Ten Times Larger than Life by TM Edwin Ebreo

You probably heard this phrase before… I first heard it when I joined a theater group back in college. Our stage director always tell us to act 10 times larger than life. This means make big movements and exaggerate emotions because when we occupy the stage, the audience in the last row can only see us as 12 inch moving figures that if we do not exaggerate our movements and acting, it will be very difficult to get their attention. He told us that we are performing for an imaginary old lady seated in the last row who has poor eyesight and hard at hearing and that we ought to give her our best performance. He said that the poor old lady must feel the story, our happiness, our anguish and the message we are trying to convey or else we would have wasted her ticket.

“Acting is believing,” that is what he said. Before you can convince your audience that you are the role you are playing, you must first convince yourself. If your role is that of a beggar, you don’t just act like a beggar, you also, think like a beggar, feel like a beggar, even smell like a beggar. You must carry his burden, see yourself experiencing his pains, then and only then can you effectively play his role. I personally experienced this when I played a role in the play Ang Paglilitis ni Mang Serapio which won the first National Drama Competition in CCP, but that’s another story.

What did I learn from my short stint as a stage actor? When I went out into the real world I realized that everything my director told me still holds true. We need to act 10 times larger than life. I saw that the world is indeed a stage and all of us actors. The only good thing about this life stage is that we get to choose our role. We can choose to take big roles or small ones. We can choose to be heroes or villains or damsels in distress. Yes, we do not write our own stories, God does, but we have a hand in it whenever we choose how to respond to each situation presented to us. The plot thickens as we bring excitement to our own stories when we choose to face life’s challenges rather than succumb to them. Each of us has a story to tell. The ending could be happy or sad, successful or tragic. Endings are important as we all strive to make it a happy one but what’s more important is the fight we put in along the way.

As my stage director used to say, act 10 times larger than life. That is the way to affect others by your performance. Do not settle for mediocrity; strive for a performance worthy of an encore. What does this mean? Just like how people play roles in our lives, we also play roles in theirs. We should strive to touch their lives in the way we want our lives to be touched. Help in big and small ways, be your best for your sake and the sake of others. That my friends is a life performance worthy of an encore, for that is the way for people to want us to reappear in their own play.

So, what is your story? How are things unfolding? How are you at adding excitement into your life’s story? How do you want others to brand it? Adventure? Fantasy, Comedy, Suspense thriller or horror? You decide. What ever role you desire, pursue it believe in it, give it your best, act 10 times larger than life and, oh, Break a leg!

Seabiscuit by TM Edwin Ebreo

When do you say that a situation is really hopeless?

Two weeks ago, I bought a VCD of the movie Seabiscuit. I was looking forward to good entertainment, what I got was a lesson about life that I wish to share with you tonight.

Some of you are probably familiar with the story. If you say that it’s all about a horse, you’re mistaken. It was a true to life story of a homeless jockey, a millionaire, a washed up cowboy and a horse named Seabiscuit. Four unlikely heroes who found hope in each other and went to inspire a whole generation during the great depression. Let me tell you a bit more about them.

First is the jockey Red Pollard. Born in a wealthy family, Red was not prepared to live a difficult life during the depression. His parents lost all their wealth and practically sold him to a stable owner in order for all of them to survive. He earned his living riding race horses and fighting as a boxer. The problem was, he was too big and heavy as a jockey that he had to skip meals to keep his weight… and too small and ill-fed to win a decent boxing fight. He hardly succeeded in anything that he went into. He even lost sight in one eye due to a heavy punch. Later on, he broke his leg in a freak accident that doctors told him he will never ride again. What a loser!!! But this boy had the heart of a lion and a mind full of imagination. He wouldn’t give up even when the odds are incredibly bad. He rode Seabiscuit to a number of victories and towards history. The ultimate underdog champions

Now the cowboy, Tom Smith. He was like the last samurai of the west, fighting to keep a way of life that slowly gave way to progress. He lived in an era when “cowboyhood” lost its macho appeal and creatures like him became rare, uninteresting species. Not much was told about him except that he knew more about horses than horses knew about themselves. And one more thing, he was an exceptional teacher/trainer who saw beyond one’s limitations. He had an eye for talent no matter how deep it was buried.

The Millionaire was Charles Howard. Before the depression, he had the franchise of Buick for half the US. He was not a millionaire for no reason. Somehow there was a similarity between him and the cowboy Tom Smith. He knew where to place his bet; He placed a huge amount on Tom, Red and Seabiscuit. He lost some in the process but won big towards the end.

Now Seabiscuit, Seabiscuit was also called the long shot. You know why? He was small, hot headed, lazy, bitter and beat-up. Every trainer who handled him described him as incorrigible and gave up on him. How could a horse so out of his league become the champion of all champion horses? I’ll tell you why and this is the whole message of the story. Tom Smith played by the award winning actor Chris Cooper put it very succinctly in one scene and repeated a good number of times through out the movie. He said and please remember;
“You don’t throw a whole life away just because it’s banged up a little”.

You don’t throw a whole life away just because it’s banged up a little… There’s a familiar ring to it isn’t it?

If you look at the story closely and I encourage you to do so, like Red Pollard, the one-eyed jockey, how many times have we turned our backs on an intimidating challenge because we are afraid we don’t have what it takes? As teachers/leaders or managers like the cowboy Tom Smith, how many times have we been tempted to judge people under our charge that they don’t cut it? As investors, how do we deal with the prospects of losing over winning? And as an individual, how do we deal with people who refuse to bet on us because they just don’t see what we got? There is one common denominator in our four heroes, they refuse to look at what is seen, they went for what is felt, a desire to win, to believe, to fight a good fight…

Friends, I encourage you. Like Red Pollard, let’s look inside us and strengthen the desire to overcome our physical and mental limitations. I have a staff member who chose to take up a major in Math because she was bad with numbers. How about you, what can you do? Like the Horseman Tom Smith, look at the people who depend on us for guidance, they could be our children, our students or our employees. See beyond their inadequacies, and find out what’s in their heart. Let’s not think that they are too slow, too dense or too lazy to achieve something great. Do not dwell on what they failed to accomplish, rather, discover what they are capable of. Just look at Seabiscuit. Let’s invest on them like Charles Howard did and like Seabiscuit, let’s show the world that beneath these weak looking facades are great people capable of even greater feats.