In theater, directors spend weeks building trust with their cast before the real work begins. Ice Seguerra skipped that part.
For “Sessionistas: The Playlist,” Seguerra is directing not a group of actors but five musicians who have been part of his life for years — Sitti, Nyoy Volante, Kean Cipriano, Princess Velasco and Juris. The familiarity, he said, changes the creative process, allowing rehearsals to focus less on finding chemistry than on shaping a shared vision for the concert.
The show, set on Aug. 22 at the Theatre at Solaire, marks Seguerra’s return as director of the Sessionistas after “Love, Sessionistas,” the concert that first brought the group together.
“We’re friends first, before any of it is work,” Seguerra said. “That’s what I appreciate most about them — the respect. As the director, I know their capacity, I know what they’re capable of, I know what they need. So directing becomes about putting it together in a way that’s cohesive, that works for us as a group.”
Rather than dictating every creative decision, Seguerra said the performers helped shape the show from the start.
“I asked them for the songs they wanted. We built the set collaboratively, finding what complements, what holds,” he said.
“The most beautiful thing about directing this show is that it’s just an excuse to hang out with my truest friends in this business. We always find a way to do this together. And what I want the audience to feel is that the friendship doesn’t begin and end on that stage — it goes beyond that. Because if it moves something in them, if it reminds them of their own friendships, the people they can rely on, the people they’d do anything for — then we’ve done something that means more than a concert.”
Returning to direct the group, Seguerra said, also gave him the advantage of familiarity.
“There’s a comfort that comes from having done this before with them,” he said. “Not complacency — the opposite. Because you know what’s possible, you push for more. You know the shape of things, so you can focus on the details that make the difference.”
The production is built around a concept developed by creative director Liza Diño, Seguerra’s longtime creative collaborator. Diño oversees the show’s overall vision while Seguerra translates it into the performers’ movements and stage dynamics.
“Working with Liza makes everything easier,” Seguerra said. “We’ve been doing this together long enough that we don’t have to explain everything from scratch. She knows what I’m going to say before I say it. I know where she’s going before she gets there. That synergy — that’s what makes a show feel seamless from the outside. The audience doesn’t see the conversation. They just feel the result.”
Earlier this year, the pair also worked together on “Sittiscape: The City of Bossa,” Sitti’s anniversary concert.
For “Sessionistas: The Playlist,” Diño’s concept departs from the structure of a typical concert. Instead of taking turns in the spotlight, all six performers remain onstage from beginning to end as the production moves through five emotional chapters. Lighting and video screens transform the setting while the performers stay in a shared space throughout the show.
For Seguerra, the approach reflects the relationships that exist beyond the stage.
“That’s the thing I keep coming back to in how I’m approaching this,” he said. “The audience shouldn’t feel like they’re watching a show. They should feel like they got to be in the room. Like they were there for something that was already happening and they just happened to be let in.”
The years he has spent performing alongside the group have also shaped how he directs rehearsals.
“When you’ve known someone’s voice for as long as I’ve known these voices — not just the sound of it, but the history of it, what it’s been through, what it’s capable of — you hear things in a rehearsal that other directors might miss,” he said. “A color in the tone that wasn’t there before. A willingness to go somewhere they haven’t gone. And you can call it, because you know them well enough to know it’s real.”
For Seguerra, directing friends is less about telling them where to stand than creating the conditions for each performer to bring something genuine to the stage. The trust, he suggested, was built long before rehearsals began. The concert simply gives it another place to be seen.
“Sessionistas: The Playlist” performs at the Theatre at Solaire on Saturday, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at TicketWorld and at Fire & Ice ticket office (09178771758, tickets@fireandice.ph).