A weekend in Baltimore and Powell Street.

Caught both Atlantis Productions' Hairspray and Tanghalang Pilipino's Mga Gerilya sa Powell Street this weekend. Hahaha, both were spur-of-the-moment decisions, and I'm so glad I went.

I first had a shoot for Miss Roman in CSB during Saturday afternoon. During the morning, I figured, since I was nearby, what the heck, I could drop by and say hello to the Atlantis gang. And if I could get into Gerilya, goody, hehe.

4pm call time in CSB. Told them I had to leave by 6:30 because of a prior commitment, nyahahaha. We began shooting at around 5:45, arg. No sweat, I'll leave at 7pm at the latest. Then while we were shooting the hallway scenes where I had to run half the length of Benilde wing's corridor, I suddenly tripped over my bag while I was supposed to "accidentally" drop it. My left foot tripped over it, my shoe flew off, and I fell flat on my face, leaving a nice 4-inch skid mark on the linoleum floor. Waaah. But Drei and Kat loved how I fell, and decided to keep the shot. Unfortunately, we had to shoot the rest of the scene with my left foot bare, hahaha.

My left knee got more floor impact than my right, but I could feel both knees bruising as we shot the rest of the scene, complete with my entire body in disarray with Karo syrup all over the floor next to my head and left arm, hahaha.

Finished at 7pm, and hurriedly changed out my costume. Fortunately I had brought a short dress to wear to either CCP or Star Theater, because my jeans felt irritating as it rubbed against my bruised knees. During the jeepney ride to CCP, I sent a message to Lawyn, Claire and Ate Sally, and they told me to come to Star to watch. So of course I said yes. Anyway, Tad had told me that the Gerilya show was already full. But when I passed by Batute, I had run into Paolo, asking me to watch because there were only a few people. Eep, I had already committed to Hairspray, so I told him I'll just watch the following day.

On to Star Theater. Haha, after saying hello to Manman and Liza outside, I run into Bobby at the door. Then I easily found Ate Sally, Lawyn, Claire and Kuya Boni, as they were all wearing the same bright blue Hairspray T-shirts that they were selling. Man, I missed working at the front of house.

Got to watch the show with Ate Sally's niece Gen (with friend Arianne). Pretty good seats, just right behind Bobby. My goodness, when the curtain first rose, I instantly had a smile on my face during the opening number. The actors' smiles were contagious. Then what Mae told me after the DTR came rushing back. "Ang sarap sana maging kasali sa cast. Ang fun kasi ng dance numbers." Yep, my usual feeling of envy was there, hahaha.

I love love love Tita Menchu and Mike as Velma and Edna. They were both spectacular, as always. Tita Menchu's smile was the most contagious, I'll tell you that. Madel, whom I had seen as Martha Cox in Blue Rep's High School Musical, suited the role of Tracy Turnblad, but there are times when her vocals tend to get overpowered by the other actors, specially by Nica. Speaking of Nica, she was my favorite as Penny. She was quite a character, and I love her voice ever since I first heard her in my first concert stint with the Akafellas. Tim as Link... well, for some reason there seemed to be something missing in him. His vocals isn't as powerful as well. Maybe I have different standards, but I didn't really see him as the dreamy Link that I had expected. Anyway. It was also great to see Nyoy performing in musical theater again, after that long break after Dreamgirls. Apparently he's become quite the revelation to all when he showed off his dancing prowess, which I used to watch in awe from behind the black curtain 5 years ago.

After the show, there were already several people waiting for the actors to emerge from the theater. Yep, Peachy was right, the lobby looked like an airport, hahaha. Congrats to the entire cast of Hairspray!

Finally went to see Gerilya yesterday (Sunday). Hahaha, Martha, Isab and I ended up hanging out in the lobby so we could be first in line. We really wanted the good seats on the bleachers so we can have a really good view of the show.

Gerilya was a blast. I loved the humor they injected in every dialogue and every character. Missy's use of the Am-girl accent into her Filipino words was so hilarious. It took me a while to get over "tiyago" and "beter-ano". I have to agree with Tad that my favorite veteran would have to be Joe Gruta's character. It was the most real, as if they had put a real veteran in the cast because the acting was effortless. Tad only had one appearance, but finally, he managed to nail the accent! Hahaha! Congrats, lovey! And congrats to the cast of Gerilya!

I gotta watch these two plays again, hahaha.

Anyway, will edit this later. Gotta go for now.