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Homegrown Davao talent, Jommy Gentiles, is set to carve out a successful theater career in New York City. In 2018, straight out of a 2-year conservatory training at NYC’s American Academy of Dramatic Arts, she braved all odds and signed up for countless auditions while juggling two jobs. Her determination and will power eventually led to an off-Broadway debut in The Actor’s Project NYC’s 43rd season showcase.
Prior to her move to the Big Apple, Jommy was a member of SongSpell Philippines, Inc. in Davao City. Founded in 1996 by Nelly Castro and Fernando Pareja, this performing arts collective is composed of committed families dedicated to the artistic, moral and spiritual formation of the youth. Jommy was part of SongSpell’s local and international tours since she was a child and, in college, she also joined the Ateneo Carillion Glee Club.
Even with her penchant of performing for an audience, Jommy’s family didn’t think she would actually pursue a career in theater after college.
“None of my family members knew that I was even looking into getting a formal training in acting,” she said. “What was evident was my interest in culinary arts. You see, I even underwent skills training at the Center for Asian Studies, after I completed a bachelor’s degree in Management Accounting back in 2016.”
“My parents and siblings didn’t know I was saving up for a summer program in New York. I got accepted into two different schools and one of them actually sent me an invite with a big brochure that had my name on it. I didn’t know that they would send me that. It was my mom who received the package and saw the invite. Prior to that, she was not fully supportive of my plans to move out of the country to chase my dreams. When she saw the invite, she changed her mind and encouraged me to give summer school a try. On the day I came home from the summer program, my parents asked me if theater was what I really wanted to pursue, and I said ‘Yes.’ So, here I am.”
Photo courtesy of Jommy Gentiles.
In a New York minute, after graduating from her 2-year program, Jommy found herself powering through different screenings and trying out different roles. She performed in The West End Lounge’s Bound for Broadway and got casted in No Sympathy for the Wolf, which was one of the plays for the New York International Fringe Festival. She also recently finished a satirical play called A Sketch of New York. Currently, with The Actor’s Project NYC, she is performing in the Clever Riot.
Asked what she loves most about her chosen field, she said, “I love that acting allows me to become a medium to carry forward someone else’s journey and its beauty in loving, failing, suffering and all that; That I get to communicate to others that we may not necessarily have gone through the same things, but we all feel the same emotions, and that we are all in this together. There’s something uniting and powerful in that.”
Photos courtesy of Jommy Gentiles.
Story also published on my Metro Mom column in Edge Davao newspaper.
