COMING HOME: Joaquin Pedro Valdes, about to open in Heathers at the Theatre Royal Haymarket

Pocket Size Theatre and Liza Heinrichs (Captured by Liz) have teamed up again and created our new series 'Coming Home'. In this new piece, we look at the reopening of Theatres in London and around the country and celebrate our industry coming back. We got together some performers who will be some of the first to return to theatres and created this piece to bring some positivity to the theatre industry which has been through one of the toughest years in our lifetime. Whilst it is important to acknowledge the hardships we've all gone through, it's important we pull together as a community and celebrate our beloved industry finally coming back! 

Theatres were some of the first things to completely shut down when the pandemic hit. After the news of Broadway closing, it wasn’t long before the West End and theatres up and down the country followed suit. Joaquin Pedro Valdes was appearing in the UK and International touring production of The King and I. The show had previously had a hugely successful run in America and had subsequently transferred to the London Palladium with this tour following. However, due to the pandemic, the production was shut down in March 2020. 

Joaquin was appearing in the ensemble of the show and was also covering Lun Tha and the Kralahome. After this amazing show being shut down, Joaquin was actually one of the first people to be employed again in a fully staged theatre production, as he appeared in ‘Fanny and Stella’ at the Garden Theatre in the summer of 2020. This was the first stage show to be fully mounted since the pandemic hit. The theatre continued with this success and opened productions of Pippin, Next Thing You Know and Naked Boys Singing, to name just a few! 

Outside the Spotlight: Recreating first steps with Joaquin Pedro Valdes | Captured by Liz

Outside the Spotlight is brought to you by Captured by Liz in partnership with Pocket Size Theatre, this series of articles is sponsored by Pointe & Flex, a stylish and motivational stationery brand created for dancers, dance teachers and everything in between! From diaries to notebooks, pens to pencils, planners to action lists, Pointe & Flex are here to make sure you stay on top of everything so you can thrive in your industry. Click here to find out more.

We’re going back in time, as we take Joaquin’s first steps in London again. Up until theatres closed, he was part of the UK and International tour cast of The King and I in the ensemble, and first cover Lun Tha. In 2018, he joined the UK tour cast of Miss Saigon, covering the roles of The Engineer and Thuy - the job that brought him to the UK. He joined the tour in Manchester, and continued to travel around the country. 

“Getting that call from my agent was really a dream come true. In the Philippines, theatre is limited. There are productions happening, of course, but the West End and Broadway is just a different level.” Joaquin and his wife moved to the UK together, and in fact toured together. “It was amazing to be able to experience all these cities together. It brought us to places we never thought we’d go to!”

The Corona Diaries: Joaquin Pedro Valdes

These recent times have been some of the hardest challenges we've faced and as a community, it hit us pretty hard. However during these difficult times, here at Pocket Size Theatre, we wanted to spread a little positivity and share some peoples experiences because we are all in this together. Each day we'll be speaking to our friends in the industry to share their experiences with you all so take a read and see how people are getting through these hard times.

Let's stick together, share the love and get through this as a community!

*Some information mentioned in this article may be out of date due to the progress of the current situation. Please keep that in mind when reading* 

Joaquin Pedro Valdes was most recently seen in the UK touring production of The King and I. His other credits include Ensemble and Cover Engineer and Thuy in Miss Saigon (UK and International Tour); Standby Charlie Price in Kinky Boots (Manila Premiere); Mr Wormwood in Matilda (Manila Premiere); Spike in Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike (Manila Premiere); Ken in Red (Manila Premiere) and Melchior Gabor in Spring Awakening (Manila Premiere). 

On Monday 16th March 2020, The Society of London Theatre announced the closure of all Theatres in London. This followed suit with regional venues. Where were you when you found out and what was your initial reaction? 

I remember the day quite vividly! We’ve been touring the show for almost a year at this point all around England, Switzerland, Japan and had a handful of UK venues left. We were in the middle of our first of two weeks at the gorgeous Liverpool Empire Theatre when the news of Corona landing on UK shores came out. Like everyone else, we were rather confused as to what was going on and the implications it might have on our show, but we ploughed through the first week just the same. 

10 Downing had NOT prohibited public gatherings yet at this point, even if Broadway had already gone dark. The news was creeping in and so was our collective anxiety and worry. So we braced ourselves, but like true showbiz troupers, we still did our thing. I remember on the last show of the first week, during the bows and seeing everyone standing on their feet, all really happy that they came to the show despite the looming threat of the pandemic, I got surprisingly emotional. I felt it was going to be one of our lasts bows together.

True enough, over the weekend, we got word that SOLT and UKT had officially announced the closure of theatres, and it meant that we had already bowed our last bow the Saturday prior to the announcement. It was surreal and really bittersweet. Despite the warnings to keep a distance, we felt compelled to give each other hugs when we could while clearing our dressing rooms. It was a special show, with a gorgeous company from all over the world. But the rush and panic to get home (wherever in the world that might be for our company), delayed us from really being able to let it all sink in and grieve.