K-pop group AHOF, with Filipino member JL Gaspar, to debut on July 1
On Instagram, AHOF shared the first batch of concept photos ahead of their debut, also announcing the release date of their mini album.
It will be followed by the second batch of concept photos on June 20, followed by more on June 22 and 23.
The mini album's tracklist will be released on June 26, while the music video teaser is set to be unveiled on June 30.
AHOF, which stands for All-time Hall of Famer, is composed of nine members: JL from the Philippines, Australian-Korean Steven, Chinese Zhang Shuaibo, South Koreans Park Ju Won, Seo Jeong Woo, Cha Woongki, and Park Han, Taiwanese Chih En, and Japanese Daisuke.
They won the K-pop talent search, 'Universe League,' which aired on SBS.
AHOF is managed by F&F Entertainment, the same agency of girl group UNIS. UNIS also has Filipina members: Elisia Parmisano, Gehlee Dangca, and Filipina-Korean Jin Hyeon-ju.
JL is one of the members of the P-Pop group PLUUS, who debuted in 2023 under SBTown. The boyband is best known for their songs, "Amigo," "Shining Star," "My Time," and "Missing You."
—Carby Rose Basina/CDC, GMA Integrated News
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GMA Network
a day ago
- GMA Network
'Into the Woods' creators on the Easter eggs making the musical a Filipino production through and through
The much awaited Theater Group Asia (TGA) production of "Into the Woods" opened last week with an all-star Filipino cast led by Lea Salonga. But as soon as curtains went up, it became evident there is more Filipino culture than the cast. Large capiz windows dominate the stage, with the floor covered by what looks like Spanish tiles. A huge chandelier hangs amid scattered tree trunks and immediately the audience will know this is an unabashedly Filipino production of the famous American musical about various fairytale characters. According to TGA's artistic and creative director Clint Ramos, they really wanted to be overt about it. "We still wanted to honor the intentions of the original creators but we wanted to find a way to make it ours, in a way that feels organic." In making "Into the Woods," TGA decided to lean in and include the many layers of Philippine history. The pre-colonial in the weaves featured in the costumes — Also, check out the pintados tattoos on The Wolf — the colonial in the silhouette of the boot, and perhaps the modern post-colonial in the Filipino diaspora represented by many of the actors. Creators Clint and director Chari Arespacochaga tell GMA News Online more about their creative decisions and their inspiration that led to a distinctly Filipino rendition of "Into the Woods." Below is our interview edited for length and clarity. TGA's Overall Artistic and Creative Director Clint Ramos and Director Chari Arespacochaga Courtesy: TGA Could you tell us more about the decision to use capiz windows and the floor tiles on the stage? Were those nods to our culture? if yes, was it difficult to do with "Into the Woods"? Clint: We never really thought to translate or adapt it. We never changed a single word in the musical, nor did we change anything in the music. But to give you a little bit of background, when the late Bobby Garcia and I were talking about starting TGA here in the Philippines, we really wanted to consider the Filipino condition. We didn't want to be heavy handed about it. For "Into the Woods," we still to honor the intentions of the original creators but we wanted to find a way to make it ours in a way that feels organic. So we kept thinking: How would you do it in Manila? How would you — what would we need to do to make this happen? Clearly we're doing it with an all Filipino cast and we wanted to engage Filipinos in the broader diaspora, but we wanted to build it here in Manila. For "Into the Woods," the mandate was: Without any rules, how we can um consider who we are, our history as a people? This musical is about fairy tales, and we want to lean into this idea of us as a people being storytellers. That's how it all kind of began. Those capiz windows are an interesting choice. Clearly you can see the colonial influence already. And that was a big thing for us. The scale of the capiz windows is big because we wanted to dwarf the actors — like it's bigger than them. But more than anything, we didn't want it to be naturalistic. We didn't want it to be like, 'here's the forest, and now here's the castle.' We didn't want it to be that way. We wanted to create a box, an envelope for the storytelling. It wasn't about convincing audiences that we're going to transport you into the forest. We we wanted to consider all of the layers of of Filipinos and that's also what we inspired our designers to do. To break the rules. There