18. Speech Choir

According to slideshare.com, speech choirs are performance groups that recite speeches in unison, often accompanied with elements of choreography and costuming to brig the speech to life. 

At Asia Pacific College, the speech choir competition had a Christmas theme and the speech that we had to recite was the poem, "At Christmas" by Edgar Albert Guest. I can confidently say that I can recite that poem from start to end with emotion.  

The Speech Choir competition for BM 151 was basically a flop. Negative I know but the truth. We tried our best with the limited time we had but it still wasn't enough to secure a placing. I was one of the four leaders and after the result, I felt like a complete failure. I felt like I let my fellow block mates down. The other three leaders where Peter Son, Benjamin Bajet and Katherine Camacho.

Firstly we were given the actual piece substantially late compared to the other blocks.  The 2nd half of the trimester seemed to have gone by extremely fast with a ton of work that just bombarded us. It was clear that we were not prepared when the performance happened. We only started practicing with about 2 weeks to go before the actual performance. We also didn't know much about how to deliver and exactly what we could and couldn't do. But I guess that was our job as the leaders 

  

BM 151 during our performance

Secondly, the practices leading up to the performances weren't exactly prudent. After my fellow leader, Peter, finalised the entire piece, we tried teaching our other classmates but somehow it didn't seem to sink in. Much like our performance in the cheer competition earlier in the term, it was difficult trying to control some of our classmates. It was this cheer and chants competition that inspired my 'What is takes to be a teacher?' blog post. There was a lot of absentees and misbehaving students, I felt like some people just didn't care. This prompted Peter to create a set of rules and guidelines to follow. The creation of these rules came from a good place but the execution was not successful to say the least. This created a lot of controversy within the English department. 

Lastly, being a leader was harder then I thought. You need to be organised, strong, have a presence that demanded attention, good public speaking skills and also having the ability to still have fun and bring out the best in everyone. Hopefully I get to improve on my skills especially with the dance competition for PE2 coming up. 

3rd Place went to AC151

2nd Place to MA 151

1st Place to TM151

17. Phantom of the Opera 25th Anniversary

Yay!! Another musical. I love musicals and anything 'artsy' if you haven't realized yet. From my previous post about dance, if you haven't noticed, I am into the arts. From dance to singing, film and visual art.

I recently watched Phantom of the Opera the 25th Anniversary thanks to the ever jubilant, Ms. Eliz Reyes. Thanks to her, I am now obsessed with it and must listen to the soundtrack while trying to imitate Sierra Boggess impressive interpretation of the Christine Daaè.

Phantom of the Opera is a musical created by the musical genius Andrew Lloyd Webber , which was adapted from the french novel, Le Fantôme le O'péra by Goston Leroux. The 25th Anniversary Phantom of the Opera at the Royal Albert Hall was an adaptation of the original. It was screened live worldwide on the 2nd of October 2011and was watched by millions across the world. The production was a 3 day special to commemorate the 25th Anniversary of the musical Phantom of the Opera. This daring yet special idea came about from the creator Andrew Lloyd Webber and Cameron McKintosh who wanted to do something very special that was also different from the 25th Anniversary of Les Miserables. Since all the tickets for the 3 day special sold out in just 5 hours, the demand was still very high, therefore inspiring the live streaming of the full show.

Like mentioned above I am now obsessed with Phantom of the Opera and I can't believe I didn't watch the show when it came to Manila. I heard about it but didn't think I would like it that much. Now after watching it on DVD, I am hooked!

Sierra Boggess is in my opinion the best Christine Daae ever. Her range was impeccable, her beauty was undeniable and her acting was stupendous. During my time obsessing over her, I also watched other actresses that portrayed Christine including the original Sarah Brightman but still no one has come close to her performance.

The grand finale was something very special in itself. All the cast from the original showing all come to stage, including the original Christine, Sarah Brightman and the original Phantom, Michael Crawford. The creator, Andrew Lloyd Webber was also there to introduce the creative team of the 25th Anniversary show, the original creative team  and lastly the original cast from both London and Broadway productions. Sarah Brightman sang "Phantom of the Opera" accompanied by 5 Phantoms that played that role over the 25 years. The 5 phantoms concluded the show singing "The Music of the Night" alongside the entire cast and crew. A truly memorable way to end the show.

Sitting there watching the show on blueray DVD gave me chills so I could only imagine how the atmosphere might have felt like watching it live.