Tuesday, October 31, 2006

HAMLET REDUX

Start:     Nov 22, '06 7:00p
End:     Dec 10, '06
Location:     Wilfrido Ma. Guerrero Theater, Palma Hall, UP Diliman
Dulaang UP presents "Hamlet Redux", Shakespeare's most famous play as directed by Prof. Tony Mabesa.

The cast features: (English) Richard Cunanan as Claudius, Adriana Agcaoili as Gertrude, Jeremy Domingo as Hamlet; (Filipino) Dante Balboa as Claudius, Angeli Bayani as Gertrudes, Arnold Reyes as Hamlet; Ian Lomongo as Horatio, the students of Dulaang UP and the UP Filipiniana dancers.

Tickets are at P200, or call 9261349 / 9205301 loc 6441 for reservations.

English playdates:
November 22, 23; December 1, 6, 8 7pm
November 24; December 6 10am
November 25; December 2, 3 & 10 10am, 3pm

Filipino playdates:
November 24 & 30; December 7 7pm
November 26; December 9 10am, 3pm
November 29 3pm, 7pm

break, my heart, for i must hold my tongue


How
is it possible that we can ignore or throw away potentially good,
loving relationships for a person with whom we have no idea loves us
back or not – and yet crave to be loved, sometimes by anyone or
everyone?




You
think about things like this when you’re home alone doing nothing.
On the other hand, we think about things like this even while we’re
neck-deep in all this shit we call work.




Well,
there’s no answer to this, is there. We just do it. It just
happens. And we don’t know why! Aye, there’s the rub...
Sometimes we do it ourselves to other people, and when it happens to
us, we can’t believe it.




I
think we’re idealists and hopeless romantics, all. We do not
entertain or give ourselves – our love to people who we do not
really want for the sake of our one true love. Now who exactly our
one true love is, is a fucking mystery. We can say that we have
already met them and perhaps fancy ourselves as having fallen in
love. Maybe. The truth is, if someone ever asks me, I’d have
enough cheek to say yes! I have met him, the one man I want to be
with for the rest of my life. And I am so in love with him, and even
if he doesn’t love me in the same way, he loves me nonetheless.



Yeah.




You
may ask me, if I think he really loves me, then why don’t I just go
for it? Why don’t I just go ahead and take the plunge and tell him
how I really feel? Why don’t I just fucking kiss him in the car
before we part for the night?




Because
I can’t. Because I’m too chickenshit to do anything. I’m too
afraid that if I do anything of the sort, I would lose him as a
friend. And if that happens, I will die. I really will. The thing
is, I can endure not doing anything as long as it would mean that I
would have him in my life. I can keep silent as long as I remain
important, as long as I matter to him, as long as I have his respect
and friendship. I can go on loving only him for the rest of my life,
and yet hold my peace.




But
what of the people that you meet? Young men who seem nice enough,
who seem that they will be good to you if only you’d let them? In
an effort to “move on”, you go out with them, entertain them for
a while, but you don’t completely give yourself. And when you
think things are starting to get serious, you back off. You say to
yourself that this is just another “lost soul”, this is just
another guy who you will forget about - or who will forget you - in the next two weeks. Or in
the next twenty-four hours.




How
is it possible that you can love one person and be the better for it,
and yet be cold, callous and even decadent in dealing with other
people’s feelings?




Some
people say that we should never settle when it comes to love – that
if we have an ideal, it’s ok to seek it, to save yourself for that
person and give it your all when you have the chance. When you look
at it that way, it would appear that there is absolutely nothing
wrong with what I’m doing. Or not doing, for that matter. On the
other hand, is it depriving oneself when you let other promising
young men slip through your fingers because of this unattainable one
true love? If so, then does it follow that “not settling” means
that you hurt yourself more than these people? Then, if so, people
such as me do not have love in their lives because we do not want to
have love in their lives?




Doesn’t
it seem counter-intuitive or something? Makes you think you’re
stupid after all your years of so-called experience.




At
this point, I shall say to myself that I must keep the faith,
patience is a virtue, good things will come to those who wait and all
those other feel-good sayings that we keep close to our hearts when
logic fails us. That is, until you get bored with your own angst and
go out again, living your life as if you had never met your one true
love in the crystal palace. Then you meet the inevitable nice young
man and go through the inevitable cycle of fooling yourself that you
can forget your one true love for just one moment and pretend that you’ll be fine
but you’ll never be fine because you’re in love with him and you
cannot cannot love this nice young man and you’re going to stop
seeing him stop texting him stop calling him stop thinking about him
and the second you receive a text from the man you love everything is
wiped clean as if the nice young man never happened and you say to
yourself again for the nth time that yes, this is the man you love –
the man you want to be with for the rest of your life.













the boy and the bedsheet


One
time I actually bought a bedsheet that cost me a fucking fortune
because I had a boy coming over and I wanted to impress him. I
pictured this boy spending many nights with me, with that expensive
bedsheet against our skins and the light of the bedside lamp
illuminating our nakedness.


