Stage Frights

1 week prep for a whole ass musical 🤷‍♀️

Alas tres show 1pm nagpa-plot pa lang ako

Ung sa CCP.. May nakita kami na nag-aantay samin sa kabilang dulo ng exit. Nakapamulsa pa sya, tas naka pormal syang damit na lalaki. Nakakakilabot kasi paglabas namin nung kapwa ko SM, kami nalang dw pala tao sa loob. 🥺 Goosebumps pa rin hanggang ngayon. D ko makkalimutan to lol

Sweeney SG, before my “Not While I’m Around” entrance from downstage right, I saw Janine walking towards the curtains. I thought she was going to check on something, so I wanted to ask what it was. When I got there, WALA SI JANINE. She was by the props table.

Beadle’s death, also downstage right, the theater was ALWAYS humid at Marina Bay Sands, but there was this one night where there was cold, frosty air lingering at the back of my FCKN neck. JUST my neck. “MRS. LOVETT, LET ME OUUUUUT, LET ME OUUUUUUUUUUT!!!!” was SCREAM x10.

And during one performance of “God, That’s Good,” Mikkie and I heard feedback that sounded like whispers during the entirety of the number. We asked everyone else from the cast and no one heard it. And we asked stage management and sounds…. and WALA.

At the beginning of the run, we would hear loud static, screaming, and strange noises in our earpieces, and we always passed it off as radio interference from the SM team, until one day I realised that the noises would continue even when the SM team’s radios were off. 

But it was the quieter moments that really creeped me out.

I remember a particular instance where I was in the middle of a quick change during the recording studio number. I heard Leslie’s voice call me upstairs to the wig room. I heard it clear as day. 

“Fay, please come up to the wig room it’s an emergency”.

I go upstairs after finishing my track (because I’m NOT going to leave in the middle of a quick change, even if someone is dying) and there she is, peacefully knotting hairs onto a fake beard, and when I asked her what the emergency was, she just looked at me funny. 

Her radio wasn’t even on.

The only other person with a radio was downstairs and I heard a woman’s voice, LESLIE’S voice, so that counts out Jaydee. 

This has happened more than once. Leslie once heard me call her name through the radio, but I was right beside her doing someone’s pincurls, radio off. The other one was charging. We kinda just looked at each other and never mentioned it again.

I’ve heard male voices tell me to shut up, screaming, weeping, but mostly it was just… loud static. By the end of the first week, we decided to ask Jamie Wilson to show us where the theatre altar was to make an offering (I left a McDonald’s toy, Leslie left a barrette, Jaydee left a makeup brush). The voices stopped for a while after that.

They started up again the day before closing night, but we felt that it was just a way for the ghosts to say goodbye to us, which we found kinda endearing. But mostly creepy.

There was also ONE non-radio related moment. It has to do with the mirrors. On the second floor backstage where the dressing rooms, wig room, and wardrobe department is, there are mirrors at the top of both of the stairs leading down to the wings of the stage, one on each side. The mirrors are huge, meant for last minute makeup and costume checks before going onstage. 

We’re usually in the wig room arranging wigs during intermission, and we all go downstairs during the five minute call to the second act.

I went down last that day because I was having a snack, and I always glimpse at the mirror before going down. This time, however, as I passed by, I spotted a cast member behind me in the actor’s dressing room, just standing there, in a gold jacket with black lapels- which was a costume from the first act. I didn’t have time to go and check, but I caught a pretty clear look. I met up with my boss in the wings and asked if there was a scene in the second act I forgot about that also used the jacket, because after a while you kinda just focus on the track and forget some moments that happen on stage. 

It wasn’t until she asked me WHO I saw that i realised I didn’t even get to see the person’s face. Just his silhouette. And it wasn’t until I really tried to recall that I realised that the figure had the exact same silhouette of Markus Mann, but without a face. 

Yeah, I tried not to walk around alone after that. None of us in the wig team did.

All in all our Meralco experience was pretty alright save for the angry ghosts in the radio, but to the ONE particular ghost that yelled “SHUT UP” at me through my radio… I hope ur doing well and getting ghost therapy bro

Nag-ingress kami for an event. After ng rehearsal ng talents kasi we put together a speech choir. After namin mag rehearse, kaming taga-Arts Management yung naiwan tapos nagkabit ng ilaw yung tech team. Tapos noong okay na yung ilaw, nag-mmeeting kami sa gilid ng blackbox. Tapos, may narinig kaming bumagsak, as in yung bagsak na solid. Lahat kami nag takbo to check kung ilaw bumagsak. Pero pag check namin, walang ilaw na nahulog, wala rin anything na nahulog pero lahat consistent sa’min, may narinig kaming bumagsak at nabagsak. Extra scary kasi gabi yun mga 10pm sa blackbox