Every career option seemed to come to me as a favor. My first job was a favor from a friend, FR, from KAMI (Kulturang Aming Minana). I jumped at it because it was 1984, I had graduated from college, and I didn’t like to stay idle and jobless. As the eldest in the family, I felt guilty staying at home, even though I was also busy with ‘art-for-art’s sake’ things. My degree of Bachelor of Arts major in English seemed useless.
KAMI had by that time long concluded its theatrical productions and I was listless. F was officially a medical representative for Pascual Laboratories Pharmaceuticals Inc., but he moonlighted as a freelance artist and subcontracted his Batangas coverage area to me. The job was to cover physicians in Lemery and Lipa, to promote Betadine Povidone Iodine, Pascual’s main product line. Eventually, I applied to Pascual, thus I became one of its sales representatives from 1984 to 1985. It was a strange first job: since I was much given to introspection, I often spaced out in hospitals, missed my doctor calls and failed to meet my sales quota. Despite my bombast and aplomb at the product training, I was a total failure in the social field of sales and promotion.
Walang Sugat
In the theater group called KULTURANG AMING MINANA [KAMI], FR was the stage director, and DR, his wife was the voice instructor. They found us as Tanghalang Dalwa Singko via PETA and gave us an audition. Once they’ve chosen their cast, they directed and managed their presentation of the zarzuela ‘Walang Sugat’ in Tanauan first, then in Batangas City. We held our production with tickets at the St. Bridget’s Auditorium in 1980. The original libretto presented at CCP was the very same libretto we acted and sang at the SBA, but much abridged to accommodate our limited voice range and lack of training in musical theater.
Sa Langit Walang Beer
F and D were probably trying to establish themselves as independent producers, and for their foray into provincial theater, they conducted theater workshops and began a series of stage plays in Tanauan. We presented at least two plays in Tanauan Cultural Center – Sa Langit, Walang Beer, and excerpts of Walang Sugat. Then, F and D collaborated with PETA on the production of Carlos P. Romulo’s Daughter’s for Sale, to showcase in Intramuros theater that same year. DFS became KAMI’s final production, and my part in that play was another tale about me being ‘favored’.
Daughters for Sale
The 1980s was a time of unrest for most Filipinos who were haunted by the horrors of martial law. Focus magazine was one of the more progressive publications at the time. In Intramuros when we presented Daughters for Sale, the lead actress, CC, who was also an editor of Focus, was suddenly unable to perform live because of a threat to her life. As the understudy, I was the immediate substitute to play her role-Rosario-in Daughter for Sale. So I had to wear her costume, say her dialogue, follow her blocking, and interact with fellow actors on stage. As an understudy, I was familiar with the script and blocking of DFS, but I still wasn’t prepared to actually play the part on the actual play date. The love interest of my character was played by actor LV. At the time, I wasn’t intimidated despite his reputation as an excellent actor because I was more conscious about my unfitted costume than of my poor acting. Actress C had a round, full body, while I was paper thin. I felt unwrapped even if I was wearing period clothing. Still, with the help of the other actors, the play began and ended as it should.
The following day [or weekend, I can’t recall] the columnist Crispina Belen thought I winged it, and gave me a warm ‘kudos’ tweet [no Twitter yet in 1981]. She wrote in her column in Bulletin Today, ‘kudos to Jophen Baul’ for her performance in Carlos P. Romulo’s Daughters for Sale. I clipped this public ‘tweet’ in a periodical, totally assuming it was me despite the wrong last name. This clipped memory of my fifteen minutes of fame is a treasured whatnot among my files.
