Every Brilliant Thing is the Manila adaptation of internationally acclaimed Duncan Macmillan one-character play about mental health awareness.
It’s like an interactive improv play that immerses you into the highs and lows of the mental health mood. Here’s what we love about #EveryBrilliantThingMNL …
(Spoilers Alert: The play is a must watch and it’s better if you don’t know anything before watching it.)
Every Brilliant Thing Manila
by The Sandbox Collective and 9 Works Theatrical
Zobel de Ayala Recital Hall, Maybank Performing Arts Theater,
26th Street, cor., 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City
Email: thesandboxco@gmail.com
Twitter: @TheSandboxCo
Facebook: The Sandbox Collective
Instagram: @TheSandboxCo
Every Brilliant Thing Manila is held at the 2nd floor of Zobel de Ayala Recital Hall, Maybank Performing Arts Theater in BGC with ₱1,200 (VIP) and ₱1,000 (Regular) tickets.
Toff de Venecia, Artistic Director and Executive Producer opens the show and setting the mood for the one-woman show that breaks through the 4th wall and involves the audience to play certain roles in the leading character’s life.
Teresa Herrera performs the role of a young girl who makes a list of 1,000 brilliant things to cheer up her clinically depressed mother.
She selects her co-performers to play the role as her dad and other characters from the audience literally just minutes before she approaches them (without any pre-planning).
It’s awesome to be part of the play by shouting out one of the numbered brilliant things on her list.
I learned how to talk about Mental Health issues online which is a good guide for influencers:
• Don’t provide technical details. Never suggest that a method is quick, easy, painless, or certain to result in death.
• Avoid dramatic headlines, terms like ‘suicide epidemic’ or ‘hot spot’.
• Avoid sensationalist pictures of video. Avoid excessive details.
• Don’t publish suicide notes.
• Don’t ignore the complex realities of suicide and its impact on those left behind.
• Include references to support groups, such as the HOPELINE 2919.
• Don’t speculate on the reason. That’s crucial.
Then there was an awkward moment when a guy was selected as the boyfriend of the main woman character while her girlfriend IRL watches him gets immersed in the love scenes and lovin’ it.
I learned that Mental Health is all about the Mood and it is bigger than your Ego, so most of the time you can’t think logically and it literally takes over your mental state.
I love how the show flows. It was funny, awkward, happy, and sad throughout the show which makes a good backdrop for discussing the mental health taboo.
In the end, it got me thinking, can we start our own list of 1,000,000 brilliant things in my life?
Congratulations to all the audience that became instant cast-members who made the show unique and enjoyable; seeing their vulnerabilities and performing an improv of their assigned roles made the show amazing.
After the show, we love the TalkBack discussions led by Jenny Jamora, the brilliant director behind the Manila production, and the cast members with an invited mental health guest expert.
The single thing I learned about Mental Health, is we need to talk about it more openly and actively remove the stigma behind it. We should discuss it with our kids appropriately.
Every Brilliant Thing Manila
by The Sandbox Collective and 9 Works Theatrical
Zobel de Ayala Recital Hall, Maybank Performing Arts Theater,
26th Street, cor., 9th Avenue, Bonifacio Global City.
Email: thesandboxco@gmail.com
Twitter: @TheSandboxCo
Facebook: The Sandbox Collective
Instagram: @TheSandboxCo
Live an Awesome Life,
Founder, www.OurAwesomePlanet.com
Disclosure: We watched the play courtesy of Sandbox Collective. I wrote this article with my biases, opinions, and insights.
P.S. We love eating noodle soup and discussing the show afterward. Usually, we would go to North Park, but when in BGC, we would go to Bakmi Nonya at the Eden Food Hall.
