Known for her heart-tugging performance in the film Still Human, Crisel Consunji is also an educator and singer. She recently headlined a City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong concert, mesmerizing audiences with her powerful singing. Neil Li reports.

Crisel Consunji is trying to make a difference to the child education system in Hong Kong while being open to performing on stage, television and films. (RAYMOND CHAN / CHINA DAILY)

Crisel Consunji came to prominence for her portrayal of a Filipina domestic worker named Evelyn Santos in the 2018 award-winning Hong Kong film Still Human. But her first love is the theater. 

I think my challenge is: How do I approach the songs afresh and not sing them by using muscle memory?

Crisel Consunji, actor, singer and educator

Starting young

As a child growing up in Manila, the Philippines, she always wanted to sing and perform. When she was 10, Consunji saw a newspaper advertisement inviting children to audition for a part in Evita. The ad was placed by  Repertory Philippines, a theater company that would produce English musicals, straight plays and dramas. Despite having no training or experience, Consunji was chosen for the show and subsequently got a chance to train with the company, which, at the time, was a pioneer in exposing talented young people to different forms of performance art. 

“As part of a professional theater company, I wasn’t given any particularly special treatment for being a child because for them, it’s a job,” says Consunji. “I learned the rudiments from scratch, such as how to communicate, how to stand on stage, how to use your voice properly. I think it benefited me a lot because you’re very impressionable as a child.”

She worked with the company until she was 23, and by that time she was more or less reconciled with the idea that not everybody who trained to be an actor went on to become one. However, when Consunji was completing her master’s degree in political science, she was offered a job as a performing artist with Hong Kong Disneyland. 

“I remember being so stressed from finishing my thesis that I thought, ‘What harm would it do? I can finish editing my thesis in Hong Kong’. So, I took the eight-month contract, which became three years,” she says.

Crisel Consunji in the playroom of Baumhaus, the learning space she started for small children. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Career switch

Near the end of her time at Disneyland, Consunji had begun considering alternative careers. At Repertory Philippines, she had taught summer drama workshops to children and found that she enjoyed working and connecting with them. She realized the skills that she learned in the theater, such as speech and communication, could be useful in a teaching career, and so decided to retrain as an educator. In 2015, Consunji and her husband started Baumhaus, a learning space for small children that comes with an open-ended playroom and classes. The approach is arts-based and child-centered. 

The news about the casting call for the film Still Human, a drama that explores the relationship between a wheelchair-using man and the domestic worker taking care of him, came to her through friends. Initially unsure if she wanted to perform again, Consunji decided to go for it after meeting director Oliver Chan Siu-kuen and being convinced about the integrity of her work.

“When I was studying in the Philippines, migration was a big part of what we discussed. When the chance came up to tell the story of these women that I admire, I decided to do it, but not necessarily because I wanted to get into the film industry. It was a lot to handle at the time, but I felt very compelled to do the project as I wanted to be part of something that was going to give its subject a credible voice,” she says.

The film would go on to gross over HK$19 million (US$2.45 million) at the Hong Kong box office and was screened at numerous international film festivals. Consunji won the Best New Performer award at the 2019 Hong Kong Film Awards.

Crisel Consunji sings Colors of the Wind from the Disney film Pocahontas at the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong show A Night at the Musicals. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

Back on stage

Despite the accolades from the world of cinema, theater remains a big part of her life. Recently, Consunji returned to the stage after 10 years as the headliner of the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong (CCOHK) show A Night at the Musicals.

Her getting to play the lead vocalist was the result of “a fortuitous accident.” A friend of hers was involved in putting the CCOHK show together. Consunji told the friend she knew most of the songs they had selected. This led to her getting invited to sing at the concert by Leanne Nicholls, CCOHK’s founder and artistic director. The plan initially was that she would sing only a couple of songs. 

And then COVID-19 happened. The show got postponed from 2020 to 2021. With Hong Kong’s strict travel restrictions still in place, bringing in the original headliner, Lisa Jane Kelsey, from the UK, was not a practical idea. The organizers approached Consunji to perform as the lead vocalist, and she happily agreed. 

When I interviewed her in the lead-up to the performance, Consunji sounded both excited and also slightly nervous. “It actually gets harder when you know the songs because a lot might have changed since you first learned them and you can’t sing the songs in the same way.

“For example, I first learned Think of Me when I was around 18 and I sang it at a higher pitch because that was my voice then. But I’m in my 30s now and I can’t sing it that way.

“I can do it, but it doesn’t match me anymore as I can’t pretend to be as sweet as I was when I was 18. I think my challenge is: How do I approach the songs afresh and not sing them by using muscle memory?”

Consunji definitely rose to the challenge on D-Day, as she blew the audience away with her dynamic performance, alongside fellow singers Raymond Young and Corinna Cheng. Her powerful yet graceful voice reverberated throughout the concert hall as she effortlessly belted out her renditions of Broadway classics such as Think of Me from The Phantom of the Opera and Defying Gravity from Wicked.

In the duet I Still Believe from Miss Saigon, sung with Cheng, both singers were able to portray the powerful message and emotions of the song. Throughout her impressive 15-song performance, Consunji evoked memories of the musicals the songs are originally from, while adding her own personal touches and making the songs her own. 

Crisel Consunji plays a teacher in her television debut, ViuTV’s Single Papa. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)

What the future holds

Consunji is looking to continue her work with Baumhaus, going forward. Her goal is to work toward building an ecosystem of child education in Hong Kong while continuing to act and sing when the right opportunity comes along, regardless of the medium. She recently made her television debut, playing a teacher in ViuTV’s Single Papa. 

“For a long time, my default would be to say I’m most comfortable doing musical theater. But once I got a bit more experience in film and TV, I found that they present quite a challenge and offer a lot to explore,” Consunji says. 

“As for dream roles, I don’t have a specific character in mind, but I would love to play a villain. I would love to sink my teeth into that kind of challenge.”