Met up with Acey, Ikey, Nar, Nicco and Jill at the airport on early Thursday morning (Bianca, Dingdong, Bart and John were flying out the next day), and flew all together to Dumaguete. Hendri and Moses (who was somewhat like our tour guide) picked us up at the airport upon our arrival, then took us directly to Silliman University where we had breakfast at the cafeteria. Then we finally checked in at Coco Grande, this place that used to be a dorm, now converted into a nice hotel. Hung out and just chilled for a while. Nicco even brought up this idea of staging Our Town, which ended up in him, Jill and me watching Nicco's and my recital video of Our Town from 6 years ago on my laptop. Chilled a little bit more until we had to leave again for the cafeteria for lunch.
After lunch, we ended up at this nice establishment called Cafe Antonio. Oh my gosh, I love the interiors of the place. Super chill place. We had desserts (mostly crepes and ice-blended drinks, plus a beer for Ikey), then just sat around, talking and joking around. After a while, Nar even tinkered with the piano with Ikey singing along.
Acey and I then got picked up by Hendri so we can go to the Luce Auditorium to set up the tarp and check out other stuff. When we got to the Luce, I was surprised and amused to see that the theater was somewhat similar to the CCP Little Theater, hahaha. Anyway, we were just there for a while to have the tarp hung, then checked on the props and stuff. We wouldn't be able to do much because Dingdong, Bart and John had yet to arrive the following day.
Picked up the cast at Sans Rival, this place that Nar had raved about that has really yummy sans rival and silvanas. Haha, we picked them up to have dinner back at the cafeteria, when they already grabbed a couple of bites in Sans Rival. After dinner, some of them (Acey, Ikey, Nicco, and Jill) walked to Robinson's Place or the drugstore (I forgot where) to buy some stuff, while I walked with Nar and Hendri back to the hotel. Basically just hung out during most of the evening, then later that night, we decided to walk to the bay and hang out there. We ended up sitting at this place where lots of vendors sold balut, squid balls and kikiam (though they called it tempura) and just pigged out, while a couple of street musicians (Nar called one "John Lennon") serenaded us. After 20 more pieces of squid balls, we looked for a place to drink or have dessert. We couldn't settle on one place but ended up at this little cafe and got dessert before we walked all the way back to the hotel.
On Friday morning, we got picked up for breakfast back at the cafeteria. Bianca, Dingdong, Bart, and John had already arrived from the airport and was already having breakfast there, so it was cool that we were all complete again. Headed straight to the theater after breakfast for all the other setups and adjustments and I finally tested my projector slides (which I had to edit one slide at a time).
When we took a break for lunch, we (Dingdong, John, Acey and I) were due back at the theater at 1pm (2 hours earlier than the cast's call time for the 4pm tech run), so we decided to just go somewhere else to eat. While the cast ate with Hendri back at the cafeteria as usual, the 4 of us took a pedicab (that's what they call their tricycles there, by the way) to Sans Rival. Their honey chicken set meal was pretty yummy, but the chicken was pretty big that it took a while for us to finish it. Then we had a few pieces of silvanas for dessert.
I swear, I must have gained so much weight just by being there in that city with all the food it has to offer. There are so many good stuff in this city to eat, with just the right prices. Everything is walking distance, and if it's kind of far for you, you can just take a pedicab anywhere. No jeeps or taxicabs in sight. Everything is just chill, that it's like it's Sunday everyday. Oh, I found one more piece of paradise, hahaha.
Anyway, we had a tech run in the afternoon before the show that evening at 8pm. Not much to worry about regarding the show except that it's kind of tough trying to listen to the sounds while we're in the tech booth. We also had to request monitors because the actors couldn't hear anything from the stage. After the tech run, Dingdong, Acey and I were planning to have dinner back at Sans Rival, but we ended up staying in the theater because Hendri brought us packed meals, yay.
It was a pretty good gala show that evening. The audience was quite different from the crowd in Cebu, but I guess that's to be expected, even though we were already expecting the worst (like the hecklers that we experienced last weekend).