are no rules. You're ready Filipino. So what we wanted to do was create our unique Filipino facade, an envelope for the storytelling. So you have this box and then you put trees in it, and you have the orchestra up there and you're conscious of the thing being made, you know? The storytelling being made. The way Chari [Arespacochaga] staged the whole thing is very presentational. The musical is very presentational. You have characters entering, telling you who they are, telling you about like what's about to happen. There's a narrator. It's about storytelling. "Into the Woods" does feel very self-aware. We thought there were inside jokes in there. It is very self-conscious. It's like, the work of where you have to create a distance between who the audience is and these characters, and that kind of technique maximizes the audiences' identification with those characters. And because we're able to distance ourselves at first, it is able to honor the fairytale roots of the stories. That is a princess, or that is a prince, that is a wolf. But once [they start] spouting those lyrics, it's like, 'she literally my mother.' Or 'that is me.' And then the story flips on itself. You're also made to think more about yourself. Like, 'Would I have done what the Steward did?' And this is the funny thing. It's like going back to this idea of Filipino-ness. We really encourage the actors, because they had the same question: How do we present this in a Filipino context? And Chari and I were really encouraging them to just not even think about it. Was that difficult to do? Chari: It wasn't. A lot of the work was freeing them to say, 'Why do you think this mom is doing that?' To call from personal things. What is your experience of the first moment you had desires that a Catholic school told you was bad or what whatever, right? And so a lot of the process was freeing that thought and encouraging them to really be empowered to put those into their choices. Oh so that's why on opening night, Clint quoted Sodeheim in his opening message! About how being you makes it being true. That's literally what we were saying. There is no right or wrong way to do Filipino. As as Sodeheim had beautifully stated in one of his musicals,'everything you do, let it come from you and it be new.' But how about with the costumes and the textiles. Even the puppetry? Our costume designer [Raven Ong] really wanted to look at sort of the the materiality of Filipino culture, right? And not create our own rules in this fairy tale. There's there's some creatures from the Visayan myths that resemble dogs so that would the dog wolf. So this is from Visayas, so maybe we also infuse a little bit of the pintados in the design. When our costume designer said 'I wanna use habi,' I said, 'go for it.' It's very exciting, in the princes' costumes, there's all of that gold trim. And its ingenious and almost scholarly way to approach it. And the puppetry, we wanted to use puppets but wanted it Filipino, so Teatro Mulat of National Artist Amelia Bonifacio was a no brainer. The technique and the symbols that they used are drawn from Filipino culture. The birds are inspired by local birds. They created shadow puppets so the Filipino vines that go up balete trees, the beanstalk. The boot of the female giant! And the puppeteer is Amihan, the daughter of Amelia, our national artist. She was animating the cow, and was a big part of the production. Were there things that left you struggling, or left you both thinking, what would Bobby do? Clint: In my conversations with Bobby, one of the the first questions we asked each other was like, okay, so who are the giants in the sky, who seem to be omnipotent but also trampling on our land? all of this stuff. So we had really wanted to be intentional about that. We ran across this popular American caricature from the turn of the century — Uncle Sam's boot. So what did we do to make a nod to that, a little wink — not even a wink or a nod, but like can we be overt about that? If we are saying the box alludes to the Spanish, and we have all of this like pre-colonial motifs, you know. Maybe then we do this big thing, the physical representation of that alludes to a colonizing force or a big force like that, it strength on a on a people and creates kind of like havoc, right? And the people actually turning on themselves to blame each other for the things that go wrong. Like people say, yeah, the giant is the greed, you know, why what's happening to these characters is because of Jack, right? Like he went up there to get, you know, to get all of these riches. But where do those riches come from? It's very overt, but we wanted to be cheeky and funny. This is part of this is part of us. We think of being Filipino