The Thing About Newbies

Tags

bluerep, happiness, how can I even, newbie, personal, tribute

I think the best thing about being around newbies is that interesting feeling – you think you know so much about something, yet you still manage to learn something as well. When I was asked to do a cameo for this year’s blueREPERTORY newbie production, I just figured that I’d be hanging around, watching them blow me away or bore me to death. Once again, God manages to surprise me and throw me completely off-course.

One of the things I loved about this production is the fact that my Freakshow newbies are finally all grown up. It’s crazy; it seems like yesterday when they were the bright young faces of blueREP, eager to learn and to perform like it was what they lived for. Now, they’re the ones taking charge and taking care of the newbies, teaching them everything they know, things that I could have possibly taught them and things that I really think they learned on their own. It’s like a mother watching her children walk or ride a bike for the first time without her help. It was such a beautiful sight, and I’m glad to know that one way or another, they are doing just fine after we graduated. Special mention to my babies, Aldrich, Lara, Boo and Prince – you guys did it, and you guys did it together! 🙂 I have never been prouder of my children the way I am so proud of you guys.

L-R: Prince, Lara, Aldrich and Me. Boo, where were you!?

Another thing I loved was, well – the current newbies. I admit at first I didn’t really warm up to them; I didn’t think I would have to interact so much with them except for Jenna because she would be my daughter. Little did I know that I would be more involved with them than I ever thought I’d be. From talking to them about how they imagined Camp Ovation to be, to intense tech week rehearsals and fighting for an energy that would be beyond our own capabilities, to exchanging stories backstage and improvising about different things in the play, they slowly inched their way into my heart in a way reminiscent of the Freakshow newbies themselves, and even to some extent, me. I think a big part of why we got along so well was the fact that they were willing to share parts of themselves with me – their talent, their sense of humor, the energy that pops off like anything offstage (which I think should have transcended even MORE onstage), and everything in between. I enjoyed every minute of my three-week stay with these guys, and before I knew it, they were calling me “mama,” hugging me, laughing at my bitchy comments and making me cry at the end of the production. I feel so privileged to witness the last bit of growth that occurred during the production, and I am happy to say that great things should be expected of them if they continue to open themselves to the learning experiences in blueREP. This is just the beginning, guys – don’t close yourself off from learning even more. 🙂

Thank you so much for the amazing experience. I am so happy to have worked with you all, and here’s to hoping I get a chance to work with you all again in the future. 🙂 You guys may be my third set of babies, but I do love you all tons. ❤

Hey, Summer Campers! 🙂

For My Maggots

Tags

happiness, honesty, love, newbie, personal, tribute

Meet the Black Prom newbies.

These are my little monsters. These are the kids who ruined my life, simply by entering it. Last September, I had 27 reasons for nearly going bald from pulling my hair out – editing their write-ups, fixing their faces, going insane over promoting their damn show and eventually doing their sounds with the sexy tech booth. And now, I have 27 reasons for pulling my hair out because I’m going to miss these lovable bitches so much.

Coming fresh from Little Shop of Horrors, I plunged into being the Promotions Head for this year’s newbie production, Black Prom. I didn’t hear much about the newbies (except they were major fans of LSOH hihi), but I heard they were pretty interesting. I started passing by their rehearsals and watched them grow from terrified, blueREP newbies to confident and passionate actors, all the way to that record-breaking 250+ audience in RMT.

I’ll be honest when I originally thought I wouldn’t miss them much when I first met them. I figured that I wasn’t really close to them anyway, so come March, it would be easier to let them go. But now, with graduation looming around the corner, I find myself in tears backreading Twitter conversations, looking at old pictures and promos and recalling all-too-fond memories of last September.

You guys are worms, you hear me? You just slithered your way into my heart in a way I can’t even understand. I’m going to miss the affectionate way you call me Mama, even if some of you guys weren’t even in Aida. I’m going to miss the hugs and the high-pitched voices,  the cheesiness that seems to run rampant between you guys and just everything. I actually started singling you guys out, but I erased it because THIS IS HOW I’MMA DO IT:

(In no particular order, really)

Jo: >:D< >:D< >:D< Hello, neighbor! I’m definitely going to miss those conversations we’ve had through the window, laughing over WoW. Thanks for all those late-night eats with David. Definitely gonna miss those. Stay active in blueREP, and remember – Carrie, will you go to the prom with me? 😉

Trice: One of my elitist daughters – I remember that one night you, David and I ended up eating in Batcave and making kwento about anything and everything under the sun. I’m really going to miss you. You are a good promoter, honey, and I hope you continue in that committee and performing some more with blueREP. I am so proud of you, and I love you. :* 🙂

Rio: Hi love! I’m going to miss you. 🙂 Thanks for the food (those truffles were amazing), lending me your high heels, the bonding sessions we had in my house over FIC or Treat. Continue practicing and growing in blueREP. 🙂 Stay active, sweetie!

