2 groups I’d have auditioned for - DIRECT LINE by Boy Abunda

Some of my most cherished memories in life are those when I was peddling my artistic gifts – singing, dancing and acting – around various theater groups in Metro Manila. I swear, I thought I was a versatile performer. I later discovered that much of this was imagined. When you’re hungry, you often see stars. I often saw a galaxy. But it was fun, real fun. I wouldn’t have gotten into the Metropolitan Theater had it not been for my fierce belief that I had enough talent to do a gay Hamlet or, if anybody was interested, I would have dared to do Antigone, not Creon. I would pretend to be intense and wild – traits of a brilliant actor, I was told. I hanged around with young people who also had nothing but crazy dreams about being actors and directors.

Today, most of them are still my true friends. We were a bunch of angry young poets – in search of sunsets and grasshoppers and a society not of dead ones but of one that would give us jobs. But whether we had plays or musicales to do, we moved around like relatives of Laurence Olivier – hanging around in wings waiting for our turn to be on centerstage. In my thick waray accent, I would read for Tagalog plays – most were Palanca award-winning materials – like I was Chinggoy Alonso reading for Higgins’ part in My Fair Lady. I would dance, kick, sway and turn like I was trained at the Bolshoi and I would sing Dahil Sa ’Yo, like the song was composed for me. Oftentimes, I would not be cast – but I would remain steadfast – that the right material would come. I would offer false excuses like, "They needed a tenor, I’m soprano kasi," everytime my name would not be listed in the bulletin board of the theater.

Looking back, I don’t know how I got to where I have been and to where I am now. I simply moved with the flow – laughed more than I cried. I would even laugh during bad times because there was no other sensible thing to do but laugh. And I prayed like there was no tomorrow. God was good. He is always good and strangers were kind. Like Blanche Dubois, I depended on their mercy – many times during the darkest hours of my life.

I may not have become a great actor but God knows I tried. I tried very, very hard. But I was a dismal failure. I decided to do other things.

Here are two groups – The San Beda High School Glee Club and the Bayanihan – two companies I didn’t audition for. Looking back, I wonder why.

If I didn’t, here’s your chance to catch a spirited performance of the San Beda High School Glee Club and your divine opportunity to be part of the Bayanihan. Read on.

The San Beda High School Glee Club will hold a concert billed Ciento on Feb. 16, Friday, 8 p.m. at the Centennial Plaza of the San Beda College. The concert which also features as guests The San Beda Boys Choir, The GC Alumni Group and the St. Scholastica’s College High School Glee Club is in celebration of the Pistang Sentenyal ng Santo Niño Sa San Beda and the coming centennial of the San Beda College this June 2001. Ciento is the culminating concert of the group following a nationwide tour which covered 10 cities all over the country.

The San Beda High School Glee Club started in 1959 with the Rev. Dom Isidro Otazu, OSB as moderator and conductor. Then came Erlinda Alvano, Fr. Manuel Maramba, OSB, Ms. Herminia Hernandez, Mrs. Aurora Carrcon, Ms. Judy Valera, and the present conductor and musical director, Ton Ton Africa.

The GC Generation (GC which stands for Glee Club and its members) started in June 1986 when its present conductor Ton Ton Africa came back to teach music in the high school department. Tonton, who himself is a Bedan (HS ’82 and Grade School ’78) graduated from the UST Conservatory of Music with a Bachelor of Music in Composition.

The present batch of the San Beda High School Glee Club is composed of 13 young boys who have gone through rigid and rigorous training and who have endured the challenges of being a GC member. As the Fr. Rector Bernardo Ma. Perez, OSB says, "The San Beda High School Glee Club has become a highly disciplined, versatile, and expressive singing group that is the pride of San Beda College."

Ciento by the San Beda High School Glee Club on Feb. 16 is open to the public.

Meanwhile, the Bayanihan Philippine National Folk Company announces the start of its Search for New Faces for the year 2001.

Since its inception in 1957, the Bayanihan has earned many "firsts": the first folk dance company to perform at the Winter Garden Theater in Broadway, the first non-American dance company to perform at the Lincoln Center in New York, the first dance company to make an in-depth tour of South America and Russia, the first Filipino dance company to perform at the World Showcase Millennium Village EPCOT, Disneyworld, Florida and the first and only dance company to receive a Ramon Magsaysay Foundation Award for International Understanding and two Rockefeller Brothers Grant for research.

Its forthcoming US tour under Columbia Artists Management this September will feature both the classic repertoire and new works in dance and music. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for young dance enthusiasts to experience and be part of the Bayanihan Tour. The invitation is being extended to female applicants, must be single, 15 to 23 years old and at least 5’3" in height, and male applicants, must be single, 17 to 25 years old and at least 5’8" in height. All applicants are required to bring two 2x2 photos and a certification from their school or employer. Training starts immediately. (For other details, call Lilia Castanarres or Maricel Ignacio at tel. nos. 525 1685 or 536 8602.)