Written By: Elijah

Edited By: Lia

Visuals By: Jeffrey

Iron Lady, Dragon Tamer, Medusa: Solita (Tami) Monsod, known amongst the ISM community as Ms. Mons, spends her time in the top wing’s drama department, where she crafts actors, scenes, and narratives out of stone. From ‘HAY NAKO’ to ‘LOUDER’, her direction often takes the form of essential blows to shape legendary performances. While she has earned a reputation as a highly critical drama advisor, her classroom has built a community of committed thespians who will carry her legacy for years after graduation. With decades dedicated to building passion and giving life to the FAT, the woman behind the drama mask is ultimately grounded in her deep care and belief in student talent. Her final directorial project in ISM, ‘The Visit’, ran from October 8 to 10, serving as a lovely culmination for our community. However, her time on stage began beyond these walls many years ago.

At age four, Ms. Mons first found theatre in her backyard, singing with random kids. In adolescence, she watched her mom act on stage, directed high school productions, and participated in her high school drama club. These core memories of drama stayed with her through childhood and youth. But her early artistic interest faded when she found another passion. “One day, I quit all that in favor of competitive swimming; I followed a cute guy into the pool and was happily submerged for the next four years,” she retells.

Her theatrical flame resparked miles away from home in Massachusetts, where she pursued higher education at Mount Holyoke College. She followed in her mother’s footsteps, choosing to take Economics and Spanish. In her final semester, she randomly signed up for an acting course as an elective. She paints the pivotal point: “My professor, raspy-voiced, blue-eyed Jim Cavanaugh, inspired me to forget my majors and instead spend hours practicing scenes and monologues in the Stanislavski method.” Her interest manifested into a love, and she satisfied her artistic hunger on stage, practicing drama after class hours.

Upon flying back to Manila, her phone rang: friends asking her to direct professional actors Joonee Gamboa and Roy Alvarez for a one-act play. Stepping into that environment, she was hooked, seeing those ‘demigods’ translate the script into motion-magic. “Life isn’t so random after all. One thing leads to another, one mentor follows another, almost like a master plan. One just has to say yes,” she remarked. This was merely the beginning of her extensive career in professional performance and thespian mentorship.

In the summer of ‘86, Ms. Mons stepped into the ISM Bel Air Campus as an ESL (English as a Second Language) teacher. Describing it as an “interesting path”, she eventually explored the English departments across elementary and high schools, ultimately finding her footing once again in theatre. “Before Ms. Mons, there was no theatre at ISM. She created and transformed ISM into a school that has a theatre department with a rigorous culture of creative excellence,” Ms. Rankin remarks on Ms. Mons’ legacy.

By establishing the curriculum for the introductory theatre courses for high school underclassmen, she has profoundly shaped the drama program at ISM today. In her 41-year career teaching theatrical courses and IB Theatre, she has directed more than forty productions—mostly devised— under the bearcat spotlight. From ‘Michelangelo’ and ‘Very, Very Dangerous’ to ‘The Pearl’ and ‘High School Musical: On Stage’, Ms. Mons’ projects have inspired and entertained faculty, students, and families alike.

Outside ISM, she is an accomplished performer on both the stage and on film. In Philippine ShowBiz, Ms. Mons has earned acclaim with Repertory Philippines and the New Voice Company by working on projects like “Cabaret” and “Equus”. In 2014, she won the Gawad Buhay Outstanding Female Featured in a Play award for her role as Ivy in “August: Osage County”. Through these experiences, she has built strong friendships and done wonderful collaborative work with her colleagues, especially with ISM’s very own Theatre Technical Advisor Denis Lagdameo since ‘97, who has also been seasoned in the professional scene.

She thanked these Filipino professionals, colleagues, school administrators, and students for her memorable events with them in her final “Director’s Note” for this year’s HS Play Program. Moreover, why she chose to bow out with “The Visit,” a play by Swiss author Friedrich Dürrenmatt, is another grasping trail of events entirely.

In ‘03, ISM moved to a new campus in University Parkway, BGC. For the theatre department, the Fine Arts Theatre (FAT) marked the start of a new era of artistry. There, Ms. Mons directed the first show in the new space—a preview of a 45-minute IASAS submission, a Filipino-setting adaptation of “The Visit”; the production featured 16 actors, many doubling with Varsity Forensics and Dance, plus one techie. Over 20 years later, Ms. Mons has brought full justice to this text with a full-length production, a large cast & crew of over 100 students, and the accumulated resources over the past two decades, marking a huge “full-circle moment” in her career here at ISM. In her pre-show speeches, Ms. Hillman consistently noted Ms. Mons’ strong vision behind this production, which has been “23 years in the making”.

Since August, a dedicated community of faculty, custodians, students, and parent volunteers has worked hard to deliver the thrilling 4 performances of this year’s “The Visit”. Acknowledging that this is Ms. Mons’ last project, many have taken their participation as a surreal experience. “It is an immense honor and privilege to have directed alongside one of the greatest, funniest, and fiercest women that I’ve ever known,” says Ashley, this year’s student director (12), who first worked with Ms. Mons in freshman year for IASAS Drama.

Many also recall their first welcoming into theatre through Mons’ wing. “She welcomed me with open arms and told me to come to the first Saturday rehearsal,” Sean, this year’s leading man (12), remembers how he fell for the fine arts through Ms. Mons’ “The Minotaur” two years prior.

Various alumni also carry her brutal but honest lessons into college and even their personal careers. “Her tough love doesn’t only make you a better actor, but a better person”, says Raf, an ISM Theatre alum (‘22), about how Ms. Mons has impacted his life.

But one of her biggest mentors in both theatre and life was, interestingly, an ISM student. Beyond the natural learning of picking one’s own battles and the selective breathing of fire that comes with time and experience, Ms. Mons notes how motherhood has changed her perspective as an educator and director. “I began to look at students with a much softer heart, the way I look at my son Enzo. You can say I owe my compassion to him,” she reflected.

Her farewell is a longing, missing, and solemn goodbye that will mean more than any “post-show blues” anyone has experienced. By the school year 2026-2027, her decades-long run of empowering passion and sharpening skill will at last fade to black, and the ISM Theatre Community and IASAS Cultural Convention will forever remember her creative voice.

Fierce, Inspirational, Warm: Ms. Mons is a woman celebrated for her love, dedication, and craft to the fine arts like nothing else seen in these halls. To the student community who made this last project so special, she imparted wisdom: “As you bowed for curtain call, many of you were overwhelmed with emotion… I think it was from the power you realized you had, having achieved your most perfect show. I want you all to remember that feeling of empowerment — as artists, as collaborators, as human beings — and pass it on.”