The Sound of Music is one of those musicals where you know, and can even sing along to, the songs even if you haven’t seen the musical or the film. That’s certainly what happened when I watched it onstage, where I quietly sang along to “Do Re Mi” and “My Favorite Things.”

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Swan Lake is considered as one of the most difficult ballets to perform, but for prima ballerina Lisa Macuja-Elizalde, it was what inspired her to pursue a life-long career in dance. Now, it will be like a homecoming as Ballet Manila, the company that Macuja-Elizalde co-founded, will be staging a performance of the classic this October!

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The perk of my job as a writer is that I am a nomad with no defined office. Sometimes I find myself working at home, in coffee shops, or in other countries. It’s fun being free to go wherever I want, but I have to deal with other things like traffic, pollution, and no definite working hours. What digital nomads don’t tell you is that sometimes, the work can be quite stressful.

I have my ways to fight stress. I try not to work during weekends, I regularly get massages, and I use sunblock, day creams, eye creams, and face masks. As I keep reminding myself, it’s okay to be stressed as long as you don’t look stressed.

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Social media and our waning attention span have taught us that the length of a story, a film, or a play doesn’t necessarily guarantee quality. This month, Short+Sweet Theatre is returning to Manila for a collection of 10-minute plays, proving that big things indeed come from small packages.

Short+Sweet Theatre is known around the world as the festival of 10-minute plays and the biggest little play festival. It showcases bite-sized stories handpicked from submissions, and covers a wide breadth of genres from comedy to drama, romance, and tragedy.

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It’s already September and while I’m writing this in my room past 6PM, I’m actually sweating. I just got out of the shower, the windows are open, and the fan is facing me, but I can feel beads of sweat forming on my forehead and my chest. Whoever said that summer-oriented drinks would be out of place during the -ber months probably hasn’t experienced the heat pressing down on the city.

It’s okay. I’d rather sweat than deal with torrential rain and besides, I’ve found a new remedy: Starbucks just launched two new Teavana variants and it comes in frozen format! The new frozen teas are the Chamomile Tea with Kyoho Grape and Aloe, and the Hibiscus Tea with Pomegranate Pearls.

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When we were kids, we considered ourselves grown-up when we started reading books without pictures. Strangely, it’s now that I’m entering my late twenties that I’m beginning to appreciate illustrated books and graphic novels. I rediscovered my passion for comics when I found my high school X-Men collection, and I’m branching out to reading local materials, manga, and children’s books.

My latest discoveries in children’s books are the works of Mike Curato and Isabel Roxas, two Filipino illustrators who are now based in the US. National Book Store invited the two to meet friends and fans, and I was lucky enough to meet them when they were here.

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This year is a good year for theater. Apart from the countless quality local shows we have, more and more international productions are coming to the Philippines to show us a good time. This year alone, we saw Wicked, Sister Act, and West Side Story. Now, it’s The Sound of Music‘s turn to wow us as the West End production opens this month in Manila!

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One of my greatest luxuries is going on a hotel staycation. It’s like leaving your ordinary life behind and stepping into a world where you can walk to your favorite shopping destinations, order room service, have a great view of the city, and have a heater in the shower. Some of my favorite assignments are staycations (travel, too, because it means holing up in a five star hotel), and I go on my own dime every now and then.

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