Disappointed by how your life is turning out? Anxious about the future? Thinking your dreams may never come true?

Have we got a story for you!

No matter how many times you've heard this story told, there's nothing like experiencing it from one of the most successful musicals in local musical theater history--Trumpets' "Joseph the Dreamer". Somehow, Webber and Rice's broadway hit "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat", entertaining as it was, has never been able to capture the beloved story's true essence, nor did it ever inspire and change lives as this version continues to do.

NEWSFLASH!

If you've never been able to catch Trumpets' longest running hit, or just want to experience it all over again, here's some great news--an all-new, fired-up "Joseph the Dreamer" will run from September to November at the SM Megamall Cinema 4 stage.

This run features a fresh, young cast who will simply take your breath away with their youthful enthusiasm and energy. I'm sure the "old" cast (ahem, ahem) can still hop to the old groove, but you gotta see this bunch move! The familiar strains of "Praise His Name", "In Moments Like These", "One Song Is Not Enough", "Mae East", and "You're Everything I Need" have been given that extra punch audiences of ALL ages are simply going to take to heart and take with them wherever they go.

I have a special place in my heart for this musical as I have managed to slip into several of its key roles at one time or another in its very long run:




Another exciting update is that the show now boasts of two new Josephs--Franco Laurel (a Trumpets alumnus from the musical "Honk!") and Alvin dela Peña, our brand new company president. Alvin is an inevitable choice, as there seems to be an unspoken tradition in Trumpets where actors who play the title role of Joseph eventually get voted company president! Go figure! Recall how the very first Joseph, stalwart Audie Gemora, also became Trumpets' first president nearly two decades ago.

Here are some celfone snapshots from the recent press conference held at Uva Restaurant, one of the show's major sponsors...
















CATCH THE SPECIAL TRUMPETS & PLAYSHOP REUNION SHOW OF "JOSEPH THE DREAMER" ON SEPTEMBER 9, 2006, AT 7PM. ALL PLAYSHOPPERS ARE ENTITLED TO A DISCOUNT! FOR DETAILS, PLS. CALL 636-2842. SEE YOU THERE!

Just concluded an exhausting gig as both writer and performer for a telecom giant this week. Hope these photos don't show the strain, because I was just about ready to drop by the time I got to the venue at around 7am. . .after getting home past midnight the previous evening! Good thing my good friend and long-time co-performer Johann (dela Fuente) brought his iBook backstage. The entire ballroom was wi-fi capable and we chatted with friends online while the show was going on. Strange, but fun. The pics below are a bit dark and grainy. Johann's Photo Booth program still did a great job, though, in capturing the rock 'n roll madness backstage inspite of the darkness. Ah, yes--rock 'n roll. That was the event's theme, and we tried our best to look the part!

All my life I’ve had a penchant for striking the oddest friendships with the oddest people. Odd, not because they’re weird in any way, but because they have something that makes them stand lightyears apart from ordinary folk.

Two, in particular, come to mind: J and F. Both are difficult, overbearing, outspoken and irreverent men. Both are stylish and outlandishly witty, with a wry sense of humor. Both have a formidable command of the written and spoken word. Both are absolutely brilliant (and I do not use this adjective lightly!) in their respective fields--and boy do they know it! And most telling of all, both can hold my attention for hours on end. These two have never met (and would most probably hate each other on sight if that day ever comes), but I have had the rare privilege of enjoying a unique friendship with each of them for a good many years.

Strangely enough, they seem to enjoy my company, too. A case of opposites attracting, I suppose. There’s no other explanation for it. I am certainly not idiosyncratic and overbearing (not in public anyway!), nor am I brilliant or even wry. My writing is adequate and competent at best. And I usually have the attention span of a flea. So whatever it was, it clicked, and here we are—still in touch somehow.

I guess the true test of friendship is how it stands against the odds. Take those two. One is constant but often strained, the other quietly fading away. And there is the small matter of me--the much younger and more impressionable party--outgrowing them both as I approach the age they were in when I first met them.

Both started out as complete enigmas to me (and thus the initial attraction), but that impression is now little more than a poignant memory. I finally saw through some of the shadows. I know how to be a friend to them now.

I do still admit, however, to a stubborn attachment to the one I haven’t seen in 14 years. J and I practically spent every day together for nearly 2 years before he left the country for good. I disagreed with half the things he said, but I was drawn to every word nonetheless. Manila had become too predictable and limited for his rich, tortured spirit, which was just aching to break free of its shackles. And so he followed his heart all the way to New York City, and has not looked back since. His leaving all those years ago affected me deeply. You could even say it broke my heart. It isn’t everyday you find a truly kindred spirit who can change your perspective of the world by just being his own, uncompromised self. Sure I was wide-eyed and naïve, and he was much too worldly and maybe even a bit too lost to have been a worthy influence. But he did allow me a tiny glimpse into his shadowed soul, and that was enough to leave a mark on me forever. Even in those uncertain years, he saw something in me that I wouldn’t see myself until much later. We wrote each other literally everyday for many years after he left. Age and distance may have now left a few cracks in my trusty ole’ rose-colored glasses, but my eyes still light up whenever the mailman comes a-knocking. In the age of email, no one else would send me letters in this personal way.

Several years later, F came into my world. Stormed would be a better word. My professional theater life had just begun, a turbulent chapter to say the least, and he was right there in the middle of it. Anchoring it, some might even say. Right or wrong, I listened to this man and began to look at things as if through Alice’s looking glass. Everything suddenly seemed upside down and inside out. It was an uncomfortable perspective, but one that taught me how to be a better theater artist and writer. I’ve disappointed myself more times than I would care to count, but F continues to believe I have something worthwhile to offer the world. Such affirmation has helped shape who I am today.

And so goes my brief reflection on a region of my life I rarely visit. It all just came to me yesterday when J emailed me this self-portrait, one of two photos he sent...




It is very him. Funny though, he used to hate to have his picture taken and avoided it like the plague. There's a new tattoo in there somewhere that he designed himself, he tells me. My friend is still revealing himself in shadows, I see. He says the photos are his flimsy and futile way of painfully getting over a shattered heart.

To me, this photo says that maybe we’re not drifting apart after all. Maybe we’re merely moving on to another plane of friendship. I'm just happy to know that inspite of the broken heart, he is out there, healthy and thriving and living life the way he could never live it here. The letters are few and far between these days, which makes them even more precious. Even so, that’s still more than a lot of friendships have.


Photo credits:

suit: Giorgio Armani
shirt: Christian Dior Homme
tie: Hermes
belt: Dolce & Gabbana
shoes: Ermenegildo Zegna Couture
dogtag: Dolce & Gabbana
jeans: Alexander McQueen
wrist cuff: DSquared
sandals: Tom Ford for Gucci
ink rendering: Byron
photography: J Moran