More Angels

And speaking of angels on earth, I had four of them help behind the scenes of my PhilPop production number.

My dad calls my friend Chad Arrieta my sidekick and with good reason. We've been close friends for many years now (we met at Zebedee Zuñiga's birthday party many years ago - the start of a story of a fan turning into a friend!) and I've dragged him along to many places and events.  He's my laugh buddy, stylist, tech support, and lots more.

He shot and painstakingly edited this behind-the-scenes video of "Bigtime."

Aside from contributing his ideas for the look (even choreography) of my number, it was also his idea, upon seeing the dress I was planning to wear on Finals Night, for me to wear a high ponytail. "Lagi ka nang nakalugay sa photos mo eh."  Good call, Chaddyboy!

Chad is also a blogger and has featured me on his site before.  He's got lots of interesting entries, too, in his video blog Ambush Online.  Do visit it!

Makeup was done by another friend of mine, a fellow Ateneo College Glee Club alumna I knew as Ginna Jarantilla years ago, who is now Ginna Desuasido.  A few weeks before PhilPop, Ginna gave me a call because she had just lost her father-in-law.  I put together a small group to sing for the wake.  I got to talk to her then asked if she would do the makeup for my PhilPop number, and she was excited about it.  I told her the concept of the song, and she knew right away what to do.  "So ang iniisip mo, mala-Pearl Harbor and Dita Von Teese?"  "Exactly!" I said.  She did an excellent job.

And yet another friend from the Glee Club who contributed his own expertise was my friend Onyl Torres.  Having made the decision to choreograph the number myself since I had a pretty clear idea anyway of what I wanted, I sought Onyl's help for blocking and improving some of the steps as well.  I was lucky Onyl managed to squeeze in time for me despite his hectic schedule.  Aside from theater work, he's been busy putting together Sing@Ning, a singing contest by the Manila Peninsula.  Here we are at the press conference for the said event, for which I will be one of the judges next month. (That's Only on the right and Tim Yap in red on the left.)

It was Onyl, too, that introduced me to his friend Raven Ong, who does all these lovely costumes for Repertory Philippines (I think he's currently working on The Wizard Of Oz).  He was an enormous help for me!  He came to one of our choreography rehearsals, measured the girls, showed me a sketch of the costumes he planned to have made based on pegs I gave him, and he did all the work of looking for the materials and having them sewn, brought the costumes to us, made necessary adjustments... all at a very reasonable, presyong-kaibigan price.  Heaven-sent talaga! 

The 1950's-inspired costumes looked perfect on stage.  Raven, I cannot thank you enough for your help in making me realize this dream production number!  I'm so glad to have met and worked with you.

Love and gratitude to all my angels!

TO BE CONTINUED...