To be openly out and gay may be quite an easy feat for some, but not for everyone. With a non redeeming society, mostly tolerating folks, r@cists and obvious big0ts around, it's super hard to even exist. It messes up your psyche, less time to understand the situation, yourself, proving how crazy this world we live in, when all they want is the same rights as you do, LOVE, and understanding.
During Pride Month last year, real life couple Liza Dino and Ice Seguerra took chance on a queer theater production of CHOOSING. It's a play about the intricacies of love, relationships, pronouns and queerness. This is under the direction of Dr. Anton Juan. It was unusual, but easy to digest, relatable in so many ways especially for those who lived in the 90's and generations after that. They're having their second run this coming June at the ARETE Doreen Blackbox Theater at the Ateneo De Manila University grounds. We were given a preview of it a couple days ago, and they've done changes to the script and story mostly on Act 3.
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| A very emotionally charged preview of CHOOSING |
Dr. Anton Juan told us "I asked them to ask questions about themselves, I gave them direction of thought. This time it's built on that, and the moment, it's almost like characters start in the middle of their lives and I gave them the ability to gather themselves. This is where the play is being directed and built. It's continuous, and I allowed actors to do that. Theater becomes not just for the stage but for people who watch it. I think the straight sectors would learn the most. It's the freedom of love, it's about choice that makes us free. This is the reason we want it titled CHOOSING. In the world there are so many pronouns. I asked them to bare themselves, we started to talk, the concept of who I am or if I am a goat, abuse, many things that are common to everyone. I like to resurrect the memories, with music, it's beautiful and is like a portal, it becomes vast and bigger. You must be careful in what doors to open and close. Did you notice plays today are choreographed? I look at lines as language and space, how to move, approach, ways to say you love or hate a person. I was trying to distill their lives and what they've gone through."
Ice says "The song is actually a monologue but Liza and Direk Anton felt like we needed it. That was about hypothetical love, we edited it to a song with Vince de Jesus, and it's called 'Lost in Time'. When we came out, there were a lot of people who approached her and just told their stories without even doing it. More than the topics being shown here, is that we always go through these crossroads, we need to talk and get to the bottom of this. Liza and I have been together for a long time, but we are still the same because we talk about it. There is commonality and we could move forward to say what we want to say and stop there without listening to the other party. We talk about it even if it hurts. If you remove labels, the story of Mitch and Stella is universal."
Liza adds "That's exactly how it played out when it happened, that it was not synonymous with cheating. That's whe I realized that Ice was a man. The way they talked about it was just like watching a series. He didn't know where I am coming from, it went to a point that I had to watch it to understand. There's also a lot shared with us by a support group, their discoveries, on how they realize the dysphoria. There's a huge part of this play that I had to re-write especially on the third act, Ice and I are still going through that. We are confused for the most part, but when the opportunity comes we ask where we are and where we need to support each other. It was a blessing that I was the one who wrote it, I couldn't make it concretely talk about transformation. I researched about it so much that I saw how we could no longer be part of that future. You see how emotional we are when we do this. A big issue here also is the voice, it's a huge change and what people go through in situations like these. I hope people see what we struggle about, and the conscious decision to still choose each other despite the trials. I hope this can inspire, see themselves in us, you can't do this alone. This is about choosing to love."
Here's our interview with them after that very emotional preview:
Liza adds "Transitioning needs an entire shift of mindset to become the support system. Sometimes people don't think about that person, because they are also going through something. It's a very complex decision, hence the discussion between Stella and Mitch."
Ice ended the talk saying "I chose her, and she is the only one I wanted to choose. She's the only one who can give me the happiness, the excitement, and safety that I'd want to have. I don't want to share that with anybody else. Anytime we have a discussion, we always go back to asking how we can by happy again, because this is not us right now. That's been our anchor ever since."
Choosing to talk about the feelings we have may be shallow for some, but we all need to talk about it. To resolve conflict in relationships, choosing to talk about the hard things will resolve a LOT. If you want to get tickets to the show, you can get it via the Ticket2Me app or the official website ticket2me.net. Shows will be on June 6th-8th, 13th-15th which are weekends. The Doreen Blackbox Theater is a very intimate venue. Go bring your friends and family along and talk about it after the show. Can't wait to see the changes on the show.
