After you strip off all that baggage…

… you’ll see the naked truth without shame.

If you’re wondering about that very naughty profile picture, that’s one of the three projects I’m involved in for the month of July… before I go on a very long deserved vacation from all this theatre craziness!

Can you imagine? I’ve been working on this hobby of mine (theatre, concerts, conventions) one project after the other without rest since 2006? As much as I hate to bow down when so many exciting things are happening in the theatre scene right now, my body is starting to protest! It literally broke my heart when I came to the decision to give up "Sweeney Todd" (and taking a leave from Boses Pinas starting July)… but I’m running on back up batteries now to the point that I’ve actually gotten physically ill and lost my voice for more than two weeks (and still recovering). I figured I should stop and rest for a few months before I injure myself permanently.

I haven’t actually written in a long time in my blog… and yeah, so many things happened the past couple of months. First of all, I mentioned a while back that I got my first paid voice over job through a education video by Citizenship Canada, right? So Filipino immigrants coming to the country who get to watch the Filipino-dubbed videos regarding the experiences of parents sending their kids to school in Canada for the first time, will get to hear my voice! ^_^.

Well, even earlier than that, I recorded my first voice over for a stop motion animated short film (trailer is here: Starsearcher trailer in You Tube) and it was actually screened for the first time in the Ryerson University Film Festival in May. And guess what? It seems that "Starsearcher" is going to be in the 2008 Air Canada enRoute Student Film Festival. It will be playing in all Air Canada flights for the entire month of August! Isn’t that a blast? So if you’re flying Air Canada, make sure you check out "Starsearcher". ^0^. Though for those not flying, I think all the films involved in the enRoute festival will be available in their website. I don’t know when exactly, so check it out often Air Canad enRoute Student Film Festival.

Then there was Anime North, which is a lot of fun, but very exhausting. Now that the main convention is over, we have two mini events happening for the rest of the year. One this summer and one in the fall.

This summer, my sister is organizing the first (and hopefully, Annual) Anime North Doujinka Festival in collanboration with the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre. (Scroll down the page when you hit the Artist Alley AN page). It’s open to all amateur artists who have doujinshi, fanzines, and original comic books. It’s happening on August 16, 2008 at the JCCC. Then later in the year, Anime North will also hold its first Halloween Festival with the JCCC. Details to come in the Anime North website, so please check the site often. Just because the main convention is over, doesn’t mean that AN is.

Now… on to the three mentioned projects that’s I’m devoting the last of my energy in the next month or so.

1. And on July 2 - 13 is Regina’s gonna be in the Toronto Fringe Festival under the banner of the "Pulang Maleta Collective"! This is probably the most exciting thing that’s happened to me so far. I’ve never been to the Fringe, and this is my first year. And best of all, my first Fringe will be with a group of people that I have grown to respect a lot. I owe my theatre roots here in Canada to Carlos Bulosan and its awesome to be a part of another group that this company helped usher to grow.

The play is called "Baggage" and if my profile pic doesn’t raise eyebrows, check out the Pulang Maleta Collective website for more details. This group of super talented young Filipino-Canadian playwrights and actors deserve all the support our community can give them. They’re telling our stories in our point of view. So please support our show in the Fringe! It’s running from Jul 2 - 13. Again, ticket and show details are in the website.

I’m also planning on joining Kapisanan’s playwriting workshop in September. You never know, maybe I’ll be blogging about asking people to watch a play I’ve written next year! ^_^. 

2. Soon after the heels of the Fringe Festival is a still to be named show running on July 17-19 from Vinnie Sestito’s infamous summer workshops. It’s going to be very interesting this year! There isn’t a greater group of people to clown around than this year’s group. Yes, clown around… literally! It’s a clown workshop and I’m just totally amazed at how learning clown can improve your performance on stage dramatically! It’s pretty exciting! So please watch out for it. And yes… I’m the only Filipino actor in the group again this year. 

3. And finally, the Mobistar Grand Finalist telecast to air on Channel A in July 26 on "Filipino Eh!" (voting period starts from July 26 - Aug 15, I’ll be depending on your kindness again very soon!), with the Grand Finals happening in Ontario Place August 16. I’m actually quite worried about the finals… my voice still hasn’t quite healed up yet. I’m sure I’ll be okay in August, but we’re doing the taping for the telecast on June 22nd… gah! Pray for me!

Anywayz, this is the longest blog I’ve written… EVER! Though it does make up for the long time of not writing, right? Until next time…