having passion

artist rendition of dino ignacio for his 33rd bday!
i went to my friends bday bash/bindlestiff fundraiser last night and had a pretty good time. it was nice seeing everyone to chill and play wii :) didn't get back til 2am which felt like it was still only 10pm. i was happy that everyone enjoyed the drinks that i brought - smironoff ice - grape! everyone kept saying that it was yummy :)

had a really good convo with KC. we talked about theater and i thanked him for his working with SP to get their PCN off the ground... on the day of their performance! i'd be freaking out! but at least they got it done and despite all that happened, i'm still proud of em for pulling it off. i don't know any of them personally to hate them, and i'll leave it at that, but nonetheless they pulled it off. i really hope that it keeps going. i also talked about my plans for theater in sac, and he's agreed to help out! can't wait to get it off the ground!

i also talked to g. i just love to be around her period. we talked about a couple of things, but she said something to me that, if i could, would've made me blush. she said that she saw the passion i have when i performed. honestly, i've NEVER thought of myself that way, even though i just try to be. i guess it's just because i have the most passionate people/artists as friends that when i see all of them perform i'm in awe. not only in their performance, but in their passion. and now for someone to say that to me? it was nice... and hearing it from her.

family

i went out last night with a co-worker who's leaving for LA. he's a really GREAT guy, who works so hard, yet doesn't stress out like other people... which stresses me out. at any rate, we went to palomino's for happy hour. crowded. and then we went to do re mi for karaoke. it was fun. i LOVED their sound system in their rooms. of course, i sang all boy band songs - well just BACKSTREET BOYS! in between songs, i was just watching the group with me - all friends and co-workers of kevin. this was honestly the first time that i was in a group where i was the only filipino/minority... well can't really say minority cuz all the other guys there were gay. but it was cool getting into my flow with BSB.

but yeah, i started to think about my friends - whom i think of as really my family. so as i sat there watching people singing madonna songs, i was missing some people. i felt bad at the same time, cuz this voice in my head kept telling me, "dude, your here for Kevin!" but i just kept thinking of the peeps above. PLUS my Sinag Fambam too.

becoming a playwright

becoming a playwright has been 13 years in the making for me. i started writing in 1994 when i wrote a script for the filipino club i was associated with. "ang palengke" started out of a very visual dream i had. i saw all these characters who worked in a marketplace in the philippines and the story was about all of their dreams. i remember physically in the garage of my parents house writing the first draft. what started out as basically writing down everything that exactly happened in the dream, turned into a story that added onto itself. a very weird feeling came over me and something very unexplainable until i recently talked to others who felt the same way i did. nonetheless, i finished the script, had the pcn coordinator and others read it, and on mother's day 1994 had my script produced. what's running through my head was the production process. that was the first time i directed anything as well. and mind you this was BEFORE joining Sinag-tala, so I DIDN'T HAVE A CLUE what i was doing. and if you read the script, which is odd, cuz i haven't read the script in a couple of years (it was just by happenstance that i saw the word file on my other harddrive) you'll see how novice i was as a writer. back to the production stuff, i was 22 at the time and i think that was the first time i really stepped into a leadership role. it was then when i also found out what kind of producer/director i know myself to be. i casted about everyone who asked me for a part. BJ was introduced to me by some other folks and I casted him for a part i don't think i even wrote yet. i had to tell a person, actually a key character, that she was out of the pcn because she missed rehearsals and never really felt like she wanted to be with us. then i cast a person who i was a little iffy on about but she did REALLY well. there was A LOT of things that changed between when i first thought of the story to what became on stage, but going through all of that... i found my purpose in life.

i already went through 4 years of college and here i was just FINALLY realizing what i wanted to do with my life, which kind of shows how (in)valuable college can be for some of us. and I'm talking about this now because it's been 13 years later, and i'm finally realizing this "calling." in a month, i'll have a public reading of my first full one act play. "ang palengke" was 17 pages long... "Garden of Dreams" is 55.

