Rick Gonzalo: From Star Complex to Stardom

Theater artist Rick Gonzalo was in love with the stage early on. He admits a wrong work attitude almost cost him his career. But he rethought his lifestyle and now he is not only a real star, he also trains newcomers in the workings of theater arts.

BY PINK-JEAN FANGON MELEGRITO
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat

Last weekend, my mind was preoccupied imagining myself as taking part in a theater workshop. My theater skills are getting a little rusty. And time is both friend and foe: a theater workshop somewhere in Bengao was taking place while I wasn’t available. Great.

Kung Bakit Babae ang Naghuhugas ng Pinggan (Why Women are the Ones Washing the Dishes) is a gender-conscious play concealed somewhere in my subconscious. Someday I’d meet one of its characters. And Rick Gonzalo was the answer. He was the instructor-facilitator of the Bengao workshop.

So I met him for an interview. It was a very cheerful conversation, with every sentence punctuated by a snort or laughter. His tale of the hackneyed ups and downs of drama and success caught my attention.

Recollections of his educational background kicked off our chat. His acting interests started with his elective drama class during his high school days in the early 1970s at the Union Christian College (UCC), La Union. From then on, he never let his acting skills go dormant.

In college he got into vices and as a result had to move from one school to another; from St. Louis College La Union to the then Baguio Colleges Foundation (now the University of the Cordilleras) and finally back to his alma mater UCC.

Still, not all was for naught as he established theater organizations in La Union while in college: the Union Christian Theater Guild, Dulaang Panday (Blacksmith Theater) and the Tahanan (Home) Outreach Program and Services for streetchildren.

After college he moved to Manila and found himself joining the Tanghalang Sta. Ana (Sta. Ana Theater), which was founded by actor Lou Veloso.

The group gained him a Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA) scholarship. In 1998, he was one of Tanghalang Sta. Ana’s senior trainors. He also became director-facilitator of the Asian Social Institute’s drama modules.

Rick’s movie and theater stints unfortunately infected him with star complexity. “Di pa ‘ko sikat, nalaos na ‘ko. Feeling ko kasi noon, ako lang magaling at bida” (I faded away even before becoming famous, because I thought I was the only star), he remorsefully admitted. He later learned that “In theater, everyone is equal, no one is indispensable.”

A renewed Christian Rick rethought his lifestyle. He went back to work from scratch. He eventually became Amazing Philippines Theater’s first director. He also became part of Gantimpala (Reward), and later found himself working with Dulaang Kayumanggi (Brown Man’s Theater), his current Pasay-based theater.

Kayumanggi’s director Grundy Constantino introduced Rick to the Concerned Artists of the Philippines (CAP), which he joined and with which he is still affiliated. CAP participated in the 2004 International Workshop of Performing Artists together with Dap-ayan ti Kultura iti Kordilyera (Council for Cordillera Culture).

Currently, he gives workshops and leadership trainings in Manila and in provinces using his own module, a part of which was published in a book by his writer-friend Alfonso Deza (of the famed PLDT commercial ‘Suportahan taka’), Drama and Beyond: Another Unfinished Treatise (1998).

“Theater is the highest form of discipline,” Rick said. “It is unlike film or TV where you can stop shooting if a mistake was made.” Northern Dispatch / Posted by Bulatlat

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