Theater 131 Beginning Acting Class

"Bester Jungling... "

What an exhausting week. But there's no one more exhausted among us than our dad. Papa. "The best of men," quite literally. We don't deserve him. He's driven us to and fro school more times than it is healthy for him to do so. (Paranaque to UP is an hour's drive, if there's no traffic. One way)

Here's to my father. The most caring, generous one in the world. Thank you for everything!!

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SHAMELESS PLUGGING

Guys! If you're free on the following dates, please watch the following operas in our college!

SEPT. 7, 2006, 3  to 4 pm
Menotti's THE OLD MAID AND THE THIEF (a grotesque comedy about an old woman and her younger maid who fall in love with a "thief"... and their hilarious love triangle!)
Lead roles to be played by soprano Tanya Corcuera, tenor Zuri Valbuena, soprano Michelle Sullera and yours truly!

SEPT. 12, 2006, 6:30 to 8 pm
Mozart's THE IMPRESARIO/ DER SCHAUSPIELDIREKTOR
Lead roles to be played by tenor Raymond Leslie Diaz, baritone Greg de Leon, soprano Mary Ann Lanuza and yours truly!

ATOM day...

I am ashamed to say that I did not accomplish all that I set out to do this 3 day weekend. I worked on my MuEd 105 observation reports most of the time. It took me forever to input the vocalises used by the 4 different teachers using Sibelius (thanks boardmate Kris!!), it would have taken double eternity if I hadn't used the tips Kris boardmate gave me. 

I had the good intention of studying my pieces this morning but I woke up horribly late (8 o'clock!!!) and I had a horribly stuffed nose. So I drank 2 cups of coffee (with Hazelnut flavored coffee mate... perfecto espresso!) and settled down to read Joseph O'Connor's "Star of the Sea." It hooked me!! I had to finish it today. WHOA! Whattaread!! I highly recommend it. It's about one fateful voyage of a ship bound for America filled with Irish immigrants back in 1842... yup, the year of the horrible famine. It's also a murder mystery. You know at the start of the book that the murderer's out to kill this certain lord, but you're never really sure if he's going to be successful. And until the 2nd to the last page of the book, you don't know who the real murderer is. Galing! I loved how he was able to create such believable characters. I thoroughly hated the murderer but the author was able to make me feel compassion even for such a repulsive criminal.

I accompanied Mama to her lunch with her SSEAYP batchmates/friends Sir Alex (who's teaching at UP!) and Max-san, from Japan. It was FUN! It was my first time to eat at Dencio's... ang sarap pala! And the prices were reasonable. It was a pleasant surprise. I always thought Dencio's was a very expensive restaurant...di pala. Tama lang.

It's school time again tomorrow. This time, Sir Anton won't be coming to our Theater class anymore. :(( Oh well. We had a blast under him. Maybe our new teacher will surprise us!

My poor knees

I haven't had these many bruises on my knees/arms/shoulders/other body parts since I stopped training with the UP Taekwondo Team, quite a while back now.

Ack! And the cause for these bruises is STAGE MOVEMENT CLASS.

But it's all worth it, because Sir Anton absolutely LOVED our group's final presentation today (key concept: Trauma... our piece is entitled "Nightmare"). It helped that we had 100% swak-na-swak music (thank you George Crumb for the use of your Black Angels for Electric String Quartet!!!) Haha, I'm so glad that all those MuL classes weren't for naught after all.

Ang galing galing namin!! It was doubly amazing (well, for me, that is) since our group was composed of the non-Theater majors in the class (well, we had one theater major groupmate, but she's a freshie and doesn't have a lot of experience to draw from). I hoped only to match the other group's movement piece (yup, that's right, the all-theater-major group) but today's performance exceeded my highest expectations!! :)

In Sir A's own words: "I loved your piece! Wonderful! Beautiful!"

I'm so happeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee...

Aside: Watched CLICK today with the rest of the family. (Thanks to Ate Michelle N. and Raymond for recommending it to us! We were choosing between Click and My super ex girlfriend...) Boohoohoooo it made us cry buckets of tears (that part where Adam Sandler was crawling through the rain to get to his son... CLASSIC, I tell you!!). Even my dad and my bro shed a manly tear or two! (or make that two dozen hahahaha)

Three day weekend! Yipee! I SO need this. Got pieces to study, papers to type, books to read, shows to watch..

quickie update

It seems my LJ entries keep getting shorter and shorter.

Tata and I had our first facial today. Read all about it at her blog! http://tatatwin.livejournal.com
The entry's called "Facial Fallacies." Haha. Hope it makes you laugh.

Sir Anton Juan is leaving next week. :( Sayang talaga. We only had him for half a sem but we've learned SO MUCH from him!! Hats off to you Sir!

