Produced by NICOLE LIMOS MORALES assisted by CHELSA GLORIA
Makeup by STEVEN DOLOSO
Hair by REYMARK CASTRO
Shot on location at THE HYUNDAI HALL, ARETE, ATENEO DE MANILA
For decades, Cris Villonco has been entertaining Manila's audiences in different ways, from acting and singing to producing and, more recently, directing. Now more than ever she's found a home on the stage and is showing no signs of slowing down.
ACT 1: THE "PEAK"
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Top, Vania Romoff, Power Plant Mall; buttoned top, Yoya, Comme Ci, Power Plant Mall
Enter Cris Villonco. She arrives at the gleaming Areté building, Ateneo de Manila University's newest complex dedicated to the arts, 30 minutes earlier than scheduled. It’s a tough performer’s habit to break; she is always expected to arrive early and be raring to go at every show, she explains.
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While some may pinpoint the start of her singing career from the time she sang the theme song for the children’s show Hiraya Manawari, Cris remembers belting out melodies at the age of five on the late night show Ryan Ryan Musikahan, hosted by Ryan Cayabyab. Her mother, Town&Country founding editor Monique Villonco, had enrolled her in voice lessons, and “Mr. C,” as Cris calls the composer, hosted a performance for the workshop attendees. Five-year-old Cris first displayed her singing chops in a solo number.
At the age of nine, Cris was captivated by musical theater. She saw three shows on Broadway that year: Les Misérables, Phantom of the Opera, and Miss Saigon. “I knew everything that happened in the making of Miss Saigon,” she says. When she arrived back home in Manila from that trip, Cris found out it was the last day of auditions for Les Misérables. Her mother asked whether it was something she wanted to pursue. A plucky Cris nabbed the part of Little Cosette, her first theater role.
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PHOTO: ARTU NEPOMUCENO
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After achieving immense success as a child, Cris hit a crossroad in her teens. “The people who wanted to develop me into an artist didn’t know what to do with me because I refused to wear the clothes [they dressed me in],” she recalls. “They wanted to make me a Britney or a Christina Aguilera.” At the age of 17, she was made to acknowledge she was past her peak in the popularity polls. Her high school counselor suggested she seek a college education abroad, and her mother supported this decision to give Cris the chance at a fresh slate and renewed goals.
ACT 2: SHOWTIME
Cris' fleeting brush with fame quite scarred her so when she attended Sarah Lawrence College in New York, she refused to have anything to do with performing. When the time came for her to decide on her concentrations for her liberal arts degree, Cris chose to study music for its study on theories and economic development.
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When she returned to the Philippines after college, she pursued an unlikely field—politics. “I wanted to become a politician,” she shares. Her background in economic development would serve as a starting point to law school and eventually to public service, she reasoned. But the environment was harsh, and after two stints in non-profit work, she decided she wasn’t suited for the occupation.
This brought her back to her first love: the theater. For a year, she dabbled in children’s shows and Shakespeare plays before eventually deciding to audition as a performer in Hong Kong Disneyland, where she spent another year cast in a role of a nameless character for a 45-minute show.
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Earrings, Joanique, Cura V, Power Plant; ring, Riqueza, Cura V, Power Plant; sheer long sleeved top, Jun Escario, Greenbelt 5; tube top, Vania Romoff, Power Plant
Another year into working at “the most magical place on earth,” Cris discovered she was wanted back in Manila. The work she had done the year prior had resonated with theatergoers, and she moved back home.
Cris has since dominated Manila’s theatrical scene, scooping up roles with most of the country’s reputable companies, from Atlantis Theatrical Entertainment Group to Tanghalaang Filipino. As she matured as an actress, her characters evolved with her. She pushed past the role of female ingénue and eventually landed the part of Alison Bechdel in Atlantis’ Fun Home, a show that tackled issues of sexual orientation, dysfunctional family, and emotional abuse, among others. Cris admits that while the role was one of her favorites, it came at a vulnerable stage in her life. “The pressure was on to be able to prove to myself and to others that I could hold my own and it was very fulfilling and cathartic to express myself,” she says. Of course Cris conquered Alison Bechdel.To add to that weight, Lea Salonga, whose performance in Miss Saigon had imprinted itself on Cris at an early age, was playing her mother in this Tony Award-winning musical.
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Earrings, necklace, AC+632, Greenbelt 5; top, Jun Escario, Greenbelt 5; jacket, Vania Romoff, Power Plant Mall
On the day of our shoot, Cris speaks of feeling magic on every stage, the kind that healed her in times of sickness. This mysterious force was intrinsically linked with the people who worked in each production. “There would be days it would be very difficult to sing but what makes a difference is the help of a cast and a production team that supports you,” she shares. “I believe in collaboration and being strong together. They really do help you barrel through when they know that you’re sick or you’re going through personal issues.”
