Category Archives: Stage Play

The Guest & Typhoon Yolanda …On Christmas

The Guest & Typhoon Yolanda …On Christmas

Typhoon Yolanda hit (and I mean it, really HIT) the Philippines last Nov. 8, 2013. Who never heard of its devastating effects? Who never helped? Who never prayed? Who never cried? Who never mourned? ….We all did…The whole World did…The typhoon brought us all together as one BIG FAMILY….

Help was overwhelming….prayers were said out loud….care was outpouring…ears were extended to listen….arms were held to comfort…stories were told to unleash….tears were shed…

After one week…it made me think though….if we were able to extend this kind of help now; why do we find it so hard then to pray…to help….to care….to listen….to comfort…….on an ordinary time requiring extraordinary compassion?

The Philippines suddenly became an overnight sensation….international news correspondents came over to cover stories…

In the middle of all of these…somewhere in the far end of the world…in a small and probably less popular city…(it wasn’t hit by the typhoon badly so it didn’t make a name…)…a story is about to unfold..a story of a little girl…an orphan girl…who is, by the way, a wonderful reminder that we could and can actually extend help and care even without a typhoon…another wonderful reminder that even after a devastating catastrophe like typhoon Yolanda, we are still fortunate…fortunate and lucky enough to have our family….our love ones…

Orphans are a tangible reflection of the fear of abandonment that all humans experience. Orphans are at once pitiable and noble. They are a manifestation of loneliness, but they also represent the possibility for humans to reinvent themselves. Orphans begin with a clean slate because they do not have parents to influence them either for good or for evil. They embody the hope that whatever the present situation, it can change for the better. When orphans succeed against all odds, their success ultimately becomes ours. We can look to orphans and say, ‘You see, there is hope for all of us if even this orphan child can overcome obstacles and succeed.’

You see…even if we probably lost everything during the typhoon; there is still HOPE… a HOPE THAT WHATEVER OUR PRESENT SITUATION, WE CAN CHANGE IT FOR THE BETTER or must I say for the BEST…

It is the story of Ally, who despite her present situation manages to keep the spirit of Christmas alive in her heart…..and because of that she will have the best Christmas ever…she will have a wonderful GUEST…a GUEST who will bring her gifts…GIFTS that she will need to battle life’s challenges in the future….and in the end, she will have the BEST GIFT ..the GIFT of FANTASY….for a moment she will have her Father once more…

She will be visited by her childhood heroes so to say…Princess Jasmine, Ariel, Mulan, Belle….and finally baby JESUS…as represented in by a visiting Nun…

Jasmine: Oh by the way I brought you something..a gift…a gift of HOPE .. I am hoping myself too that one day I will find the world I am looking for…and I wish that one day you too will find a place in your heart to hope…to hope that your wish would come true…

Ariel: Thank you.. it was fun……and I also brought you a gift….a gift of DREAM…remember to dream …I always do. ….it is only in our dreams that we make our wishes come true…

Mulan: Its Christmas I know…..that’s why I brought you something…something that will keep you goin.. ….something that will help you make your wishes come true….COURAGE I too have moments when I felt the need to conquer my own fears….but…fear not…remember to be brave even in the presence of fear…

Belle: (turns to Ally) Like Jasmine who brought you HOPE, Ariel with her DREAM, Mulan bringing you COURAGE…little Ally I am also giving you this …a gift….a gift of WISDOM… the wisdom to see the real nature of our wishes… the wisdom to even make it happen…who knows you’ll have a moment with your father soon… its Christmas…just believe .. it will happen.

The Guest…My dear Ally I come to visit you tonight to present you with favorable gifts that you will need to equip yourself and battle life’s challenges…..you have never abandoned me even if you were alone… you have believed in me even if others don’t…you have made yourself happy on every Christmas eve even if you are unhappy for the rest of the ordinary days… you make sure it is special by being joyful…even if being joyful means embracing being alone …I can’t thank you enough….thank you for all the days you wished for Christmas eve….thank you for all the nights you wished upon the stars….thank you for all the time you spent listening to stories of other people even if your story is left unheard…..and finally thank you for taking time with me tonight and the rest of my angels…

   Then BELIEVE…..believe in what your hearts says….it speaks the truth..it sees something our naked eyes don’t see…and to you my dear Ally…I also brought something for you…a gift..a gift of FANTASY…

You see…nothing really is impossible ..so long as we believe in our dreams…..

