My brother's son wants to enroll in a BS Biology course at De La Salle University, while my sister's son would like to take up International Business Course at the Ateneo De Manila. So we're kidding the cousins, that even if they are buddies now, they might end up as rivals later. The two just shrug this off since not one of them is athletic, anyway. They are more the "nerdy" types, minus the stereotype look.
Having graduated from the University of Batangas (formerly Western Philippine Colleges), spending my entire years of college in the province, and ending up a member of a theater group in school (I also wanted to become a volleyball player -- but I could not make the ball go over the other side), I was, and still am totally clueless as to what the fuss is all about regarding the LaSalle-Ateneo "rivalry". (Besides why should I care now since I'm soooo overage for this trivial matter).
But my impending involvement in the studies of my nephew is what made me curious to watch RIVALRY, the musical. During the teaser presentation to the media, I thought maybe this was a waste of time, since what I saw were girls swooning over a LaSallian, and I thought, ok, so typical. Marynollers swooning over cute Lasalle guys: I have better things to do.
Of course, until I saw the entire play.
Hands down, this original musical is entertaining. But besides entertainment, I was inspired (yes, that's the word, because I know there's hope for my dream of finishing a musical myself). Yehey!!! Filipinos doing world class musicals! Congratulations to all, but especially to the lyricist because I think that the lyrics of each song form a seamless tapestry. First, the audience empathized with the characters as they "listened" to the story, and maybe less so, if they merely "watched" a non-musical. Needless to say, the material lends itself to music and superbly conveys its message in apt melodic ways. Second, the play succeeds in sharing a slice of life that has a personal but universal message. RIVALRY the musical, enlarges what I think about abundant life (read: good life in the biblical sense, see John 10:10).
Obviously, rivalries do not happen only between a Lasallian and an Atenean, although it's strong among young people who are fiercely loyal to their school. In the PANA competition in 2011, I watched the final presentation of eight ad campaign entries about eating vegetables by eight bright groups of students. Ateneo won fourth place in that competition, Lyceum of the Philippines third, Assumption, second, and UP first. Lasalle wasn't even in the competition. But before that final contest, I saw how the pressure mounted on my niece as she spent many sleepless nights with her group mates to perfect their pieces. There was great pressure to firm up all creative wits and juices in order to best the "biggies" that were UP and Ateneo. (And the Assumptionistas didn't think the Lyceum of the Philippines counted).
In that exercise, I saw the future of my niece: this competitive, young lass, focused and organized to the point of obsessive compulsiveness, is going to be a major player in the marketing world.
I remember her while watching RIVALRY. When she was into her campaigns, I was really concerned that it was taking its toll on her. (But in fact, in spite of the challenges, she enjoyed the exercise tremendously). In RIVALRY, I almost pitied the LaSallian and the Atenean star basketball players. It seemed as if they were almost without choice but to be rivals, and were expected to forge on and outdo each other without a second look on how this was going to be accomplished.
The polar opposite of rivalry is harmony. But without rivalry, how would we know what harmony means? In the play RIVALRY, there is that bright glint of blessing the exercise, without coddling it. The play had it all on a negative premise at the beginning, but onwards, it actually pushes RIVALRY's positive aspects. Whatever happens inside the university or wherever, whatever competition you're into, being in it should make you a better, not a bitter individual. This is summing up the play's core, and yet, there are other layers of meaning: Living in harmony with your fiercest rivals does not mean maintaining peace by opting to not talk to each other. It means nurturing peace in your soul, being happy for the other person, wanting to be there when that person needs you, and all these without compromising your talents and gifts.
In the real world, there will always be temptations to step on another person's toes, to ignore sensitivities, to become like fearless gladiators, in order to win. RIVALRY, the musical does not downplay the fact that in order to win, one must exercise discipline and self-sacrifice. However, the point of view is that these are mere elements - negotiable aspects that should be used to demonstrate kindness and generosity of spirit. Whatever the field of competition, the real deal is whether the hearts of its players mature in the process, whether their spirits transcend the present harsh realities, and whether they rise up to become great individuals who leave lasting legacies.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Tuesday, October 04, 2011
Peter Pan is a Grown Up
I've never really understood why Peter Pan is such a classic. This forever-boy character refuses to grow up, but in reality, boys and girls hurry up to become men and women. Or maybe, I have become jaded and can't just see the point of remaining a boy [or a girl]. Unless of course I imagine myself in Peter Pan's shoes - and then I become in control of my own adventures and who knows what else.
