How It Feels to Be A Spelling Bee Manila Guest Speller
On behalf of Atlantis Productions, I invited a quartet of guest spellers for a Spelling Bee rehearsal so that the actors can practice with people who have never seen the musical. A couple of them were suddenly held up so I was roped in to become a guest speller myself.
Chuck Smith of Philippine Entertainment Portal or PEP described his stint as a guest speller on that fateful day on 10 March 2009 at the Centro Flamenco Dance Studio in Makati.
[Oats Tiu] and I thought we will simply be props in the performance, to make it seem more like an actual spelling bee. However, we didn’t expect our participation would move the story forward.
When Lorna and I were asked to spell very easy words (”Lamb” for Lorna, and “Pig” for me), this prompted the cast to exclaim that “life is unfair” in one of the more rousing numbers titled “Pandemonium.” And as if that wasn’t enough, we were guided by the actors to stand, dance, and jump around as part of the number. It was, to say the least, a very exciting experience, especially for a greenhorn musical theater fan like me.
Oats Tiu of gravityrulz got a unique perspective during the Spelling Bee rehearsal.
Last month, Jed gave me a copy of the soundtrack for this musical and honestly, it didn’t tickle my fancy when I first heard it. In fact, it quite made me believe that all the songs somewhat sound the same. But when I saw how these were intermingled with the actors’ performances, that’s when everything fell in place. I giggled a whole lot both while on and off the “stage”. It really was a great experience to see how parts of the show pan out from the actors’ point of view and comparing it from the audience’s view. From my on-stage seat, I could actually see Rycharde’s booty swinging around as his character’s (Willian) “magic foot” spells the words out on the floor. *hahaha* You don’t see that from the front!
I, on the other hand, simply felt I was in bedlam, stuck in a mental institution of weirdoes, and, in order to survive, I had to be one myself. Maybe it’s the actor in me, but, I went into character, so much so that I totally felt depressed when I got eliminated from the contest. LOL
So, during the Spelling Bee Manila preview on 19 March 2009, I made sure to be in the audience area this time (I got an excellent front row center seat on the loge section), and laughed out loud during the funny moments.
And, please note that I was in my own specially designed Spelling Bee costume, inspired by Johann de la Fuente’s character, Leaf Coneybear, who makes his own clothes. Since he was Superman, I was Super SpongeBob (with SpongeBob on my chest, back and bag)!!! 
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March 31st, 2009 at 11:01 pm
I’ve seen it twice already, and I’ll probably watch it again this weekend, hopefully with some friends.
March 30th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
Thanks so much for your patience, Oats!
It looks like you have a very theatrical family. First Rycharde and now Johann.
March 30th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I saw the show last night and although I’ve already seen the whole thing during rehearsal, I still laughed my head off.
Would you believe I actually forgot the part when Leaf Coneybear sudden made that “monster voice” dumdumdummmmmm after frolicking about on stage? So when Johann did just that, I burst out laughing way too much and so did my friends & sister. We couldn’t stop giggling and laughing.
I still *heart* Leaf Coneybear. Whoot!
Johann reminded us too much of my sister’s boyfriend Jed. *hahaha*
Edit: I’m trying this comment thing again for the 3rd time. Hope this goes through!
March 30th, 2009 at 12:52 pm
I saw the show last night and although I’ve already seen the whole thing during rehearsal, I still laughed my head off.
Would you believe I actually forgot the part when Leaf Coneybear sudden made that “monster voice” dumdumdummmmmm after frolicking about on stage? So when Johann did just that, I burst out laughing way too much and so did my friends & sister. We couldn’t stop giggling and laughing.
I still *heart* Leaf Coneybear. Whoot!
Johann reminded us too much of my sister’s boyfriend Jed. *hahaha*
March 30th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
I saw the show last night and although I’ve already seen the whole thing during rehearsal, I still laughed my head off.
Would you believe I actually forgot the part when Leaf Coneybear sudden made that “monster voice” dumdumdummmmmm after frolicking about on stage? So when Johann did just that, I burst out laughing way too much and so did my friends & sister. We couldn’t stop giggling and laughing.
I still *heart* Leaf Coneybear. Whoot!
March 26th, 2009 at 5:31 pm
Wow! Talaga? Method acting! Congrats!
And, thank you. I liked my SpongeBob costume.
March 26th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
hahah! wow! i love your spongebob getup!!!!
did you know that I made my own costume for the show as well? I thought it was a fun idea when i volunteered and told chari and bobby that i wanna make my own JUSTICE LEAGUE costume. from putting stickers on my helmet, to sewing the characters to my jacket, and putting a superman logo in my cape which was made of table cloth… IM LOVING IT! hehehe