I was introduced to theater at a very young age. I was about 10 when I joined my mother's Workshop for Creative Survival, a theater group that conducted theater workshops for underprivileged and abused children and children of political detainees. After dropping out of high school at 14, my mother brought me to audition for a play she was doing at the Cultural Center of the Philippines and I was cast as one of her children and a taumbayan in Tanghalang Pilipino's "Francisco Maniago." I never went back to school and I haven't stopped doing plays since. I worked as a freelance actor and stage manager for various theater companies in Manila from 1988 until 1995 and have been privileged to have worked with some of the country's best directors including the late National Artist Lamberto Avellana, Nonon Padilla, Tony Mabesa, Nestor Torre, Bart Guingona, among others. Then in 1995, (the late) RJ Leyran and I collaborated on a benefit concert for a shelter for streetchildren in Malate. Though there wasn't much directing involved in that one, that was the closest I got to directing a performance. After directing a fashion show later that year, I moved to Baguio and by this time I have founded Open Space, a theater group. Since then, I have directed all and acted in a number of Open Space's productions. -KMA | CURRENT PROJECTS
S A S A L I W N G M G A G A N G S A With script, music and direction by KM Altomonte and Ethan Andrew Ventura's musical direction, this performance takes its audience on a musical journey through Baguio's history as a hill station and a city. |
