Local Celebrity Sightings @ Dogeaters

Reverting back to my normal fangirl mode, inside Carlos P. Romulo theater last Saturday were a bunch of local celebrities in the audience. Sighted were good-looking actors TJ Trinidad and Rafael Rosel. The Eigenmans were in almost full force from Rosemarie Gil, Eddie Mesa, Mark Gil and Ryan Eigenmann.

I laugh reallly loud but that evening, Ms. Leah Salonga was laughing louder than me! She was across the aisle from us sitting with the play's director Bobby Garcia.

During the break, we also spotted Boy Abunda who was sitting at the last row in the orchestra section. Bembol Roco was also in attendance as well as Vangie Labalan, a well reputed voice talent and theater actress as well. Denise Laurel was with the Eigenmanns.

One thing I realized is that though there was this desire to ask for photos, the atmosphere was very intimate that NO ONE was taking photos with the celebrities! And I wasn't that desperate. Now if those were Takuya Kimura or any of the F4 boys....the story will be very, very different.

The only photo that I have the desire to have is with batchmate and friend Jon Santos who by the way performed so well as "Perlita", the gay owner of Studio 54 in the play. After all, I am his # 1 Fan...hahaha!

Note to self: I should get myself more of that purple knitted blouse on this coming Hongkong trip. I found that in a mall somewhere in Jordan, Kowloon side.

DOGEATERS, A Play About the Philippines

Last night my husband and I watched DOGEATERS (http://www.amazon.com/Dogeaters-Contemporary-American-Fiction-Hagedorn/dp/014014904X), a play about the Philippines written by celebrated Filipino-American writer Jessica Hagedorn at the Carlos P. Romulo theater in RCBC Plaza. I figured it was time to take a break from the fun but occasionally shallow world of fandom.

Dogeaters has had several showings in the US over the past 10 years but never in the subject country- the Philippines! So Atlantis Productions finally brought the play to Philippine shores and it opened for a limited run last November 16th.

I expected it to be a heavy drama since the book's background is the tumultuous time of the Marcoses leading to the 1985 Edsa Revolution. What I did not expect though is that oftentimes I would be dying of laughter.

Why laugh so hard when the play's subject matter is very serious? Several things but first and foremost is the story-telling of an era that I can so relate to - the 80's, 1982 to be exact.

I graduated from high school in 1982 and the background of the dramatic sketches brought me back to the past big time. The fashion, the music, the products that I remember using/consuming and the technology of the times or lack of. The play's director Bobby Garcia, would lead us to a depth of emotion with the tragic stories of characters like Daisy Avila, Senator Avila's daughter who fell in love with a member of the New People's Army, considered insurgents by the Philippine government. Also of Joey, the often drugged DJ/manwhore who witnessed the assasination of Sen. Avila and Trining, the girl from the province who saw her lover slain for being a suspected but unsuspecting assasin.

Whenever, we are all about to cry or wallow in depression, the era made us all remember life back then and the play would make us all laugh. Laugh at how we remember the days of Studio 54 (the replica of New York's..), the people watching at the Jeepney Bar in Intercon (which by the way is still there but not as illustrious as it was in the 80's) and how the movies including the "bomba" movies would serve as our only form of entertainment.

I remembered myself, my family and how we coped with life back then. And though our life was not as tragic and megalomaniac as the characters in the play, we were all survivors of an era when the country was awakened from its stupor. That we were all part of the montage that was the political turmoil. It made me remember why I love this country and why I am still here despite all the rage of migrating and going overseas.

The Filipinos are not just "dogeaters" to the western world, we are a people that are maturing in our belief, battling through the confusion that was brought to us by our colonizers and so-called friends from the west. We are a forgiving nation sometimes to a fault. And we are passionate about love - kahit na mali ang mahal natin.

Catch Dogeaters. It will run until December 1. You can buy tickets online at Ticketworld (https://www.ticketworld.com.ph/onlineticketworld/default.asp).

OPM Break: OJ Mariano Best of Me

My husband and I took a little break from everyday life to watch the concert of OJ Mariano (http://www.starrecords.ph/album.asp?id=99&page=9) entitled Best of Me at Ratsky's Bar along Tomas Morato in Quezon City. It was the first time I listened to a local artist live in a long time. Produced by Bright Lights Entertainment, owned by my good friend Dennis Arce, OJ's guest was Kyla, monickered as the R&B Princess.

OJ's opening song was George Michael's I Gotta Have Faith. Though the song is upbeat, for some reason, the energy of OJ was low. He did not have an instant connection with the audience at first but as he sang one song after another, he finally warmed up to the audience.

OJ has a good voice perfectly suited for songs by Luther Vandross, Peebo Bryson or Eric Benet. However, in some songs, he seemed to be scared to hit the high notes (or was it a lack of musical direction?). His rendition of Luther Vandross' Dancing with my Father moved me to tears...ask my husband who was surprised when he saw me sniffling and reaching for my tissues. I was loving his rendition of Through the Fire when he suddenly decided to change costume and has his back-up keyboardist sing the rest of the song.

The best parts of the show were his medley of Boyz 2 Men songs and the duet with Kyla, who sang 2 songs prior to the duet. It was a beautiful duet that I finally remembered I had video features in my phone camera. Unfortunately, I forgot to set the video time to longer than 20 seconds so please bear with the shortness of the following clips.

Congratulations OJ! Congratulations Dennis!