Finally FINISHING "Garden of Dreams" has been a long road. i had just finished having my first 10-minute play "BORDERS" produced by Bindlestiff, but it was still after the death of my dad and one of my best friends. The combination of writing and these events shaped this script, so the story just means so much to me. I started the play as a tribute to my friends, and this will remain at it's core. But, this play also signifies the beginning of a solid foot forward on my path. Just in the last month, I've been blessed to have taken some classes by AMAZING and established playwrights in Jeannie Barroga and Philip Kan Gotanda. In total 4 sessions with them. And I've learned so much from their techniques, advice, and experience.

I'm proud to say that "Garden of Dreams" is my first official play. It took me a year-in-a-half to write, but this play was truly 13 years in the making.

theater...

the more and more i'm getting into this journey and realization that i need to be a playwright, the more and more i'm falling in love with the theater. i just love to be around it and thinking about it. i love watching plays and musicals. i love being around other people who love theater. i'm actually reading more books on how to be a playwright as well as listening and watching podcasts produced by the American Theater Wing on playwrights and their views on being a playwright. it's like a course in it, i'm like diving into it head first.

i'm still up re-writing my script, Garden of Dreams. Yup, i've shortened the title once again, and maybe 85% sure that this title will stick. I have a writing workshop with PKG tomorrow at his place in berkeley, where i am more than ready to be torn to shreds! i have a couple of things that STILL doesn't make sense to me that i need to iron out before sending this script to my cast. a couple of questions:

- why doesn't DOC want to help R.J. right away? Actually, I kinda have this answered. It sucks cuz i had to cut out one of my lines that I really loved, but it needed to be done :(
- i want to build more of Jasen's character. It started out that he's fine without having any direction in life while R.J. is the complete opposite, yet they are still best of friends. urgh, this isn't making sense, but it's something i want to explore.
- i hope that the new scene between DOC and R.J. will work without it being to cliche. we'll just have to see.
- build R.J.'s arc. that's a little harder to grasp, but it's definitely rollin' around in my noggin.

yun lang. that's it.

i started this idea from my "writer's matchbook". it's a book FULL of really short phrases or plots that will start a fire of imagination for a writers next work. anyways, here's the idea that's sticking and burning to be read... "a man and a women find a bloody knife underneath their staircase" that's it, but i have an awesome story for it... START WRITING! :)

oh.... i'm gonna see avenue q with a good friend next week :) love the show and i hope she likes it too! night, inkernet!

Take Me Or Leave Me... Scene

This is a exercise on taking a monologue from a musical and remixing it as dialogue between two people.

===================

Take Me Or Leave Me
Adaptation from Jonathan Larson’s RENT


MAUREEN
Joanne, what’s wrong? I didn't stay and dance at the Clit Club last night, 'cause you wanted to go home...

JOANNE
You were flirting with the woman in rubber!

MAUREEN
That's what this is about!? There will always be women in rubber, flirting with me... Gimme a break.

JOANNE
Maureen, I’m asking you to remember that you’re with me.

MAUREEN
There is only you.

JOANNE
Then don’t flirt.

MAUREEN
What? That’s a part of who I am.

JOANNE
A skank?

MAUREEN
But I’m your skank.

JOANNE
That’s exactly what I mean. Can’t you take yourself seriously? Can’t you take US seriously?

MAUREEN
I am serious… just not all the time like you. Pookie, can’t we just have just have fun?

JOANNE
Don’t call me Pookie!

MAUREEN
What?

JOANNE
All I’m saying is that I want to be yours, and not some nickname that you call all your other skanks.

MAUREEN
Where’d you hear that from?

JOANNE
From Mark. Your ex-boyfriend told me that you called him, and apparently all the other people you slept with, Pookie.

MAUREEN
Fine. I won’t call you Pookie anymore!

