I can’t deny it; I also have my share of pag-aalinlangan
when I accepted the project. I auditioned half-heartedly. It was only because
of a good friend, John Lapus, and my love for theater that’s why I came back.
With two jobs on hand, (we have a family business and I’m currently working for
National Commission on Culture and the Arts as Project Manager) I really had a
rollercoaster schedule to work on. During our few weeks of rehearsals, a lot of
disappointments came our way… no definite venue, negative supplies on
production materials, cast members quitting, cancelled rehearsals due to venue,
exams week, semestral break, nagtatampo na kids ko, puyat, nagtitipid, bagyo, brownout, ulan, ambon, lahat na sige! Dumating
din ako sa point na “mag-quit na nga ako, tragis yan, not worthy!” But I didn't bother to. Most of the time, tahimik lang ako. I'm just cool about it. I
realized, every production has its own flaws and difficulty. It is how you
handle it with grace and managed it respectfully to overcome these
negativities… Tama? Ok, fongga*!
Now on its
35th year, Teatro Tomasino celebrates it with its first major
production entitled D’ EMPEROR. An adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen’s The
Emperor’s New Clothes, an emperor with extravagant obsession on fashion outfits. Showcasing
some local designer’s creations, with its tagline: “FONGGA!”, everyone will
love it. I will be performing as Myra, the Emperor’s Manager.
Nakita ko ba ang
fantastically fabulous fabric na outfit ng Emperor? Abangan. At UST Albertus
Magnus Auditorium, my performances will be as follows:
November 27
– 1pm
November 28
– 4pm
November 29
– 10am/4pm
Counting down: 6 days to go before our opening… I can say, I survived! Every rehearsal is
fun. Memorizing our lines, blocking, discovering each actors, changing the
units and objectives, playing more with the character, synthesis during breaks
and even after the rehearsals. Actually, doon nagsisimula ang fun J.
It
brings back happy memories of my old theater days. Gusto lang naming ang
tawanan… marinig ang latest chismiz ng mga bakla… at ang hindi mawawala ang
daotan*… some people may never understand it, pero yun talaga ang
binabalik balikan namin…
Believe it or not, we laughed, we cried, we loved, we hated
and argued (a lot!) with each other. But we gained genuine discipline and friendship
here. Teatro Tomasino is where I really started my theater discipline. There’s
always this feeling why time and time again, we go back to Teatro Tomasino.
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*fongga - fab, fantastic, fabulous, bongga... FONGGA!
*daotan - laitan, okrayan, laro, abanuknuk, janis... ewan ko na di mo pa makuha!
