Finally, I can run the article on this project I've been working on for the better part of 2015... Yes... 2015! you read it right. The play date was set for January 30th, 2016 but like everything else in the performing arts, preparations are made way in advance. So around the first quarter of last year, I was invited to do the costumes by Ms. Nanette Nicerio of Elizabeth Seton School. She took time off from her teaching duties to concentrate on the production as over-all coordinator. By June of 2015, we set out on the initial production meetings and the libretto was set.
Talent Factory, Inc., pet project of Maestro Jesse Lucas was in charge of over-all production; making sure he held auditions for the cast, did musical arrangements for dance rehearsals, minus ones for the leads and for hiring support staff and crew for the theater performances. Libretto by Jeoffrey Camanag, Andre Tiangco provided the stage direction for the performers, Gino Gonzalez designed the set. Joseph Mattheu designed the lighting while sir Bodjie was in charge of Technical Direction. Choreographers were Jed Amihan, Joevenelle Palomillo Mallorca, and Lezlie Alberto Dailisan who were with the kids day in and day out teaching them the steps to the specific numbers they were assigned to. I did the costume design.
I gotta hand it to the Founder and Director Emeritus of Elizabeth Seton School, Dr. Josefina V. Suarez for deciding to proceed full out with the production. It's a gargantuan effort to mount a show involving the entire school: students, teacher/trainors, and staff not to mention the production side composed of professionals from theater and the performing arts. Scheduling rehearsals alone takes time away from the regular school calendar so Ms. Nanette made sure the entire process of mounting the show was incorporated into the classes and some of the extra-curricular activities. The students get to perform in the show and learn something in the process, which fits nicely into the mission/vision of Elizabeth Seton School. After all, the school's focus of developing and harnessing the students' multiple intelligence came into play. I'm very certain everyone was awed by the end result.
40TUDE IS AN ATTITUDE absolutely did not disappoint! I would accompany the choreographers to both Main and South campuses to watch them teach and rehearse the students and meet with suppliers for the costumes on occasion. I could see the students' sweaty faces after learning a new dance sequence, hear them singing on the hallway after learning the arrangement of a new chorus. I have seen these kids turn from gangly, clumsy teenagers into accomplished singers and dancers. That was a reward in itself. The bonus was seeing all the proud parents who plunked in their time, effort and money to watch how their kids fared. Gauging their reception at the end of the school hymn, it was obvious they enjoyed the show... a standing ovation, no less!
It's productions like these that validate my work. The first time the kids tried on their costumes they couldn't figure out what to do with them. By the time they got to the blocking rehearsals and run-throughs at the Theatre at Solaire, they were reveling in delight. Evidence of this was the sarong designed for the tenth grade girls. Timid and shy at first, they couldn't move in the slightly figure hugging sarongs. It was an altogether different story come showtime. It helped, of course, that I spent a session teaching them how to wear and carry themselves with the sarongs. They all looked like beauty pageant contestants. Even the boys in their shiny rainbow-hued costumes looked very masculine in their flowing sarong pants.
Who else would steal the show but the adorable angels? Opening the show were the pre-school kids in their white angel outfits that we enhanced with LED tape lights. each one had their own shiny halo and set of wings. Cuteness overload right there! And then as the grades progressed, we had to give them age-appropriate costumes that fit their respective musical numbers. 1,996 students came out onstage wearing their costumes in their own unique style. I give particular importance to the kids dressed a Filipino comic strip heroes and the indigenous groups in the "Pinoy Ako" number. But to be honest, I liked dressing up all of them... They got to understand that the costumes are just extensions of their individual performance. You're only as good as your last performance! Props, costumes, sets and lights must be used to a performer's great advantage.
Lastly, I would like to pay homage to the faculty and staff of Elizabeth Seton School whose time and effort (and maybe even patience) we've stretched to breaking point. Additional work hours, copious research, frayed nerves and post production liquidation are all very much a part of a successful production. Thank you to Ms Nanette Nicerio, Ms Ruby Maniego, Ms Larcey of Seton South, Ms Beth, Dr Bob, Mr. and Mrs. Ollano, and some teacher trainors whose names I could not (for the life of me) recall.
40TUDE IS AN ATTITUDE was a rush!
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