Curtains: Summer's Nights, Summer's Dreams.

First of all, congratulations to Jan, Audz and Charles for surviving their production design thesis!

Thursday was the day of stage adjustment and DTR for Summer's Nights, Summer's Dreams at RCBC. I got there pretty early, after hitching a ride with Paolo and Tad to Makati, because they were on their way to Assumption anyway. Set-up was still going on, so we had to wait until the air conditioners were switched on in the dressing rooms.

Hair and make-up for the DTR, especially for us girls, took quite a long time, so the make-up team had to set up their stuff inside the roomy guys' dressing room while the cast threw lines. Because Diwata was the only one that day doing the make-up, we had to start early. Then we finally got our costumes, and I chuckled as I reached for this shiny orange dress with a huge white ruffled collar that Audz handed me. No shoes yet, as they were still on the way to the theater daw, so I ended up wearing my own sandals the entire time.

After throwing lines during hair and make-up, George announced that we had to do slight major stage adjustments, because as it turned out, the platform set piece was bigger than we had expected, and to think that it will be moved by the actors themselves.

Everyone got into their costumes, and we finally did stage adjustment and an Italian run in the evening.

Backstage...

Red: I have a question... What's an Italian run?
Isab: Run-through na mabilis.
Red: Ah... in Rep kasi we just call it a speed run.
Isab: TP kasi, mabigat ang mga terms, tapos Tagalog pa.
Red: Why is it called Italian? Kasi mabilis magsalita ang mga Italians?

Come to think of it, I've always used the term Italian run as well, but I never knew why it's called that way. Can anyone share? And yeah, TP really does use more technical jargon than the others.

By the way, after some time and some observation, for some reason gusto kong mag-speak up, pero part of me insisted I shut up, kasi baka isipin ng tao na nakikialam ako. Konsepto lang naman ako dun eh. Hahaha, though I really want to help. Oh well. Weird segue lang ito.

Bwahahaha, my Imeldific updo fell to pieces during my first scene due to the heavy velour curtain slightly falling against my hair. I was suddenly laughing on the floor for real, especially when I heard the "Queen Amidala" remark (from Papa E, I think) from the audience area, hahaha.

Early call time the next day, as we estimated the hair and make-up prep for us girls. I had arrived 10 minutes after call time, but then realized there were hardly any people backstage yet. I got a head start (literally? Hahaha) with Diwata for hair and make-up, but holy kamote, he tucked a ton of hairpins and I felt as if they were aimed directly at my scalp. Parang feeling ko tuloy na dumudugo yung scalp ko buong araw, ahahaha. (And weirdly enough, my scalp still felt raw the morning after the show) But at least my hair was kept in place the whole time. We stopped prepping up an hour before the 1pm show so we could rehearse the curtain call, as well as the fashion show part during the rewind scene, plus a small dance number for Titania, Oberon, Puck and us two fairies. Hahaha, Isab and I also rehearsed the "Sumayaw, Sumunod" filler as well, because of what had happened the night before when we only had one follow-spot. Objective ko tuloy was to get into Isab's light, hahahaha! Anyway, at last, our shoes came a few minutes after that. No time to break them in, so I jammed a bit of foam inside the shoes as they were a size bigger.

Not much people in the audience during the afternoon show, so they sort of held back on their reactions, if there were any, hahaha. The panel watched that particular show, though, as the thesis defense was held in one of the dressing rooms in between the two shows.

There were much more people for the 7pm show, and they were really receptive, unlike the matipid reactions from the 1pm show, hahaha. It was quite a hoot. Catch nga lang was that during Titania's speech in the 2nd act, they gave us a permanent marker to use on the whiteboard (we were assured that the marker had ink because the whiteboard marker didn't have any ink during the 1pm show) so Kristine couldn't erase it (hence losing the essence of what she had said), then there was too much masking tape on the eyeliner that was attached to the board along with the marker, so she couldn't uncap it to draw on her face. Oh well.

Wonder of wonders, after not catching the tossed fan during most of our rehearsals, I successfully caught it during both shows while on the platform, hahahaha! Ano ba yan, ang babaw ng kaligayahan ko.

Slight mishaps aside (like my left shoe almost flying off when I did that rockstar jump for the curtain call), the evening show turned out really great. Again, congratulations to the thesis group (Magdabby Productions), direk George and the entire cast and crew!

Betty found me immediately while I was crossing the stage to change my footwear. Hahaha, she insisted on taking a photo of me and my hairdo so we went outside the theater for more light. Nicco was there din pala to watch the show! Thanks for watching, baby bro! Victor and the Teacher Susan (the AC's dance teacher) also came to watch the show. Ahaha, nahiya naman ako, as they have never seen me perform. Patago nga ako, sabi ko kay Victor, hahaha.

After a bit of chikahan with the two, I returned to the dressing room to get rid of the million hairpins in my hair and to wash off the hairspray gunk (I came armed with shampoo that day, yay). Finally dressed like a modern person again with dripping wet hair, I finally found Hilary sitting around in the house! I missed that girl soooo much that a hug from her felt so great! Hahaha, as it turned out, the acoustic guitar that I was using as a prop was her own guitar that her sister borrowed for the show.

So this book is finally closed. Time to explore the next avenue.