Remember Joshua Spafford? He's all set for his theater comeback

MANILA – Filipino-American actor Joshua Spafford, who has spent the last 17 years in the United States, is set to make his big theater comeback in the Philippines with award-winning playwright Sarah Ruhl’s “In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play,” which opens Friday at Onstage in Greenbelt, Makati.

Spafford, who left Philippine showbiz in 2000 and has since expanded his craft to include photography and film, couldn’t have chosen a better time for his return. With Repertory Philippines celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, the theater company has been asking many of its actors to #ComeHometoREP.

“This was my family. For better or for worse, it really was,” Spafford, who made his Rep debut at age 17, said in an interview with ABS-CBN News during a break in rehearsals for the Tony Award-nominated play.

“I was so young when I started here and even after almost a decade working as a young person, I knew something was wrong. I can’t be a veteran at 26. So I left,” he opened up about his decision to leave, despite landing key roles and earning raves in important productions like “Angels in America.”

Spafford studied at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and then moved to New York where he became “seduced” by more classical theater. He played Richard III in Central Park, Othello and “those beautiful juicy parts” for a variety of New York companies.

“But more important, I didn’t know that when I got there that I would actually spend more time working with original playwrights, developing new material,” he said.

Together with director-playwright Kirk Wood Bromley and Sundance-winning director Chad Garcia, Spafford co-founded Inverse Theater, which was named Best Downtown Theater Company and known for developing modern verse plays.

“I really went more avant garde, original, downtown in New York and time flies. We went through 9/11. We went through the recession, and I realized I hadn’t stopped directing or acting for 22 years or something like that. So I moved to LA and gradually segued into more of filmmaking,” he said.

INDIE FILM PRODUCTION

Spafford, now 43, announced that he is back in the Philippines for good. He is starting a movie production company with another theater actor, Jake Macapagal. “We’re developing independent films for foreign release,” he said.

He is also set to star in a new production of the play “M. Butterfly” later in the year.

But to get the ball rolling, he is starring in “In the Next Room or The Vibrator Play” for Rep as a doctor in New York during the 1880s who specializes in gynecological and hysterical disorders. He plays opposite Giannina Ocampo as the doctor’s unhappy wife.

Directed by Chris Millado, the play also features Caisa Borromeo, Hans Eckstein, Jef Flores, Cara Barredo and Tami Monsod.

Spafford credits fellow Rep actor Pinky Amador for convincing him to do the play. “We had a friendship over the years and she’s been trying to bring me back for so many projects,” he said.

In fact, Spafford was supposed to co-star with Amador in Atlantis Productions’ production of “Piaf” in 2013, which would have also reunited him with his “Angels in America” director Bobby Garcia.

So when Rep chose to mount Ruhl’s comedy for its 50 anniversary, Amador tried to convince him again. This time, she succeeded.

“I love this play. It’s a new genre. It’s thoughtful, provocative, and sensitive,” he said, describing his role as “a lovely, thoughtful part.”

But more than Ruhl’s play, Spafford feels this is something that he has to do.

“I always felt there was something kulang,” he said when asked why he came back. “I never had that closure with Bibot (Rep’s late founder Zeneida Amador). When she passed away, I was really sad that I never said thank you for taking me in. I never said goodbye and I wanted to have the opportunity to come back.”

“It’s our 50th and I wanted some closure and I wanted to honor Bibot and I wanted to see what’s going on now. It’s a different beast. There’s so many new companies here. It’s like all the children of Rep have their own companies, and frankly I just missed it.”