The Carver's House

I never thought I'd spend a full day getting to Boracay. Our flight left the domestic airport promptly Tuesday morning and we were over Kalibo in less than an hour. But as I eagerly anticipated the land trip to Caticlan, the landing gear retracted and the plane shot up. We were going to Iloilo because of Kalibo's heavily overcast skies. We waited in the plane at the Iloilo airport for over an hour, receiving weather updates from time to time. The passengers were getting restless and hungry, and getting refunds was unfortunately not an option. Unlike other passengers, I was open to not getting a refund even if I had paid for the trip. I'd rather not risk my life just to get to Kalibo. The home province of our style editor Gwyn was neighboring Antique, so the group decided to spend the night there, then take the 3am bus to Caticlan. It was like a lesser-scale Amazing Race episode: we wanted to go to Boracay, and yet passed through two other provinces to get there. Going to An

The names Eula Valdez and Agot Isidro never came up when message boards would talk about casting Zsazsa Zaturnnah and Queen Femina Suarestellar Baroux, respectively. Then again, I believe hardly anyone (yours truly included) had imagined a Zsazsa Zaturnnah stage musical in the first place--sweet irony, methinks. Theater demands actors of a different mold, and I’ve always found greater faith in the discipline of theater training. Eula Valdez told me that she wanted to give extra focus on this production since it’s her first time to do musical theater. Laying low after retiring from teen-star status, she bounced back into consciousness of the masses as Amor Powers in the long-running telenovela Pangako Sa ‘Yo . She seemed a bit shy at the press luncheon, and she’s surprisingly not as small as she seems to be on television (a plus for the Zaturnnah role). Yet she’s got those bright kewpie-doll eyes that draw you in. Only after observing her at the luncheon did I realize that, yes, she

Pretty Pictures, part 1 Because my digital camera is officially busted, I wasn't able to take any pictures from the press lunch. But I did get the press kit that had not a few promotional images burned on a CD. Here are some of them... The first time I saw Ricci Chan (left of photo) was during the first staging of Rent at the Music Museum, and his performance as Angel blew me away. Since then, he's done a few more plays and even landed a stint in a showbiz magazine show. To play Didi, he says his greatest challenge is putting on a lot of weight, since he knows that nitpickers will throw a fit if they don't see their Didi on the healthy side. But Ricci is a fantastic performer, so I've no worries about his casting. On the other hand, I've never seen Tuxqs Rutaquio (right of photo) in a play, but I do know that he's very experienced in theater. He even has a graduate degree in theater arts. The first time I ever met him was when he was a kid and I was in high sch

What a day! I went to the "press lunch" today, as Tanghalang Pilipino told me that members of the press wanted to meet me. So off I went to Dencio's beside the Cultural Center of the Philippines and ended up hardly having any lunch at all, as for most of the time I was chatting with a press person about the book and the musical. But it was all good; the atmosphere was very light and positive. I met Eula and Agot and got to see Tuxqs and Ricci again, all of whom said that their rehearsals have been major laugh trips. More details within the week. I need to meet a deadline. Heheheh.

The Cultural Center of the Philippines presents a Tanghalang Pilipino production: Carlo Vergara's Zsazsa Zaturnnah: Ze Muzikal Eula Valdez Agot Isidro Tuxqs Rutaquio Ricci Chan Lauren Novero Arnold Reyes Deeda Barretto Wilma Doesnt Mayen Estañero Tess Jamias and the Tanghalang Pilipino’s Actors’ Company direction Chris Millado music/lyrics/musical direction Vincent A. de Jesus adaptation Chris Martinez lighting design Shoko Matsumoto choreography Ding Cruz set design Sonny Aniceto costume design Nicole Mori technical direction Barbara Tan-Tiongco stage management Chynna Roxas February 10 | 11 | 17 | 18 | 24 | 25 March 3 | 4 | 2006 8:00PM February 11 | 12 | 18 | 19 | 25 | 26 March 4 | 5 | 2006 3:00PM Tanghalang Huseng Batute (CCP Studio Theater) Tanghalang Pilipino 832-3661 / 832-1125 locals 1620 / 1621 / (0920) 953-5381 / 0920 953-5419 email ccptanghalan@yahoo.com TicketWorld 891-9999

Hikab at Unat Ay, Enero na pala...sarap ng tulog ko...