Kate Andres as Dona Teodora and Gerard Louis as young Jose

Proudly supported by the Philippine Consulate and the Philippine Community Council of NSW, four performances (matinee at 4pm and evening at 8pm) shall be staged on November 17-18 at Parramatta Town Hall, Church Street, Parramatta.

Show tickets cost $45 each and part proceeds are earmarked for improvement of the Rizal Park in Campbelltown.

As seats are limited, early bookings are encouraged by calling mob 0402 254 853 and 0466 156 639.

The play is directed by Armando Reyes.

As of press time, RJ Rosales who performed the role of “Jose Rizal” last year has not confirmed his availability due to previous commitments overseas.

Director Reyes advised a new JR is on standby in the vent RJ cannot perform.

Doing a repeat performance of the female lead role as “Dona Teodora” is Kate Roc Andres.

Also performing the lead role are Isabel Delgado and Nilda Carpo.

New talents have joined the ensemble, among them are Rupert Demonteverde as “Father Lopez”, Rie Manaloto as “Paciano”, Marianne Cuasay as “Soledad”, Rochelle Mantua as “Choleng” and Gerard Louis (10 year-old son of Consul General Anne Jalando-on Louis) as young “Jose”.

Tom Baena will be “Rizal” narrating behind bars.

“A full list of the cast members shall be released in two weeks’ time,” Director Reyes said.

FAMS Theatre Company choir, writer on front row (4th from left), Photo credit: Serna Ladia, VP Internal, PCC

An Australian composer, Lindsay Aked, had set the poetry of British poet James Fletcher to create a magical look at the homage given by the Three Kings to the Baby Jesus. This was Lindsay Aked’s last work before he died early last year.

FAMS Theatre Company presented its world premiere performance produced and directed by Judy Lindeman with 16 of its talented singers. FAMS was founded 40 years ago as a Christian group performing Gilbert and Sullivan in Warringah. Now with a wider focus, it presents plays, musicals, cantatas as well as still excelling in Gilbert and Sullivan.

3 kings - L-R Carl Olsen, Mike Todd, David Visentin, Photo credit: Serna Ladia, VP Internal, PCC

The performance was fully costumed, choreographed and sung by 4 soloists, a trio of angels and a 4-part choir that lasted for 20 minutes.

It was part of an evening service in 3 different churches on 3 Sundays leading to Christmas last year: Holy Trinity Anglican Church in Beacon Hill on 28 November, St. Johns Anglican Church in Dee Why on 5 December and the Forest Kirk in Frenchs Forest on 19 December.

The pianist and Musical Director was Prue Gibbs. The cast included Sarah Cocco as Mary, David Visentin and Mike Olsen with Mike Todd as the Three Kings. The angels were Elizabeth Hylton (of X-Factor), Amanda Berckelman and Lyn Johnson-Read. Guest performer was Kim Pickering-Jones (Australia Has Got Talent),

Cita Lazo-Hoesrch was one of the soprano singers in the choir. Some Filipinos from across Sydney went specially to see the performance which they enjoyed.

With a splendid world’s first, Lindsay Aked would have been absolutely delighted.

Performing the three angels - Lyn Johnson-Read, Amanda Berckelman, Elizabeth Hylton, Sarah Cocco, Photo credit: Serna Ladia, VP Internal, PCC

Three performances were too few for such great work but that was just the beginning. This will be played over and over again and FAMS Theatre Company was very proud to have done it first.

Edd Aragon, Ala Paredes and Jonathan Verzosa were among 30 artists who participated in last week’s four-day Chalk Urban Art Festival.

A number of participants in the pavement art event, now in its sixth year, are overseas and interstate cartoonists, illustrators, multimedia and graphic artists and painters.

The chalk artists festival, held along the sidewalks of Church Street near the Parramatta Town Hall, concluded yesterday with each artist barely having time to put the finishing touches to their works after an early morning rain stopped.

[More photos at StreetGallery.com.au]

A scene in Her Son, Jose Rizal in the 19 June show with RJ Rosales as Rizal, Ala Paredes as Soledad (standing) and Kate Andres as Dona Teodora. // Photo: Alfredo R. Roces

The play Her Son, Jose Rizal oozed with emotional intensity and lifted dramatically to professional status by singer-actor RJ Rosales and actress Ala Paredes.

Justice was done to the late playwright Leonora Oroza-Gonquingco by a mixed cast of professional and amateur actors, overseen by part-time director Armando Reyes.

A capacity crowd warmed to the one-and-a-half-hour performance on a cold night at the 300-seat Tom Mann Theatre in Sydney’s central business district on the play’s second day, Friday, 18 June 2010.

Rosales’ portrayal of a youthful Rizal was a refreshing departure from the more reserved and stagy Rizal we had been accustomed to watching in a stage play or movie. In Rosales, we saw a Rizal that was more human, one who could smile, tease, rage in anger and purr love to his mother.

