Actors Company in Lab.

Got to catch the last show of TP Actors Company's recital yesterday. It's been a while since they last had a recital. The last time I actually saw one was a couple of years ago. The last recital (for Voice) they had last season didn't count, as my back was turned to them because I was tasked to be Paolo's page-turner, hahaha.

Arrived at CCP at the same time as Tad did (which was at least a couple of hours before the show began), as we rode the same shuttle, so we had lunch together first. OK, cheesy comment. I actually missed quality time with Tad that I was pretty giddy at the simple action of putting my hand in his, heeheehee. Anyway, after lunch, we bummed around in the LT lobby for a while with Riki and Chrome, taking advantage of the wifi internet.

When I left Tad in the LT dressing room with the rest of the AC to prep up (well, Anna was taking a nap and Russ was clowning around), I went with Shing to the Conference Room so we can find the best place to sit. Eventually we just hung around, goofing around with Max, then Betty.

Showtime. Tad and Kat's piece, Tragedy for Two, was up first. It was quite an interesting adaptation from Antigone, which I read only once for world drama class. OK, so I may be biased, but Tad's performance was pretty impressive, even though he said that everyone's energy was lower that day compared to the night before. I always knew that Kat is also a brilliant actress, thanks to her training, but I guess Tad overshadowed her a bit sometimes. Yet her actions were pretty clear.

After the first intermission, Bong and Wenah were next in The Lover. I remember Tad recommending this piece this summer when Mimay was hunting for a play we could do (just in case Nemesis didn't push through). I've always admired Wenah and Bong as actors, so their recital piece didn't disappoint me at all. I first thought that they were doing the original English piece, but I loved that they shifted to and from Filipino and one other native dialect (Bisaya?). Haha, I still can't get over Bong's Freudian slip, which also provided foreshadowing to his chorus role in the next play, HAHAHA.

Baby B was the third play after the second intermission. I've seen the staged reading of this play during last year's Virgin Labfest, with Anna as the title role. Tara took on the role of Baby B this time, Anna as Amy, and Riki reprised his role as Buddy. Russ played several types of customers, and Chrome was the Dupang guy. Tad, Kat, Bong and Wenah completed the ensemble, resembling phantoms from The Rocky Horror Show. Hmmm... maybe I just got used to the staged reading so I saw a pretty different Baby B that Tara had interpreted.

All in all, it was a pretty good show. I have to agree with Sir Joey Ting that TP needs to do shows like these to showcase what the Actors Company can do for Tanghalang Pilipino productions.

Congratulations to the TP Actors Company!