But maybe, Peter Pan's story is not for me. It is for the adventurous, for the risk taker, for the throw-all-caution-to-the-wind types - definitely not for the clock-ish, one-step-at-a-time ponderers.
So I get it.
What if, just for a moment, I leave my comfort zone and fly?
Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I had dreams of flying. This was decades before I saw those Hollywood films directed by an Asian where the characters, who were all probably of Chinese origin, did their sword fights among the swaying trees, and thrust their swords at each other - "flying". The film was called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". I can't even recall the story now, but I recall the flying, or it seemed to me that that was flying, because that was also how I "flew" in my dreams. I remember that I dreamt my dreams during many consecutive nights, like a series. And I remember the power, the freedom, the bliss.
In the play "Peter Pan" by Repertory Philippines starring Sam Concepcion, Peter Pan's flying is a visible display of super kid-power. As soon as this boy is hoisted up on air, everybody cheers him on: he, the peer group leader, the boy-schemer, the reckless rule-breaker. His goal for every adventure is to be a true friend, and he flies as he wins everybody's heart and affection. He is really much like the kiddo whose cute smile will make you forgive all his misdemeanors.
Peter Pan refuses to grow up because in growing up, pain and failure sets in. He remains in Never-land, where adventure happens for adventure's sake because his youth is his power. As he is constantly in touch with the child within, hardly any tragedy can destabilize him. He refuses the chaos of a settled existence because he is happily here or there, and it doesn't matter where.
The only way to pursue an unsettled, happy life is to live in the realm of fantasy. Yet even within one's imagination, where space and situation can be manipulated, a Captain Jack can still lurk in the corners and cause suffering. The only way to beat him is to be in a higher dimension, literally up in the air, and have the advantage of an air view, much like an applied insight - that is, of a fully grown man.
So this is the problem with Peter Pan: He is a boy and yet he is not. His stubborn decision to remain a boy is a man's decision. He flies and he is a picture of victory. He fights greed and vanity by his freedom from both. He leans not on the promise of the future but on the many possibilities of the present. He meets Wendy at her old age and does not recognize her because he has flown even over the ages, and has completely mastered time.
But maybe, Peter Pan's story is not for me. It is for the adventurous, for the risk taker, for the throw-all-caution-to-the-wind types - definitely not for the clock-ish, one-step-at-a-time ponderers.
So I get it.
What if, just for a moment, I leave my comfort zone and fly?
Once upon a time, when I was a little girl, I had dreams of flying. This was decades before I saw those Hollywood films directed by an Asian where the characters, who were all probably of Chinese origin, did their sword fights among the swaying trees, and thrust their swords at each other - "flying". The film was called "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon". I can't even recall the story now, but I recall the flying, or it seemed to me that that was flying, because that was also how I "flew" in my dreams. I remember that I dreamt my dreams during many consecutive nights, like a series. And I remember the power, the freedom, the bliss.
In the play "Peter Pan" by Repertory Philippines starring Sam Concepcion, Peter Pan's flying is a visible display of super kid-power. As soon as this boy is hoisted up on air, everybody cheers him on: he, the peer group leader, the boy-schemer, the reckless rule-breaker. His goal for every adventure is to be a true friend, and he flies as he wins everybody's heart and affection. He is really much like the kiddo whose cute smile will make you forgive all his misdemeanors.
Peter Pan refuses to grow up because in growing up, pain and failure sets in. He remains in Never-land, where adventure happens for adventure's sake because his youth is his power. As he is constantly in touch with the child within, hardly any tragedy can destabilize him. He refuses the chaos of a settled existence because he is happily here or there, and it doesn't matter where.
The only way to pursue an unsettled, happy life is to live in the realm of fantasy. Yet even within one's imagination, where space and situation can be manipulated, a Captain Jack can still lurk in the corners and cause suffering. The only way to beat him is to be in a higher dimension, literally up in the air, and have the advantage of an air view, much like an applied insight - that is, of a fully grown man.
