Jane Doe's Mask: The Last MASCKSerade

- February 24, 2012, Friday,

- Nervousness prevailed the auditorium as the performers frantically re-ran their own parts, or did their costumes and make-up. The call time was 6am, and I went to school with Ian and Andrew since we lived close by.

- The teachers were right - this was one of the plays that we were quite "unsure" of, which added to the eerie nervous atmosphere. We all weren't able to practice a lot in the auditorium this year, which might have resulted to space-related-calculation problems and situations like that. Still, we tried our best to pull things off.

- This year's play was "Jane Doe's Mask," a play written by club vice-president Clarice, and me. The story was about an actress' conflicting identities between her on-screen and off-screen self. The story was built around the English Department's suggestion of an "Awards Ceremony"-themed play.

- My main on-stage role in the play was the conductor for Moulin Rouge's "Your Song," originally composed and sung by Elton John, rearranged in the 2001-movie Moulin Rouge, and rearranged once more by me for this play. I also played a bit of piano for "The Masquerade" segment. Last, but not least, I was surprisingly an awardee in the play. I got the "Loyaly Award." I only knew about it this morning, although I did smell something fishy during the last few days. (Thank you very much MASCKS, you don't know how much this means to me.)

- I had a tough morning going up and down the stage and returning endlessly from backstage to front to deal with matters such as costume, photos, violin-tuning, and the like. Directly after my awarding though, it was nice to see and relive a bit of Yah Dharma Ke Pyaar, our summary of Ramayana way back in 2007. I, together with MASCKS adviser Ms. Nica Isip, have chosen the right people to play the characters in Ramayana.

- I was also proud of my singers and musicians in Moulin Rouge. My days of torturing the, telling them to sing loudly, and making them smile all the time (which, as for me, resulted to minor face cramps) had been fruitful. The musicians were superb, and were alert, despite some mistakes that happened along the way.

- The two runs seemed OK, not entirely perfect, but I guess I can say that we gave our best. Ms. Nica and Clarice' speech during the curtain call nearly teared me up, if only my brain wasn't too busy telling me to take nice photos of the curtain call at the end of the second show.

- We all had a quick lunch at the HE room soon after, and the participants had time to rest; they were excused from their last-period English class, and their first-period Chinese class. Everyone hung out at the auditorium, taking pictures here and there, and it was decided by some to hang out and eat after Chinese classes.

- The second-period bell rang not long after, and the students had to go to class. As for me, I went off to do some work in the high school library, and later, in the School of Music. I waited for the dismissal bell to ring, and met with some of the cast at the lobby. They decided to hang out at SM San Lazaro, since it was near, and had a lot of choices for us.

- I was expecting a big group, but the "sort of after party" ended with just the six of us: Justin, Singson, Cleo, Camille, Thomas, and me. They decided to watch "Jack and Jill," a comedy movie starred by Adam Sandler (as both Jack, and Jill.) The movie was mainly about the lives of twins Jack and Jill, their similarities, differences, company, love, friendship, and family. Although I wouldn't give the movie an A, or a B+, I definitely think it was a good movie to watch for families, or for us, since we just had a long, tiring, and sweaty day.

- In the end, we decided to have dinner at Shakey's in near my place - the very place we were avoiding that afternoon. (We felt that eating at Shakey's for a celebration was a bit overrated for people/students studying/living around the vicinity, but it was the most convenient place so far. We didn't want to stay long in SM anyway.)

- I treated the six of us, and gladly there were just a few of us, since I couldn't possibly treat a large group. Although the other guys refused to let me pay, I insisted. They all deserved to be pampered today - from all the stress, nervousness, sweat, and effort. MASCKS will always be with us, no matter what. As for me, the MASCKS legacy shall live on as an imprint in CKSC history, an influence to talented students.members, and a future to wait as a product of the members' innate greatness.