Rant, rant, rant.

"Ang tapang mo."
"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"
"It's a good thing. Kasi pinasukan mo yan maski walang promise yan, and you chose to see it through hanggang matapos."
"Maybe I'm just stubborn, hahaha."

Yeah, maybe I am stubborn. He's just too nice to say it, hahaha!

So yeah, I came even though there wasn't any promise of a pretty good outcome. But the company of the people has been pretty great. Well, but it really disappoints me how the people in charge can be sort of inept. OK, don't get me wrong, I'm not perfect myself. And I've had my own fair share of screw-ups during my own thesis production, maybe even more, but this is a little too much sometimes, even for me. Heck, I'm not the only one who has noticed it. People have already started voicing it out.

The first thing I noticed was that the people who are actually doing the thesis don't even bother to show their faces at rehearsal, save for one. And even when they're there, they don't even bother to observe the rehearsal. When I was first introduced to the set designer, she was asked what the dimensions of the set was. She claimed she had forgotten. Uhm, this term is your thesis TWO, my dear, the part where you just execute the whole thing. You were supposed to know the dimensions of even just the venue during thesis ONE. I was appalled when we started rehearsing at the actual venue, and that was the only time they started considering where the acting area would be, how many people the venue will accommodate, and they only started measuring the stage dimensions right then and there. One question one actor had asked me was, "Did these guys even read the whole play?" I mean, yeah, their thesis is basically just the designs and execution of the play is just icing on the cake, but didn't they consider how the actors would move around the set that they had conceptualized? Once again, they didn't put that into consideration because they're hardly around. And their defense to that was "that was the design approved by the thesis adviser." Heck, do they still even meet with their adviser regarding certain changes that they need to discuss?

I didn't see any contracts for the actors, the creative team, etc. But we were guaranteed talent fee by word of mouth. That doesn't sound very promising, doesn't it? These guys could've easily altered the amount of our talent fee because of that, or we can just get away with backing out of rehearsals and the show. And the latter did happen just recently. One person had already backed out (just because he lost interest), and another who committed will only be able to attend rehearsal once a week. Ugh. The contracts then appeared just this previous Saturday, after at least a couple of talents had asked talent fee to be raised because it was pretty unfair for them to be rehearsing 6 days a week and get the same amount as those who attend less rehearsals.

Just for friendly small talk, I had also asked if they already have sponsors, knowing that it's pretty tough to get sponsors for a thesis production, unless you really have good connections. "Wala pa, naghihintay pa lang," was the reply I got. Oh. My. God. The show is only two weeks away and you're sitting ducks just waiting for them to come in. Please don't be like us who got buried in debts that we had to do a restaging to pay them off. And again, weren't you supposed to be doing that during the previous term?

Then there's the rehearsal process. Where have you ever seen a rehearsal where the director stands in for an actor? And some actors rehearsing with food in their mouths? Get serious, people.

Oh well, just wanted to get that off my chest. Break a leg, y'all.