And oh by the way…did I say…”The Guest” also braved through a storm?  Yes, it did…After the devastating effects of typhoon Yolanda, classes have been canceled…activities have gone through “over-hauling”….and yes….as fearful as we all were…”The Guest”  hit a road bump….it was supposed to be canceled…so many reasons…so many inhibitions…so many tangled versions…so many confusions…

I spoke and said “It doesn’t matter whether we cancel or postpone the show…but it’s breaking my heart  to witness that we are about  to tear apart the innocent dream of every little girl in the show…their dream of making their parents proud of them by seeing them on stage (for some, for the first time)..it will be heartbreaking to see that a nonperforming student’s (who made the cut by auditioning) only chance of making her parents proud of her before she graduates is about to be curtailed….and when everybody else went on a semestral break holiday, the whole cast did not; they were joyfully attending the rehearsals; they sacrificed their “out of town” holiday trips…”

And like the Philippines who went through a devastating catastrophe (but is showing off great recovery); “The Guest” too has gone through a catastrophe of its kind..(but now..standing still and will be …”The Guest” on Christmas..)

As someone said, when we are one in our cause for the young the devil will find a way to break us all apart…but thanks heaven, he did not succeed…and as we HOPE we also believed in PRAYERS…

Thanks to all those who believed in making the impossible possible; those who believed in dreams do come true; those who believed in the magic of Christmas (no dice, there is magic in Christmas…most of what I have and what I am …were products of Christmas eve wishes)…  those who believed in fairy tales; those who believed in the innocent dream of every child…

This is a show that will make us all HOPE again…This show is a manifestation of the fact that HOPE is far stronger than COURAGE…..A show that says…in HOPE we can be the BEST in everything we have and even in everything that we don’t have…

A story that will once again showcase and embody the Salesian spirituality of being one with the young joyfully…

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P.S.

….Keep on HOPING…keep on DREAMING….have the COURAGE …have the WISDOM…and for a moment …BELIEVE…BELEIVE in FANTASY, in FAIRY TALES…Who knows…FAIRY TALES sometimes do come true on CHRISTMAS EVE….(I once wished upon a star on Christmas eve….and it did come true,,)

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Hark the Herald Angel – the musicale

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Henry van Dyke said, “Use what talents you possess; the woods would be very silent if no birds sang there except those who sang the best.”

On an ordinary October afternoon, a group of Mazzarellians, after a casting audition, were chosen to play the roles of singing angels for St. Mary Mazzarello School’s first-ever Christmas musicale.

Nearly all of them could NOT sing or dance.

Two months of intense practice later, December 21, 2012, six o’clock PM—on the exact night and around the exact time when the world was supposed to end but didn’t end, Hark the Herald Angel, a heavenly musicale that was performed live.

Hark asks… “But how can our big God, ever fit into a tiny baby?”

Anya being Hark …Or, in my personal case, how can someone who can’t even sing, possibly play the lead for a musical?

Gabriel invites… “Let me take you to a place called HEAVEN, where everything is perfection!”

Den being Gabriel…And, for me, the musicale really did take us—actors and audience both—to heaven. It was heaven where everyone did their best; where the pressure from all sides pushed us to produce an exciting performance no one was going to forget any time soon.

The angel choir director breaks her silence… “God wants this choir to sing the greatest announcement that has ever been

made!”

Carl being the choir director…Truly, on December 21st, 2012, the world did not end as the Mayans predicted. Instead, the world was awakened to the true essence of Christmas—the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ—by our angelic musicale.

The cast was uncertain about the play at first, but after the whole experience, they didn’t regret a thing, and, in fact, they’re all looking forward to the next one.

THIS WAS LAST YEAR…Indeed, another Musicale is coming….. SOON

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