Sometime after this summer's workshop, I remember Mark mentioning the Ampalaya Monologues about once or twice. I also recall he once invited me to be a part of it, but I think I had to reluctantly decline due to a prior commitment, so I might be busy for rehearsals. But I did promise to come watch the show.
For some of you guys who aren't familiar with it, Ampalaya Monologues is a collection of short monologues about love, heartaches, and bitterness inspired by popular memes and real life stories. I loved one of their taglines that say, "Para sa mga umasa, pinaasa, iniwan, iniwasan, nilayuan, nasaktan, nabigo, nasawi, lumuha, niloko, pinagpalit, nag-walling, na-seenzoned, umibig pero hindi inibig."
The first volume of Ampalaya Monologues debuted on August 30th, a Sunday, at Bugsy's in Westgate, Alabang.
When my friends and I had arrived at the venue at 4pm on that day, the place was already packed. Even though the monologues didn't start until 6pm, there was already a lot of activity. There was ongoing live art outside the venue, and music by a live band spilled out from inside.
It had just started raining when it was nearing 6pm, but that didn't faze the crowd. The venue was jam-packed to accommodate everyone, even those who had seats outside, and I was glad that our group had already nabbed a big table in the back earlier on, so we had a good view of everything.
There were a total of 7 monologues, all written by Mark, performed by his fellow members of TAP (Theater in Alternative Platforms), plus 3 guest performers (JV, Aldo, and Blanche). Each monologue alternated with spoken word artists, with their own piece related to the event's theme. I totally enjoyed every performance, because heck, everyone somehow managed to relate to any, if not all of them. Applause, laughter, wild shouts of reaction were scattered all throughout as people reacted to every line they can relate to. Hugot after hugot came and went, and some even chugged their drinks when a particular line hit the right spot. Even I had my own share of loud cheers and shouts, and even tweeted some of my favorite lines. What made the night even better was that because it was raining hard, sometimes the lightning and thunder went off at the most appropriate times during people's performances.
Even though I sort of regretted not being a part of that event, I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
Then one afternoon, Mark mentioned that Ampalaya Monologues will be doing a repeat performance. And to my delight, he even hinted one time that he might include me for one of his additional monologues. I didn't think he was serious at first. But to my surprise, two weeks after that, he sent me a copy of the new monologue, asking my availability to rehearse.
So after enjoying the first round of Ampalaya Monologues, I was now a part of it. After reading through the piece a few times, and one evening rehearsal with Mark, it took me a little while until I warmed up to the piece, memorizing it and finding pieces of myself in it. It was an interesting process. The monologue was called "Hanggang Throwback Na Lang," and it was about a girl recounting her 2005 with a guy she had liked. Even though I never had the actual firsthand experience of the story in the monologue, I had my own fair share of a similar heartache during that exact same year. So by using that, the dig from the hugot lines totally appealed to me.
After another round of rehearsals with Mark along with Blanche and Aldo, I was glad to hear from Mark that I finally got it, but my real challenge was to stop holding back. I knew he could see that. To be honest, I had no problem acting onstage because it was easy to use the fourth wall. But a performance of a monologue, something that is to be executed on my own, was different for me. It was different in terms of I had to face the audience and actually communicated with them. This was my own case of stage fright even back when I was still a communications specialist and having to speak to different groups of people.
The second run of Ampalaya Monologues was held last week, October 25th, at Splice Resto Bar in Greenfield District, Mandaluyong.
Like the first show of Ampalaya Monologues, the venue was filled to the brim. There were so many people, even more than the first show, that even as early as 5pm, I was having a hard time to get to my seat inside the venue because of how many people there were. A good problem, in my opinion.
About half an hour before the monologues had to begin, Mark gathered us for a company call. In line with the Halloween theme, we performers were dressed in mostly black. He introduced R'love, Yan-yan and me as the new additions. I started to get more excited than nervous. After running through my monologue on my own outside, I went back inside to the table I shared with Nikki and Drei and just enjoyed the first few performances before mine. Whatever happens up there will happen.
After host Rene had introduced me, I just went up to the microphone and spoke. Once I started, I also began to enjoy myself out there, instead of just barreling through the lines like I used to do. When the people started reacting, I went with it. For the first time standing alone in front of a very receptive crowd, I was really enjoying myself. The crowd was actually listening and reacting, and even more so when I delivered a chunk of "hugot" lines (some of which, like most hugot lines in all the monologues, were almost immediately posted on Twitter).
"Chat ka nga ng chat, tapos nung na-fall ka, di ka naman ika-catch."
So my Ampalaya Monologues experience was uber-fun. Thank you loads to Mark for inviting me, and to Black Table and TAP for another successful event! Congratulations to everyone!
Photos courtesy of Mark Ghosn, Carl Matoog and Nikki dela Cruz.
See you all for the next shows of Ampalaya Monologues!
Photos courtesy of Mark Ghosn, Carl Matoog and Nikki dela Cruz.
