MANILA, Philippines — Pinky Amador is celebrating her 30th year in the entertainment biz, taking on “the most challenging role for anyone” as the French music icon Edith Piaf who lived a celebrated but tragic life in the musical mounted by Atlantis Productions.
Has it really been 30 years since Pinky was plucked from the stage crew to tackle her first leading role as the spunky teenager Libby Tucker in Repertory Philippines’ staging of I Ought To Be In Pictures? And does she feel it?
“With the rehearsals, yes,” said Pinky with a hearty laugh in an interview prior to last Friday’s opening night of Piaf, which is directed by Bobby Garcia and runs until March 23 at the Carlos P. Romulo Auditorium, RCBC Plaza in Makati.
Pinky is summoning her wealth of experience and giving as much of herself to do justice to the Piaf role, so that when people troop to the theater to watch her, “they would think, pumayag siya? You’d really get shocked. I’ve done everything here.”
Yes, everything. “(Piaf) got beaten up. She was abandoned. She was cheated on. She lost someone. She got framed up for murder. I think everything that could possibly happen to one person happened to her,” Pinky said.
“Everything (every scene) is so heightened that it can be shocking to the system. I’m just thinking how would anybody else with less experience, less stamina or less determination (pull it through) because it seems only determination and sheer guts will what get you through. Usually roles about the life of a person, like Evita, are the most difficult. And they’re big characters and affect a lot of people to this day, so there must be a reason why they are like that.”