Paredes was a pleasure to watch. And she, too, portrayed the character of Jose’s sister Soledad in a way that separated her performance from those of the past, giving us a more girlish, cheeky, tender and woman-of-her-own to whom women of today could relate.

Manny Diel’s elder Rizal languishing in his death cell was something else. His opening scene immediately gave us a credible picture of Rizal’s tortured soul as he looked back on his life. But the sustained intensity of Diel’s delivery through succeeding scenes in this cell did not let up, and it became almost unbearable to stay with him.

Marilyn Mendez (seated) playing Dona Teodora in the 18 June play // Photo: Jaime K Pimentel

Worth mentioning in the support cast was Daniel Aguilar who played Jose’s elder brother Paciano. A professional actor, Aguilar gave us another refreshing portrayal of a character we have seldom seen.

The rest of the cast on this night were Marcke de Vera is the child Rizal, Ross Aguilar as Father Leoncio Lopez, Antonio Gonzales as Governor General Izquierdo, Danny Rosales as Mayor of Calamba, two Guardia Civiles, and extras at the fiesta scene.

Set scenes were meagre but adequate. The bedroom scene set with Paredes gave us the most to lay our eyes upon, and it gave the actress props of bed and pillow with which to work around.

Staging could have used more ”blocking”. To a trained eye, it was noticeable how the three professional performers ~ Rosales, Paredes and Aguilar ~ ”worked” the stage to provide movement.

A play’s ending is often the icing on the cake, and one must credit director Reyes for such a breath-taking finale. Rosales topped it off with a sensational singing rendition, in Spanish and Tagalog, of Jose Rizal’s final poem, penned in his death cell in Fort Santiago reportedly just hours before facing a firing squad: Adios Patria Adorada.

Katya Grineva performing in Sydney for one night only

It was during her tutelage by Professor Pavel Messner at the Conservatory, that she began giving recitals and experiencing the “special and spontaneous” interaction between artist and audience that is the hallmark of her performances.

Katya moved to New York City as a teenager and was awarded a scholarship to enter the Mannes School of Music graduate program, where she worked with Nina Svetlanova. She continued her studies with private coaching from Vladja Mashke, who played a key role in enhancing her technical skill.

Katya made her American debut in 1993 with a performance of Mozart’s Piano Concerto, No. 27 in B-flat, K.595 accompanied by the Baltimore Symphony. In May 1998, she achieved her dream with her debut at Carnegie Hall. She has since become the only female solo pianist to have graced Carnegie Hall Isaac Stern auditorium a record 11 performances.

The New York Times describes her playing as “liquid…dreamlike” and WNYC radio remarks, “She’s a noted exponent of Romantic repertoire.” Through her music, Katya says, “I want to be remembered for being able to touch people’s lives – with a full heart.”

Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall

Ms. Grineva has been a soloist with the ARS Nova Musicians Chamber Orchestra, the Manhattan Virtuosi Orchestra, and the European Philharmonic Orchestra in France. Her recitals have captivated audiences at the Laurier Society and at the prestigious Salle Gaveau concert hall in Paris. In 2005, she performed Mozart’s Piano Concerto No. 20 as a guest artist with the Guayaquil Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center Avery Fisher Hall.

In 2006, she was chosen to exclusively perform and record the world premieres of piano sonatas by romantic Viennese composer Marcel Tyberg. At the Australian concerts on May 29th in Melbourne and June 12th in Sydney, the audience will hear for the first time in Australia two compositions from Tyberg’s “Lost” piano sonatas.

Ms. Grineva’s high level of musicianship was recognized by Steinway and Sons as a Steinway Artist since 1998.

Her philanthropic work garnered her accolades including recipient of the Gusi Peace Prize from Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in 2006, and Outstanding Women Award from Ercolano Italy in 2008.

She has released five CD’s, the latest one being: “Love and Fire-The Dances.”

Katya Grineva is performing at the City Recital, Angel Place Sydney on Saturday, June 12.

Performances are slated on 17, 18 and 19 of June with special matinee performance on the 20th at 2:00pm at the Tom Mann Theatre, 136-140 Chalmers St, Surry Hills.

Singer-actor RJ Rosales leads the cast assembled by stage director Armando Reyes.

This one-act play, staged to commemorate the Dr Jose Rizal’s 149th birth anniversary, is about the hero’s childhood days and some significant events prior to his execution by a firing squad by the Spaniards.

Other members of the cast are Kate Roc Andres, Sally Anolin-Clark, Marilyn Mendez and Belen Mendoza (alternating as Dona Teodora), Manny Diel, Elijah Merjudio, Marcke De Vera, Ala Paredes, Isajane Noble, Angelo Refuerzo, Daniel Aguilar, Tom Merjudio, Bob Mendoza, Ross Aguilar, Danny Rosales, Antonio ‘Moses’ Gonzalez, Gerry Musa, Benny Chan, Isabelle Montillano, Reianne Urqueza, Arianne Milan, Jaime Sotelo, Moses Petersen and Elijah Abella.

