Kych Minemoto Left the Stage Because It Paid Too Little. A ₱1,000 Bar Play Brought Him Back.

At three on a Saturday afternoon, Lust Entertainment Bar in Quezon City feels nothing like a bar. The neon is off duty and the regulars won’t arrive until well past midnight. For a little over an hour, the room belonged to Naririnig N’yo Ba Ako?, Ogie Diaz’s first bar play, and to Kych Minemoto, who was back on a stage for the first time in years.

“Sobrang namiss ko yung feeling na andun ka sa moment na yun,” he told us after the show. What he missed was being in the moment and staying there. On a stage, he said, “isang oras kang andun mahigit,” an hour or more without a break, where screen work comes a scene at a time. “Nakaka-fulfill ng artistry as an actor.”

It was only the play’s second performance. Since opening night, the show has found its footing. The jokes landed closer together, the cast seemed looser, and the audience laughed and called back more freely than the opening crowd had. Some of that comes from new ad-libs and some from the crowd itself. Director and playwright Kim Marasigan has said from the start that the audience’s participation is part of how this play works.

The Long Way Back

Minemoto began in musical theater at 12, in productions by Gantimpala Theater Foundation and Tanghalang Pilipino, the resident theater company of the Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP). In 2015 he was in a revival of Florante at Laura, playing the young Adolfo. In 2019 he played Young Coriolano in Tanghalang Pilipino’s Filipino translation of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus at the CCP Little Theater.

Then the cameras found him. In September 2020 he appeared as Achilles de Dios, the femme scene-stealer of Alt Gameboys, a special episode of the Filipino BL (boys’ love) series Gameboys. He carried the character into Gameboys: The Movie and a second season. Leading roles followed in PaThirsty and in National Artist Ricky Lee’s May-December-January, along with his first teleserye (TV drama) for GMA Network, Unica Hija, and My Teacher, a 2022 Metro Manila Film Festival entry.

Theater, he told the press before opening, simply didn’t pay enough to stay. Mark was the role that changed his mind. “This is my purpose as an actor,” he said then.

The alternating cast of Naririnig N'yo Ba Ako? — The full alternating cast of *Naririnig N’yo Ba Ako?*

The Man Who Wants a Shortcut

Mark is a self-described “cutie” and a former POGO worker. POGOs are the Philippine offshore gaming operators, the online gambling outfits that employed thousands before the industry was banned. Mark spends the play looking for the quick way up. Minemoto, by his own account, has never gone looking for one.

“To do everything to survive everyday,” he said, describing how he lives. “Sa maayos na paraan,” the honest way. “Naniniwala kasi ako na walang shortcut.”

That is what Mark has to learn, and Minemoto thinks most of us learn it the same way. “At some point, darating naman tayo sa time na akala natin madali lang lahat,” he said: there comes a time when we think everything is easy. “Pero kapag narealize na natin, ‘yun yung breakthrough natin as a person. Siguro masarap lang maging si Mark. Pero mare-realize mo na wala talagang shortcut. You have to go through the process.”

He doesn’t share Mark’s vices. “Hindi kasi ako nagsusugal eh,” he said with a laugh. He doesn’t gamble. What he does share with Mark is the work ethic, a mother he would do anything for, and the moment of realizing a wrong turn was taken. “Mahal na mahal ko ang nanay ko,” he said. “Lahat naman siguro gagawin ang lahat para sa nanay nila.”

No Frame, No Safety Net

“Dati Proscenium talaga eh,” Minemoto said of his earlier stage work. A proscenium stage is the framed stage of halls like the CCP’s, with the audience seated in rows facing the action. A bar has no frame, so the actors play to people at arm’s length who are eating, drinking and answering back.

“Pero ngayon, siguro ito yung klaseng medium naman,” he said. To him it is another medium, and learning a new one is the best part of the job. “Iba rin yung crowd dito sa mismong theater. Iba ang reactions ng mga tao. Iba ang timings ng reactions ng mga audience. Kailangan mo rin sumabay.” The laughs come at different moments here, and the actors have to move with them.

That is also where the ad-libs come from. “May mga pumapasok na bagong adlibs,” he said. “Nagugulat din kami minsan na bigla s’yang nanganganak.” Sometimes one ad-lib breeds another, and it catches the cast by surprise. They were taught never to negate a partner on stage: don’t break your co-actor, hold each other up, and nothing looks awkward.

Every performance becomes its own show. In a room this small, with a script that invites the audience in, the crowd helps decide what kind of afternoon it will be.

Two Marks

Minemoto shares Mark with Hunter of the Pinoy pop group 6Sense, whom we saw on opening night. Their versions differ, and the difference comes from where each man trained. Hunter is a performer and Minemoto is an actor. Both arrive at a Mark who is easy to root for and hard not to love, probably close to the Mark that Marasigan had in mind when he wrote him.

If your schedule allows, see the play twice, once with each cast. We could only make the 3PM show, so we missed Marissa Sanchez and Serena Magiliw, whose run with Minemoto was at 6PM. Opposite him on Saturday were Krista “Rufami” Aguilar as Liza and Emi Felix as Ava. Both played with more polish than on opening night, and we expect them to keep improving with every run. We still hope to catch Sanchez and Magiliw before the play closes.

The Afternoon Crowd

Most of Saturday’s 3PM audience were beneficiaries of Kasuso Foundation, formally the Philippine Foundation for Breast Care. The volunteer-based nonprofit serves indigent breast cancer patients through early detection, patient navigation and free mammograms. Diaz supports the foundation. The guests laughed at the cast’s antics and cried through the play’s dramatic turns.

We have partnered with Kasuso in the past on breast cancer awareness, in our agency engagements and community outreach programs. I also lost a friend, Ross, to the disease, so it meant a lot to see them in the room.

Kasuso Foundation beneficiaries in the audience of Naririnig N'yo Ba Ako? — Kasuso Foundation beneficiaries made up most of the Saturday 3PM audience.

Comedian Wacky Kiray with the cast of Naririnig N'yo Ba Ako? — Comedian Wacky Kiray, who watched alongside the Kasuso Foundation guests, joins in the fun with the cast.

Ely Valendez with Kych Minemoto and celebrity host Coleen Perez after the show — This is not complete without a photo with Kych after the show, together with my friend, celebrity host Coleen Perez.

After Mark

What comes next for Minemoto involves a script he is still keeping under wraps. “Not sure kung pwede ko nang sabihin,” he said, before saying it anyway: “I am going to do another BL project after a long time.” He has turned down other invitations, he said, but not this one. “Nung nabasa ko ‘yung script na ito, it’s something special. I am excited to be back sa BL series.”

He also has three more show dates of Naririnig N’yo Ba Ako? ahead, and more if an extension comes.