Dei: IT’S PRAYING CARRIEEEEE. Hi, you cutie pie! >:D< I remember you most for your adorable high-pitched voice and “Hi Ate Cassie!” Hihi. So cute. I can’t even think of anything else because it kind of makes me want to squeeze you. You’re so talented, sweetie! Continue giving your passion to blueREP. I’m sure you will grow and thrive here. 🙂 I’m going to miss hugging you, hun! xo

Hanna: I can’t believe you’re in blueREP! I don’t remember being in chorale with you (I’M SO SORRY), because it was either I was on my way out and you were auditioning, or I was already there and terrorizing you all. Hihi. But congratulations for getting in blueREP and in Aida (hihi)! Keep performing, because you’ve come a long way from being a choir kid to this. 🙂 I’m so proud of you. 🙂

Bits: Bittleeeessss!! 🙂 You’re so cuuuuute!! HAHA. Yun lang sinabi e. >:D< You’re such a talented dancer, and I hope that in the future you keep dancing for blueREP *coughBDUcough* I’m definitely going to miss you because whenever I see you, you give me awesome hugs. You’re like a little ball of sunshine. I’m sorry if we didn’t get to know each other as much as we could. 😦

Micah: Hello, my child! 🙂 I don’t see you anymore. I really hope you still manage to stay active in blueREP even after your newbie prod. 🙂 I hope that you’ll be able to grow some more in this org, and if not, in whatever you choose to do in the future. 🙂

Julia: Hello to you too! 🙂 I don’t see you as well, so I hope you continue to stay active in blueREP. 🙂 Know that there are many opportunities for you and everyone else to grow, and I’m sure it will be a pleasurable learning experience. 🙂 Break legs!

TENTEN OBILLO: You’re in all caps ‘coz you’re just that fierce. Remember, you coined our AIDA sign!! HAHA. 🙂 I’m gonna miss you, my baby! I remember your debut in Aerie where I had to speak and I was so sabaw and I didn’t even know what to say. But what you should know and always remember is that you’re a fierce, talented girl who deserves to grow even more into the craft. 🙂 I hope you stay passionate for singing and for musical theatre, and I hope you continue to grow in blueREP. 🙂 I know we could’ve gotten so much closer (but we still have this week and next to bond over crazy things). I LOVE YOU. 🙂

Pauline: Neighbor in Alabang! Hihi. 🙂 From the moment I heard you, I wanted to tell you that your diction was amazing. Your tweets are so hilarious, and I’m definitely going to miss seeing you every once in a while in the blueREP room. 🙂 Hope to bond with you more (and I have a feeling this is already beginning :3).

Dane: Eww. HAHA. Just kidding. 🙂 I miss you! I will really never forget your performance – probably because you say my name in the play a ton of times, followed by a hilarious black man sequence – and I hope that you continue performing with blueREP. I also hope you don’t give your future sound people stress the way you did me during the lapel checks. HAHAHA.

Claude: OH EM, ISA KA PA. I am so proud of you, anak! Core after your first year with blueREP?! WHADDUP?! HAHA. Ikaw na talaga. Thanks for being such an awesome TD, and awesome props to you for stepping up – Black Prom, FIC or Treat and now core. 🙂 So proud of you and what you’ve become. Love you! 🙂

Aby: YOU’VE GOT THAT ONE THING. You know it. You really light up my world like nobody else. 😉 HAHAHAHA. Will never forget you talaga. 🙂 😀 LOVE YOU AND YOUR TALENTED VOICE.

Raya: Hello, fellow PAREF girl! 🙂 I remember the first time I met you, I saw bits of myself in you. You are so happy and vibrant (something I was pre-Bare ’09) and I’m really glad that you always seem to be in high spirits. 🙂 Stay active in blueREP, and I’m so proud of you and what you’ve become. I love you, dearie. 🙂 I’ll miss you!

Rissa: DUDE. SERIOUSLY?! (Haha obvious ba na ginawa ko ‘to like, after I saw you?) I didn’t know you were that bubbly, and it makes me wish I was at your rehearsals more often to see it! You are such a patootie! >:D< Hahaha. 🙂 Hope to see you perform again soon, and I’ll definitely miss you! Love you more than our common TV shows!!