To provide vocal rendition during the performances are Rachel Zarate and Jura Lassiter. Solo violinist is Louella Macalma.

Artistic and production team is composed of Albert Dimarucut, Belen Mendoza, Albert Prias, Claudio Javellana, Charles Chan, Neria Soliman, Josie Musa, Evelyn Zaragoza and Louisa Tagudin.

Meanwhile, last 17 April cast members paid respect to the memory of the Philippines’ national hero by visiting his bust monument at Plaza Iberia near Central Station in Sydney and the one in Ashfield Park.

Play director Armando Reyes, right, coaches actor Manny Diel (playing Rizal) for a scene in the hero's cell. // Photo credit: JKPimentel

The play on the life of Rizal covers his childhood and significant events before his execution by a Spanish firing squad. It goes through the arrest of his mother Teodora by civil guards, a fiesta scene with the Governor General, Rizal’s cell detention and his farewell to his mother.

Producer-director Armando Reyes went through reading and blocking four scenes of the play with his cast, which included actor RJ Rosales, who was in for a week before travelling to Singapore and returning in June.

Rosales plays the role of a youthful Jose Rizal, while local Manny Diel plays the 35-year-old Rizal. The child Rizal is played is played by Elijah Merjudio.

In the role of Rizal’s mother, Dona Teodora, is Marilyn Mendez. The role of Rizal’s elder brother, Paciano, is played by Marcel de Vera, and in the role of Rizal’s sister Choleng is Arianne Milan.

Her Son, Jose Rizal opens on Sunday, June 19, at the Mann Theatre in Surry Hills, Sydney.

Fears of a Jaded Descent, the first solo show of gifted young local artist Vienna Parreno is running as one of the parallel programs for the current Sydney Biennale, Forms that Turn, along with simultaneous group exhibitions of other media arts at Gallery 4a, Asia-Australia Art Centre, Sydney.

Parreno is promising to be one of the most interesting under-30s talent emerging from Australasian region with a practice that spans a wide variety of media. Having recently returned as an Australia-China Council/Red Gate Gallery Artist-in-Residence, she has proceeded to suspend a large number of brushes she has collected from her trip at variable height from the ceiling – completely filling the ground floor gallery of the centre.

Using gold filament amidst the sea of red brushes, some stopping only a few inches from the ground; the work is a strikingly simple installation which nevertheless becomes a vivid poetic visual metaphor on a multiplicity of themes (communication/miscommunication, suspension/tension, stillness/movement, cynicism/forbearance) transforming the space and the audience’s relationship to it as they navigate through the work.

The other media arts which are exhibiting simultaneously with Fears of a Jaded Descent are from Thailand programmed by Michael Shaowanasai (on Level 1), solo exhibitions by Melbourne based Thai artist Vipoo Srivilasa (various private residence in Sydney) and composer-media artist Robert Iolini (Night Visions Program).

The exhibition along with the works of Shaowanasai, Iolini and Srivilasa opened on June 13 by Sydney City Mayor Clover Moore to packed standing-room only audience, signalling perhaps the beginning of a funky and youthful turn at Gallery 4a.

The exhibition displays from July 14 – July 26. Gallery 4a is open Tuesdays – Saturdays 10 -6 pm daily.

The Philippine Consulate General in Sydney invited Dr. Sunico to Australia and to perform in a solo piano concert at the Verbrugghen Hall at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Sunico serenaded the audience with an one-and-a-half hour repertoire which included works by Chopin, Liszt, Enrique Granados, Francisco Buencamino, Ernani Cuenco, and Constancio de Guzman.

Sunico’s performance was well-applauded by the audience, which included New South Wales Governor Professor Marie Bashir, Member of Parliament Daryl Maguire, Lord Mayors Greg Matthews and Kerry Pascoe, members of the consular corps, and officials and members of the Filipino Community.

The ovation at the end of the performance drew an encore piece, a transliteration of an operatic piece by Wagner, in honor of Governor Bashir, who is an aficionado of Wagner. Governor Bashir is the ex oficio representative of the Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain.

Sunico is an internationally-known concert pianist who has performed in solo concerts all over the world. The dean of the Conservatory of Music of the University of Santo Tomas in Manila, he is the recipient of a number of international awards and citations. He is also a prolific music arranger, having composed piano arrangements for popular Philippine kundiman, folk and contemporary music, which he performs at his overseas concerts.

The Filipino audience, Australian officials, and diplomatic officers echoed one sentiment about the concert’s soloist – that Sunico is an excellent musician and his performance was brilliant.

The concert of Dr. Raul Sunico is part of the Philippine Consulate’s programme to promote Philippine art and culture in Sydney. The Consulate had facilitated the participation of writer Dr. Jose Dalisay at the Sydney Writer’s Forum and film director Brillante Mendoza at the Sydney Film Festival, which showed the films Tirador and Foster Child.