Had dinner at Cafe Antonio after the show, and wolfed down the free food while chatting with some of the people who were involved in this Dumaguete leg. Thank you, guys!
Saturday morning was supposed to be a visit to the beach for most of us, but I ended up sleeping in with the rest of the girls and the others who opted not to go to the beach, so the only ones who went with Hendri was Nar, Ikey and Acey. Spent the morning hanging out with Jill, Bianca and Nicco in Nicco and Nar's room, content with eating our packed meals there while watching TV.
Headed back to the theater early that afternoon (1:30pm for tech, 2:00pm for cast) and got ready for the afternoon show. Nothing much to set up as usual, as I had preset everything after the show the night before.
We had a little attempt at playtime with the cast while we were in the tech booth. Once Joanna (Jill) had pointed out the star to Brett in the final scene, Dingdong and I fumbled with the lights on our phones, and I ended up illuminating his face when the cast pointed out the Big Dipper, hahaha! I think the cast was ready to go crazy because of that.
Because there was still lots of time to kill before the evening show, Dingdong and Acey went to the gym, while I went with Hendri and the cast back to the hotel. Ended up just watching an episode and a half of Smash on my laptop until we had to go back to the theater again for our final show.
And just like that, after the 8pm show, we were done. We easily and quickly packed all the props and costumes away, and we were off to a dinner with Moses and the rest of the people behind this leg of the tour. We had to stop over at the hotel for a while to drop off most of our stuff, but Jill, Bianca and Nar ended up taking their time and taking showers before we had to go, hahaha.
By the time we got to the venue of the dinner, the place was about to close, but they still kept it open for us. Bart and Hendri sat with Moses and the other guys, while Dingdong, Acey, Nar, Ikey, Nicco, Jill, Bianca and I squeezed ourselves into the booth next to them. (John, by the way, ended up just staying at the hotel.) Huwaw, I've never seen all of us wolf down everything so fast, including the alcohol (guess which of us are the hard core drinkers), hahaha!
Afterwards, we went with Bart to Adeladiva, this place that his friend, Angelo (quite a nice, cheerful, quirky gay guy) owns. I forget, but I think I heard that Angelo used to also own a bar in Malate, until he moved to Dumaguete. Bart treated us to a round of drinks, so some of us ended up drinking again, and yes, me included. Then after a while, our driver needed to leave, so we had to bid our goodbyes. My goodness, it's like we just did the whole eat-and-run thing, only it was eat-drink-and-run. Bart and Hendri got dropped off back at the hotel, while the rest of us ended up at the baywalk for another round of balut, squid balls and tempura, because Bianca and Dingdong weren't with us that first night. After having our fill, Nar went off to Hayahay to meet with some friends, while the rest of us rode pedicabs back to the hotel and called it a night.
Konked out on my bed while Bianca slept in the other (her mattress was already taken away because initially she was going to stay in Bethel with her family that night, but ended up staying). Jill stayed in the other room with Nicco as Nar was still out. By the time I woke up in the morning, both Bianca and Jill had already gone (Bianca with her family, Jill's flight back to Manila was in the morning, along with Bart and John).
I was the only one awake aside from Hendri that morning, so we had breakfast at Bethel. Moses was also there, along with some other people (teachers who worked in Reno, Nevada) who got to watch the show. Stopped over at Sans Rival to pre-order some silvanas to pick up for later, then headed back to the hotel.
We all checked out at noon, then had lunch in Bethel. We were supposed to have lunch at Sans Rival, but there were more food choices in Bethel, so we went there instead. But of course, we still had to go back to Sans Rival for the silvanas, then we also stopped over at Robinson's Place because Acey wanted to get more pasalubong (and the rest of us ended up buying some as well). Then it was time to head for the airport.
The entire tour of Children's Letters to God was quite an awesome experience, and I love the people I've worked with in this production. I'm so thankful that I got this opportunity to work with them, plus getting traveling perks as well. This show was so fun that it never actually felt like work. I sure hope there will be more shows to come (Bacolod?), hahaha.
Now it's back to the daily grind tomorrow. Back to life.
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