Periodically, the staff of TFLHP will contribute and solicit editorials about Florencia and issues concerning her that will be archived in this section so please check in here often!
I was recently watching an episode of "The Actor's Studio" with one of the all-time greats, Tom Hanks. I admit to being a faithful viewer; there are view guests whose love of their art is evident from beginning to end. When he was asked about pursuing a career in theater, he replied that he would have LOVED to pursue it in the past, but he had children and it was not feasible. He said the following of the three major acting genres, "film is a director's medium. Television is a Producer's medium. Theatre is an actor's medium." He said that last sentence with a glint in his eyes and a true desire to pursue that aspect of acting. Anthony Minghella, the Academy Award winning Director of "The English Patient" (and a wonderful man whom I had the honor of meeting) told Gwyneth Paltrow that she HAD to give theatre a try. She was scared to death, but she took the challenge and succeeded. I had lunch with a young woman who is working with me on a project and I had been complaining to her about another gentleman whom I am working with on a separate project. I kept saying that he couldn't get his lines right, he was omitting/adding words that changed the meaning, his pacing was too slow; in short, he was messing up. Out of the blue, she asked me his name and when I told her, she sort of rolled her eyes and informed me that they had worked together in the past. When I asked if I made the right decision, she said, "put it this way, he comes from the soap school of acting, he takes long pauses and while he's a giving actor, he throws other actors off." That brings me to what is known as the "Negative Soap Stigma."
Of all the different kinds of actors, it is my belief that soap actors are perhaps frowned upon the most. They are ridiculed within the industry for their "over-the-top-ness," and generally looked down upon by Hollywood bigwigs. More often than not, if an actor stays more than 3 or 4 years on a soap, that stigma latches itself onto them, rarely do they escape. That is why I believe one of the most important choices Florencia Lozano made in her career was to leave behind the security of daytime and pursue her soul's desire (whatever that may be).
Many fans are discouraged by not seeing her onscreen; perhaps they're even a little angry at her. There is no reason to be discouraged, if anything, this is a time of great hope. I know I am looking at this from a totally different angle, but so many people are unhappy with their lives, jobs, loves, etc, yet they remain in those situations for security's sake. Well, Florencia took a great leap of faith by leaving her "safe haven," and is continuing to float on faith's wings by not returning (not yet anyway).
I think what people fail to understand is that beyond Téa and beyond Todd are Florencia and Roger. While we want them to be together more than anything, there are other interests that need to be considered. Those things are the career paths, aspirations and goals of the actors who so generously and passionately threw their hearts into their characters, making us fall in love with them in the first place.
Meryl Streep said that one of the greatest things about acting is the ability to give life and a soul to someone who otherwise would not exist. Boy did Florencia and Roger introduce us to two very special and unforgettable characters. It's been more than a year since they've been onscreen together and still we fight passionately for our couple.
Florencia has loftier goals for her career and who can blame her? She has stated that her first love is theatre, the actor's medium, and by all accounts, she positively SHINES onstage. She LOVES her craft, more than the money. She LOVES the challenge, more than the security. That is something to be admired, not shunned or frowned upon because we want her to reprise her role as Téa.
When the going gets tough for us Todd and Téa fans, remember that she has never said NEVER. She has never said one bad thing (publically) about the show or Jill. She has classily walked toward another goal, not away from us. She has not turned her back on us so we cannot do the same!
As anyone who has ever wanted more for their life can attest, personal happiness and career satisfaction involves challenge, love, adrenalin, passion; when one or all of those elements are absent, it is time to move on. Florencia did it! While I have faith that she will come back to us, I want it to be on her terms and I do not want the soul of the character sold for a few bucks. Judging by the way she has handled herself in the past, that is one worry I don't need to have. When she returns, for however long, I will be there with blank tapes in hand, a smile on my face and my arms ready to embrace her once again.
In today's soap world, couples rule the screen and once a supercouple is established, individual characters often fall by the wayside. Their entire existence seems to depend on the other character and are often so absorbed in the pairing that their individual identities are lost. If one or the other of these characters leaves the show, the other is often left dangling, struggling to recover their identities. The powers that be seem to be rushing into couple pairings much to the detriment of the individual character, thus placing the actor and character in the precarious position of back burner status with no future character development or storyline. The exact position that Florencia Lozano's character Téa Delgado was placed in after the departure of Roger Howarth's Todd Manning in 1998. Does Téa's existence depend on Todd Manning? Or can Téa Delgado stand alone?
