Everybody’s favorite ‘mare’ is also a ferociously fine actress
MONSOD (with the author, left). Kooky, fun and intelligent.
I must have met Winnie Monsod in 1956 when I enrolled in UP Diliman. (She had entered the school a year earlier.) She was a popular coed even then. She was the youngest sister of Johnny, Annie and Angie Collas. (Her other sisters were Moochie and Winkie.) When we were introduced to each other, I was referred to as the brother of Bob, who acted with Angie in the UP Dramatic Club.
In 1958, Bob arrived from the States, with a baby in tow, Jojie, the son of Annie and grandson of Juan Collas, President Elpidio Quirino’s press secretary. Two years later, Winnie joined the UP Dramatic Club and was spectacular in a Paul Claudel play. In fact, Freddie Guerrero once claimed that Winnie was a better actress than Angie, a theater major. (The future National Artist also said that my brother Tony was a better actor than me – a matter of opinion!)
It wasn’t until 1971, when I directed Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio’s play, “The Short, Short Life of Citizen Juan,” that I handled Tony and Winnie, along with my old friends, Jooneee Gamboa and NUT, Dayangdayang (Ruby Umali), Cota Yabut, Nanette Tiongco and Vic Puyat.
Crowd scene
Leading the crowd scene was Jojie, the erstwhile baby brought home by Bob. We became close friends because of familial connections, despite the fact that we often clashed, being of similar temperaments and pigheadedness.
I was inspired by Winnie’s artistic fervor, so I cast her as Kapinangan in Recaredo Demetillo’s Palanca Award-winning play, “The Heart of Emptiness Is Black.” Winnie was the central force of that production. (Interestingly, Jojie was again cast as a slave.)
Soon after, I was asked by the Palanca organization to direct a past winner for a festival of its award-winning plays at CCP, Fidel Sicam’s comedy, “Pitong Taon.” I cast Winnie as the comical would-be old maid courted by a blustering Menggie Cobarrubias and a reticent Cris Vertido.
Her character’s parents were played by Zeneida Amador and Tony Mabesa. Art Salido, now a doctor in Kalibo, played her bratty younger brother. We rehearsed at Winnie’s new home in Dasmariñas Village, with the permission of Christian, of course. Tami and Ian were mere tots then. We had fun as an acting troupe!
Guesting stints
Nut and the late Elvira Manahan discovered that Winnie was as lively on-air as she was offscreen, and launched her budding television career by offering her guesting stints on “Two for the Road.” Unsurprisingly, she was a standout. She was kooky, fun and intelligent – a rare treat!
These days, Winnie is better known as TV’s Mareng Winnie. But, I’m just as impressed with her as I was the first time I saw her stroll along the second-floor lobby of the Liberal Arts building. That “grand entrance” was also seen in “Tidings Brought to Mary,” “The Short, Short Life of Citizen Juan,” “The Heart of Emptiness is Black” and “Pitong Taon.” When she finds time, I’d love to direct her as the domineering matriarch in Federico Garcia Lorca’s “The House of Bernarda Alba”!
She’ll also be spectacular as Portia, Lady Macbeth, Medea – and Candida in Nick Joaquin’s “A Portrait of the Artist as Filipino”!
