Yuhooo! I'm alive.. and kickin' some ass!!

Three months since my last blog post. WHAT HAVE I BEEN DOING?

After my stint with MMK (see previous blog post), here's practically what happened to me:

1. Did a play at Ateneo de Manila University

When I met up with the director, the AD and the other actors, initially I felt out-of-place, being the only non-Atenean there. But it wasn't long before I got along with them, and actually became good friends with them! It was not hard to work with them and I found it such a delight to work with 'starving artists' such as myself, who love the art more than anything else.

Our director and playwright, BJ Crisostomo, debuted 2 original plays: Pedro Pan and Beyond Definition. The latter play was the one I acted in.

'Beyond Definition' is about a person who was slowly 'losing his memory', eventually questioning his identity or if even such a thing mattered. Along the way, he meets several characters who finds him rather quirky for not remembering his own name. Finally he meets Woman, a divine creature who makes him understand about the insignificance of a 'name' and having a name. The play ends openly with Man unsure whether or not he should follow 'the light' and Woman's advice.

We staged the play at the Gonzaga Fine Arts Theater in Ateneo De Manila. Unfortunately, we had to move the play dates because of a tropical depression which coincidentally hit Manila on our supposedly first play date. But all was well. And we had a grand time doing the play. I missed Ateneo and the people and... HAHA.

Here are some photos of the play :)

F*ck you, Romeo!!!!!

Who are you?

The hotdog cart.

FASTER, FASTER, FASTER, MISTER!

Hotdog? What's that?

Juliet, huh. And what's that?

Man.

2. Did volunteer work for Cinemalaya 7

I had the hardest time splitting my day between rehearsals and the Cinemalaya event in CCP, which are both on opposite sides of Metro Manila.

Actually, the Cinemalaya stint came before the play but since both were too good opportunities to pass, I just had to make a way to get both done in a day! Thank God for trains! The MRT and LRT made commuting a lot easier, and faster!

I practically know CCP like the back of my hand, since I did my practicum in Tanghalang Pilipino for a month. Our task as volunteers was pretty easy. Interestingly, the Cinemalaya started a new trend for the festival passes: RFIDs! The ID acts like a prepaid card that contains 'credits.' Once tapped on the card reader, it will show the films that the person has watched, as well as the credits the person has left.

The RFID reader. I got to operate these!!

The perks of this job of course include getting to meet actors and filmmakers and WATCHING MOVIES FOR FREE! I was supposedly entitled to a Cinemalaya shirt, since I was able to meet the minimum number of hours, but sadly, I wasn't able to claim it as I didn't get a chance to come back to the marketing office.

Sadly also, I couldn't stay as long as I wanted to in CCP to work (and watch the movies that I wanted) because of practice. So with the little time that I was able to spend in CCP during that period, I was able to watch (only) 4 films and meet a lot of film enthusiasts, of which most were students. And since it was a volunteer job, we did it pro bono, for the love of film! It felt great to be surrounded with film buffs who share the same passion for film, and to get watch award-winning films with them. It was all worth the hassle!

And oh, Eugene Domingo and 'Ang Babae sa Septic Tank' was the runaway winner for me.

My ID and Production Pass. Sadly I couldn't bring it home as a souvenir.

An exhibit dedicated to Ronwaldo Reyes aka Fernando Poe, Jr.

Vintage movie posters.

3. Finally landed a REAL job!

After almost 6 months of lazing around and doing freelance work at home, I finally found a job, one that I actually liked! I was hired as a Media Relations Assistant for an established PR agency in Ortigas. Since then, I've learned a lot especially about the Public Relations industry and I was able to meet many people, mostly from the media. Crossing my fingers to a long stay in this company!

4. Went to Eastern, Samar for work (and Leyte on the side)

Perhaps one of the many perks of my job is the opportunity to travel (meaning I don't have to be in the office the whole time). Which is great, considering I'd much rather be in a dynamic environment than just doing the 'usual office work.' Last August 22-23 (barely a week after I got hired), we were scheduled to go to Eastern Samar to assist in an event for a client. The road to Samar was horrible (as I expected it to be) and Guiuan was farther than I really imagined it to be. When we FINALLY got to Eastern Samar, we went down to business (aka work). We spent the night at a simple rustic inn (which was more of a house turned into an inn) by the bay. It was probably one of the best sleep I had in a while! And I woke up to the beautiful view of what seemed to the Pacific Ocean. :) Unfortunately, we only stopped over Tacloban for a few hours so even if I wanted to visit my house SO BAD I couldn't. Alas, home was so near yet so far. And work comes first, so yeah. Here are some non-work-related pics!

The Municipality of Quinapondan was our first stop - directly from the airport!

And this is their Municipality Hall.

I totally forgot the name of this beautiful resort, but we had a media engagement here and the food was superb! Food that I really missed, that I don't get to eat in Manila such as fish!