It was when Caloocan City Mayor Rey Malonzo commended me of a stage play "Hayok sa Laman" I created way back in high school. He kept on telling me that time how good the play was, how ‘realistic’ it was, and the fact that it was written by a mere high school student. I was the scriptwriter, the director and as well as one of the main actors. As far as I could recall, it was a city-wide inter-school competition on Mayor Malonzo’s campaign against illegal drugs. That was the time I knew someday I will be directing shows that are bigger and grander than that school play.
Though we did not win the contest, I felt so proud that time after hearing comments that we ‘had the best performance’ however we ‘could not win’ because what we depicted ‘was too realistic’ that it appeared to be too heavy to watch for high school students. I remembered one of my lead actresses crying real tears matched with fake blood and life size toy guns – some of the audience commented it did not appear to be played by public school students. I considered it as my break and as well as turning point in my directing career, although I have been directing small school plays since I entered high school, I never handled something big like that – it was a realization and at the same time a beginning of something bigger.
You might wonder how I came up with such ideas. Well, partly, they popped out from thin air, while some I gathered in my exposure with showbizness – I was already part of a television dance group that time. My exposure in television, afternoon shows, variety shows and the local cinema reinforced the already creative mind I have. I knew that the break I had in high school would let me survive in one of my life’s escapades.
A few years later, I decided to apply at Cora Doloroso Career Centre to teach dance in their newly-opened branch in Cebu. I was sent to Cebu City in December of 1990.
During that time, the career center were busy conducting seminars and personality development training when I came up of an idea of incorporating entertainment with learning and development. And it turned out well, the participant loved the entertainment. From then on, the entertainment became a regular activity in every seminar. Not only did the entertainment become regular but me too as a director on the entire center’s produced shows. One of the mall shows that I directed during that time was the concert of the Cebu 14K young singers. It also became instrumental to my directing career as it has given me more confidence in handling and directing large mall shows. That was way back in 1992.
A year later, I brought my directing career in one of Mindanao’s hubs, in Davao City. There, I ventured into producing my own shows. Those were the days when Davao City had their regular gala fashion shows in the city. Rene Salud brought all his models, and Randy Ortiz too, brought Manila celebrities – all of these wowed the Davao crowd. That was 1994, the year when Sol Eugenio Productions was born.
But before those gala shows, were the beauty pageants and several regional model searches that were participated by Mindanao’s elite models. In Davao City, I had my breakthroughs with those shows.
Recalling 1996. Everything was supposed to go well in Davao however the country was hit by crisis that even event organizers like me felt the crunch. I said I have to move somewhere else where the events circuit still earns, or, at least earns. So, I decided to pack my bags and leave Davao behind to head back to Cebu.
In 1998, I created Sol Eugenio Management and Promotions Agency. Starting SEMPA, I found my niche handling corporate events management and promotions.
In 2002, I became active with business organizations like Cebu Chamber of Commerce & Industry and the Rotary Club of Banilad Metro.
In 2003, I started working as a volunteer in the yearly staging of Sinulog Festival. This gave me a chance to experience how to organize the country's biggest fiesta celebration.
After more than a couple of decades directing; from school shows to beauty pageants, concerts, dance shows, model searches, corporate events, body painting and fashion shows, of course, I continually direct – I still work hand in hand with my cousin's J Eugenio Concepts as their in-house events director since 1998.
Among the shows I created for JEC were the controversial Bloodbath Party (a vampire party series), Tango Valentino (an Argentine Tango show) & Latino Festival (a Latin Dance show).
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