[unclean, not edited post]

Regine Phoelea Mae F. del Carmen

As Donya Teodora

“No one left behind”, these words started my career as a stage actress portraying Donya Teodora, a loving old mother of Jose Rizal. As I uttered those words, Sir Larry assigned me to an exigent task in which I should be memorizing long lines and internalizing a character which was very odd to me.

When Sir Larry started to cast the characters for the plays, I wished to be one of the Chorus of Women in Electra but it turned a way around, I was to perform in a play entitled Parting at Calamba as a mother of the national hero of my own country. I was shocked. The first thing I did was to see the script for me to know the length of my lines, and it was quite long; I even got three entrances.

After the roles were designated, we started to throw lines. At first it was so simple, we just read it aloud but it the long run, the character’s attitudes must be slowly got into our spines. For me, internalizing Donya Teodora was a tough job. She is a loving mother and she is also firm and authoritative, above all, I needed to imitate the voice of her which was the hardest part of all. I needed to download videos and self-help stuffs on how to make my voice sound older but firm.

Play dates were fast approaching and all were serious in practicing, memorizing lines and producing what was needed for the stage to look like one of the Mercado-Rizal family. That time, I already memorized most of the lines but I sometimes forget some of it due to nervousness. Stage fright and anxiety affects me when I utter my lines.