piano by Nelson Ojeda Valdes and featuring Ang Tatlong Rondalista, plus special guests. 

Her previous benefit show for Asilo de Molo in 2011 turned over not only monetary assistance but also walkers to its elderly from New York-New Jersey area donors, with the shipping expenses shouldered by Lorli herself.

Her most recent show last year resulted in the donation of 25 wheelchairs to the disabled and elderly in several barangays in Iloilo.

“The overwhelming reactions of the elderly brought tears to my eyes and I promised them I will do my best to continue raising funds to make their lives a little more comfortable,” Lorli, who has been a New York resident for years, was quoted by Funfare’s Big Apple correspondent Edmund Silvestre as saying, “It has become my lifetime crusade.”

Lorli’s filmography showcases several classics like Tinimbang Ka Ngunit Kulang; Oro, Plata, Mata; Bayan Ko: Kapit sa Patalim; Ina Ka ng Anak Mo; Ang Tatay Kong Nanay; Tahan Na, Empoy; Tag-Ulan sa Tag-Araw; Annie Batungbakal; Bituing Walang Ningning; and Kriminal ng Barrio Concepcion, to name some. She was one of Lino Brocka’s favorite actresses.

She also megged for two years the longest-running soap opera in Philippine television, Flordeluna, starring a young Janice de Belen. The series lasted for 11 years.

Lorli is currently deputy chair in the Graduate School of Education and Special Education at Touro College in Manhattan, where she is more popularly known as Prof. Lorli Dima-ala.

Formerly a UP broadcasting professor, she was the first Asian commercial actress to have been granted a Fulbright Hays Scholarship to study at Northern Illinois University, where she obtained her master’s degree in communications (major in radio, TV and films) in the ’80s. A founding member of the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), she was also chairwoman of the board of judges of the prestigious Carlos Palanca Literary Awards for several years.

Before moving to New York, she served as dean of Student Affairs at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Pasay (City University of Pasay).

Now in her late 60s, Lorli is a member of Hollywood’s Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and American theater’s Actor’s Equity, taking on small roles in a number of Hollywood films, directing and acting in off-Broadway productions and appearing in print ads, including for K-Mart, until she was sidelined by a total right knee replacement surgery in 2008.

Interestingly, Lorli and her US-based children and their families are heading to the Philippines three days after her July 18 NY concert to attend a grand family reunion in Guimaras Island and be reunited with her nonagenarian mother in Iloilo. 

“My mom has Alzheimer’s and I will make the most of this trip to bond with her,” she told Funfare. “I will make this as my most memorable sojourn.”

She and her family will also visit her favorite charity home, the Asilo de Molo in Iloilo.

“Visiting the Philippines is something I always look forward to because there’s no place like home,” Lorli shared. “I will be in Manila and Iloilo most of the time to catch up with friends. There will also be some physical therapy. I will be meeting people who will help revitalize my health and physical well-being.”

(For the information of Pinoy residents in New York and neighboring states, tickets to Lorli’s Reminisce concert are priced at $50, $75 and $100 [VIP special seating]. Call [US only] 646-2278582 or 718-4133114.)

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