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ANA holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theater from the prestigious Julliard School in New York, where she was featured during the school’s centennial, as one of the school’s 100 Most Outstanding Alumni in 100 years. Classmate Marcia Cross of Desperate Housewives is one of Ana’s closest friends and godmother of her eldest child. Ana received her teaching credentials from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. In 1996, she was a recipient of the William and Eva Fox Foundation grant, in collaboration with the Julliard School, which enabled her to teach acting classes all over the Philippines and to write her book, “Workshop: A Manual on Acting.”
She has performed with Joe Papp’s Public Theater, and the New York Shakespeare Festival’s productions of Romeo and Juliet and As You Like It. She also played Liat in South Pacific at the New York City Opera, Lincoln Center. Ana performed and taught acting in John Houseman’s Acting Company tour and at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. She also gave acting workshops at the UCLA and worked with Chay Yew at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles. Ana has performed with the Berkeley Repertory Theater and La Jolla Playhouse. On film, she starred with Dennis Dun and Victor Wong in John Carpenter’s Prince of Darkness, and played Ming Na Wen’s young mother in the CBS soap opera As the World Turns.
Locally, she is recognized in the industry as the premier expert in mask acting – a technique that is used to develop character, and has been known for her technique and workshops in improvisational acting. She has been active in conducting workshops in Advance Acting for Professionals with the theater company Trumpets, and has taught acting classes at the CCP’s Tanghalang Pilipino, the Philippine High School for the Arts, the Philippine Educational Theater Association (PETA), New Voice Company, the Chancel Repertory, and numerous regional theater groups and companies. In 1997, Ana authored “Workshop: A Manual on Acting” published and distributed by Anvil Publishing. The manual was well received by the acting community, and has been acknowledged by theater greats such as Behn Cervantes, Nonon Padilla, Audie Gemora, Ernie Cloma, Monique Wilson, and Fernando Josef.
Ana founded Philippine Playhouse, a theater group that relies heavily on improvisation. She was also invited by channel 5’s Hollywood Dreams, where she coached the show’s aspiring actors and actresses. She has done private coaching, including TV and soap actors such as Christian Bautista and Rachel Ann Go. Ana has written lyrics and scripts with close collaboration with Von de Guzman, Carlos Aguilar, and Pinky Valdes.
Ana was invited by Assumption College in 2004, to found the Marie Eugenie Theater of the Assumption or Metta. As artistic director, she leads the theater group composed of young girls and professional actors with productions that would raise the consciousness of the school community, and the general public. She has directed several original productions such as 3,999, 100 “Milyon” Miracles, Shakespeare Festival, and Voice of Hope, which was performed in The Vatican, Rome at the canonization of Assumption’s Foundress, St. Marie Eugenie. The show had an audience of six thousand, with special guests’ president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, and Mexico’s president, Felipe Calderón. Impressed by the productions, Sr. Diana Walters, Mother General of the Religious of Assumption, requested Ana and Metta to direct and produce the Youth Night production in Rome, which was participated by 20 countries from North America, Latin America, East and West Africa, and Europe.
She just launched her new book "Evolutionary Theater" which is available at the METTA office, Assumption College San Lorenzo.
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