‘Miss Saigon (School Edition)’ now showing
“Miss Saigon (School Edition)” is finally opening its doors for Cebuanos to see!
After months of workshops and rehearsals, the Broadway Youth Cebu finally stages the riveting and critically acclaimed Broadway musical, “Miss Saigon,” featuring young local talents through the collaborative efforts of international and local creative professionals.
“It’s a very big production. This has been a big dream for all of us at Broadway Youth Cebu, who feel like we want to showcase the talent of the Cebuanos. So what I and my team have done is to bring all these international talents here,” said Allan Nazareno, a Hong Kong-based Cebuano director who put all his efforts into staging the production.
He also mentioned that the group had collaborated with a set designer based in Hong Kong, a costume designer from New York, a lighting designer from Manila and the Cebuano talent putting up the show. A 35-piece live orchestra from Guam and Cebu is the cherry that tops it all off like nothing Cebu’s ever seen before.
“Musical theater is something worth being passionate about. You really go out of your comfort zone—especially when you’re given such a big role and a big responsibility,” said Fatima Soria, one of the alternates playing the lead role of Kim with Hannah Maningo.
“When I hear the songs from ‘Miss Saigon,’ I want to sing and to dance to them. To be able to actually perform that and give that to other people is really enjoyable. Being a part of that, I can now understand everything that goes into it—all the sets, the time, and the work—which is the backbone that leads to actually mounting a successful play,” explained Christopher Drape, who alternates playing the role of Chris with Carlo Capucao.
“The Cebu talent is mind-blowing! We really have very, very good talent—what’s missing are opportunities like this. And that’s one of the aims of Broadway Youth Cebu—to provide more opportunities like this,” mentioned Nazareno, who also added with dismay that more often than not, people ask for free tickets.
“It’s kinda sad because theater needs to be supported—much like film is and much like concerts are. Here, people support concerts and they pay—why not pay for and support theater financially? It is a very costly proposition but if you wanna do a good piece like this, it needs a lot of financial support,” explained Nazareno.
The director added that having support from all of these professional theater artists from all around the world to help the young Cebuanos put up a show is something that needs to be promoted, encouraged and developed. “We’re hoping that this can be the start of bigger opportunities in theater for Cebu and, hopefully, many people will support theater.”
“Miss Saigon (School Edition)” will only be showing today (Friday, 7 p.m), July 21 (Saturday, 7 p.m), and July 22 (Sunday, 3 p.m.) at the Rudolf Rahmann Cultural Center of the University of San Carlos-South Campus, where the tickets are also available.