JOANNE
And no more flirting with women in rubber.

MAUREEN
Again with the rubber women! Joanne, I walk down the street and men, and women too, yell out, “Hey baby! You lookin’ sweet!” I can’t help that.

JOANNE
Well, you don’t have to acknowledge them.

MAUREEN
What would you have me do just walk on by?

JOANNE
Yes.

MAUREEN
Just in case you didn’t hear me the first time (Pantomimes sign language and speaks) “This is who I am!” I will stop and say hi and let them know me, something that you just don’t get.

JOANNE
I know who you are because that’s what attracted me to you in the first place when I saw you on stage. But do you ALWAYS have to be in the spotlight?

MAUREEN
And be a droll, yet lovable, geek like you? Jesus, why do you have to be so anal?!

JOANNE
Well, this is who I am. I make lists in my sleep. I follow through on my promises. And also unlike you, I need to see what I’m leaping into instead of just putting on a blindfold, wear a stupid smile and just jump.

MAUREEN
You didn’t mind the blindfold the other night. (pause) My point is that every night I’m in bed with you and that should at least count for something. Don’t you see how lucky you are?

JOANNE
Lucky I am?! Me? Lucky? With a mess you?

MAUREEN
Alright, that’s it! I quit! (gathers some of her stuff) All I was asking was for you to take me for who I am… and you couldn’t even do that. I’m leaving.

JOANNE
Fine!

MAUREEN
I’m gone!

MAUREEN exits.

52 Cents

52 Cents
by Conrad Panganiban

Raining. Market and 6th Street in San Francisco. THEOLONIUS is on the street corner with a box of broken umbrellas.

THEOLONIUS
52 cents. 52 cents! Stay dry for 52 cents!

Enter MAXIM as he tries to take cover from the rain holding a Wall Street Journal over his head, talking on his cell phone and trying to hail for a taxi.

THEOLONIUS
52 cents, Mister?

MAXIM
(on phone) Brigid, can you tell the candidate that I’m running late to start her interview? (pause) I’ll be there in 10. Okay. Thanks. Bye.

THEOLONIUS
52 cents, Mister?

MAXIM
Sorry not today.

THEOLONIUS
I’m sellin’ not beggin’. 52 cents for an umbrella?

MAXIM
52 cents?

THEOLONIUS
That’s including tax.

MAXIM Picks up one of the umbrellas. Opens it to find that 2 of the brackets are bent broken.

MAXIM
This is shit.

THEOLONIUS
That’s what you call it. I call it a cover for the top half of your body against the elements, otherwise known as an umbrella. And despite some of it’s flaws, it’s worth 52 cents.

MAXIM
It’s worth almost nothing because it’s broken.

THEOLONIUS
It ain’t broke. It still opens up and happily functions to the will of it’s owner… like protecting that finely gelled quaff of yours. It might not be much but it will have a purpose and I’d have to admit that that purpose is worth 52 cents.

MAXIM
What’s with the 52 cents?!

THEOLONIUS
The cost is a penny for each year I’ve been alive, which I’d have to say is more than nothing.

MAXIM
Look, I’m just trying to catch a cab.

THEOLONIUS
No, you’ll be catching a cold if you don’t buy one of these here umbrellas for only…

MAXIM
52 cents. I get it. If anything, I’d have to admit that you’re persistent.

THEOLONIUS
This is my job. One of the only things I have left in this world since I’ve been living out here for the last five years.

MAXIM
You mean here in San Francisco.

THEOLONIUS
And meaning here on a bench in Golden Gate park, a doorway on Geary, or under a tree near the 80 on Howard.

MAXIM
Sorry, man.

THEOLONIUS
Sorry for what? You didn’t force whiskey down my throat when I did have a home, a family, and a job.

MAXIM
What’d you do?

THEOLONIUS
I was in Realty. How’s that for irony? A homeless man who used to sell homes. And I was damn good at it too. So, I guess that’s where my persistence comes in… speaking of which, that paper of yours is starting to leak.