The character of Téa Delgado was brought to life by Florencia Lozano, a theater trained actress with exotic beauty and captivating screen presence. She presented us with a character that seemed to have real attitude. She was intelligent, independent, edgey and very determined to succeed in her career as a defense attorney. This shell that encased Téa was soon cracked by the brilliant performances of Florencia Lozano. The audience was soon to realize there was much more to this character than met the eye. Florencia's 'from the heart' acting style brought out the lost and sad little girl that was buried beneath the tought exterior. The little girl that was drawn to the light but was somehow trapped in a dark world. A world that she associated with her Latina heritage and poor living conditions as a child. The audience quickly realized where Téa's drive and determination to succeed were coming from. The same place that propelled her to escape her heritage by trying to fit into and succeed in a 'white collar' world. Florencia's performances as the woman trapped between two worlds and fighting an attraction to the dark side while being pulled toward the light, left viewers wanting to know more.
Florencia's dedication to her craft was apparent as she gave her all to this character. Téa Delgado captured a part of Florencia's heart and she gladly shared her with us. Florencia cared about Téa much the same way the fans did, allowing her own personality to often invade the character. Florencia puts her heart and soul into her performances, with a range of emotion that is astonishing. She can cry on cue, bringing out an internal sadness, then turn around with a quick wit and wall of defense, yet somehow showing an underlying vulnerability. Florencia is a master at making you 'feel' whatever emotion Téa was feeling. Viewers were often left with a sense that they has just experienced the same thing. A feeling that was addictive yet enlightening. Florencia managed to catapult Téa deep into the hearts and souls of the fans who were rooting for her all the way.
Florencia has already proved her prowess as an actress, going toe to toe with top notch performers like Roger Howarth and Erika Slezak. The chemistry between Roger and Florencia ignited the screen, creating the dynamic TnT phenomenon. The pairing of Todd and Téa captured the hearts of many, but is it possible for Téa to return to Llanview without the support of the supercouple pairing?
Téa Delgado has several ties to the fictional town. The Vega's, who are longtime family friends and her niece Roseanne all reside in Llanview. Téa also had connections with several other Llanview citizens, such as Bo, Nora, Hank, Rachel, R.J., John, Vicki, Sam and Kevin, thus opening the door to many storyline possibilities. The return of ethnic diversity in Llanview would be a breath of fresh air, and what better way to begin than with the reintroduction of Téa Delgado! A beautiful, intelligent, feisty, Latina defense attorney. With a history and family that has yet to be explored. A chance to resurrect Angel Square and push the Latina community to the forefront. Creating a vast opportunity for possible storylines and giving Florencia Lozano the much deserved chance to show Llanview and the world that Téa Delgado can indeed...stand alone!!
The rapper Ice-T once said of Janet Jackson's "Rhythm Nation 1814," that if her album helped change at least one life, it was worth it. The theme of that album was "people united through dance and music." In writing about Florencia Lozano, that quote comes to mind, the fact that she has had an impact and left her indelible mark on the lives of so many.
Every once and a while someone breezes into our life and leaves an impression so deep, it will never, they will never been forgotten. That is Florencia Lozano. She is at once a breath of fresh air, a pillar of strength, the picture of kindness of a modern day everywoman.
I first saw Ms. Lozano as "One Life to Live's" Téa Delgado-Manning. From the first day, the first moment, something special about her leapt off the television screen and into my life. I couldn't say what it was then, and I cannot say what it is now; it is not tangible. It does exist and like some magical, magnetic force; it draws you to her and demands your attention. Call it charisma, call it something more poetic like ethereal, but whatever "it" is, she has it in spades.
I remember a quote from Florencia regarding her ability to cry on a dime. To paraphrase, she said that she has a lot of sadness on the surface that she is able to draw upon. I remember thinking that it is so rare that a performer is so honest, so open onscreen or on the stage that they allow their vulnerabilities to feed the art. Their honesty brings something completely realistic to their performances and in turn, makes you forget you are watching someone "act" a character; you're watching someone "be" a character.
Ms. Lozano, in that honesty has created one of the most unique, realistic, complex and too more adjectives that I can write characters in daytime history. In that honesty, her imprint is left on the world of daytime.
Beyond television, she has used that honesty and tremendous talent to forge a career in the difficult theatre world from one coast to the other.
It is with great pleasure that some of the fans of Florencia Lozano, "Florencia's Guardian Angels," have created this site in her honor. Some people inspire us to aspire to be more; Florencia is one of those people. We may be her "Guardian Angels," but she is our angel as well.
