The Book of Faith: Director's Cut
28th February 2014
6:00PM
Theater class holding room
Second floor, right wing
Upon entering the room, I saw my students almost all geared up for the production. The sight of it gave me plain happiness and excitement. Twenty minutes was all I had to prepare and look my best amid all the "stress" (if that's what I had to call it) outside the holding room. I wore my black dress and my favorite piece of neck accessory and put on "stage make-up". As in any production where I'm in charge, I would always say, "Kailangan mag-ayos para kahit stressed, at least feeling ko maganda pa rin ako!"
6:25PM
Assumpta Theater, House
Adrenaline was all over the place! I could remember hearing some panicked voices shouting/whispering "Start na daw! Start na!!!" I went down the holding room, head strong, all made up and walked along the stage with the curtains closed. I managed to settle down at the right corner of the house just a few seconds before the opening prayer started. Technical script, check! Communication system, check! I put on the headset's earpiece on my right ear and the walkie-talkie's earpiece on my left. The moment I did that, it was GAME ON! Two separate earpieces, one production team. That's what it was all about for the next hour, at least for me. I honestly did not have the chance to appreciate the entirety of the production except for the AFCS Hymn part - thank God, because that was one heartfelt moment for all the Faithians!
February 27th
Around 10:00AM
AFCS
The production team (from theater class) were gathered inside the chapel. Crunch time! It was the crunch time of all crunch times I have ever experienced! It was the day of the final rehearsal. And it was also the day that I impressed in my students the reality of the production. Without sugarcoating, I straightforwardly told them that our production will not pass MY standards or maybe that of our expected audience. I think I also had to blurt out the word "panget" because that's how I really saw it. I knew we needed more practice, one or two more weeks of whole-day practices, maybe. But then again, what we have is a day to smooth things out. That hour was very crucial. But that was the BEST part of the entire production, if you would ask me. As one family, we prayed. One by one, we found our perfect spot, sat down, knelt and just positioned ourselves at the foot of Christ. It was a very humbling moment. We prayed for our specific roles, from the technical team, to the actors, the audience, and down to the smallest detail that we could remember.
That moment was one of the few that I would really treasure. I shared to them my conversation with God the night before that. I was asking Him, "Why is it like this, Lord? How come they are not delivering according to our expectations? We might get a lot of criticisms after the recital at the rate we are going. For an entire school year we gave our time for these students so why am I in the middle of a half-baked production?" Those were hard-hitting words, I know, but I really chose to tell all because what I said next is all that mattered. That same night, God confronted me with such powerful reminders about what He can do.
28th February 2014
Around 8:30PM
Assumpta Theater
The show was almost over. Emotion check: ecstatic. True enough, there was a lot (by that I meant A LOT!) of setbacks that I have noticed while the whole thing was rolling: videos that did not play properly (crucial scenes were cut unexpectedly), students who did not enter the stage on cue, backstage audio glitches, props, audio and lights that did not work out pretty well, and an entire team in black that would best fit these two words: used up. But at the end of it all, who would not marvel at God's great work? This was AFCS' first time to stage a production as big as that. The Book of Faith was actually a LEAP OF FAITH! The Lord is faithful and has blessed the whole community with an experience that they will never forget. Personally, this is a milestone that I would always look back at whenever I'd want to be reminded of God's Sovereignty and Grace.
It was all GRACE and GOD'S GRACE alone!
TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!
6:00PM
Theater class holding room
Second floor, right wing
Upon entering the room, I saw my students almost all geared up for the production. The sight of it gave me plain happiness and excitement. Twenty minutes was all I had to prepare and look my best amid all the "stress" (if that's what I had to call it) outside the holding room. I wore my black dress and my favorite piece of neck accessory and put on "stage make-up". As in any production where I'm in charge, I would always say, "Kailangan mag-ayos para kahit stressed, at least feeling ko maganda pa rin ako!"
6:25PM
Assumpta Theater, House
Adrenaline was all over the place! I could remember hearing some panicked voices shouting/whispering "Start na daw! Start na!!!" I went down the holding room, head strong, all made up and walked along the stage with the curtains closed. I managed to settle down at the right corner of the house just a few seconds before the opening prayer started. Technical script, check! Communication system, check! I put on the headset's earpiece on my right ear and the walkie-talkie's earpiece on my left. The moment I did that, it was GAME ON! Two separate earpieces, one production team. That's what it was all about for the next hour, at least for me. I honestly did not have the chance to appreciate the entirety of the production except for the AFCS Hymn part - thank God, because that was one heartfelt moment for all the Faithians!
February 27th
Around 10:00AM
AFCS
The production team (from theater class) were gathered inside the chapel. Crunch time! It was the crunch time of all crunch times I have ever experienced! It was the day of the final rehearsal. And it was also the day that I impressed in my students the reality of the production. Without sugarcoating, I straightforwardly told them that our production will not pass MY standards or maybe that of our expected audience. I think I also had to blurt out the word "panget" because that's how I really saw it. I knew we needed more practice, one or two more weeks of whole-day practices, maybe. But then again, what we have is a day to smooth things out. That hour was very crucial. But that was the BEST part of the entire production, if you would ask me. As one family, we prayed. One by one, we found our perfect spot, sat down, knelt and just positioned ourselves at the foot of Christ. It was a very humbling moment. We prayed for our specific roles, from the technical team, to the actors, the audience, and down to the smallest detail that we could remember.
That moment was one of the few that I would really treasure. I shared to them my conversation with God the night before that. I was asking Him, "Why is it like this, Lord? How come they are not delivering according to our expectations? We might get a lot of criticisms after the recital at the rate we are going. For an entire school year we gave our time for these students so why am I in the middle of a half-baked production?" Those were hard-hitting words, I know, but I really chose to tell all because what I said next is all that mattered. That same night, God confronted me with such powerful reminders about what He can do.
"This production is not about you, your students, the parents, the school or whoever. The Book of Faith, this grand recital, is all about ME so just do it for ME and I will take care of everything you are worried about!"Those were the exact words that God impressed to me that night. And instantly, I was slapped in the face. Why am I worried about what people will say? How come I have forgotten what I have been telling my students the whole time? We go up the stage not for ourselves, not to show other people that we have talent; we go up there with much confidence knowing that our audience is ONE and that we are able to do all of this because of Him. My only word for them from that point on was this: Whatever we are able to come up with, considering the time we have left to prepare, all I want you to do is to give it all for God. Bahala na kung ano man maging hitsura ng production natin basta gawin n'yo lang lahat para sa Kanya.
28th February 2014
Around 8:30PM
Assumpta Theater
The show was almost over. Emotion check: ecstatic. True enough, there was a lot (by that I meant A LOT!) of setbacks that I have noticed while the whole thing was rolling: videos that did not play properly (crucial scenes were cut unexpectedly), students who did not enter the stage on cue, backstage audio glitches, props, audio and lights that did not work out pretty well, and an entire team in black that would best fit these two words: used up. But at the end of it all, who would not marvel at God's great work? This was AFCS' first time to stage a production as big as that. The Book of Faith was actually a LEAP OF FAITH! The Lord is faithful and has blessed the whole community with an experience that they will never forget. Personally, this is a milestone that I would always look back at whenever I'd want to be reminded of God's Sovereignty and Grace.
It was all GRACE and GOD'S GRACE alone!
TO GOD BE ALL THE GLORY!
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