To CEBU we go!!

If there is one thing we learned from our last trip and plane ride was that you should never be late going to the airport for your flight. Don't underestimate your travel time goingg to the airport. So this time, we have planned our taxi drive to the airport carefully and made sure that we will have enough allowance to rest and grab a bite before our flight going to Cebu.

And that's what exactly what we did. After work, I immediately went out of the office and hail a cab. Good thing I was able to get one of those big company cabs so I'm sure I can get the driver to bring us to the airport. As soon as I got home, I asked the driver if he's willing to take us to the airport and he said yes, so we just took our bags and loaded it up immediately.

We were at the airport with a good almost two hours lead time. We checked in our bags, and grabbed a bite at Shakey's Pizza. After eating we went to our gate but seeing that Jethro won't get a good look at the airplanes, we sat on another gate with less people. Jethro, excited as he always is when seeing planes immediately went to the window and watched the parked planes and getting amazed at those landing in and taking off.

Upon boarding, Jethro sat at the window seat and enjoyed the view on the way to Cebu. After just a little more than an hour, we landed in Cebu International Airport. We were greeted by a rainy afternoon in Cebu.

IN THE HEIGHTS!!!!

How would you even describe a musical so energetic, fabulous, wonderful and just so great that after the show, you wouldn’t want to leave the theater and makes you want more. I’m sure most of those who watched In the Heights can’t get enough that they were thinking, “I’ve got to see this again” and I’m sure for those who can did.

I was lucky enough to see this for free with my wife through a raffle promo, and what’s better was the seats were at orchestra center. I was expecting Balcony tickets but when we got the tickets and saw that it was front row, orchestra center, I’m not complaining.

I loved In the Heights even before Atlantis announced it last year that they will do it. I saw it when they won Best Musical in the 2008 Tony’s and since then have been listening to the upbeat, rap, salsa music of the soundtrack. But knowing the songs didn’t spoil the fun of watching it live on the stage but made it more enjoyable since I know the context and some of the lyrics of the songs.

The cast was just great. Nyoy Volante, Ima Castro, Felix Rivera, K-la Rivera, Calvin Millado, Jackie Lou Blanco, Jay Glorioso, Tex Ordonez, and Bibo Reyes. Nyoy was able to do the rapping just great and made sure the audience can understand him. You can’t seem to go wrong with Ima and Felix and they’re just perfect in every role they do. I would really love to see K-la do another musical again. She’s just so pretty on stage and exudes such presence in her voice that you can’t help but love her performance. The rest of the cast just perfectly fit into their roles.

Sets were simple, Rosario’s Cab company on the left, a little street in the middle for dancing and Bodega and Daniella’s Salon on the right, but the props and the set design is so believable to the smallest of details.

You would just love every minute of In the Heights and there are no dull moments at all. It’s a roller coaster musical with a heart and I think what makes it appealing is that we almost have the same culture as the characters in the play and anyone watching would be able to relate to a character or two.

A lot of lessons can be learned from In The Heights, about identity and character, family, patience and faith (Pacencia y Fe). One thing more, that is whatever happens and changes that might occur in your life, there will always be something you can go back into, that is family and as Usnavi puts it;

"Where it's a hundred in the shade!
But with patience and faith
we remain unafraid
I'm home!"

PETA's WILLIAM from Shake-fear to Shakes-peer

That was the tagline of this season’s first offering of PETA. PETA has once again provided the local theater scene with world class, original, educational theater production.

“William” is a story of group of high school students trying to grasp who Shakespeare is because of the assignment given to them by their English teacher. Discovering Shakespeare’s works help these students discover their own self and cope up with their personal ordeals. The play culminated with each student doing a monologue from Shakespeare’s play and how it relates to them.

I’m not new to Shakespeare and I’ve seen a lot of productions about his works from Film to theater. But this is the first time I’ve seen a play appreciating most of his work and how one can learn from him. The realization of each character are just perfect with their chosen monologues at the latter part of the play shows how Ron Capinding (the shows playwright) knows so much about Shakespeare. How he manages to create high school students characters learning from Shakespeare’s work was effortless. The issues each student encountered are very common and putting the Shakespeare elements into it makes the play more appealing.

The music and songs played to a younger audience was just great with a hip hop and rap makes it more enjoyable. Lyrics were great and sung clearly by the performers.

I loved the set design! The use of chairs as backgrounds and main set pieces were just ingenious. It makes you feel you’re really in high school. Even the set transitions were great as well. Costumes was something noticeable as well. I loved how they used shirt colors for each student throughout the play, Richard with Red, Erwin with Blue, Estela with Yellow, TJ with Green and Sophia, so pretty in Pink.

Talking to Shakespeare in Hong Kong's Maddame Tussaud's Wax Museum :)

When I watched it last Aug 26, the cast includes Rico Del Rosario as TJ, John Moran as Richard, Inno Martin as Erwin, Anj Heruela as Estella Meann Espinosa as Mrs Martinez and Anna Luna as Sophia. They were just great. Watching them makes you wonder how old… or young they really are. They just slipped into the character and was transformed to these students and will make you reminisce your own high school classmates. The guys John, Rico, and Inno fits perfectly on their roles. Anj and Anna were just great. Anna, I should say was very pretty in her Sophia role but it would be very interesting to see her on Estela’s ‘manang/intelligent’ role (the souvenir program says that she’s doing the two roles). That might be a good reason to see this show again and see how she would attack that role, and not just to see her again, oh did I mention that she was really very pretty.

William will run until Sep 25, 2011 and you can contact PETA for tickets.

Can’t wait for the next show “Haring Lear” next year.