I met up with Dim and Jules at their hotel in Jack London Square in Oakland. We decided to walk around and find a place for dinner. Ended up at TGI Friday's and settled in to get acquainted. As always, it was interesting to finally meet people face to face that I've corresponded with on line. Dim is exactly as I imagined she'd be, very ebullient and talkative. Jules is quieter than I expected, but has very interesting takes on a lot of things. OLTL was the topic of choice, of course, and we had a lot of good laughs about most of it.
We arrived at the theater almost two hours early. We had brought several bouquets of flowers and a wine and food basket. One of the theatre managers took them backstage for us. The theater is an outdoor amphitheater. It was unseasonably warm, so it was quite pleasant to sit in the lobby, which is actually a patio, and talk some more. During a refreshment break, Dim spotted Florencia arriving. She was in a big rush (it was only 30 minutes 'til curtain), so we decided not to bother her at that point.
Finally, we took our seats. We were in the second to last row, but the amphitheater is somewhat small, so I would guess we were only about seven or eight rows up. The stage is actually an open area planted with grass and trees. It is open to the back, looking on the very dry rolling hills and eucalyptus trees. A small four-piece band was seated under an umbrella, and remained there during the entire play. I was surprised how much music and singing went on during the performance.
Being unfamiliar with Love's Labours Lost, I had pulled out my college Shakespeare volume a few nights ago (yes, they did have the printing press when I was in college [g]). The basic premise is that a king and three of his nobles decide to foreswear love and courting women for three years. What bad luck that the kind's affianced bride and three of her handmaidens show up at exactly that moment [g]. Of course the four men are immediately smitten with the four women and start sneaking around courting them, hoping that their companions don't find out that they've broken the oath. The women are quite contemptuous of the whole vow thing, and set out to show the men up as fools. Of course, they're smitten along the way, too. There is the usual Shakespearean collection of funny servants and pompous officials to round out the story. While the King and his princess engage in the usual love talk, it is given to Berowne, one of the king's men, and Rosaline, the woman he falls for, to express some of the Bard's deeper musings about the nature of love. The two of them engage in a battle of wits, trying to trick each other by disguises, always trying to get one up on the other person. Of course they end up pledged to each other at the end. This production is set in the 1920's, which seemed appropriate, given the kind of light banter that most of the characters engage in during the play. If you've ever seen the PBS productions of "Jeeves and Wooster", you'll get the idea.
Florencia makes her entrance in about the third scene, along with the other women. She is wearing wide-legged red overalls and a black top. She has one of those hats from the 20's that are close fitting in back with the front brim turned up to expose the face. This is the scene where Rosaline meets Berowne and they trade a few choice words. Later in the scene, she picks up the blanket that they were sitting on and drapes it around herself like a cape. She lights up a cigarette and smokes while leaning against a tree (the actors smoked a lot during this production….I guess it was to evoke the 1920's feeling). In the next scene, the characters are supposed to be on a hunt. They are dressed in jodhpurs and riding boots and carry bows and arrows. Florencia also has a white blouse and a close-fitting black velvet vest. Now that her hat is off, we can see her hair. She is wearing it parted on the side and twisted back into a bun at the nape of her neck. Let me tell you, she looked amazing in this little hunting outfit. It set off her figure to perfection. This scene involves a lot of lurking behind trees and over-hearing of professions of love. They play the sound of horses galloping as the characters come and go, giving the impression of the hunt. During all this time, at least 20 jumbo jets go directly overhead at low altitudes, making it hard to hear the actors. Then, believe it or not, the Goodyear blimp goes over! All I can figure is that the A's must have been playing at the Coliseum and the blimp was on its way there. But it was annoying, to put it mildly. The actors didn't miss a beat, however.
The second act starts out with a sort of light-hearted picnic scene. Florencia appears in a 1920's style bathing suit (sort of a tank with black shorts). The final 2/3 of the act has the women in beautiful evening gowns. Florencia is absolutely gorgeous in a shimmery silver satin sleeveless gown. It has a dropped waist and an asymmetric hem, with beading over the bodice. She wears two bracelets just above her elbows and a jeweled headband worn low over her brows. During the scene, she brandishes a martini glass and smokes a cigarette in one of those long, golden cigarette holders you see in movies. During these scenes, she really shines as an actress, strutting around, acting coquettish one minute and sexy the next. Part of the time the women have jeweled masks on (their men don't recognize them, in spite of the fact that they haven't changed dresses from the last scene [g]) and Rosaline is impersonating the princess. IMHO, the actor who played Berowne and Florencia were the real standouts in the cast. Most of the actors were excellent, however, and the comical ones were particularly entertaining. During the curtain calls (a misnomer since there wasn't a curtain!) Florencia and the other 3 principles take their bows together.