He's more than a director. He's also a singer (heck, he can sing NASAAN KA IROG better than some voice majors in my college, MEMORIZED!!), a teacher, a linguist (He can speak fluent Italian, Greek, French, and Dutch/German I think... that's just what i heard him speak ha), a philosopher, an athlete, a comedian, and best of all... a truly wonderful HUMAN BEING. 

Am so hyped over my song cycle! I find it so cute that Feona and I have the same song cycle... and we're both singing it for our recitals (which happen to be only one day apart... Feona's is on the 19th of October, mine's on the 20th). Where else can you listen to two different interpretations of the same cycle... na magkasunod lang na araw?

Bought two new books, am currently devouring Virginia Woolf's "Orlando" (it was made into a movie starring Tilda Swinton, I think) while reserving Patrick Suskind's "Perfume: The Story of A murderer" up next. They're modern classics, and i got them for only Php 250 each!! A veritable steal considering they're BRAND SPANKIN' NEW.

That's all for now. Tata!

P.S. For some reason, I keep coming back to http://www.beautynomics.com  Haha! As if I can afford to buy anything she's advertising. But I must say, this is one enjoyable blog to read, especially if you're a closet KIKAY like moi. (Oh no! Inamin ko na! I have GONE OVER TO THE PINK SIDE!!! AaaaAAAaaaAAAAA!!!)

     Closet kikay (noun): One who is kikay but does not really do anything about it (i.e. does not really buy make up, but only researches about products) ---> C'est moi. Ich bin "closet kikay!!"

Time to post... haaay...

What luck! A four day weekend!

I woke up today at 5:15 a.m, all fresh and excited after paying my sleep debt over the past few days. I literally bounced out of bed with a cheerful, "Gising na people! Pasukan na naman uli!" and went out of the common bedroom to take a shower. But then I saw my mom in the kitchen, conversing with the ates in excited whispers. And then... I KNEW...

... WALA NA NAMANG PASOK!!?!?! As my dear brother would say... "Amf/gg."

I'd like to quote someone who posted on Bianca's LJ... "My schedule is officially F____D up for this week."

On the bright side, I was able to de-stress, catch up on my beauty sleep, and watch a couple of my favorite movies (like BRAVEHEART on Star Movies, woohoo!! I just hear the theme music and the tears start coming...)

I swore that I would make today a productive one, and I shall!! I've scheduled an interview with THE Sir Agot Espino later in the afternoon (aaAAAaaa!! The man is a living legend! He's written the most beautiful kundiman since Abelardo... KUNDIMAN NG LANGIT. Can't wait to find out where his inspiration came from...), whew! No pressure!

It's for our MuPC 131 class.

And then I vocalized/practiced for 2 hours. Did a bit of Concone too. Always thought they were boring vocalises, but some are so pretty!! Miniature ariettes indeed.

Now that's done, and lookie! It's only 9:20 am! Doncha love it when you wake up super early and get all sorts of things done quickly?

Let's see, what book shall I read to while away the rest of the day? :)

Too busy to blog

A quick update on what's been going on in my life...

   * Was part of the chorus in our college's (and the CCP's) production of Pagliacci (one of two operas performed on July 2, 2006). Got to sing with orchestra for the first time evah! It was INTIMIDATING. 
      Were all those sleep deprived nights and missed classes worth it? 
      We shall see. Depends on how soon I can catch up with my school work.

   * Am singing as part of the chorus for Kuya Armin's masteral recital (a Rossini mass!! COOOOOOL!!) as well as the restaging of Kuya Paul's recital. These are on September 22 and September 5, respectively. Nood kayo! It's free naman e.

   * Am rushing to learn my required pieces for my first recital (*cough*)... which...by the bye... is on the 20th of October, 5:30 to 7 pm at the Abelardo Auditorium, College of Music. :)  Ma'am Cura picked such nice songs for me... am so happy!

   * Am currently nursing a hoarse throat as a result of my ten-minute screaming session during Theater 130 class this afternoon under Sir Anton Juan. Kailangan e. It's the Greek way of teaching drama, I guess. Will ask Sir if I can "place" my voice next time. :(( huhuhu I wasn't able to sing tuloy during my voice lesson later on with Ma'am Aileen. Shucks. Kakahiya.

   * Am trying to choreograph a movement piece utilizing the concept of Open/Close. Ideas, anyone?

   * Am cramming learning CARMINA BURANA for Conducting 100, which is turning out to be a looooot harder than I thought it would be. I'll bet my arms will be soooo toned after a sem of all this hand waving. :)

Okay ...no more time to type. Hopefully I get to update soon.