Tintin: YOU. I’m gonna miss making fun of you (teyhey, chos) and listening to your beautiful voice. Such a big voice coming from a small girl, it’s amazing! You’re really talented, and I cannot wait to see you perform again in another blueREP prod. Stay active, okay? 😀 I’m going to miss you! :* Love you. 🙂

Joyce: Your tweets make me laugh, and sometimes you’re so cute talaga! You really remind me of my twinnie (Ea) and I’m so happy to have met you. 🙂 Stay cute and bubbly and lovable, okay? And I definitely want to see you perform again! I’m gonna miss bullying you in the most affectionate way possible. Love you! 🙂

Asami: Split for me one more tiiiiime! Hihi. You’re so cute also; you’re like a damn Pokemon. Glad to have met you! Hope to see you perform soon. 🙂 Will miss youuuuu. 😀 Love you!

Tricia: I’ll be honest – I won’t miss you. KIDDIIIING. >:D< Hehe. But really, seriously, I expected something else from you, and you exceeded my expectations and more. I’m really proud of you and what you’ve become. I’m sure that I will be seeing more of you in blueREP productions, and I can’t wait! I’m going to miss you and your sweet personality. Love you, dear! :*

Jake&Bardo: I DON’T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO SAY TO YOU GUYS EXCEPT I LOVE YOU BOTH SO MUCH AND YOU GIVE ME SO MUCH HOPE.

Jaime: YOUR DICK JUST MOVED. Just kidding. :> HEHE. I’m really going to miss you. You are one of my kids who definitely inherited something from me (they don’t call me Crassie for nothing), and I’m so proud of you. You’ve got amazing talent and I really hope you use it more often. 😀 I’m gonna miss you; love you, you weirdo. 🙂

Migo: ANAK KO PANG ISA. >:D< Heh. You’re leaving na rin e. :)) Pero mamimiss kita. :> ‘Lam mo na yan! Parang hindi ka rin newbie eh. :> HEHEHE. Love you!

Wrench: OH EM. HAHAHAHAHA. >:D< I love you so much, and I am so proud of you. Thank you for dealing with my psycho Promo-ness and crazy errands, my weird rants backstage during Bare and just for EVERYTHING. You are so amazing talaga, and you have no idea of how much of an asset you are to blueREP. I hope you stay and continue to serve the org I love so much. >:D< LOVE YOU.

Tin: YOU. OH MY GOD. From the moment I met you, I knew that I was going to love you. HAHAHA. You are so amazing; I seriously bow down to your talent. I’m so friggin’ proud of you. 🙂 I’m gonna miss you, from you saying PROOOOM to me to our Provago partnership and just – GAH. I’mma text you when I’m in Singapore, praying you’re there to take me around! I love you :*

David: There are no words for you. Really, there aren’t. I’m so happy I met you. Thanks for all the late-night conversations at MyPlace, for the company when I need it and everything else in between. 🙂 I’m gonna miss you so much. Know that I believe in you and what you’re capable of doing, so here’s to our friendship and hoping it won’t end. 🙂 Love you!

Gab: Our batch baby and our little PAREF kid. :3 I love you, sweetie. You’re really one of the sweeter kids in this batch, and I’m really glad I met you. Thank you for confiding in me, thank you for constantly supporting me and thank you for just being awesome in general. 🙂 I’m going to miss youuuu!

Meg: I can’t even – you’ve grown up so much. You were just that little freshman with the big hair and the big dreams, and now here you are. I’m so proud of you and what you’ve become. You know that I’m going to miss you to pieces, and I’m sure that this isn’t goodbye. I love you, you talented girl, you.

Aina: We’ve come so far from high school. Honestly, when I found out you got into blueREP, I didn’t know how I was going to approach you. I really did want to be friends at that point because you were a newbie, and on that fateful day when I finally added you on Facebook, I knew that there was no turning back. You, stay responsible, bubbly and happy, okay? 🙂 I’m so proud of you, and I’m really really going to miss you, sweetie. 🙂 I love you!

Carlos: Haha. Di ko pa kaya mag-goodbye sa ‘yo. Sorry.

I love you all to bits and pieces. I just can’t. I really can’t let you guys go. So please, please – don’t forget me either. 😦

To the newbies –

Tags

bluerep, happiness, newbie, passion, tribute

I had no hesitations when I applied to be a blueREP parent. To be honest, I was excited at the prospect of being a mother figure to the young and eager beavers that joined blueREP. So when Roxci announced that I was one of the blueREP parents this year, I nearly died of happiness. I think that was probably me finding out I was pregnant with you newbies.

