Saturday, July 28, 2007

blast from the past!

Looking for two books that I borrowed from a friend a few years back, I stumbled upon an envelope filled with photos when I was still active in theatre many years and about forty pounds ago...

midsummer night's dream
university theatre, up diliman
role: robin goodfellow (a.k.a. the goblin puck)
The cast of Midsummer Night's Dream that almost became a nightmare of a show. Obviously it was an all-male cast following the tradition of elizabethan dramas. I just can't connect the fact that the direction and nuances were all modern.

all's well that ends well
romulo theatre, pcib, makati
role: second lord 
Shown here with Mona Katigbak, this play was done in neo-classic fashion. The costumes were recycled from Merchant of Venice where I played the Prince of Aragon and Mona played Portia (yes, with the same costumes for both of us). Twelfth Night never came to past... We were supposed to play the twins.

the women/the we-men
guerrero theatre, up diliman
role:miriam vanities aarons-fowler
This is where everybody had fun in the midst of tyranny. Originally staged as a reunion for a group of girls who belonged to the same batch under Tony Mabesa, but the director later suggested to stage it in two versions- an all-female in english and an all-male in Filipino. My counterpart in the english version left before it's closing week run so I have to take her place in the all-female cast. It was bizarre as my co-actors were not taller than five feet six inches and I stood six feet three inches with my gold heels.


By the way, I never got to find the books... bog!

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

make-overdosed!

Finally, it's done. 

Some months ago, I told my editor if I can do the make-over for the September issue of Real Living and she gladly agreed. Came June, I was a bit hesitant of taking the project primarily because I am not sure of when I am leaving for my month-long vacation. While waiting for my visa (which by the way is taking toooo long and requires a a blog entry, can you imagine, I applied way before this whole make-over thing started! Whew!), I told our managing ed that maybe,  I can do it.

It was two weeks of sleep and eating disorder, irritatingly huge acne, rashes, and high strung hands-on construction work. I got to introduce the monster in me to the carpenters that even the contractor tried to avoid seeing me until now. It took two of his assistants to pacify my head-tone-nagging-session with eight of his carpenters working on a 15-square meter space.

Now that it's done, I am not sure if I made the right choice. Maybe I did. Just for the reason that I helped in making a family smile can be enough reason. Or maybe, at least the carpenters has seen the worst in me now. After all, we will still be working together for a long time for other projects.

The issue will coming out last week of August so I am still not allowed to post the photos. As of now, I take liberty in posting how it looked like before... 

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Bad on not good enoughs...


As the song goes, "I did my best, but I guess my best wasn't good enough..."

And yes, I am not referring to relationships.

I have said before, that we sometimes are caught in a situation where we can't just escape pero kailangan panindigan na lang. A lot of times, instead of putting on arms to facilitate our inadequacies, we put on a vest for defense. In the process of doing such, have we actually asked ourselves - WHY?!

There are situations that require us to examine the reasons why we are actually there. There are responsibilities that are beyond our capabilities (or the lack of it) and before others get to ask if we can do it well (or at least, just finishing it), we ourselves should be our own devil's advocate. 

In recent years, I have been my most active cynic. Religiously asking myself if I will be able to do the job well or not. And when I get my answers, ask the same questions all over again. Most often (in most recent times), I will get a different answer and I will eventually drop the job. 

This is not true to a lot of people I know. Truth is, it is a very painful reality.  

Accepting ones shortcomings is an easy task, especially if the person who has these (kakulangan) has accepted his (or should I say, hers?). It becomes a different story when you are aware of these shortcomings coming from the other end and that end is still moving heaven and earth trying to conceal it.

Sarap bigyan ng magic sing! At least, pamukpok para magising na...