Stella Cañete: Quadruple threat
Onstage in “Grace,” Floy Quintos’ critically acclaimed and box-office hit play about the controversial Lipa Miracles of 1948, Stella Cañete plays someone who ends up having little control over her own life’s main narrative. Off the stage, however, it’s quite a different story: As the producer of the play, the stage and screen veteran has full command of the entire production.
There aren’t very many of her kind in the local theater industry, the kind that wears two hats at the same time in one production. Cañete is quick to downplay the distinction, though. “I wasn’t the first,” she says. “I guess ako lang ang pinaka-recent.” That said, per her own reckoning, she is the only woman who’s currently active as an actor and producer.
Officially she has done one project with the twin roles, the aforementioned “Grace” in which she essays the lead role of Sister Teresita, the Carmelite novice who claimed to have visions and conversations with the Blessed Mother inside a convent in Lipa, Batangas.
The show had its sold-out original four-weekend, 16-show run last May at the PowerMac Blackbox Theater in Makati. It was such a success it was extended for another weekend, with four additional performances. All were sold out, too. Now, Cañete and the entire “Grace” team are in the middle of a two-weekend, 10-show rerun, this time at the Arete in Ateneo.
Actor-producer
Technically, Cañete has taken on a total of four productions as actor-producer. First was a school-based play called “A Hat Full of Rain” at the University of the Philippines (UP), where she graduated with a degree in Theater Arts.
She was already the show’s production manager, aside from being a performer, when she took on the role of producer. “The reluctant producer,” she hastens to qualify with laughter. She was kind of forced by circumstances to step up after the alumni arm of the school organization bailed on the show deep into the project.
It was not a pleasant experience. She invested all her savings and, unfortunately, she didn’t get any of it back. She says she learned a lot from the experience, “but I didn’t do it again for a long time.”
That initial foray happened in the 1990s, and Cañete did not take on production duties again until more than two decades later. It came via an invitation from the Cultural Center of the Philippines for Cañete and her husband, actor Juliene Mendoza, to star in a series of concerts called “Triple Threats,” featuring theater thespians who can act, sing, and dance. Make that quadruple threat in the case of Cañete and Mendoza, who can also produce.
Like “Hat,” “Threats” was not a money-making venture. Unlike “Hat,” though, that aspect of the project was clear to everyone from the get-go. “It was ‘for the love of,’” Cañete notes. “For our show, we made it a tribute to UP where we came from, where we spent our formative years as artists.”
‘The Reconciliation Dinner’
As serendipity would have it, Cañete’s next project as both onstage performer and offstage professional was a UP production, “The Reconciliation Dinner.” It wasn’t until the show’s rerun, though, that she came on board as producer.
The comedy, also written by Quintos, which took a look at the great sociopolitical divide between the Kakampinks and the Uniteam supporters during the 2022 election campaign, had a short run on campus for Dulaang UP in November 2022. There was a clamor for a rerun that did not materialize. Not right away, anyway, and not under the school theater organization.
In February 2023, the Angat Buhay foundation of former Vice President Leni Robredo asked them to perform an excerpt from “Reconciliation” in one of its events. Cañete says it was then that Quintos felt the play needed to be staged again. And so, she pushed for a rerun. This time she offered to produce it. The return engagement was staged at the PowerMac Blackbox Theater and was such a hit there was a third run, this time at the Peta Theater in Quezon City.
It was Quintos who again prompted Cañete’s next project. Buoyed by “Reconciliation’s” huge success, the Palanca-winning playwright recommended doing “Grace,” which he had been developing since 2019. As usual in their dynamics, Cañete came onboard right away. This time, she started working on incorporating their own theater production company, while Quintos worked on the draft of the play. Providentially, they got the mayor’s permit, the final requirement for incorporation, on Quintos’ birthday, April 17, this year.
Cañete named the company Encore because the vision is to do productions that would be worthy of an encore.
The whys
This is why, she says, she is very, very picky with the material. “Ang top priority ko talaga are the whys,” she notes. “Why do we need to tell the story? Why now? Why should people watch the show?”
For “Grace,” the answers came well into the thick of pre-production work. It was when the Lipa controversy hogged news headlines again with the release, for the first time since 1951, of the Vatican document containing the official decree against the Marian apparitions and petal showers from the sky.
“No matter how many times you ask why, if it falls on your lap and it’s fate, you just have to trust the process…Parang it was timed na maging swan song ni Floy.”
How is Cañete taking to the dual roles of actor and producer? “I am definitely enjoying it,” she says.
Noting that she’s an actor at heart and acting is a craft that she has somehow mastered from decades of work in theater, TV, and film, she says the performing part is a “breather” for her. In fact, she says, “Acting is the least of my worries.”
It’s production work that’s more challenging and demanding. “You’re basically thinking of everything,” she notes, adding that people around her, both actors and production people, are amazed at how she can juggle all her responsibilities.
Purpose
Of course she’s just a human who gets exhausted. Sometimes this gets her asking herself another why: “Why am I doing this to myself?”
“But every time I ask myself sa ginagawa ko, I’m grateful for my supportive husband. He always tells me, ‘You’re doing the right thing. Look at how many young people you’re inspiring.’”
Those kids are the theater students that Encore takes on as OJTs. For the “Grace” rerun, there are five. “That’s what I want to happen to our productions, may passing on of knowledge to the next generation.”
What’s next after “Grace”? “Time to regroup, recharge, and meditate on what needs to be done in terms of development of what I see Philippine theater can be, and what my purpose in it should be,” Cañete says.
At this point two things are certain. One: She will continue producing works of her close friend. “I will try to produce one Quintos piece at least once a year. I don’t want his works to die…There are not many who are that brilliant, and not everybody knows of him yet. We still need to show Floy’s works.”
The second certainty: Encore will produce original Filipino works. “There’s no other way for Filipino artists to thrive but for us to support our own.”
