Lea Salonga, Eugene Domingo, and More Join ‘The Bobby Garcia Initiative’ as Guest Mentors
Theatre Group Asia (TGA) announces the calendar of activities under The Bobby Garcia Initiative, a platform envisioned to nurture the next generation of theater artists by providing rare access and first-hand behind-the-scenes immersion into the process of theater making.
Spearheaded by TGA co-founders Tony Award-winning overall artistic and creative director Clint Ramos and executive director Chris Mohnani – and named in memory of TGA’s co-founder and Philippine theater luminary Bobby Garcia – this project is a series of intensive master classes, seminars, workshops, observerships, and interactions open to arts, theater, and performing arts students seeking exposure and opportunities in the professional field.
Mohnani shares, “The Bobby Garcia Initiative is rooted from Bobby’s lifelong commitment to raising Filipino theater to global standards while celebrating our unique Filipino sensibility. It memorializes all of the best practices Bobby espoused, as well as all of us at TGA. We believe it is a fitting tribute to Bobby and his legacy as it exalts his decades-long dedication to excellence and innovation, values we all hold sacred at TGA. Through this program, we are able to engage with the future leaders of the performing arts scene, and share these values with that wider community of aspiring creatives.”
Artist-in-Residence at the Lincoln Center Theater and a seven-time Tony Award nominee, Clint Ramos brings his vast international experience and vision to this homegrown effort. Ramos adds, “The Bobby Garcia Initiative is more than a program. It’s a movement—a call to uplift fresh voices, open doors, and provide opportunities for growth in every aspect of the creative process. Through continuous engagement and dialogue, we aim to foster a vibrant, collaborative space for storytelling that reflects the diversity and depth of the Filipino experience from a more global context.”
Mohnani notes, “Even from the onset when we founded TGA, this was the model Bobby, Clint, and I were most excited to standardize. This goes to the very heart of why we established TGA in the first place. By extending the opportunity to learn from our acclaimed collaborators, we are able to help lay the foundation for the future of world-class Filipino theater.”
Interested theater and performing arts students, theater industry aspirants, and young creatives are encouraged to sign up via the official registration form, available through TGA’s Instagram and Facebook pages (@theatregroupasia). Each workshop will have its own dedicated sign-up form. Follow their social media channels for updates. Attendance at any of these workshops is free. However, slots are limited, so early registration is encouraged.
Below are the list of activities throughout July and August:
July 23 – Crafting Characters: The Role of Costume Design in World Building with Raven Ong
2 p.m., 6F Costume Wing and Lobby, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Raven Ong: U.S.-based but locally bred, Into the Woods’ Costume Designer Raven Ong obtained his undergraduate degree in Production Design at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde, School of Design and Arts in 2007, and has since designed for various theater companies in the Philippines. He then received his MFA in Costume Design from University of Connecticut. Ong’s portfolio boasts of works in productions staged in venues like the New York Lyric Opera at Lincoln Center and Carnegie Hall. His plays and musicals credits include costume design for Waitress, Kinky Boots, Matilda, Beautiful: Carole King Musical, and La Mama Experimental Theatre Club’s world premiere of Dying in Boulder. More recent works include Antony and Cleopatra for the Utah Shakespeare Festival, Syracuse Stage’s Sense and Sensibility, Repertory Philippines’ Jepoy and the Magic Circle, and Full House Theater Company’s Buruguduystunstugudunstuy: Ang Parokya Ni Edgar Musical. Ong is an Associate Professor of Costume Design at Central Connecticut State University and a recipient of Syracuse Area Live Theatre (SALT) Award Best Costume Design of a Musical for Red House Art Center’s production of La Cage Aux Folles.
