Not a major acting find–yet

Gloria Diaz’s daughter, Isabelle Daza, is lovely enough to become a beauty queen in her own right, but she has opted to not follow in her famous mother’s footsteps and become a performer instead.

She started out at GMA 7 as one of the segment cohosts of “Eat Bulaga,” where she did quite unremarkably. Now that she’s with ABS-CBN, we trust that she will focus more rigorously on her stellar objective, and work really hard to become a good performer.

Thespic showcase

Does she have what it takes to make it in the acting department?

Recently on “Maalaala Mo Kaya?,” Isabelle was given a stellar thespic showcase to prove that she could hold her own in dramatic scenes with more experienced performers. How did she fare?

Isabelle was cast as the older sister of Miles Ocampo, who chafed under her excessive “supervision.” Unknown to her younger sister, however, Isabelle’s character was experiencing trouble with one of her kidneys.

Eventually, she needed a kidney transplant, and Miles was a logical donor—but, Isabelle refused to weigh her sister down and put her at risk, just to solve her problem.

For her part, the minute Miles learned about her ate’s dire illness, all of her resentments were forgotten, and she begged Isabelle to accept the gift of extended life that she was offering as her organ donor.

Effectivity

After many tears were shed on both sides, Isabelle finally capitulated, and a happy ending—a new beginning—was assumed for everyone!

Thus, “MMK’s” “Manyika” episode turned out to be a drama about sibling resentment and organ donation, and viewers learned something about the donation process while watching the show.

That’s all good, but what about the effectivity of the drama as a thespic vehicle? In Isabelle’s case, she did acceptably well, but her portrayal didn’t exactly announce the arrival of a major acting find.

Part of the problem could be the anthology drama’s predictable scripting, with viewers guessing all too correctly early on how the episode’s key conflicts would complicate, peak and be resolved.

Help needed

On Isabelle’s part, however, her performance could be faulted for being just “obedient” instead of emotionally dynamic, committed and inspired.

When you’re trying to establish your “K” as an actress, you have to do more than that.

Isabelle should have been helped to trace her character’s emotional “arc,” or process of growth and resolution, instead of doing each scene as a separate bit or “beat,” because this overarching progression is what makes performances organic and exceptional. Here’s hoping that, in her next thespic showcase, Isabelle will be mentored to rise to a more significant level of performance.

Finally, it turns out that Miles Ocampo is also in need of some thespic help, because her portrayal, while earnest and tearful and all that, was too predictable and thus limited to be truly moving. But, it was a pleasure to see Snooky Serna doing believably and well as their mother. We hope to see more of her on ABS-CBN drama shows from here on in.