Nanding Josef not going into retirement yet
Septuagenarian actors are either retired by this time and have stopped accepting acting offers or have been picky and understandably careful with choosing assignments. Not 73-year-old Nanding Josef.
At this point in his career, Tata Nanding, as he is fondly called by people who know him, has not thrown in the towel when it comes to acting on TV, film or theater. In fact, last year, he even bagged a coveted Best Actor trophy from the Gawad Urian for director Lava Diaz’s crime drama, Lahi, Hayop.
“Acting, I think, is quite different from dancing and singing which have short life spans,” Tata Nanding maintains. “As an actor, as long as one can still move around, memorize lines, internalize and bring out human emotions with sincerity, and also carry conversations with co-actors, he can continue doing roles in theater, TV and film.
“I think, as an actor gets older, he actually gets to acquire much more mental, psychological, emotional experiences that can be put to good use in this profession. Mas malalim ang paghuhugutan,” he adds.
Acting for nearly half a century – 48 years to be exact – Tata Nanding has worked with the best directors and actors in the local entertainment scene. Evidently, his creative fire is still consistently burning. Although nothing remains unticked in his bucket list, he certainly wants to revisit previous portrayals that he did.
“I’m looking forward to doing as films at least two roles in theater that I did before when I was younger, which, I think I could do better now because my age now is closer to the actual age of these two characters,” Tata Nanding shares.
“Macli-Ing Dulag, the Kalinga chieftain killed by the military during the Marcos regime and Mayo A-Veinte Uno’s Valentin de los Santos or Tatang, the leader of Lapiang Malaya, who was also killed in a massacre also by the Marcos military. That was the role that made my friends start calling me ‘Tatang,’ eventually, Tata Nanding.”
Meanwhile, as far as working with his fellow actors is concerned, Tata Nanding readily mentions promising names that he has previously acted with. ”In the commercial TV and film industry, I’d like to work again with excellent actors like Christian Bables John Lloyd Cruz, Iza Calzado and, of course, Nora Aunor,” Tata Nanding grants.
The veteran actor is also the artistic director of Tanghalang Pilipino (TP) for more than a decade now. He acknowledged that the theater company, thankfully, inevitably pivoted to virtual productions this pandemic.
“The pandemic was a huge challenge to our creativity and resourcefulness as a theater company,” Tata Nanding asserts. “I personally felt we were at ‘war.’ We could not just go out because the enemy was invisible. We were physically confined to our own ‘shelter.’
“But, artists’ minds, hearts and spirits can never be imprisoned. So, prohibited from performing onstage for a live audience, we naturally turned to the ‘new’ medium that was available and accessible – social media,” he says. “We shifted from live performances to doing videos and films.”
Tata Nanding cannot be thankful enough that TP’s Gen Z marketing team ushered the company into the exciting new world of virtual artistry. “We started learning the new medium, discovered new target audiences and new partners and supporters,” Tata Nanding relates.
“We did short videos on the heroic medical frontliners which we streamed on YouTube. We partnered with an international organization, Room to Read and produced audio-dramas on children, which were later on produced as video animations.
“We were invited by DZRH to do a regular children’s radio-TV show, Tara Peeps. Our Tanghalang Pilipino board, led by chairman Tonyboy Cojuangco, approved our proposal to do our first full-length film, Doc Resureccion: Gagamutin ang Bayan,” he shares.
Tata Nanding, in fact, joins the cast of Doc Resureccion, now on its third presentation this time as film, since it first premiered in 2009. The play was written by five-time Palanca winner, Layeta Bucoy, with Dennis Marasigan at the helm.
Tata Nanding, who plays Papang, the alcoholic father of Boy Pogi Resureccion, boasts of the new tandem of Jonathan Tadioan-Marco Viaña, the “highlight” of the film for Don Resureccion, which streams online until April 30.
“These two senior actors of our Actors Company are a pair of fine, sensitive, intelligent, artistically disciplined performers who developed their acting skills to what I personally think they achieved, because of their many years of working together in many plays of the company,” Tata Nanding says. “I think this level of artistry can only be achieved in many years of ensemble work.”
For the 36th theater season, TP hopes to return to the CCP stage with Virgin Labfest (VLF) now, an official TP major production in cooperation with the CCP and the Writers Bloc; Rody Vera’s Anak Datu, based on the story written by National Artist for Visual Arts Abdulmari Imao; a yet untitled devised work of Guelan Luarca with the Actors Company; and Tara Peeps second season with DZRH.
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