MORE THAN JUST HIS FATHER'S SON. Young director Toff de Venecia is slowly making his mark on the local theater scene. Photo by Kat A. Mallillin
Toff de Venecia is in trouble. History has not been kind to child actors, and for the 25-year-old, who older generations still remember as Billy Bilyonaryo—GMA7’s answer to Richie Rich—this is problematic.
Hollywood has personas like Macaulay Culkin and Lindsay Lohan whose stars no longer burn as brightly as before. Their local counterparts have not been spared the same fate; names like RR Herrera and Lala Aunor don’t exactly trigger any sort of name recall.
Luckily, de Venecia has moved away from the spotlight. Having spent his four-year run in the Ateneo as an active member of the student theater group Blue Repertory (Blue Rep), he has returned to his collegiate home as the director of productions like Company Call: blueREP at 20, Little Shop of Horrors and, most recently, the musical 13.
Young blood
This is not to say, however, that he has completely cut out the child performer phase of his life. In fact, his sensitivity to the needs of younger actors is indicative of the fact that de Venecia himself originally started out as a performer. 13 cast member Nikki Surtida shares that she and the other performers were “able to experiment with our characters because he listens to [our] suggestions and ideas.”
“Parang I’m more comfortable with younger people than with older people. All my friends now are younger than me,” de Venecia muses. His ease with a younger team, while maintaining professionalism, is telling of his personality: although serious throughout the interview, he lights up with a quick pop culture reference every now and then as if he’s shifting between characters.
Having moved on from his life as a thespian, de Venecia’s eventual transition to directing came naturally. “I’ve always been, like, the organizer,” he shares, referencing the obsessive-compulsive Marnie from HBO’s Girls as his spirit animal. “So parang it fell naturally on me that while I started out as an actor, I ended up production managing and doing all these things, then eventually I became a director.”
Surtida backs this up point for point: aside from being an efficient director production-wise—being able to maximize available resources despite financial and spatial limitations—she also says that de Venecia knows how to foster the perfect mix of artistic and entertainment value of a production.
“As actors, he taught us the importance of being truthful onstage, and how we shouldn’t doubt our capabilities and talents because that’s just self-sabotage,” she shares. “We were taught to really trust and believe in ourselves that we can fully tell the story to our audiences in the most honest and organic light.”
Now, de Venecia co-owns 9 Works Theatrical, one of Manila’s leading theater companies. Past productions of the lauded theater group include Rent, The Wedding Singer, Songs for a New World and Sweet Charity. Although de Venecia found himself alternating as Linus in their most recent production You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, he has largely remained behind the scenes, acting as Marketing and PR Director for 9 Works, and every now and then sitting in the director’s chair.
“He’s also helped BlueRep in its PR and Marketing,” says Surtida. “He continues to encourage and teach us on how to further expand our network and audience reach.”
Slow and steady
De Venecia’s punchline is that he never left college—aside from his work with BlueRep, he also works in two youth-centric publications. He’s currently Chalk magazine’s Lifestyle Editor, as well as a columnist (writing under the aptly titled “Chasing Toff”) and contributing editor of the Philippine Star’s Young Star section.
“I’m dying,” de Venecia jokes when asked about how he maintains balance among his many commitments. Because he isn’t focusing all his energy solely on theater, he is treading at a consistent “level 2” across the several fields he dabbles in, “instead of a fast ‘level 10.’”
“I don’t want to give up on any of my passions,” he says by way of explanation. No matter how many times the dice is rolled, however, de Venecia’s fate seems to be intricately linked to theater, which is no surprise considering his love for the stage blossomed at such an early age. Until today, he makes it a point to travel to New York City annually, to catch a minimum of 15 Broadway shows.
He also dreams of directing his own professional show someday. There is a flash of electricity in his eyes as he says, “Being able to direct or even just ‘assistant’ direct on Broadway—that would be a level 10 for me.”
Giving back
He certainly has his foot in every door he chooses to open. It would be easy to dismiss de Venecia as just his father’s son, especially when that father is five-time Speaker of the House Jose de Venecia. On the contrary, however, the younger de Venecia gravitated toward theater, in a direction quite opposite his parents’ dedication to Philippine politics and more traditional understanding of public service.
“There’s so many other ways to give back to society, to the community. Arts pa lang eh. Although, yeah, we don’t produce like, roads and all that,” he deadpans, “but then it’s different. The help we give to people is kind of like [on] the more spiritual level—an emotional level.”
It is 13’s musical director Reb Atadero who hits the nail as he describes de Venecia as someone who has developed from a person “who loves musical theater to someone who gives back.” Atadero has been with de Venecia since the beginning. In fact, they were alternates in their first production as BlueRep newbies and they have watched each other grow during the numerous times they have worked together.
In the green
Dismayed by the moribund state of theater in contemporary Philippine society, de Venecia wishes for increased support for the arts and for a voluntary willingness from the Filipino audience to find joy in the craft and to celebrate Filipino talent. He says, “Lea Salonga would always tell me, parang, ‘My God, if the Philippines could pay for its debt using its talent alone, then we would long ago have already been in the green.’”
But it is not only the audience he calls out to. He explains, “Sometimes, theater companies tend to cannibalize each other. They become so competitive as opposed to just sort of having one voice, one common position.”
De Venecia dreams to achieve what the local film industry has: form a unified front to resurrect and restore the spirit of Philippine theater. “I wanna give [theater] its sexy back!”