I don’t know if you heard about this, but usually there are batches called the ‘lemon’ batches – the batch that comes after the epic batch. I got into blueREP with a ‘lemon’ batch, because we were the batch after All Shook Up and a lot of them stayed active. I honestly didn’t believe in ‘lemon’ batches because I thought that so many of my castmates were talented and fabulous. To this day, some of the oldies you know came from the Rock n’ Rule batch. We’re not lemons at all. And of course, come Freakshow batch, I guess there was a stray thought in some people’s minds that you guys were going to be a lemon batch too. I admit that I thought about it, and I’m happy to say that I was wrong.

Never forget that you guys got into blueREP because firstly, you’re talented, and secondly, you’ve got heart. I’ve seen the Freakshow batch grow and I admit they’ve got heart too, but there’s something about the way you guys give to the production that touched me deeper than I realized. There’s something about the way you dedicate yourselves to your production and to each other that warmed me up all the way to my insides and reminded me of what it was like to have a family. I’m touched that you guys incorporated me in yours as one of your mommies, especially to the kids who call me ‘mama’ even if I’m not really your mom anyway.

I’m so blessed that I met each one of you, and I hope you remember that this really is just the beginning to your wonderful journey with blueREP. I am so proud of each one of you, watching you grow slowly into the amazing production that I gave a standing ovation for come closing night. I am glad that you guys persisted with blueREP, and I’m glad you guys came out of it together as a strong, united batch. So from the bottom of my heart, thank you for loving blueREP and the people in it.

And sincerely, I love you guys. 🙂 Congratulations.

 

Newbies.

Tags

bluerep, newbie, origin, passion, personal, Roxci deserves a tag, Tina deserves a tag too, tribute

It’s that time of year and that time in the blueREP season where you reminisce.

BlueREP’s Black Prom, the newbie production, is just around the corner! Only two weeks have passed since Little Shop of Horrors and yet the organization is already prepared for the next one coming along. I must say, being involved in Black Prom as the Promotions head has taken its toll on me both physically and emotionally. Thankfully, I have an amazing team backing me up and very supportive core members (TinaRonne) who remind me of my duties and responsibilities. Let us not forget my lovingly overbearing production managers Tine and Tricia, who constantly bug me about my deadlines. I honestly don’t mind, because it really keeps me on my feet. But yeah, I digress from my point.

Because Black Prom is indeed closer than we all realize, it reminded me of my newbie production two years ago. Having done Bare previous to that production, I thought that I was immersed in a different kind of blueREP culture, since that group of performers had already done their newbie prods. Thus, a higher expectation of professionalism was required, and that was what I was exposed to. I thought that as newbies, we were expected to be just that – clean and professional, yet slightly fun at the same time. Although my newbie production lacked in professionalism, I must say that I adored my newbie production just the same because of the friends I met there who changed my life and who remain constant in my journey as a blueREPPER.

I remember constant conversations on the phone or in person with Roxci, who is still one of my closest friends to date. I remember making up random choreography for songs with my alternate (and really, my superior hihi) Tina. I remember awkwardly shifting back and forth when the boys would have to dance against me in all their disgustingly sweaty glory, and laughing when I eventually got used to having them in such – well, intimate proximity. I remember all my late-night dinners (not coming home earlier than 11 in the evening, mind you) and “deep shit” conversations with Rob and Abi till 1AM.

Honestly, I see our batch more in the newbies now than with the newbies last year. We were called that batch in between – the batch that was talented, but wasn’t as epic as the year before. Sure, it did hurt us at one point, but at the end of the day, our batch (at least the active ones) were still standing proudly as the newbies of 2009, and we wouldn’t have had it any other way. However, we were really bonded as a whole – and I can definitely see that in the newbies now. Since I haven’t seen them perform yet, I am not sure what to say about their talent. But since they’re blueREP newbies, I’m sure that they are epic, one way or another. 🙂

For those who haven’t reserved their tickets yet, I really suggest you go and watch Black Prom. You may not know it, but you are part of this epic first-time experience that stays with a blueREPPER until he or she graduates. They may remember all the productions they’ve been in, but there’s a certain feel to a newbie prod that is never really replaceable. Hopefully, you get to watch this production and enjoy every bit of it the same way our newbies do when they perform for you. 🙂