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Saturday, October 06, 2007

Preparing for a Children's Play

My friend Sam is taking up music and is almost finished. She only has to finish her thesis. Actually, she had a choice to either have a piano recital, or write a manual for teachers on how to make musical plays. She chose the latter because she didn't think she could handle the stress of a piano recital. We were in a coffee shop a year ago when she started the outline of her play. Back then, she was planning to ask the students of the College's night school (working adults who want to finish High school) to participate.

This school year, she started working "part-time" as a music/PE/home economics teacher in a Montessori School for special education children. When the principal learned about her thesis, the montessori school offered to produce the play, with their "grade school" students participating.

She's been very busy with school and work since June that we mostly communicated through text. In a reversal of roles, I am now the one usually asking her "what's up?" ... before she started working, she was the one asking me that question. Ha ha ha!

Her text messages when asked how the play was doing:
Nsa skul ako ng LPMS den un 1 musician we wil compose & notate d musical scores 4 d musical play. Ingat
Sent:
21-July-2007
10:04:14


Practicin but wla pa s porma kc readin ng script p lng kmi. Bz s activities ng skul. Review ako ng board exams 4 teachers aug 26 n un. Aug 14 un proposal defense ko. Hay hrap maging teacher
Sent:
31-July-2007
18:32:21


Gud am. Forgot 2 info u we hev rehearsals starts at 930am to 12nn. Tsalamat (sic)
Sent:
6-Oct-2007
06:32:07


After rehearsals this morning, the students were sent home. I wasn't able to make it their rehearsal. I was there lunch time, thinking that Sam and I would grab a bite in a fastfood or somewhere else. I didn't know that they had lunch prepared in the school. After eating, the teachers began making the props, and I helped a bit. My only real contribution though was help crumple the newspapers and suggest stapling them together in strings before gluing them to the manila paper. Most of the time though I was just filming them and taking pictures. :-) Not that I didn't want to help... they only had one glue gun and three brushes.

Making the bird's nest:


When they decided they were done for the day I treated them all to a McDonald's burger meal. Sam was supposed to meet her mom at 4pm but we were still in school by that time. While eating, I finally figured out why Sam wasn't that enthusiastic to meet her mom ... she was going to be dragged to a speed dating event. To her chagrin, I laughed really hard.

After leaving the school, we (Sam, her co-teachers and I) dropped by a diner/bar. They all ordered beer. As I couldn't learn to like the taste of beer, I thought I would taste Ginebra's latest drink: Infinity - which actually is a line of mixed drinks in four flavors. I think I ordered strawberry tequila, but no Infiniti drink was available at the time. I bought Sprite instead. Funny thing was, when we asked for glasses with ice, the beer drinkers got real glasses and I got a plastic one. I joked that it made me feel like a kid amongst adults.

After one round, we separated. I accompanied Sam while she bought some materials for the props and batteries for the lapel mikes. She saw a rack with arnis sticks and bought a pair as well (practicing would be a stress reliever, she said). We headed to Starbucks after that for coffee (and counteract the beer Sam drank). We got around to talking about her folks ... specifically her mom's current obsession with having a grandchild, which also means rushing Sam to get married. I told her that if she ever felt like writing another play, and this time for adults, she should base a lead character on her mom. We both thought that would be a fun character.

We were only halfway through our coffee when Sam's friend Perry called her up to invite her to an impromptu birthday party he and his friends decided to celebrate while they were in a car. Since we were already near a mall, Perry asked Sam to buy crispy pata... then called again to ask her to buy junk food, iced tea and grandma. Sam was really puzzled by the last one til I pointed out he meant Grand Matador brandy. It was raining when Sam and I parted outside SM South Mall ... Sam to meet Perry and his friends, and me to go home. Sam was actually in a mood to hit Perry with her arnis sticks by then because she had to commute while carrying two bags of groceries, while it was raining.

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