MAXIM
52 cents?

THEOLONIUS
You know the price.

MAXIM takes out his wallet and pulls out a couple of dollar bills and a business card.

MAXIM
Here’s a couple of dollars and here’s my card. I could really use a persistent sales person.

While THEOLONIUS looks at the business card MAXINE hails and gets a taxi to pull up.

MAXIM
I better get going, Mr...?

THEOLONIUS
Macabenta. Theolonius Macabenta.

They shake hands

MAXIM
Nice to meet you Mr. Macabenta. I’m Maxim. Give me a call.

As MAXIM enters the taxi, THEOLONIUS grabs an umbrella and gives it to MAXIM.

THEOLONIUS
Almost forgot to take your umbrella.

MAXIM
Thanks. Hey, I was wondering, what do you do when it’s not raining?

THEOLONIUS opens up his jacket to reveal a collection of sunglasses.

THEOLONIUS
Can I interest you in some sunglasses? Only 52 cents.

THE END

Workshop

Well I just got back from the workshop with the playwright above - Philip Kan Gotanda. This was one of the best workshops I've had and this is without any writing! We got to basically pick his brain about how to write a play.

One homework assignment was to write a 30-page play and we'll break it down for our next meeting. Luckily, I had "A Dance..." with me, so I turned it in. And for the first time, i'm confident with it. I'm not saying that it's good, or that this particular play is something that is a masterpiece, but you know what? it's mine. it's the story that i wanted to write and it's done... for the most part. there's still more i need to work on, but it won't matter how much he tears it apart - i don't really care cuz the way i look at it, i did it. i wrote a play. and it's just the beginning!

Avenue Q

Again on one of my whims, me and my sister went to see Avenue Q tonight at the Orpheum. It was opening night and the crowd was abuzz. (I always wanted to say that.) I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. Just sayin' cuz I got the soundtrack a couple of years ago but seeing it on stage was amazing. Plus knowing how cool it is to work with puppets is rad! The story moved very briskly. I wasn't even shocked by any of the rated-R stuff in the show cuz it served a purpose.

the cast was incredible! starting off, Kelli Sawyer stole the show for me. She played two different roles, sometimes at the same time, while the very cute, Minglie Chen, held one puppet, Kelli would do the voice of the puppet she was handling. And her voice! OMG! she belts out some amazing notes. and her expressions while playing Kate Monster is memorable.

Another standout is Robert McClure. He played Rod and Princeton. Both with not only two different speaking voices, but with different singing voices as well. I also loved Christian Anderson. He was trekkie monster, Nicky, and Bear. Which leads me to 2 of my favorite puppets in the WHOLE SHOW - the bears! Both played by Christian and Minglie :) don't wanna spoil it, but they stole the scenes they were in!

Overall, the story held up a lot better than I thought it would. The pace was brisk and one song just flowed right into the other.

have a busy day tomorrow, so better turn in. before I go, here are some pics from the SF cast of Avenue Q: http://broadwayworld.com/viewcolumn.cfm?colid=19211

night!

i know, i know... i'm leaving now

well, i was supposed to leave a couple of hours ago to do some work... at work. but i wanted to post this up as a reminder to me.

i just saw this wedding video of a couple... that didn't have anything to do with their wedding. giving me ideas though:
http://videos.imacron.com/2007/06/06/beauty-and-the-beast.aspx

here's also the BEST PHOTO MONTAGE i've EVER FRICKEN' SCENE! and i thought i've seen it all! http://videos.imacron.com/2007/06/05/a-view-from-the-top.aspx

plus, i'm adding more wedding videos to my playlist on youtube from an awesome director/editor: Jason Magbanua.

here's the link to his videos: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=B2A5383EEA48F38F

as i find more, I'll add to this list. alrighty, hope everyone has a great day!