Now, for the good part. [g] Jules has met Florencia several times before this in NY. During dinner, Jules had related that Florencia had recognized her name from some letters she had written during one of these meetings. When we had sent back the flowers before the performance, we had all attached letters and notes. After the play ended, the three of us headed down to the patio/lobby area. The crowd was thinning out. We were discussing where we should wait in the hopes of catching FL, when we spot her. Believe it or not, she came out the main door of the theater, scans the crowd, recognizes Jules and waves at her, indicating she should wait. I was just stunned! Instead of having to wait around for her, she came looking for us! Many of the patrons approach her and congratulate her on the performance. She is charming and gracious to all of them. She still has her stage make-up on, but she's let her hair down. It's about shoulder length now and has more blonde highlights than when she was on the show. She's wearing some brick-colored slacks and an embroidered Indian-style gauze tunic in the same color. She greeted Jules with a hug as Dim and I hung back a little (my jaw must have been hanging open in awe.)
I'll tell you, I don't do celebrity encounters well. I've attended a few personal appearances by soap stars in my area, waited in line hours and then only managed to mumble a few incoherent words to them while sweating profusely. But FL just seemed so natural, she immediately put me at ease. A young college age boy approached her, having recognized her from the show. At this point, the crowd had thinned out quite a bit and FL suggested we sit at one of the tables and talk for a bit. The boy sits down with us, and kind of monopolizes the conversation. He did ask her how it was to work with Roger, and she was quite complimentary. Praised his commitment to his craft and described him as a very private man devoted to his wife and child. She thanked us for the flowers and wine, and kind of half-jokingly asked if we had any more liquor on us. To my amazement, Jules pulls out a bottle of Italian liqueur that she had in her backpack. It's in the shape of a cello, and the liqueur is that thick yellow lemon stuff called Limoncello (which most of you probably aren't familiar with unless you've been to Italy). Jules lends FL a knife and she opens the bottle and proceeds to take a few sips right out of the neck. The other cast members stopped by and thank us for the flowers. It seems the women all share a dressing room so they are enjoying them also. FL gives them swigs out of the liqueur bottle.[g] Most of the cast is going out to some place together and kind of drop hints to FL that they'd like to leave soon. Plus, the management of the theater are sort of hovering, letting us know that they'd like to start closing up. FL graciously poses for pictures (even telling me I had my finger over the flash on Dim's camera [g]) and signs our programs. Finally, we bid her farewell, since she obviously had places to go.
During the conversation, she mentioned that she loves Northern California…it has a lot of space, she says. She asked all of us where we were from. Expressed amazement that Jules had come from NY and both Dim and Jules had driven up from LA to see her. I told her I was from nearby. I described it as "near Sacramento", but she wanted to know exactly where, and nodded her head in recognition when I mentioned the name of my town. Now I live in a little town with only 1500 people. It is in on one of the scenic routes and does attract tourists, but I still am kind of amazed that FL expressed a familiarity with it. I think she may have mixed it up with Walnut Creek, which is a much bigger town, but I wasn't about to correct her.
Now, I know you all are going to be disappointed, but we didn't ask her the question. Things were just too confused with all the people coming and going at the table, and it would have been kind of awkward. We told her she was loved and missed on the program and kind of left it at that. One good sign (IMHO) was that she told us she had just watched OLTL for the first time the day before (why start watching now, me thinks, unless one is trying to catch up with the storylines? [g]).
So, my final impressions….I absolutely loved the play, all of it, not just FL. She was fantastic in the role and looked gorgeous. Meeting her was a thrill, and she is very nice and totally natural. It was almost like being with a girlfriend instead of someone I idolize [g]. On the drive home, I was torn by a lot of mixed feelings. Obviously seeing her made me want her back on the show all the more. But there is no doubt she is really too talented to be wasted on the current crappy writing and ridiculous plots. And she just gushed about how much she loves the theater and performing live. Part of me would love to see her get a big Broadway play and really make a name for herself…she deserves it. But, in the cold light of day, I realize I really am quite selfish, so I plan to send out another batch of snail mails asking for her return to OLTL. After I get her back, I'll switch to lobbying for some decent writers. [g]
I'm sure Jules and Dim will have quite a lot to add to all this. They're in the process of driving back to LA today, but they're making a few stops on the way (LA to SF is about 400 miles). But as I told FL in the gush letter I attached to the flowers, I am her fan for life, OLTL or no OLTL.
Hope I didn't bore you all to tears, but a lot of you did ask for some details….[g]
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