So this is the problem with Peter Pan: He is a boy and yet he is not. His stubborn decision to remain a boy is a man's decision. He flies and he is a picture of victory. He fights greed and vanity by his freedom from both. He leans not on the promise of the future but on the many possibilities of the present. He meets Wendy at her old age and does not recognize her because he has flown even over the ages, and has completely mastered time.
Thursday, April 07, 2011
Puck, Is Oberon In Love?
My introduction to puck was a high school classmate who played that role in our class presentation of the Midsummer Night's Dream back in 1978. N, my classmate who played Puck was a riot in the library where we presented the play. But I don't remember Oberon, King of the faeries. It was only when I saw the film with Rupert Everett as Oberon(1999) that I gained complete acquaintance with Shakespeare's comedy A Midsummer Night's Dream. The movie version logged in my memory, which meant that I liked that movie very much.In order to share my enjoyment with my nieces, I bought a Children's book edition of the play and gave it to them as a gift. That was back when they still donned their elementary uniforms.
Kristine and Pauline, my nieces, are into their last years of college today. They were with me when I watched "Shakespeare in London" last March 31 live on stage, at the Greenbelt Theater. As the play progressed I was happy that the two young ladies recalled Oberon and Puck, and knew exactly where these comic characters were coming from. They kept going back to their book, recalling the clowns and piecing the story. As a result, all three of us gleefully ventured with Puck and Oberon on stage, as if we had also gotten lost and realized that we're far removed from the Magical eden of Shakespeare's fictional forest. We found ourselves thrust into the hazy, futuristic milieu of the stars. Incidentally, there was some similar magic operating in the setting where we materialized. But we were as puzzled as Puck and Oberon when they landed in the magical world of Hollywood in one wrong turn.
This layering in the play - characters from a Shakespeare play playing themselves in a play by Shakespeare starring Hollywood stars who play Shakespeare's characters in a play about Hollywood-movie-in-the-making (pause), left an impression on my nieces. How magical! Indeed, magic was the motif and illusion that kept the two rooted on their seats - they, who are used to speaking in acronyms on their cell phones via email, facebook and twitter. They were quite taken with the play, laughing and mimicking the characters a long time after we've left the theater. They especially adored Chris Villongco's character, that of sexy star who went out of her way to get the part of Helena when she got hold of the Shakespeare script. She was tired of her 'sexy' packaging and was determined to play more demanding roles such as that of "Madame Curie".
Memorable is how in one scene, Chris, in wishing the director to modify her scene, spoke Helena's lines "back to front" in a stilted, high-pitched, Southern American Accent. She did this to convince her director that forwards or backwards Shakespeare's lines "don't make no sense!" Another punchline was when she declared near the end of the play after successfully playing Helena, that she would like to do another Shakespeare character in a movie. Seductively, she paused and pouted and said, "I'd like to do another movie by Shakespeare, and it is called - "War and Peace". At this, the audience burst into laughter.
However much the Shakespeare lines made no sense, my two young companions enjoyed "Shakespeare in London" very much and wildly applauded the actors. (One has begun to nurture a crush on one of the handsome players.) The long musical verses from Shakespeare's immortal creations (some lines came from The Tempest, some, from Romeo and Juliet) did not at all sound greek. In fact, the other side to this serious comedy is its sarcasm towards Hollywood and all that it represents. While most of the stars of Hollywood fade as soon as they lose media attention, Shakespeare's characters have endured up to the post-modernist literary times and on to this era of text messaging.
Pauline and Kristine enjoyed the English poet's lines even if "they didn't make any sense". They laughed at the antics of the moving caricatures on stage whose fictional fates took one wrong turn after another, because Puck, Oberon's mischievous yet loveable side-kick, "ran loose with a flower which caused people to fall in love with the first thing they saw upon waking."
Another plus is that the play was basically a love story. Where there was love, there was magic. Where there was Oberon, king of the fairies, there should be that instant magical connection between desperate lovers. But flippant Puck, turned all these blessed magic into curse. And this time, Oberon was the victim, since this King of the faeries had fallen in love with a struggling mortal actress playing Hermia.
Among our favorite scenes, the entry of the censor played by Miguel Faustman tops them all. Clearly the thespian that he is, he had us as soon as he entered the stage in an effeminate manner. His delivery was completely in character, and you will not mistake that delivery for any other, but that of that censor's. That is, if we had closed our eyes and heard only his voice, we still would have felt his unhappy, myopic view of life turned more acutely myopic by his desperate desire for control in a world where all credits go to the stars. He was so effective that we were sort of sad for him when Oberon turned him into a donkey, which, actually, he deserved.