July 26 – Directing: Collaboration and Communication with Chari Arespacochaga
1 p.m., 4F Dalkia Rehearsal Hall, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Chari Arespacochaga: A member of the Roundabout Theatre Company’s Directors Group, Arespacochaga’s theatrical direction credits include the Natasha, Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812, Kinky Boots, Rent, Fumiko Enchi’s Restless Night in Late Spring and A Hell of Her Own, Coin Toss by Alexis Sims, Long Distance Affair, In The Heights, The Motherf**ker With The Hat, Birthmark, Love’s Labour’s Lost the Musical, The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee, Amadeus, and 9 Minutes among others. Committed to the development of new works, she has likewise led the premiere public reading of Ed Clark’s Shame Bomb and is the Director of Creative Development for Em and Missing. Currently a professor at the School of Theatre of Florida State University, she is the Director of the MFA Directing Program.
July 31 – Conversations in Spotlight with Clint Ramos, Lea Salonga and Eugene Domingo
6 p.m., 5F JZA Hall, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Clint Ramos: Clint Ramos is a creative director, designer, and producer. His practice attempts to push beyond the traditional designations in art-making. He is a Lincoln Center’s Artist-in-Residence and the Visual Director for Lincoln Center’s Summer for the City where he transforms the entire campus as a venue for over 300 programmed events to serve the city of New York every summer. Clint is also the Producing Creative Director for Encores! at New York City Center where he led projects including Billy Porter’s reimagining of The Life, The Light In The Piazza with Ruthie Ann Miles and Jelly’s Last Jam. He was a lead producer of the groundbreaking Here Lies Love on Broadway.
As a designer, he has designed over two hundred theater, opera, and dance productions. Recent designs for the stage include the Broadway productions of Maybe Happy Ending, Eureka Day, Here Lies Love, KPOP, Slave Play, The Rose Tattoo, Eclipsed, Once On This Island, Sunday in the Park with George, and Torch Song. Film credits include: Production Design for Lingua Franca by Isabel Sandoval for Netflix; and costume design for RESPECT, the Aretha Franklin biopic starring Jennifer Hudson for MGM.
He is a 7-time Tony nominee and a recipient of a Tony Award for Best Costume Design of a Play for Eclipsed, making him the first person of color to win that category. His other accolades include two OBIE Awards, including one for Sustained Excellence in Design, 3 Lucille Lortel Awards, A Drama Desk Award, An Outer Critics Circle Award, 2 American Theater Wing Henry Hewes Awards, TDF Irene Sharraf Young Master Award, Helen Hayes Award, Craig Noel Award, among other honors. He is a two-time recipient of the Ani ng Dangal Presidential Medal for dramatic arts from the President of the Philippines. He serves on the American Theatre Wing’s Advisory Board and is a co-founder of Design Action. His lifelong advocacy – aside from championing Philippine talent – is for a establishing an equitable landscape in theater and film for people of color and for the rights of immigrants.
About Lea Salonga: Lea Salonga most recently starred in Old Friends on Broadway and London’s West End; and in the musical Here Lies Love at the Broadway Theater.
Salonga is best known for her Tony Award-winning role in Miss Saigon. In addition to the Tony, she has won the Olivier, Drama Desk, Outer Critics Circle, and Theatre World Awards. In July 2025, Salonga received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star for her contributions to musical theater.
She was also the first Asian to play Eponine in the musical Les Misérables on Broadway and returned to the show as Fantine in the 2006 revival. On Broadway, Salonga starred in the 2018 revival of Once on This Island as the Goddess of Love, Erzulie. The show’s return to the Broadway stage earned a Tony Award for Best Revival of a Musical. This also garnered Salonga and her cast a Grammy nomination for Best Musical Theater Album. She has also been seen on Broadway in Allegiance and Flower Drum Song.
Fans of all ages recognize Salonga as the singing voice of Princess Jasmine from Aladdin and Fa Mulan for Mulan and Mulan II. Salonga starred in the first season of Pretty Little Liars: Original Sin (a reboot of the popular series), available on MAX, after starring in the Sony musical-drama Yellow Rose. Salonga can also be heard in the Netflix animated series Centaurworld, FX’s animated series Little Demon, and Netflix’s K-POP Demon Hunters.
