Dennis Gaviola

Article (news)

Jude Cartalaba

<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17327859165851732785949299.jpeg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Carla Guevara-Laforteza in the Jose Mari Chan musical &#x27;Going Home to Christmas.&#x27; Handout"/>Carla Guevara Laforteza in the Jose Mari Chan musical &#x27;Going Home to Christmas.&#x27; Handout</div>MANILA -- Despite being busy with her previous musical &#x27;One More Chance&quot; with the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), and her other singing engagements here and abroad, Carla Guevara Laforteza managed to squeeze in a new musical for her to star in. Come November 29, she will resume acting onstage via Repertory Philippines&#x27; first-ever jukebox musical &quot;Going Home to Christmas&quot; based on Jose Mari Chan&#x27;s songs.In an exclusive interview, Guevara Laforteza shared how she worked around her schedules, from one project to another and being a wife and a mother in-between. &quot;I have no idea,&quot; she said with a laugh. &quot;Surprisingly, between my rehearsals and other schedules, I do my cooking, errands, and me-time on my rest days. Every night is family night &#x27;coz we&#x27;re all night owls and eat dinner together very late since my husband (a chef) gets home late from work, too.&quot;What excites her in doing this stage production is that she&#x27;s going to create, discover, and originate the character assigned to her.&quot;I also get to work with Jeremy Domingo as my director (for the first time) and with Ejay Yatco as musical director. It&#x27;s my first time working with the latter since I worked with him only on special events in the past,&quot; she added. Apart from that, she&#x27;s reunited with one of her earlier leading men -- Noel Rayos. According to her, working with Rayos is home.&quot;He&#x27;s one of the people in the [theater] industry, whom I hold dear. I call him brother.  I&#x27;ve known the guy for decades,&quot; she said.Working together for years, she finds him as someone whom she can trust in her scenes.Rayos was an understudy to Raymond Lauchengco in &quot;South Pacific&quot; where she played Liat in 1997. Rayos was also her Prince Christian when she was Princess Sapphire in Trumpets&#x27; &quot;Little Mermaid&quot; in 1999-2000.&quot;Noel and I are character actors so we always find fun and new things to do with our characters,&quot; she said.In ther latest musical, she plays Pat and he&#x27;s Richard.&quot;I&#x27;m the boss or the supervisor of the story&#x27;s setting, where it all happened. My character is the woman boss. I&#x27;m kind of naughty and nice. I&#x27;m sure most working wives will be able to relate to her,&quot; she said.<div><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/17327859464431732785980308.jpeg" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Carla Guevara-Laforteza in the Jose Mari Chan musical &#x27;Going Home to Christmas.&#x27; Handout"/>Carla Guevara Laforteza in the Jose Mari Chan musical &#x27;Going Home to Christmas.&#x27; Handout</div><div>An actor and mother</div>Apart from taking pride as an actor, Guevara Laforteza is a proud mother to a rising star of a global girl group Katseye -- Sophia Elizabeth G. Laforteza also known as Sophia.As an artist, she believes she contributed to her daughter&#x27;s genes and talents. &quot;Definitely it&#x27;s not my dancing,&quot; she said in jest.  She&#x27;d like to think that it&#x27;s her daughter&#x27;s discipline, passion, and dedication to her work. Her being motherly, caring, and loving to people around her. Her feisty, but goofy personality.As a seasoned stage performer, who crossed over to mainstream entertainment like films and TV series, the one thing that keeps her from coming back to theater is her love for it.&quot;It&#x27;s my first love,&quot; she said.  Guevara Laforteza considers theater as the foundation of who she is. It&#x27;s where she learned everything that she uses even when she&#x27;s acting in films or on TV.  &quot;It&#x27;s where I can be whoever and whatever I want to be and yet still be 100% myself,&quot; she said.She never stops dreaming of more roles. Like any actor in theater, she&#x27;s vocal about doing Norma Desmond, the iconic faded former silent screen star in &quot;Sunset Boulevard.&quot;She dreams of assuming the role just like the actresses who played it, including Patti LuPone, Glenn Close, Elaine Paige, and Diahann Carroll. In the 2023 West End and Broadway revival, Nicole Scherzinger breathed new life into the character.And she&#x27;d like to do any of the two characters from the musical &quot;Wicked.&quot;&quot;Elphaba and Glinda! YES, I&#x27;d love to play both characters,&quot; she saidMore than anything else, as an artist, what she wants to leave as a legacy to other aspiring artists who intend to make a difference in theater, on TV, and in films is never to forget where they came from.&quot;Never forget where you started. Never forget those who gave you your first break --who helped you grow and become &#x27;the best version&#x27; of yourself,&quot; she said.Catch Guevara Laforteza and the rest of the cast of the heartwarming original Filipino musical that features the timeless songs of Chan, who has been dubbed as the King of Philippine Christmas Carols. The production will run until December 15 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza, Makati City.Tickets are now available at TicketWorld and Ticket2Me.

Come November 29, Carla Guevara Laforteza will resume acting onstage via Repertory Philippines' first-ever jukebox musical "Going Home to Christmas" based on Jose Mari Chan's songs.

Come November 29, Carla Guevara Laforteza will resume acting onstage via Repertory Philippines' first-ever jukebox musical "Going Home to Christmas" based on Jose Mari Chan's songs.

Carla Guevara Laforteza is 'naughty and nice' in Jose Mari Chan musical

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Carla Guevara Laforteza is 'naughty and nice' in Jose Mari Chan musical

Jude Cartalaba

Published Nov 28, 2024 05:27 PM PHT

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Updated Nov 28, 2024 06:29 PM PHT

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theater

Repertory Philippines

Going Home to Christmas

Jose Mari Chan

Carla Guevara Laforteza

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