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Three years before Fun Home, Cris and fellow thespians, Jenny Jamora, Ana Abad Santos, Topper Fabregas, and Rem Zamora had launched theater company Red Turnip. “We were just five actors who wanted to do scripts we loved but we knew nobody would pick up,” she declares. At the heart of every Red Turnip production is a thought-provoking story that delved into subjects others wouldn’t dare touch. “We all came together and did Closer, which was something Ana Abad Santos was dying to do. I don’t know know if I was dying to play a stripper but it was definitely something more daring,” she adds.
ACT 3: LIFE BEHIND THE RED CURTAINS
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Gown, Jun Escario; necklace, Natalya Lagdameo, Manila Peninsula
Almost three decades into her career, the nerves never faded, she says. “Nowadays, I’m more afraid of going on stage and coming out as Cris Villonco. I don’t like attention when attention is not needed.” However shy she might be, she’s never let that demeanor get in the way of her work philosophy: “I would never compromise my discipline and the commitment I have agreed to do at any certain point in my life.”
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In 2018, Cris finally swapped her place on stage for a seat in the director’s chair. A Doll’s House Part 2 launched her directorial debut. As much as it had been staged for audiences to experience, it was an even greater journey for Cris—one that would later earn her a nomination for a Gawad Buhay award under Outstanding Stage Direction. “I watched A Doll’s House Part 2 when I was fairly new into my marriage, and we'd had a lot of adjustments,” she says. “There were a lot of questions about marriage and how one evolved in a marriage and it made me question my own marriage.”
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Suit, Jun Escario; earrings, Joanique
She is talking about her three-year marriage to businessman Paolo Valderrama, COO of the family-run Marby Food Ventures. They met through the groom’s sister, Sheila, and tied the knot in 2016. The couple was then faced with a glaring question: Would Cris keep her surname? “I think I’d worked way too hard since I was nine years old to build Cris Villonco,” she affirms. While she goes by Ana Cristina Villonco Valderrama on paper and in daily matters, she knows she can never fully let go of being a Villonco and her husband understands how much her identity means to her.
“On the second day of our marriage, I sat him down and asked, ‘What do you expect me to do?’ but he said we should enjoy this moment,” after more prodding on what his expectations were for their marriage, she says the expectations were minimal. “I was so grateful that he was so understanding of that.” Since then, Cris tells us she's been very lucky. “He has really given me the floor for the past three years.”
Recently in their relationship, she says, there have been talks of shifting responsibilities and plans for a plausible pregnancy but she's been swamped with project after project. Her greatest semblance to a day job is manning operations at events venue, White Space, where one can find her two to three times a week. On rehearsal days, she's out of the house by 10 a.m.,“I'm warmed up, my voice is intact, and I pretty much get my lines down or am ready to work with the director.”
Confidently, Cris declares she has had to audition for most of the roles she’s landed, despite gossip from naysayers. Cris credits her love for the performing arts to her grandmother, the late Armida Siguion-Reyna. “I was able to get my guts and discipline from her,” she says. Theirs was a rare relationship, especially because they had the unique chance to work together for a long time. Cris’s greatest ally was also her greatest critic: “She would focus on my weaknesses and highlight my strengths—and that’s what pushed me to become the kind of performer I am today.”
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Earlier this year, on February 11, 2019, Siguion-Reyna succumbed to cancer. Her granddaughter dutifully continues her legacy onstage thanks to her grandmother's "tough love." She fondly recalls their time spent at the recording studio. “That was where she taught me how to sing, how to react to certain songs and musical words, how to be able to express myself,” she says. Cris also owes her clear Filipino diction to her grandmother, who advised her to read the tabloids out loud as practice.
PHOTO: ARTU NEPOMUCENO
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Cris was the victim of bullying as early as junior high school. She experienced this from a teacher, who used to comment on her grandmother's work as MTRCB chairman. This eventually led her to transfer schools. Public scrutiny followed her into adulthood when some people even tried to discredit her efforts and attribute her success to her family's wealth and affluence.
Whenever bashers entered the scene, Armida and Cris's uncle, director Carlitos Siguion-Reyna, would take to the mic defending her. “People were afraid of her [Armida] but people who had worked with her thought she was the most generous person in the world and it was very obvious during the wake that these people loved her,” she says of her grandmother. “They appreciated everything that she gave them, whether it be a personal material or knowledge gained from being in production.” Likewise, Carlitos, her mother's brother, often always took a stand for Cris and told off anyone who ever said she used money to buy her way into the industry.
CURTAIN CALL
While audiences may miss Cris on the big stage this year, she already has a few theatrical acts lined up for next year. “[This year], I thought I was going to have a self-imposed hiatus and give more time to my husband and to pregnancy but the work keeps coming in—a part in a movie, a teleserye, a directorial job—so it just keeps going, which I am very grateful for,” she says.
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This is her calling after all. When the velvet drapes close and the house lights are turned on, the world applauds and she takes a bow, knowing she will once again be back to sparkle onstage.
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