In addition to her stage and screen credits, Salonga served as a judge on the Philippines’ version of The Voice and The Voice Kids. She has released multiple solo albums and toured all over the world, performing sold-out concerts in venues like Sydney Opera House, 02 Arena, Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, Singapore’s Esplanade, Kuala Lumpur Convention Center, Hong Kong Cultural Center, Queen Sirikit Convention Center in Bangkok and Carnegie Hall in New York.
Salonga was also honored by Time Magazine as a Time100 Impact Award Recipient. She has received the Gold House 2023 Gold Legend Award and has been named a ‘Disney Legend’ by the Walt Disney Company.
About Eugene Domingo: Eugene Domingo has performed in lead and supporting roles in various genres of the Philippine film industry. She is popularly known as the “Comedy Star for All Seasons” and was a sidekick of Ai-Ai delas Alas in the Ang Tanging Ina series (2003–2010), until her very first lead film role in Kimmy Dora in 2009. She is currently an exclusive artist of GMA Network.
Her other notable films include Bahay Kubo (2007) for which she received her first Best Supporting Actress award. Her most successful film to date is the Cinemalaya entry, Ang Babae Sa Septic Tank (2011), which is the highest-grossing independent film in Philippine history. The film was an official entry for various international film festivals in Vancouver, South Korea, Hawaii, Japan, and Italy. The film was also chosen by the Film Academy of the Philippines to represent the Philippines in the Best Foreign Language Film category of the 84th Academy Awards. Domingo has also achieved Best Actress awards from the Metro Manila Film Festival, Cinemalaya, and Gawad Tanglaw, among others. She also received the People’s Choice Award for Best Actress at the 6th Asian Film Awards (2012) in Hong Kong, and the Best Actress award at the 3rd Pau International Film Festival in France.
Domingo’s recent films include Ten Little Mistresses, Here Comes the Froom, Becky and Badette, and And the Breadwinner is…Apart from her film and television mainstream appearances, Domingo also headlined the theater show Bona produced by the Philippine Educational Theater Association in 2012. She was nominated as Best Actress in a Play for her role at the International Theater Award and eventually hailed as Best Actress in a Theater Role for Bona at the 25th Aliw Awards.
August 7 – The Language of Light: Lighting Design with Cha See
10 a.m., 5F Main Auditorium, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Cha See: Making a homecoming is Obie Award-winning lighting designer Cha See, who is the show’s Lighting Director. After a long absence from the local scene, See is overjoyed to be doing her first show in the Philippines in 11 years. Some of See’s international acclaimed works include Cole Escola’s Oh, Mary!; Wet Brain, Liberation, Show/Boat, Mother Road, Sanctuary City, Pericles, Babbitt, Jordans, Is It Thursday Yet?, You, Will Get Sick, On That Day in Amsterdam, The Seagull/Woodstock, NY, one in two, BABE, Sorry for Your Loss, The Fever, and Lucy, and What to Send Up When It Goes Down to name a few. See holds an MFA from NYU Tisch and is also the first Filipino to supervise and design lighting for a major Broadway production.
August 7 – Sonic Landscapes: Sound Design with Megumi Katayama
1 p.m., 5F Main Auditorium, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Megumi Takayama: New York-based Megumi Takayama is thrilled to be working on the Philippine production of Into The Woods as the musical’s Sound Designer. An MFA graduate from the Yale School of Drama, her credits include The Life in New York City Center’s Encores!, off-Broadway productions of Wonderful Town, Titanic, Jelly’s Last Jam, The Light in the Piazza, The Last Bimbo of the Apocalypse, All the World’s A Stage, and For Colored Girls.
In New York, she has also worked with Playwrights Horizons, Lincoln Center LCT3, NAATCO, Target Margin, Primary Stages, Minetta Lane, Ping Chong+Company, Rattlestick, Little Island, and the NYTW Gala. Takayama’s regional works include engagements with Cambodian Rock Band (Tour), The Nosebleed (Tour), Jersey Boys (Paper Mill), Alliance, Trinity Rep, Old Globe, DCPA, Geva, Alley, Studio Theater, Everyman, Woolly Mammoth, Two River, Cincinnati Playhouse, Kansas City Rep, Long Wharf, Yale Rep, ZACH Theater, East West Players, Dorset Theater Festival, Chautauqua Theater Company, Skylight Music Theatre, Theater Aspen, and more.
