LANCE RAYMUNDO TALKS ABOUT HIS MEMORIES ON THE PLAY "ROMEO & JULIET", WHICH WILL HAVE A REVIVAL SOON....

LANCE: THE COOL "ROMEO"

LANCE UNDER THE SUN

CASUAL LANCE

LANCE IN A 'BILLY DELA TORRE' SUIT

LANCE: BEST DRESSED

THE SIGNS.

One fine day, actor-singer Lance Raymundo thought of digging upon his treasure vault cabinet of Memoribilias to look for the Jersey Kobe Bryant shirt he wore on one of the scenes in his old movie Fidel (a film that he made years ago). He suddenly thought of it because he suddenly missed Kobe Bryant (who died more than a week ago in a helicopter crash). He wanted to look at it again and embrace that Jersey shirt with the name KOBE BRYANT printed on it.

While he was digging on those old Memorabilias, suddenly, a CD disc flipped over and landed on the floor. He thought again, it was the disc of the movie Fidel. So what he did, he played over the disc on the CD machine. But to his surprise, it was the disc of the play ROMEO AND JULIET, which he acted upon as Romeo in the early part of 2000's. He never knew, he managed to keep the CD. And he was able to see again how beautiful the play was.

Just a week ago, before that incident happened, he was interviewed by a blogger who asked him what could be his dream role in a play or a movie still? And he answered: "I want to play the character Romeo again which I did for Gantimpala Theater Foundation years ago". It suddenly occurred to his mind that dramatic role of Romeo.

And also a week before that, a friend and co-actor of him gave him a Private Message over his Facebook if he still has the video of them acting in the play Romeo and Juliet. And Lance, who forgot about that CD tape, answered back to his actor-friend that he could no longer remember about that CD tape of Romeo & Juliet.

Then now, it all suddenly came back. The accidental flipping of the CD tape of  the Romeo & Juliet play.

IT WAS THE SIGN.

Very positive signs, indeed. That Lance Raymundo is out to revive the role of Romeo again in the classic William Shakespeare work of Art- the play Romeo and Juliet.

Negotiations and meetings are now underway with Gantimpala Theater Foundation's house director- in person of Mr. Jun Pablo to do a revival for the play. This time, it will be a co-production venture with a big company.

OH. MY.


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"It's one of the most memorable acting jobs for me", Lance said over a brief interview. "And also one of the most successful acting ventures I had. For Gantimpala Theater Foundation, it was also one of their biggest play hits. The play had many reruns, extensions and clamors. I have many fond memories when we did the play. And many controversies, too.

"I remembered, when the late Angie Magbanua was still my manager and I was auditioning for a movie role, I had to sit in a couch and wait for hours", Lance recalled. "While I was sitting in a couch and waiting, the old classic film version of the movie Romeo & Juliet which starred Olivia Hussey as Juliet and Leonard Whiting as Romeo, was being played right there on the TV screen of the place where I was seated in. At first, I didn't quite feel it, but as I continued to watch, I felt so engrossed and captivated with the story of Romeo and Juliet. And I began to love what I was watching.

"I was able to finish the movie and I felt, I wanted to play the character of Romeo, may it be a film or a play. Then, the auditions got finished that day. My manager then. Ms. Angie Magbanua called me up and asked what happened to the auditions. I said it was all alright. As I was about to hang-up the phone, Angie managed to asked me in the end of our conversation if I was interested to audition for the Romeo part in Gantimpala's Romeo & Juliet. And I told her, I was just watching the movie! What a coincidence!

"The next thing I knew, I was already auditioning for the part", Lance said in finality. "I guess that was the year of 2009. It was direk Jun Pablo who first directed it that year. Then, on the next re-staging a few years after, it was the main man of Gantimpala Theater in person of Tony Espejo who directed it before he died. So, it's been twice already that I acted as Romeo in Gantimpala version of the play."

But now that Lance Raymundo never seemed to grow old and even looked a lot younger this time (where did he get that Fountain of Youth, by the way? Oh. My!---RMS.*), it's still appropriate for him to play Romeo. And very soon, indeed, his revival for the role of Romeo will be seen back. Watch out.

Anyway, one of the most clear memories on Lance's mind were the controversies and incidents that happened along the way when he did the play years ago.

"In one of the performances of the play, my 'thing' stood-up and veteran writer Ricky F. Lo wrote about it in his daily column at Philippines Star and it became so controversial during that period of time", Lance recalled. "It was pretty embarrassing for me then, but accidents like that do happen to actors like me. The second memorable incident was when we almost got burned in one scene. My Juliet at that time, portrayed by Ms. Adriana Agcaoili was lying dead in one scene and I was embracing her. Suddenly I felt the hotness coming over from beneath her hair, there was fire! A real fire, and it was spreading already in the curtains. So I tried my best to wake up Adriana who was pretending to be asleep in that final scene. I touched her hard so that she'll open her eyes. And when she did, she saw the fire also and she managed to speak an adlib: 'The fires of Hell'!! That moment, the fire was all over us already and our director at once ended the scene. Haha!"

Real memories like these ones lasts forever. And for the revival soon of the play Romeo and Juliet, Lance is hoping for the best. Romeo is one of the finest characters that the literary world has ever produced. And it's only Lance Raymundo who could best portray it.

Need I say more?



(as written by Robert Manuguid Silverio, photos courtesy of Lance Raymundo).***