Big name stars like Rogelio de la Rosa, Leopoldo Salcedo, Fernando Poe, Carmen Rosales, Norma Blancaflor, Elsa Oria, Angel Esmeralda, Rosario Moreno, Puguing and Tuguing, Gregorio Ticman, among others were appearing in big theaters. Fans would lined up at Life Theater to watch Rogelio dela Rosa, Carmen Rosales at Strand, Fernando Poe at State Theater or Leopoldo Salcedo at Avenue Theater.
Stage plays were performed mostly daily and acted on by Salcedo. Most were directed by Lamberto Avellana.
Trivia--- Avellana felt reassured in returning to his first love, the theater, and he was allowed to direct the Philippine Artists League, but with a Japanese monitor. One time he was ordered to stage a Japanese play called "Bukang Liwayway" as a propaganda piece. It starred Leopoldo Salcedo as a Filipino guerrilla who had been captured by the Japanese. However, during the dramatic scene of his interrogation, he elicited supportive catcalls from the audience, distressing the Japanese monitor who ordered Salcedo to be replaced. Yet even with a different actor, the audience had the same emotional response, prompting the Japanese to shut down the play for good.
(Source- An Exodus from Philippine Cinema to Live Theater/ Philippine Cinema (1897-2020) by Gabriel A. Vibal and Dennis S. Villegas)
(The Tribune, March 6 and 10, 1943)
Some of Leopoldo Salcedo's stage appearances
(The Tribune, 1942 and 1943)
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