August 12 – Reframing the Scene: Auditioning on Camera with Josh Dela Cruz
Josh Dela Cruz
11 a.m., 4F Dalkia Rehearsal Hall, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Josh Dela Cruz: Dela Cruz’s theater credits include playing Aladdin in the Broadway production. He initially joined the cast as an understudy and ensemble member before eventually taking over the title role. He was also part of the Public Theater’s staging of Here Lies Love and appeared in Merrily We Roll Along at New York City Center Encores!, under the direction of Into the Woods book writer and original director James Lapine.
Most recognizable for playing a fictional version of himself in Nickelodeon’s Emmy Award-winning show Blue’s Clues & You!, Josh Dela Cruz has hosted the program since 2019. He follows Steve Burns and Donovan Patton (Joe) as the show’s host, besting over 3,000 auditioners vying for the coveted role. In 2022, Dela Cruz also starred in the feature film Blue’s Big City Adventure, where Josh and Blue travel to New York to audition for a major Broadway musical. The movie also saw him teaming up with the show’s past hosts, Steve and Joe. Dela Cruz has also played roles in shows like Law & Order Toronto: Criminal Intent, CBS’s Bull, ABC’s Time After Time, and Netflix’s second season of the comedy-action show Fubar starring Arnold Schwarzenegger.
August 13 – Creating Visual Language on Stage: Set Design with Ohm David
1 p.m., 5F Main Auditorium, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Ohm David: David is a stage and lighting designer for theater, dance, and live events. From his Dulaang UP roots, David has since amassed stellar international credits alongside his notable local accomplishments. Some of his works include Ballet Philippines’ Firebird, Tanghalang Pilipino’s Ang Pag-Uusig, The Dante Project under the Mellon Foundation and Notre Dame University, Dulaang UP’s The Dressing Room and Ang Nawalang Kapatid, Siddhartha the Musical, PETA Plus’ Tabing Ilog, PETA’s One More Chance, Fire and Ice’s Choosing, and Barefoot Theater Collaborative’s Mula Sa Buwan and Barboys. The University of the Philippines awarded him as one of the most productive artists of UP. David also designed the Manila Clock Tower Museum and the TAWID Gallery in Shambala Silang.
August 18 – The Song of Sondheim: Voice with Arielle Jacobs
1 p.m, 4F Dalkia Rehearsal Hall, Samsung Performing Arts Theater
About Arielle Jacobs: Arielle Jacobs made her Broadway debut starring opposite Lin-Manuel Miranda, playing Nina Rosario in the final Broadway cast of his four-time Tony and Grammy award-winning musical In The Heights, after starring in the original national touring production. She went on to perform Wicked on Broadway and Aladdin on Broadway and in Sydney, Australia. She originated the role of Gabriella in Disney’s High School Musical On Stage, and created the role of Delilah in the Off-Broadway musical Between The Lines, based on the book by best-selling author Jodi Picoult. Jacobs also starred as Imelda in the first-ever, all-Filipino Broadway cast of David Byrne and Fatboy Slim’s Here Lies Love.
Her voice can be heard in The SPHERE in Las Vegas where she voiced the immersive sci-fi film Postcard From Earth directed by Darren Aronofsky. Jacobs recently performed the U.S. National Anthem at The White House in celebration of Filipino-American History Month, and has been a featured concert soloist with symphony orchestras around the world, having performed at Lincoln Center, The Hollywood Bowl, and more. She has recorded two songs for the comic book character Spinstress, a new singing Marvel superhero introduced in the Marvel comic series Edge of the Spiderverse #4, written by David Hein. She also released a solo album entitled A Leap In the Dark: Live at Feinstein’s/54 Below.
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