If only Ana, Joanne, Cathy, Midore, Cecille, Lalaine, Mariel, Oyeth and Abby will chance upon my blog and read the title of this post - all of them will be hunting down my neck now.

This masterpiece by Federico Garcia Lorca was the piece we presented for our English Literature class in our college freshman year. The class was divided into four groups and each is to present a stage presentation - drama, speech choral, musical etc. - that will be the basis of our grade for the final half of that semester.

We initially wanted to do "New Yorker in Tondo" by Marcelino Agana but since nobody among the girls are eager to play a male role; this literary piece suited us just fine. And in order for me to fit into an all-female character story, the character of maid was replaced by the servant - the role I did.

But finding Bernarda isn't that easy. We had to scavenge every literature book in PUP library just to find the right one. Some of us even had to visit the National Library in case the one we've been looking for is situated in that portion of UN Avenue. We finally decided on Bernarda two weeks before the stated presentation date.

With two weeks left, we practiced like there's no tomorrow. We had to hurry, time is to our disadvantage. Our sessions were like two hours reading, practical demo for thirty minutes to be followed by breakfast, lunch, dinner or merienda. Of course, with our tummies full, we'll be feeling all sluggish and drowsy. After at least two hours of sleep and siesta, we will resume our practice - this time doing the dialogues.

With so much quotables and misses during the dialogue rehearsals - we would always end up laughing at how we stutter with the dialogues, how we kept on saying the script from Scene 2 instead that from Scene 1 or how we would laugh our hearts out by just looking at each other doing their monologues. We just can't keep a straight face. Ang bababaw kasi!

Of course, we're not professional stage actors to fully memorize our lines come judgement day. We had barely memorized half of it when we were all at the backstage holding hands in circle praying that all the saints and our guardian angels guide us through the ordeal.

We also agreed that in case any of us had forgotten their lines (which is really a given, at the circumstances) - he/she is to just say anything. ANYTHING. So that there will be no unnecessary lull in the flow of the story. We had to use adlibs, even if that's the last thing we do.

And the hilarity that ensued will haunt us for the rest of our college years.