designed the stage for noel cabangon’s recent concert “tuloy ang biyahe” for his music museum and peta performances. it would only be my 2nd time to work for director melvin lee as designer (did one of his virgin labfest plays) and my first to dress up the peta theater. did this sketch as quick as i could before the song ended as the concert was winding down to an end. click on image to enlarge

i was headed for mindanao on the day of cabangon’s music museum run so i only got to supervise the ingress of the set and i missed watching the show. im glad i was able to catch the performance on its 2nd night (dec 14, 2012) at the peta as it was a fun ride. i know only a handful of noel’s songs but all were beautifully written and sung with so much passion. enjoyed his guests especially the APO (minus one), which i dont remember having watched perform live. gloc 9’s sirena was powerful as ever and ogie alcasid’s song writing skills are still topnotch as he sang two new songs. yet, it was always noel’s night and his brilliance in writing was clear and his voice unparalleled.

im glad i took this journey also in designing for theater and stage. it’s a different beast from designing for film as there are still factors ive yet to learn and take to heart. i wouldnt say my design for the concert was groundbreaking. maybe next time ill play more on concepts. needless to say, im excited in taking this new direction 🙂

here’s a video of kanlungan i took during the concert. i remember mike serrano in our little tambayan office at the back of the gg hall in CRL listening to a cassette tape (what year was this?) of buklod’s album and he introduced me to this song. the arrangement during cabangon’s concert “tuloy ang biyahe” was, in a word, magical. the string and wind section was awesome. love the slower tempo during the concert. just wasnt able to catch the first few minutes of the song. i do have a copy of the recording with the FILharmoniKA 😉

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here are my set sketches. took inspiration from train stations and our own mrt platforms. as the set had to be minimal i only built arches and a fence.

dry erase pen sketch on white board at the peta conference during technical meeting. did a quick draw on the board and revised the design as the meeting progressed with the technical director, jonjon villareal, and the staff

photo of the music museum stage. some of my posts had to be removed as it would block the audience’s view in some seats.

another quick sketch during the technical meeting for the peta stage, which was considerably smaller than the previous venue. we had to build new arches a few feet smaller. the clock had to be working for the PETA run so by the time the concert ended it would read 11.30pm hehe

a galaxy note2 sketch while setting up.

during the 2nd night of the concert