When we left the theater, the three of us were an inch taller at knowing some things that account for great feats. Repertory did it again, made us smile and believe entertainment can always go a knot higher. Kristine and Pauline and myself - we will not forget this shared experience.
Kristine and Pauline, my nieces, are into their last years of college today. They were with me when I watched "Shakespeare in London" last March 31 live on stage, at the Greenbelt Theater. As the play progressed I was happy that the two young ladies recalled Oberon and Puck, and knew exactly where these comic characters were coming from. They kept going back to their book, recalling the clowns and piecing the story. As a result, all three of us gleefully ventured with Puck and Oberon on stage, as if we had also gotten lost and realized that we're far removed from the Magical eden of Shakespeare's fictional forest. We found ourselves thrust into the hazy, futuristic milieu of the stars. Incidentally, there was some similar magic operating in the setting where we materialized. But we were as puzzled as Puck and Oberon when they landed in the magical world of Hollywood in one wrong turn.
This layering in the play - characters from a Shakespeare play playing themselves in a play by Shakespeare starring Hollywood stars who play Shakespeare's characters in a play about Hollywood-movie-in-the-making (pause), left an impression on my nieces. How magical! Indeed, magic was the motif and illusion that kept the two rooted on their seats - they, who are used to speaking in acronyms on their cell phones via email, facebook and twitter. They were quite taken with the play, laughing and mimicking the characters a long time after we've left the theater. They especially adored Chris Villongco's character, that of sexy star who went out of her way to get the part of Helena when she got hold of the Shakespeare script. She was tired of her 'sexy' packaging and was determined to play more demanding roles such as that of "Madame Curie".
Memorable is how in one scene, Chris, in wishing the director to modify her scene, spoke Helena's lines "back to front" in a stilted, high-pitched, Southern American Accent. She did this to convince her director that forwards or backwards Shakespeare's lines "don't make no sense!" Another punchline was when she declared near the end of the play after successfully playing Helena, that she would like to do another Shakespeare character in a movie. Seductively, she paused and pouted and said, "I'd like to do another movie by Shakespeare, and it is called - "War and Peace". At this, the audience burst into laughter.
However much the Shakespeare lines made no sense, my two young companions enjoyed "Shakespeare in London" very much and wildly applauded the actors. (One has begun to nurture a crush on one of the handsome players.) The long musical verses from Shakespeare's immortal creations (some lines came from The Tempest, some, from Romeo and Juliet) did not at all sound greek. In fact, the other side to this serious comedy is its sarcasm towards Hollywood and all that it represents. While most of the stars of Hollywood fade as soon as they lose media attention, Shakespeare's characters have endured up to the post-modernist literary times and on to this era of text messaging.
Pauline and Kristine enjoyed the English poet's lines even if "they didn't make any sense". They laughed at the antics of the moving caricatures on stage whose fictional fates took one wrong turn after another, because Puck, Oberon's mischievous yet loveable side-kick, "ran loose with a flower which caused people to fall in love with the first thing they saw upon waking."
Another plus is that the play was basically a love story. Where there was love, there was magic. Where there was Oberon, king of the fairies, there should be that instant magical connection between desperate lovers. But flippant Puck, turned all these blessed magic into curse. And this time, Oberon was the victim, since this King of the faeries had fallen in love with a struggling mortal actress playing Hermia.
Among our favorite scenes, the entry of the censor played by Miguel Faustman tops them all. Clearly the thespian that he is, he had us as soon as he entered the stage in an effeminate manner. His delivery was completely in character, and you will not mistake that delivery for any other, but that of that censor's. That is, if we had closed our eyes and heard only his voice, we still would have felt his unhappy, myopic view of life turned more acutely myopic by his desperate desire for control in a world where all credits go to the stars. He was so effective that we were sort of sad for him when Oberon turned him into a donkey, which, actually, he deserved.
When we left the theater, the three of us were an inch taller at knowing some things that account for great feats. Repertory did it again, made us smile and believe entertainment can always go a knot higher. Kristine and Pauline and myself - we will not forget this shared experience.
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