My late husband, voice professor Elmo Q. Makil, and Junix Inocian were very good friends.
In fact, my sister Myrna remembers that Junix came to the house once with other friends (one of them Amiel Leonardia), and we decided on the spur of the moment to make ice cream the old way — using an ice cream grinder, a metal grinder contraption inside a wooden barrel.
It was hard work to grind the mixture of sugar and milk to produce ice cream — some 45 minutes to one hour or more of continuous grinding were needed to finish the task. Two persons were needed for the process: one to hold the grinder steady, and another to turn the handle.
At the time of the visit, Junix volunteered to work the handle. He sweated and strained, all the time cracking jokes at his expense, until the ice cream was ready for us.
I smile today at this remembrance of Junix before he became sikat.
Elmo and Junix were in a few musicals together. One night after a performance, Elmo told me how Junix almost made him lose his poise on stage. Junix had blackened his tooth before the final scene, and Elmo had to concentrate very hard not to laugh. Of course, Junix enjoyed Elmo’s discomfort!
We were fans of every Junix performance in the Woodward Hall stage, and at Luce Auditorium. We did not realize then that we had an unusually-talented person on campus in Junix, perhaps because there were other talented persons.
But Junix always stood out because his performance touched something in us — his innate joy in doing his roles, and his humble demeanor in spite of giving a great performance, Silliman University lost him when he went to Manila.
When my family moved to Manila in the 1980s, we reconnected with Junix only once. He was very busy with Repertory Theatre, and we had time and money only for matinee, when the tickets to the plays were cheaper.
I have forgotten the title of the play we watched, but when we went backstage to greet him after the show, he took time to sit down with us, and catch up on news — and joking again with Elmo.
I saw Junix for the last time when he came to the Silliman campus to give a talk on his experience in professional theatre work.
It was a good talk, one which his mostly-student audience enjoyed.
His talk also touched on his beginning years at Silliman, which we appreciated hearing about.
He emphasized how these years taught him basic skills in theatre, as well as values of lasting friendships, and truth to one’s self, which have served him well in his life.