needs to be indigenous. Like that's not Filipino enough because that's not indigenous enough. But there are layers to us. So we wanted to pose that question to the ounce and whether they like it or not is really up to them. Is that something that you wish the audiences would you know it is it is it like a takeaway that you wish audiences would would have leaving the theater Chari: When we first started talking about this, I have not been home in, what, 12 years since I left to pursue directing in the United States, and I was really just looking back to that period. I had never felt more Filipino than when I had finally left and had to navigate up building a career in another country. So if what is taken away is a discourse about what it means for you to be Filipino today, great. If what you take away is a restored belief in our innate need for community, also, great. But also like come come and have fun at the show, coming and enjoy the show and allow for it to make you think about new ways of living today. It's a fairy tale after all. Clint: For me if they come if people come out of this show having a discourse, not only about and the brilliance of this musical, but what it means to consider the Filipino condition, then we've already done our job. Chari: But ultimately, what was really important to us was the question of what happens if a community is broken apart by big oppressive forces? The way through is for the community to come back together. Yes, exactly. It may not resemble the old community that was torn apart but it's almost like the only way out of hell is through it. So we acknowledge the damage and the rebuilding. Like if there's anything more Filipino with that resiliency, I mean, there's a reason why our you know our original architecture was really meant to be temporary. Clint: Ricky Lee was there on opening night, and he had seen the original Broadway production which was very ornate. We had a conversation after the show and he said, 'it seemed like you all pared it down and made this both presentational, with a real focus on the relationships. The way these characters reacted to each other and to the things that were happening around them. And he said how that was so incredibly Filipino. And it was really amazing to hear that from Ricky because in many ways, it was a reflection of what we were trying to do. — GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
a day ago
- GMA Network
Seventeen's Joshua meets 'Wednesday' stars Jenna Ortega and Emma Myers
Joshua of Seventeen just met the stars of 'Wednesday!' On his Instagram Story, the K-Pop idol shared a snap with Jenna Ortega and Emma Myers during the series' press tour in South Korea. Jenna plays Wednesday Addams, whereas Emma portrays her best friend and roommate, Enid Sinclair. The second season of 'Wednesday' sees the main character honing her psychic ability through visions and encountering monsters along the way. "Wednesday" Season 2 Part 1 premiered on August 6. Part 2 will arrive on September 3. The show has already been renewed for a third season. Meanwhile, Seventeen released their fifth album 'Happy Burstday' in May. Joshua was also featured in the song 'Love is Gone' with Slander, which was released in July. Seventeen was in the Philippines in January for a two-night concert as part of their Right Here tour. —Nika Roque/JCB, GMA Integrated News
GMA Network
a day ago
- GMA Network
Ryan Bang takes Susan Enriquez to his restaurant on 'Unang Hirit,' shares wedding plans
Ryan Bang and "Unang Hirit" host Susan Enriquez teamed up for a K-Sarap Collab! On Tuesday's episode of the morning show, Ryan brought Susan to his restaurant, Paldo, in Quezon City. The "It's Showtime" host introduced his executive chef, Chef Pyo, who hails from Busan, South Korea. "Para 'yung ma-try ng Pilipino customer, authentic," Ryan said. "Favorite ko po talaga pag na-stress ako, kumakain ako ng authentic na masarap," he added, explaining why he decided to open a restaurant. Among the dishes he served were samgyetang, salmon salad, galbi-jjim, and kimchi jeon. Over coffee and food, Ryan told Susan about his move from South Korea to the Philippines, and spoke about the undying support of his "It's Showtime" family, and his closeness with Vice Ganda. "Galing po ako sa tiyan niya," Ryan joked. He also shared updates on his upcoming wedding with his fiancee, Paola Huyong. "Nag-decide kami dito na sa Manila ['yung wedding]," Ryan said, adding that it will take place next year. "Pero wala pa kasing final date." Ryan also shared that they want a minimum two or three kids. Ryan and Paola announced their engagement in June 2024. They first met in 2023, and Ryan asked Paola to be his girlfriend that same year. —JCB, GMA Integrated News
