Jay Menes is a Manila-based artist who is the featured storyteller for the FilCom’s RAMP project on July 28. RAMP- which stands for “reading, arts, music and play”– is a regular feature of the monthly FilCom Sunday. RAMP is geared primarily to encourage reading for families and children.
A multi-talented artist who does hosting, singing, storytelling, directing, facilitating workshops, acting on stage or on screen, Jay is also an entrepreneur by heart and worked for a Malaysian bank in the Philippinesfor seven years before pursuing a career as a freelance performing artist.
After his stint as a banker, Jay pursued a career as a freelance performing artist and got into business. He now enjoys meeting and interacting with children, educators, parents and students. He is the prime mover in promoting the art of storytelling in the Philippines since March 2011. Jay is the first Filipino member of International Storytelling Network Red Internacional de Cuentacuentos.
Jay also exhibits his love for children and books through his storytelling. “What better way of loving storybooks is there than bringing the stories to life through story-telling,” says Jay when he first visited FilCom last July 22 to do the TV taping and interview with Janelle So ofKababayan Today. As president of Storyhouse , he promotes storytelling performances in the Philippines. He believes that storytelling will definitely create remarkable improvements in students and to those who want to improve their public speaking skills.
Jay is also a freelance actor since 1999 and has appeared in several theater plays and T.V. programs on almost all Philippine-based television and has appeared in a few local and international short films. He has also facilitatedworkshops for a theater group teaching basic acting for children, teens and adults. A certified Adarna House Publishing storyteller and facilitator since 2004, Jay has been handling most of the storytelling workshops of Adarna House for their partner clients such as Insular Life, Chevron, Ortigas Foundation, MMLDC, Plan Philippines and other Local Government Unit projects.