The Philippine-born, New York-based designer has worked on the sets of Broadway plays like Love! Valour! Compassion, Once on this Island, and Prelude to a Kiss. Known for his multi-set scenes, Loy has won an L.A. Drama Critics Circle Award, among others, and received an Obie for sustained excellence in set design. Besides doing sets, he is also a director and costume designer. Loy shares with Mabuhay his days as a pre-medical student, his favorite Filipino dish, and what’s next after theater.
What got you interested in theater?
While studying pre-med at the University of the Philippines, I was offered a job in theater with absolutely no credentials. I volunteered to direct a show which was well-received. From then on, my pre-med grades started to go downhill.
As a director, and costume and set designer, how would you describe your job to a child of five?
I try to create an illusion, do magic.
Cite a show where you had to design a multi-scene set and how you overcame the challenge.
Love! Valour! Compassion! followed the three weekends of eight gay men in a country house in upstate New York. It was written such that you couldn’t stop to bring in scenery—from five different bedrooms to swimming in a lake, to playing tennis, and having dinner. I decided to use one element that would encompass everything—grass. I thought about Molave in the University of the Philippines. This residence hall had a green patch of land where we would watch the sunset, talk at night, etc. It was an image of people who want to live forever. I thought that should be the image in the play where the nagging question was: what happens when the party is over? We projected the lake in the back and put the living room on grass. The play ended up being copied and was the first instance to be proven in court as we had very specific design instructions.
What do you do to unwind?
A lot of traveling. Would love to try to figure out what it means to be Pinoy again, to understand what makes us what we are.
What’s your favorite Filipino dish?
Tinola.
Advice for someone who wants to make it in the theater industry.
If you’re going to get into theater for fame, you’re in the wrong profession. To do theater, you have to sustain that magic within the two hours that you’re on stage. It needs a sense of commitment. You really have to love it as it’s not a money-making venture.
Plans for the future?
Done design, done directing. Next thing is movies. (Editor’s Note: He has actually done it. Loy’s movie, Niño, is a finalist at the Cinemalaya Film Festival 2011)
If you were to have a superpower, what would it be?
To age gracefully.
