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By Maia Fortich-Poblete
MimaiScribbles

I grew up listening to and watching a lot of musicals. In the 70s, we listened to a lot of albums (vinyl) including musical soundtracks of fairy tale favorites like Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. We also had a long playing album (LP) of the complete songs from Sesame Street.

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In the 80s, we spent most of our free time watching musicals on betamax. I remember watching “Singing’ in the Rain”, “Showboat”, “Oklahoma”, “South Pacific”, and of course, “The Sound of Music”. This was when I began to love anything with songs, dances, and theatrical action.

When I was in high school at Liceo de Cagayan (pioneering HS batch), we had a special speech and drama class in our sophomore year. This further heightened my interest in the performing arts. Every time we were asked to do a skit or a play, my classmates would turn to me for the script. I, in turn, would ask help from my mom (the late Chic-Chic Nery-Fortich). She helped me come up with stories for our dramatic presentations.

In our junior year, the school finally decided to create a dramatics club. Then we joined the interschool play festival organized by the Bai Lawanen Jaycees. Our school mate (and my cousin), Happy Ballesteros-Raagas, was awarded as Best Actress of the festival. She shared the award with Dr. Melody Bautista-Monsalud, who represented Lourdes College High School.

The following year, as 4th year high school students, we were again tasked by the administration to represent the school in the play festival. This time around, our dramatics club was already formally recognized by the school. We named our group CampRep, short for Campus Repertory. That year, we staged an adaptation of “New Yorker in Tondo”. Our version was called “New Yorker in Patag” and it headlined my cousin, Josine Quimpo-Gray.

We also held our own play festival during the Liceo Foundation Days in February. If I remember it right, we staged three original plays – one drama, one musical, and one comedy. We presented them at the Liceo Little Theater, which was located in the area where Rodelsa Hall now stands.

All these high school adventures are responsible for inculcating in me a genuine love for the performing arts. From then on, I became more exposed to plays and musicals. I started dreaming of going to Broadway.

In college, I took up Mass Communication because it was the field closest to performing arts. I passed the UPCAT and was qualified to enroll in Theater Arts, but in the Baguio campus – and my parents and grandmother didn’t like the idea of me living that far from them. No regrets though, as I had some of the best times of my life at St. Joseph’s College, Quezon City. It is there where my love for performing arts was further strengthened. SJC-QC gave a high value on the performing arts, so we were exposed to a lot of plays, musicals, and even variety shows.

I was also part of a theater group when I was a MassComm student at Far Eastern University in Morayta, Manila. I even performed in two plays – “Ngit-Ngit” and “Taal”.

In the 90s, when my mom was writing for the Lifestyle section of the Philippine Daily Inquirer, I accompanied her a lot. One of my most memorable experiences was my mom’s interview with Lea Salonga after she was cast as Kim in Miss Saigon. I was smiling and wide-eyed throughout the interview. It was like I was already on Broadway!

Anyway, earlier on in my college life, I helped my mom stage an original Binisaya musical called, “Ay, Kasing Kasing Ko!” The story was loosely based on my maternal grandparents’ love story and featured several songs written by my Papa Titing (Vicente Nery), my mom’s musician-father who used to work as a movie accompanist (he put music into movies).

That play was staged for several weekends at the (now defunct) Manila Metropolitan Theater Dalubdulaan. It starred, among others, Jograd de la Torre, Angelique Lazo, Lou Velose, Felindo Obach, and my cousin Jing Sabalza-Alde. We staged a CDO version of the musical at the XU-Little Theater in the summer of 1989.

After my mom’s musical, I rested for a bit and focused on writing and talent management. My friends and I set up a talent management agency called Athenaeum (along with the late director and talent manager Del Pascual). Some of our talents were Shintaro Valdez, Dang Cruz (of Home Along Da Riles), and Giselle Sanchez.

To introduce our talents, we came up with an original musical play that featured them in different roles. I remember writing some of the songs for that play; too bad I can’t find copies of them. Anyway, we called it “Panibagong Pagbabago” and it was staged at the Manila Metropolitan Theater.

It wasn’t a financial success, but I still cherish every moment of that experience – and of all my theatrical experiences. Even today, most of our plays do not really earn much – just enough to pay for the rentals and expenses. But that’s pretty much the sacrifice you make when you’re in theater. It won’t make me rich, I know. But I am proud to say that all my experiences – all the shows I’ve been a part of, whether financial and artistically successful or not – have helped shaped the person that I am today.

After “Panibagong Pagbabago”, I did not stop joining theatrical productions. Despite the fact that I knew it won’t make rich or even financially stable, I continued. Because theater gives meaning to my life.

This is why I’ll continue staging The Vagina Monologues, Lima: HIV Monologues, and all the other plays we at Oro Teatro Bulawanon come up with.

This is why I’ll keep doing what I’m doing even if some people do not believe in what I can do.

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