Theater Tales

My classmates and I already ended Theater 12 at UPD with the Insiang presentation but I really need another fix of creative activity. I was fortunate enough to have found a certain theater company in Makati which offers seasonal theater acting workshops. And so I gave their office a ring and asked for details. It costs 2,700 pesos. I was surprised and ready to back out because I can’t shell out that amount of money every week. But then the secretary replied that it was for the whole duration of the workshop, 8 sessions until December 1. I was surprised again. That’s surprisingly cheap considering that regular summer workshops of the same caliber are usually more than double that price.         

The workshop is every Saturday from 1PM – 3PM. It started today and I could say I had a lot of fun. There are 16 of us. There are two call center agents, a singer harpist from Canada, a budding chef, a 12-year-old international school girl, two bankers, and a frustrated theater actress. I can’t describe them all here. Suffice it to say that it’s a diverse population. The youngest is 10 years old and the oldest is 33.

         

For the first day we just did a lot of exercises. There was one which I already am familiar with: the adjective game. You have to choose an adjective, the first letter of which must coincide with your name. And so I was dorky Dan again today. It goes around and you have to recall the name and adjective of all the people to your right who already recited.

         

We also played the caterpillar where you hold on to the waist of the person in front of you. The person in front of the line must catch the person at the end of the line and your objective depending on where you are located must coincide with them. The facilitator of the workshop explained that the game reflects life in theater. You have your own objectives but if you don’t work together, the caterpillar breaks and you all die. As for the name and adjective game its objective is focus and concentration. Working in theater is hard and you have to multitask. If you crack under pressure then too bad for you.

         

After some mini introductions we had more exercises. It’s fun because the facilitator had a lot of anecdotes and they are not just simple chitchat because from his anecdotes I already learned a lot of new stuff related to theater such as the different techniques (Meisner, Stanislavski, etc) and of course how to survive in the said field.

         

I think I made the right choice to continue theater. After this maybe I’ll try dance. I just need some avenue to vent out my frustrations and angst. When I start working on the 20th the zombification begins. But I’ll be looking forward to Saturdays, at least until December 1 because Saturday is Resurrection day for me. From Sunday to Friday, I’m dead. That’s how life goes. Hello Saturday, you are my new favorite.

         

And yes, a member of the class gasped when I mentioned my past theater experience and **** ***’s name. It seems that her reputation is not just confined in the walls of THY.