Jon Santos Back on Stage in a Filipino Staging of Every Brilliant Thing

Multimedia artist, comedy icon, and master impersonator Jon Santos joins The Sandbox Collective’s SANDBOX FEST 2023 to bring a Filipino-translated performance of Duncan Macmillan and Johnny Donahoe’s Every Brilliant Thing to the local stage.

Santos has made his mark on the Philippine theater scene, recently playing roles in Ang Huling El Bimbo and Priscilla, Queen of the Desert. Santos is best known for writing and producing comedy shows, and for impersonating pop culture and political personalities such as Vilma Santos and the late Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.

More recently, Santos made waves in the Philippine drag scene after being one of the alternating judges on the hit reality show Drag Race Philippines, a local franchise of RuPaul’s Drag Race.

Every Brilliant Thing is a one-act, interactive play that follows the story of a young child growing up with a parent suffering from mental illness. The show has been staged in multiple countries and has also been translated into different languages such as Mandarin, Arabic, Spanish, and Hebrew. Tasked with Every Brilliant Thing’s Filipino translation is award-winning playwright, translator, actor, and director Guelan Luarca.

Luarca was the recipient of the 2022 Gawad Rolando Tinio Translator’s Prize by the National Commission for Culture and the Arts.

With its Filipino version ready to take the stage, Every Brilliant Thing expands its reach and potential by giving Filipino audiences the opportunity to discuss mental health in a safe space and through their native language. What The Sandbox Collective hopes to achieve through this original translation is to continue to normalize the conversation on mental health and to encourage healthy discourse in the Philippines where depression and grief continue to be taboo topics among more traditional households.

Santos is thrilled to be taking the reins and starring in the Filipino staging of Every Brilliant Thing as the project also marks his return to Philippine theater. He shares, “In my experience, the takeaways in shows are much more intense when the setup is an actor-to-live audience. You look at the eye of an actor and the message is shot right through your heart. It’s exciting and overwhelming, but also heartwarming to realize that an actor can help change perspectives or spark conversations about mental health.”

Joining Santos and reprising their roles in the solo-actor show are model, actress, and TV host Teresa Herrera and theater actress, multimedia host, and entrepreneur Kakki Teodoro. Both Herrera and Teodoro received Gawad Buhay Award nominations for their previous Every Brilliant Thing runs, with Teodoro bagging the prize for Female Lead in 2020.

Teresa Herrera, Jon Santos and Kakki Teodoro for Every Brilliant Thing

Jenny Jamora returns to the director’s chair for both the English and Filipino versions of Every Brilliant Thing. Jamora directed the 2019 run of Every Brilliant Thing and received the Gawad Buhay Award for Outstanding Stage Direction for a Play in 2020.

Every Brilliant Thing will run alongside Duncan Macmillan’s Lungs in a twinbill (two shows, one ticket) experience in this season’s SANDBOX FEST 2023.

SANDBOX FEST 2023 will run at the Zobel de Ayala Recital Hall, 2/F Maybank Performing Arts Theater, 9th Avenue cor. 26th Street, BGC, Taguig City from June 17-July 15, 2023. Tickets are now available through Ticketworld or through The Sandbox Collective at +63917 152 5560. 

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Sandbox Fest 2023: BACK after a breather with a twin bill performance

Three years after Sandbox Fest 2020—a month-long festival featuring the works of English playwright Duncan Macmillan—came to an abrupt halt in March 2020, The Sandbox Collective returns to breathe new life and begin again with SANDBOX FEST 2023, a twin bill experience featuring Duncan Macmillan plays Every Brilliant Thing and Lungs.

SANDBOX FEST 2023 will be sold exclusively as a twin bill experience: one ticket, two shows, one breathtakingly brilliant experience. Audiences will have the opportunity to purchase a single, same-day ticket good for both shows. The shows will run one after the other, with a 20-minute interval in between. While twin bills are not an entirely new concept in theater, spending three hours at the theater might be unfamiliar to some Manila theatergoers. The Sandbox Collective’s managing artistic director, Toff de Venecia, hopes that SANDBOX FEST 2023 will give audiences a fresh perspective on how one experiences theater: “I’m very excited for the twin-bill experience of Duncan Macmillan’s works, and see how these award-winning one-act plays will resonate with each other, adding to how the world has changed dramatically since we first staged them in 2018 and 2019, thereby impacting the audience’s overall experience and takeaway.”

LUNGS

The last time Lungs was set to be staged In March 2020, the actors and The Sandbox Collective’s creative team sought to answer the questions, "What world are we leaving the future generations?" and "Even if I wanted children, with everything going on around us, what kind of world would I be leaving them?" Already incredibly topical questions in March 2020, they carry even more emotional weight now. Three years down the road, the world has changed in exactly the way the play’s characters feared. On the heels of those questions comes a new one, brought on by the current state of our society: what does it mean to stage a play with characters so fearful of a far-off future in our present time, now that so many of those fears have come true in the real world?

