This week, I would like to share to you my interview with the award winning concert director Vic Perez, his insight and experience on his latest project.
Fides Ecclesiae(Latin for Faith of the Church) is a musical play featuring the lives of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, the first native American saint and St. Pedro Calungsod, the Filipino young saint martyred in Guam.
Last October 2012, the Association of the Filipino Priests of Los Angeles represented by Fr. Robert Victoria, the playwright of the musical, invited him to be the stage director of the play. In two short months, they rehearsed with almost 200 cast members-non professional actors, dancers and priests, a choir group, The Cursillo Group of Los Angeles, Chamorro Circle of LA, the Latino Folklorico dancers and many lay volunteers.
It was a life transforming experience for him Because of the amazing dedication from everybody and unusual miracles of mounting the play with a meager operating budget, they did a very moving performance on the Dec. 2 playdate, with full house seats at the Redondo Beach Performing Arts Center.
According Vic, they experienced various miracles…from casting the right actors to getting free costumes and free prop rental, to coming up with a complete and dramatic two one act plays.
One of the first miracles is casting St. Pedro Calungsod. With close to a month and a half, they haven’t found the right lead star until a friend of him suggested Ruben Cuatrona Jr., whom he met in a charity project for ABS-CBN Foundation.
“Unusually, I was not able to give this talent a chance to sing a solo front act performance on that time and for some reason, I promised him that I will give him another chance in the future. Little did I know that I will be working with him to be the lead role in a big musical,” he said.
When he called him for an audition, Ruben has the exact look of how he imagined St. Pedro Calungsod would look. He is very Filipino looking, boyish and someone who looks saintly. The real clincher is when he found out that’s he’s 17 years-old-the actual age of St. Pedro when he was martyred!
From casting to rehearsals, Ruben was perfect for the role. On the performance day, this was validated when he breathed life into the character of St. Pedro Calungsod.
Ruben D. Cuatrona Jr. is a senior at Cerritos High School, graduating with the class of 2013. He is fun-loving with a good sense of humor and a people person. Other than playing basketball, music is one of his passions in life. He enjoys writing songs, playing the guitar and keyboard and performing on stage to share his God-given talent in music. He also loves acting and dancing. He has had experiences in various musical productions with the drama department of Cerritos High School.
Being cast as St. Pedro was a big honor for him. He deeply believes that playing the role of the Filipino saint in this play is a humbling expression of his faith and love for God, and to be an instrument of God’s love for us all especially the young people.
He performs occasionally by himself or with his band (Roarshack) from time to time or when they get invited by the Cerritos City Council to perform in the city-sponsored activities.
He shares with the Filipino priests in LA the objectives of this musical-to evangelize and celebrate not just the saintly lives of St. Pedro and St. Kateri, but the faith that these saints witnessed for us. This play provides a wonderful opportunity and medium for grace and renewal in the faith.
What would the audience expect from this play? Vic said that it is full of beautiful and spiritually rich songs and a heart tugging story of real people as they struggle to be faithful with their love for God.
He believes that the saints and angels were with them when they did this play and have led them miraculously to perform again in a historical venue like the Pantages Theatre. A blessing, the great chance to glorify God in a famous theater where big musicals like Lion King, Wicked, Peter Pan are mounted. It’s a very humbling experience for them to be part of this wonderful production.
The play will have a rerun on Feb. 10 at the Pantages Theatre. I am looking forward to see this amazing play. To all the cast and crew… More power to you and God bless!
***
Monet Lu is a Marikina-born, award-winning celebrity beauty stylist with his own chain of Monet Salon salons across Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Ultimately, Monet is known as an all-around artiste who produces sold-out fashion and awards shows as well as unforgettable marketing campaigns. Monet is also the founder of the revolutionary all-natural beauty products such as Enlighten, your solution to discoloration . To contact Monet, please visit www.monetsalon.com or email him at [email protected]
