It’s another installation of Link Love, the first for this month. The theme for this edition, beginnings.

• UAPak!!! takes over where The UA&P Campus Paparazzi and The UA&P Insider left off. Yup, the two blogs mentioned - you might remember them from older editions of Link Love - have joined forces to give you news about UA&P. By the way, UAPak!!! is just a week old.
• InXane Reality writes about the insanities of daily life. One such insanity - moving to a new office.
• The Kultura Blog welcomes you. Yes, that’s another blog that has just started. Unlike UAPak!!! though, this blog doesn’t have a whole lot of content built-in. It should grow soon though.
• A bit dated, but Shai Coggins is going has gone offline to have a baby. Yeah, I know, it’s old news, but it fits the theme, right? You can see pictures here, by the way. Finally, something about a new life, not a new blog.
• Going back to blogging, Jayvee has started BugCasting. I’ve got to ask him now, is that the proper verb form of BuggedCast?
• Pinoy.Tech.Blog wishes the Philippine Internet Connection a belated Happy Birthday. Yup, the Philippines made its first net connection over a decade ago on March 29, 1993. I admit, that’s even more dated than one of the earlier items.
• Yes, I’m plugging myself again, but this is important. Since last week, I’ve been using my real name when blogging. You can still call me (and link to me as) Elber if you want, but I’m using Luis for practically all of my correspondence.

Tags: link love, UAPak!!!, uapak.com, uapcampuspaparazzi, theuapinsider, Shai Coggins, Jayvee, abuggedlife, podcast, buggedcast, bugcast, pinoytechblog, Philippines, Luis Cruz

I have pictures of Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo up! Yes, I got out of the tech booth and got my hands on a camera. Mind you, these were all shots from one show. I don’t have any shots of rehearsals, company call, or other behind the scenes images.

Can’t wait to see them?

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The last two shows for Kultura’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest are today. Since my camera is in the shop, I don’t think I’ll be taking any more pictures. Besides, I’m still stuck in the tech booth. In any case, below are all the pictures in my gallery for the run of the play. I might still add some soon, but don’t bet on it. I’ll probably only get to shoot more when we resume rehearsals for Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo. That will run starting February 21. Enjoy!

Tags: Kultura, The Importance of Being Earnest, gallery, Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo, Canon, EF-S 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 USM, EOS 350D

Kultura’s production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest kicked off last Saturday, officially marking Niccolo Manahan’s return to the Kultura stage. I could show you pictures of the show, but I don’t think they would do the show justice - you should watch it for yourself. Besides, I don’t have any.

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Tags: Kultura, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Niccolo Manahan

Kultura’s production of The Importance of Being Earnest is now running - and my first few pictures are up. You can check them out at my gallery. I took this first batch during our dress rehearsals, and I’ll add more to the gallery as I finish sorting through the hundreds of images stored on my drive.

Yes, there are only five images so far. That’ll change though. Like I said, I’ll add more as I sort through my raw shots. One of these days, I’ll probably upload everything that went into my camera, but not here. I guess I’m a perfectionist in that way - snapshots do not go to my gallery, Flickr or deviantART. There are, and always will be, exceptions, but for the most part they stay away. They are usually destined for other sites.
Going back to my shots from the production, you can find them here. Enjoy!

Tags: Kultura, The Importance of Being Earnest, gallery, Flickr, deviantART

I’ve mentioned it before and I’m plugging it again now. If you’re looking for some entertainment, I suggest you watch Kultura’s double-staging of The Importance of Being Earnest and Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo.

“Earnest” will be running from the 10th until the 17th. “Seryo” will run from the 21st to the 28th.

You want more details? Click on any of the links above. You want cast pictures? Click on the image on the right. No, I can’t take credit for these images - only for compiling them here. I will take credit, however, for some shots of our rehearsals and performances. I’ll have them up soon.

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Tags: Kultura, The Importance of Being Earnest, Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo

Kultura stages Oscar Wilde’s

The Importance of Being Earnest
&
Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo

On the heels of its successful staging of Yazmina Reza’s Tony Award-winning play Art, Kultura presents another ground-breaking theatrical experience: a double production of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest. The original play in English will be presented alongside a new Filipino “transplantation” of the same play, entitled Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo. “Earnest” will have a 10-show run from Feb. 10 to 17, while “Seryo” will have a 10-show run from Feb. 21 to 28. Both plays are co-presented by JVC Everio Hard Disk Camcorder G Series.

Subtitled “A Trivial Comedy for Serious People,” The Importance of Being Earnest is Wilde’s most popular and successful work. It became an instant hit when it opened in London in 1895, and went to be generally acknowledged as one of the greatest comedies of all time. The play tells the story of two wealthy young gentlemen who escape responsibility whenever possible. Both masquerading under the name of “Ernest” (or “Sergio” in the Filipino version), they manage to win the love of their respective sweethearts, who both claim they could only love a man with that particular name. As expected, chaos breaks out when the truth is revealed, and the characters become entangled in a series of uproarious mistaken identities.

[more…]

Tags: Kultura, Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest, Ang Kahalagahan ng Pagiging Seryo

In what will probably go down in Kultura history as the most memorable show ever, the cast and crew of Art have proven that regardless of the circumstances, the show must go on.

The evening show on the 20th was moving along smoothly. It was, in fact, turning into one of the best shows in the run. From a technical standpoint, it was damn near perfect. With the exception of a minor mistake handling one of the microphones, as well as a tiny power fluctuation that dimmed the lights just enough for me to notice, it was the cleanest show so far.

From the audience perspective, it was even better. For some reason, I felt like this audience was a lot more involved with the play than others. They laughed more, yes - but everybody laughs during the show. What seemed different was that their laughter was more contagious - at some point, I almost fell on top of the tangle of wires powering our lights. What proved to me that this audience was different, however, was their collective “aawww” during one of the scenes. I had always thought that was an “aawww” moment, but none of the other shows had gotten that. They’d elicited giggles, but not the “aawww” I was looking for. This show was different - of course, I didn’t know how different it would be until later.

At some point, just after the most physical scene in the show, the lights dimmed. They immediately powered back on, then dimmed - and this cycle repeated another time before we were plunged almost totally in darkness. Each time the lights dimmed, I heard some loud noise off in the distance. I didn’t want to say it at the time, but I knew the power wasn’t coming back on - at least not for a while.

We made some announcements and tried to figure out what to do. Since most of the surrounding buildings were in the dark, we knew we couldn’t rely on the city’s power grid. We had generators in the building, but the operator wasn’t around. We had to make do with what little light we had. We made another announcement, we made do.

It’s a good thing our play has only three characters. You see, we ended up using three lights bright enough to light them up - a flashlight we borrowed from one of the guards, and an emergency light (with two bulbs) we took off the wall. I’m also glad one of the former technical directors for Kultura was there - she helped me light up our performers.

I’m not sure if it was just the circumstances surrounding us or if it was really the audience, but the applause last night seemed louder than usual. Right now, I don’t really care. Things may have gone horribly wrong, but the show did go on. Our systems may have failed, but our performers soldiered on. Heck, the city may have been plunged into darkness, but everybody involved in the production helped to make sure that at least in the tiny space we call our theater, not to mention the path leading out to the exit, things remained bright. We lit up the place, not just with with our borrowed lights and our cellular phones, but with our enthusiasm, our smiles, and our performances.