Yesterday morning, I had to come to Make Believe again to rehearse the kids' showcase with Lara, JV and Mike. Lara and I had agreed to meet up again at Jollibee Alabang so we can ride the jeep to Merville together. While I was already on a jeep to Alabang, she sent me a text message telling me to go ahead to Merville because she was running late, as their gardener had arrived at their house so she had to keep an eye on him. Minutes later, I got a text and call from her, changing her mind and we stuck to the original plan of meeting up.
Because of the gardener thing, Lara arrived late, but I didn't really mind because if we left by then, we could make it to Merville right on time. But unfortunately, there were lots of people waiting at the jeepney terminal, and there was a little wait for the next jeep to arrive. When we finally boarded one, little did we know about the craziest traffic jam along the service road. There was a fire somewhere along the SLEX, and it affected practically all the roads, so we figured we were going to be late. Lara texted a heads up to JV by then. More sitting around in the jeep, and then that's when we realized that we weren't going to make it at all to Make Believe. So we decided to keep riding the jeep all the way to Magallanes, because our agenda after Make Believe was to go to Miriam to watch the recitals of Tad, Paolo and Riki's workshop classes. Especially Tad and Paolo's kids' class, because like us, they were doing an adaptation of The Little Prince.
The traffic jams were really, REALLY bad, both northbound and southbound, probably because of the fire that we passed by, or some other reason. But the entire jeepney ride took us a total of 4 hours. We breathed a huge sigh of relief in unison when we finally saw our stop in Magallanes. We stopped by the Southgate mall to buy water, as we were both parched from the heat and from all that talking to keep us from being impatient, then we boarded the MRT to Cubao. Switched to the LRT 2 when we got off at Cubao, and because we haven't had lunch yet, we decided to grab food at Mini Stop when we got off the LRT in Katipunan. Made it to the venue in Miriam around 15 minutes before the show was about to begin.
The kids' recital was pretty cute. The kid who played the Little Prince was actually so adorable, and his witty timing was quite natural. And there was also this one girl among the 3 flowers that also stood out because of the way she carried herself, and she's got the dancer moves and the voice to boot. What surprised Lara and me, though, was the finale. The kids sang the song "Happiness" from You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown as their finale, which is also the finale song that JV chose for our own showcase! Ahahahahaha! Anyway. Congratulations to teachers Tad Tadioan and Paolo O'Hara, and their workshoppers!
After the show, Lara and I decided to head out again to eat, because we haven't had a proper meal all day. We were still deciding on where to eat while we were walking, until we decided to go next door to Ateneo so Lara can give me a tour of her college life back when she was still studying there, hahaha. I've been to Ateneo only twice, and it was only just to watch a couple of Blue Rep shows, so it was amusing to see everything while Lara was reminiscing. And of course, being the camwhore that she is, she couldn't resist taking photos.
When Lara and I arrived at Gonzaga Hall, a poster caught her eye. It was a poster of Tanghalang Ateneo's current production, La Ronde. Lara had noticed it because she had done a production of it under New Voice years ago (called The Blue Room), so she checked out the poster. I noticed that it was playing until that evening, and that's when Lara begged me to watch it with her. I was reluctant about it, of course, because I really wanted to watch Riki's workshop class' recital that evening, and Lara even decided on a whim that we watch our respective chosen plays separately. She even sent a text message to the number displayed on the poster to ask if there were still available tickets. Hahaha, even when we were on the tricycle headed to Cantina (where Lara recommended that we eat), she had this begging look on her face, and I was still hesitant.
When we arrived at Cantina, we noticed that it was close to the newly-opened MushroomBurger that I noticed when we arrived at Katipunan earlier that afternoon. We debated with ourselves as to where to eat, and we ended up eating at MushroomBurger. Hahaha, a cool southern burger place brought to the north.
After eating, we headed back to MC for Riki's adult acting class' recital, La Casa de Bernarda Alba. Opa had texted that she was already there, but when we arrived at the Mini Theater, I found out that she was mingling backstage. So Lara and I just stayed outside and waited for the house to open. All 3 of us sat together on the 4th row when we were allowed inside the theater. Haha, Opa dropped by again backstage and returned with 2 digital cameras, as she was tasked by a couple of the workshoppers to take photos of the show.
For a small group of young ladies, the workshop class did showcase their best. Miss Yvette was right, they were really talented. Heck, and to be under Riki, why shouldn't they be? Hahaha. I have to say, because of the ladies' performance, I got curious about how Riki is as a director, as I had never worked with him save for that small Labfest stint. Congrats to Riki and the adult acting class!
Mingled briefly after the show, as Lara and I finally decided that we still had time to catch TA's La Ronde if we immediately dashed to the venue. We managed to drag Opa along with us, ahahaha. While we were already inside the Ateneo campus, walking to the venue, I heard some singing, and as we walked, the song was so familiar. It was "One" from A Chorus Line. We were walking closer toward the singing, and saw this group rehearsing at this open area. Looking closer, I noticed a familiar face. It was Baus. As it turned out, these were Blue Rep people, because when I waved to Baus, I then saw Pauline and Gigo. Too bad I could only wave, as we were in a rush to get to TA's show.
We made it to the venue, and thankfully there were still available seats. We only missed a couple of scenes, and Lara helped out describing each scene, so we didn't have to buy a souvenir program, hahaha. Well, the production was pretty OK, considering it was a college play, and I loved the production design. The set was very versatile, that with a slight change of the wooden set pieces, it was a completely different setting. There were only a couple of actors that stood out, and my favorite was the girl who played the actress. I have to say, La Ronde is a good acting piece when you want to play with relationships and statuses. Lars, can you send me your soft copy of the play? It would be a good backup as pet project, ahehehe.
Despite the heat, the crazy traffic jam, missing a Make Believe class/rehearsal, and the distance, I had a blast spending the entire day with my breast friend. I can't believe we turned the day into a play marathon with Opa, hahaha. Anyway. We will be back at Make Believe on Tuesday, specially because it's also Abby's birthday that day. Their showcase is less than a week away!
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