During its original 2018 run, Lungs received seven Gawad Buhay nominations, including Female Lead Performance in a Play for returning cast member Sab Jose. For SANDBOX FEST 2023, Sab will be joined by Gawad Buhay-nominated theater actor Reb Atadero, who was last seen in Breakups & Breakdowns and Ang Huling El Bimbo. The 2023 run will also welcome theater actors Brian Sy & Justine Peña as they step into the shoes of Lung’s anxiety-ridden characters. Justine’s performance in Uncle Jane earlier this year was lauded by critics and theatergoers alike, while Brian’s turn in Coriolano was met with widespread acclaim, garnering him a Gawad Buhay Award for Best Male Featured Performance in 2020. Serving as the show’s assistant director in 2018 and 2020, Gawad Buhay Awardee Caisa Borromeo now takes the reins as the director for Lungs.

EVERY BRILLIANT THING
In 2019, The Sandbox Collective took an enormous leap of faith with the premiere of Every Brilliant Thing, praying that Filipino audiences were ready to hear and see its burgeoning message of hope amidst mental illness. Four years later, as the Philippine theater industry continues to recover and find its footing in a post-pandemic world, Every Brilliant Thing’s message to find joy in the mundane, and to appreciate the everyday is more relevant than ever.

Once again taking on the challenge of this one-woman show is actress, model and TV host Teresa Herrera, who will alternate performances with theater actress, multimedia host, entrepreneur and Gawad Buhay Awardee Kakki Teodoro (Outstanding Female Lead/EBT). Both Herrera and Teodoro picked up Gawad Buhay nominations for Outstanding Female Lead for the 2019 run of Every Brilliant Thing. A new, surprise cast member will also be teased and announced in the coming days. Jenny Jamora will once again be stepping in as director, having directed all its previous runs, and winning Outstanding Stage Direction for a Play at the 12th Gawad Buhay Awards.

Philippine theater, like the rest of the world, has changed immensely since the curtains last rose in 2020. But audiences can find comfort in the fact that the core of both shows remains unchanged: at its heart, SANDBOX FEST 2023 celebrates the innate goodness of people, the human capacity to overcome both internal and external struggles, and the desire to heal both ourselves and the world around us.

Rounding out the artistic team are Arvy Dimaculangan as sound designer, Miggy Panaganiban as lighting designer and Krystal Kane as costume stylist. Heading the production team are The Sandbox Collective’s managing artistic director Toff De Venecia, Anna Santamaria as operations & finance director, Sab Jose as marketing & PR director and Maine Manalansan as design director. Joining the team are Salve Villarosa as marketing and PR manager, Loreta Arroyo as marketing and PR associate, Shai Libunao as promo and creatives associate, Marielle Filoteo as social media associate, Marcel David as production manager (Sandbox Fest 2023) and stage manager (Every Brilliant Thing), and Pachot Festejo as stage manager (Lungs).

SANDBOX FEST 2023 will run at the Zobel de Ayala Recital Hall, 2/F Maybank Performing Arts Theater, 9th Avenue cor. 26th Street, BGC, Taguig City from June 17- July 15, 2023.

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EVERY BRILLIANT THING review

In an intimate theater, the audience enumerated a number of things that made us all happy. Duncan Macmillan's Every Brilliant Thing lists a million items whether it brings joy to us or not and makes us realize how such things deserves to be on that list.

Watching it last March 5 for The Sandbox Creative's opening for the #SandboxFest2020, I was taken on a journey of mental health, given a deeper understanding and empathy to those suffering from it. An immersive, interactive and fun one-man play as you get in the shoes of the actor (Teresa Herrera) as a child with the condition. It is a balance of laughter and loss where we can actually relate and be a catalyst of reaching out to them. Unsuspecting audience members are pulled for impromptu roles and awakens the rest. You'll never know what will happen and you'll be attentive to the whole play.

Beautiful and clever, you have to see it. Sadly, the Sandbox Fest is forced to stopped to the current COVID19 situation but I hope that when everything is better, you'll be able to see it too.

If you need a professional help or know someone who needs it, call the National Center for Mental Health hotlines: 0917-899-USAP (8727) or 989-USAP (8727).

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The Sandbox Collective Festival runs this March

In continuing the advocacy for climate change and mental health, The Sandbox Collective, producers of acclaimed theatrical productions like No Filter, Himala: Isang Musikal and Dani Girl, brings back Lungs and Every Brilliant Thing for the Sandbox Fest 2020!

In line of 9 Works Theatrical and Sandbox Collective's "10+5 = 25" celebrations, two very important productions that needs to be watched to have a broader understanding of these important issues. Lungs, a play from Duncan Macmillan shows the struggle of a couple who are struggling to face the future with a kid, facing the responsibilities in a very different, or worse, environment. Watch this excerpt with Jake Cuenca and Sab Jose, the original actors from the run of Lungs years ago.


A more interactive show featured in Duncan Macmillan's Every Brilliant Thing. A tribute to the irrepressible resilience inside all of us and the capacity to find delight in the everyday, Every Brilliant Thing is a very funny and moving new play about mental health that enlists members of the audience to help tell its story. Teresa Herrera lists every brilliant thing that will give significance in our lives.


Sandbox Fest runs from March 6-29, 2020 at the Zobel de Ayala Recital Hall, Maybank Performing Arts Theater in BGC. You may call for tickets or showbuying at 0917-5545560. You may also visit thesandboxco.com for more details.

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