At the end of the month, all I had was
the bedsheet.





My
housemate and dear friend would tell me, over several beers
throughout several weekends, after I would rant about the boy and the
stupid bedsheet, that there was nothing funny or even stupid about
what I had done. Buying the bedsheet was just one of the many things
I do, apparently. Part of the patterns in my life, as she put it.
So I should just stop crying over the expensive linen and be happy
that at least, I have something decent to lie on.




Patterns
in my life??? I was horrified. Just when I thought I was doing things
differently, just when I thought I was over and done with my past
life of beer and boys and more beer and more boys – was I just
going through the same damn cycle that I always have?




The
thing is, I believe in patterns. I believe that yes, we tend to
create patterns for ourselves because it gives a semblance of order
to our lives that our egos understand. I say “ego” because this
is the part that represents us to the “real world” – the part
of us that has a certain kind of upbringing, a certain sociological
experience, a certain kind of training or schooling and therefore, a
certain way of dealing with other people and with “the real world”.
We do this because we’re like this, we say these things because we
think in this way – cause and effect-everything happens for a
reason sort of thing.




We
are also taught in improvisation that in breaking the routine,
something happens wherein the action is driven forward and the story
is taken to its inevitable climax and denouement. In short, if you
break the routine, something happens, instead of an interminable
going around in circles.




So
I guess, in this sense, my poor stupid ego thought it was breaking
its routine when I bought the bedsheet – poor stupid Angeli going
domestic. Maybe this time, I’ll be lucky; maybe this time,
he’ll stay.
Buying the bedsheet meant a nice, warm bed. A
nice, warm bed meant a cozy atmosphere. A cozy atmosphere meant a
girl who could keep house. A girl who could keep house meant a girl
that you didn’t just fuck.




I
was hoping to be the girl that you didn’t just fuck. I was
hoping to be the girl that a boy would like to spend – not
the rest of his life with, that would be expecting too much (but
wouldn’t that be grand!) – his afternoons with me over coffee; or
maybe his evenings, telling me about his day at work; or nice Sunday
mornings sleeping late, his wonderful presence radiating through the
entire room, brighter than the most beautiful sunrise.




They
say that if you continue doing what it is you always do, you will
always have what you have always had. Possibly, I have broken my
routine. I no longer have men calling or texting me in the wee hours
of the dawn, demanding to see me. I no longer wake up in strange
beds, wondering how I got there and who on earth is this guy snoring
next to me.




I
have broken my routine, and woken up to a new pattern. What I have
now are several nice, expensive bedsheets and very nice, warm
blankets. A bed that is nice and, although wide, is not too
expansive. I always have coffee or hot chocolate ready on the table,
and an extra pack of cigarettes just in case.




Just
in case the boy comes back. Or just in case someone else comes along
who would like just to spend some time with me.












Monday, October 16, 2006

HULING HIRIT 2006: Pop Virtuosity, Reuben Laurente

Start:     Oct 27, '06 9:00p
Location:     CCP Silangan Hall
Let Reuben Laurente and his four-piece band immerse you in different musical styles with pop as their common thread. Pop Virtuosity is his latest album outing that promises you a whole gamut of genres in one popped-up formula.

Ticket: Php300 (consumable food & drinks)

For ticket and inquiries, please call the CCP Box Office at tel. no. 832-3704 or Ticketworld at National Bookstore branches or Tower Records at tel. no. 891-9999. Visit the CCP Website: www.culturalcenter. gov.ph

CARMEN

Start:     Oct 24, '06 8:00p
Location:     Tanghalang Nicanor Abelardo (CCP Main Theater)
The Aida Gomez Flamenco Company's provocative
restaging of Georges Bizet's Carmen is expected
to dazzle Manila's discriminating dance
connoisseurs and enthusiasts.

The multi-awarded Gomez became the youngest
artistic director of Spanish National Ballet in 1981.
a year earlier, she had been honored with the Max
Scenic Art Prize for the best female dancer as the
lead in her production of Falla's "El Sombrero de
Tres Picos," the inaugural show of Madrid's Teatro
Real.

In 2001, Gomez founded her own company and
staged its debut performance of "Salome," under
the brilliant film director Carlos Saura. She was
awarded the prestigious National Dance Award in
2004.

In Carmen, Gomez combines flamenco and
Spanish classical dance in a performance that
always enthralls audiences.

For tickets and inquiries, please call the CCP Box
Office at tel. no. 832-3704, Instituto Cervantes at
tel. no. 526-1482 to 85 or Ticketworld at National
Bookstore branches or Tower Records at tel. no.
891-9999. Students of Instituto Cervantes are
entitled to discounts. Visit the CCP Website:
www.culturalcenter. gov.ph