Finding my way back home

I think I was in pre-school when I first fell in love with the performing arts. My mother was a Whitney Houston fan who would always play her cassette tapes at home, and I learned to sing most of her songs by listening to them over and over. I was in kindergarten when I joined my first singing contest–The Greatest Love of All, anyone?–and since then I’ve kind of found my way back on stage every so often, even when I’d transferred schools at thirteen. There were stage plays, dance competitions, instrumental performances, and everything else in between that made it so natural for me to be affiliated with anything connected to performing arts.

Being able to stand in front of an appreciative audience is, in itself, its own high. I remember being up there dancing, representing my school as a member of the St. Scholastica’s College High School Dance Club and feeling so inexplicably happy hearing people cheer wholeheartedly. It’s kind of addictive, actually, in that I recall feeling sad whenever I don’t get picked to perform for certain events because my skills weren’t at par with the others that were chosen. But after a while, I realized that working behind the scenes also had its perks and one need not be in the limelight all the time to feel fulfilled.

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Ikaw, paano ka naging Leading Lady?

Saturday night proved to be a fun night for my sister and I, along with some friends from high school and my previous job, as we all trooped to PETA Theater to be part of Kung Paano Ako Naging Leading Lady‘s opening weekend. Since we have been re-introduced to the world of original Filipino musicals by way of Maxie: The Musicale in 2013, we have always looked forward to new productions and tried our very best to set some time and money aside for a dose (or twelve) of theater culture. For this year, this is the second original Filipino musical I’ve seen, the first being Ballet Philippines’ Manhid: The Pinoy Superhero Musical, which was staged at the CCP Main Theatre from February to March.

And now we have been treated to a second superhero musical, and oh, how I loved it. 

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