Wrapping up of "Emouvoir"

Yesterday was the second, and the last performance of our Technical Theatre Level 1's show "Emouvoir", and I'm greatly relieved. Though there're still hiccups here and there, it was nevertheless a nice working experience. What was unexpected was the turnout for both shows, and it was even more surprising that most, if not every member of the audience stayed till the end of the show. Sad to say, I was too busy during the interval to ask our videographer to change tape before the start of Act 2, hence almost half of the show was recorded. It was a pity, as this is our first class production, and god knows when we might have the chance to do that again.

Emouvoir Emouvoir

Our Technical Theatre’s show “Emouvoir” will be opening this week and our whole class is busy like hell as everyone is involved.

This “Emouvoir” thing is actually part of our theatre making module in which we have to stage a performance all by ourselves, from the initial conceptualization to design process all the way till setting up the stage. The only thing we do not do is to act and do promotion for it. Therefore, we have to direct a short piece of drama or dance, do lighting design for another, sound design for next, and then stage manager as well. It is stressful and confusing as we have to squeeze 12 groups of rehearsals together, sometimes even overlapping one another. Nevertheless it is still fun at times.

On a side note, I was involved in the poster design for this performance. It went well initially, until the Corporate Communications department told us that the poster design looked a bit ambiguous in meaning due to the image of a naked man’s torso on the poster. Luckily for me, being an ex-Visual Studies Foundation student, I was well-prepared for the justification, and the poster design was finally approved with the insertion of a short blurb on the poster to contextualise it.

“Emouvoir” will be on at LASALLE’s Flexible Performance Space on 19 and 20 February.

Lucky Stiff Opened!

"Lucky Stiff" opened at Lasalle's Creative Cube this evening, and I only realised that minutes before the show opened! Well, I guess I have had been to busy to know that, or that it has been ages since I last look at our production schedule.

Today's show was not bad, including my sound effects playback. It wasn't as smooth during the last few rehearsals, as the original laptop I had used for the sound effect playback was down, and had to switch to another laptop last minute. This new laptop, however, had got a problem of being a bit lagging, and almost all sound cues only went off about a second after I hit the spacebar. Luckily for me I somehow managed to get round the problem by anticipating the sound cues a little and play just before my stage manager asked me to go. Of course, by right that shouldn't happen, but I had no choice!

On a side note, I have got 2 complimentary tickets for this Friday's show. I guess I won't be needing them, and if anyone wants to watch the show, please contact me. If you're into comedies or shows featuring good laughs without any plot that requires a lot of brain power to analyse and comprehend, this is the show to catch!

Upcoming Musical Productions

Previously I had posted that our whole class was involved in various musical productions this month, and now the tickets are available for sale at Gatecrash!

The production I am in is "Lucky Stiff", a whimsical musical about an Englishman who inherited his uncle's money after his death, with 2 other people after him trying to ruin his plan. It will be performing from 26 to 29 November, with a matinee on the last day, at Lasalle's Creative Cube.

The other 2 productions are "Nunsense" from 13 to 15 November at the Creative Cube as well, and "The Life of Galileo" from 27 to 29 November at Lasalle's Flexible Performance Space.

Do come and support if you can!

PS: For those who can't remember, I am doing sound op., not part of the cast.

It's a Wrap! End of "The Odd Couples"

So yesteday was the final performance for "The Odd Couple", and how time flies! It was a really fun experience working in this production, although I did not have the chance to interact with many people, especially the cast. My next production will be in November, and I believe it would be with the same class again. Really looking forward to it!

Preview for "The Odd Couple"

Today is the preview for "The Odd Couple" and I was shocked. I was shocked because I only realised that last evening. Or rather I had thought it was supposed to be a few days later. But since my job as the lighting op for this show is relatively easy, it didn't quite bother me.

The audience today was very receptive of the performance, and they were cheering and laughing loudly, and from my position on the control tower at the back of the auditorium, I thought I was watching an American sitcom. I never expected the audience's response to be so positive in the first place, and the atmosphere is entirely different then when watching even the last dress rehearsal.

One day down, and four more days to go; hopefully every other performance will be as smooth-running too, and I'm looking forward to my next production, doing sound op for a musical...

I have actually taken a few video clips of the drama during it's final dress rehearsal in the daytime, but until I know for certain I'm allowed to upload them onto any video servers, I am not in liberty to show them here. However, those who are on facebook can see one of the clips on "The Odd Couple" events page.

LASALLE's Performance Season Starting Soon

Although I'm just a mere lighting operator for one of the shows in the upcoming performance season of my school, I thought why not advertise them on my blog!

So altogether, there will be 4 shows being staged from 18th September to 11th October at the Flexible Space and Creative Cube within our campus compound. The 4 shows are: "5 Women Wearing the Same Dress" (18 - 20 Sep.), "The Odd Couple" (24 - 27 Sep.), "A Dream Play" (26 - 27 Sep.) and "Fever" (9 - 11 Oct.). Tickets are on sale now at Gatecrash (just follow the respective links above).

Please come support us!

Going First Aid Course 2

3 more photos from my first aid course taken today. Please do note that the superimposed thought bubbles in the following pictures are purely fictional and do not represent what the involved personnel had in mind at the point of photo taking!

Photography in School

I have not touched an analog camera for almost a decade, and today I finally got in touch with it again for photography lesson in school. Actually my class do not have photography lesson today, but as I was on medical leave two Mondays ago when the class was supposed to do analog photography, I had to be rescheduled to join another class to make up for it.

I had always like photography, and I used to carry my camera around so that I can snap pictures as and when I feel like it. Ironically, I had a phobia for analog photography. I remembered years ago, in an era where digital camera did not exist yet, I once loaded a roll of film wrongly, and none of my shots were captured, and since then I was too scared to even load films. Luckily with the invention of digital cameras, I was once again snapping pictures.

Doing analog photography was like traveling back in time, and much more. Other than doing the shooting, we have to develop the film ourselves in the dark room. It was really fun, but very tedious, as we have to unload the film from the film canister into the dump container in total darkness. On top of that there is a number of processing steps in order the pictures to be registered permanently on the film strip, which took about half an hour to complete. And that is just the developing of the film negative itself; developing of final print is another separate, but equally time-consuming step!

To be honest, although digital photography is much more convenient, I feel that analog photography is much more fun. Perhaps many of the processing steps has been simplified in the digital method, and therefore lessened the fun aspect as well. But still, I'm still very into digital photography; at least I won't need to worry about taking bad shots and thus wasting film!

Cranky People!

I'm very pissed off today, by the actions of one of my classmates. Actually this is not the first time I'm upset by her, but after various occasions since last semester, I'm finally angry over my limit.

This classmate, whom I shall just address her as Miss C to protect her identity, was actually on average terms with me when we first entered college. She and I had some common likings and since we often mix around with the same group of classmates, we did talk to each other at times. However, one fine day, things changed dramatically. On that day, she turned up with a bad haircut, and when I went up to her to talk about her hair, she got cranky and screamed at me. I was taken aback, so I just left her alone. Later on I realised that she do not react the same when some other classmates did the same to her! So from then I realised that I should keep clear of her, for I won't know when she'll become edgy again. Since then I've not talked to her till now, except on one incident where I have to inform the whole class of a message which one of my lecturers passed down.

Earlier this year, another incident angered me again. On a particular lesson, my lecturer assigned me to pair up with her and another female classmate. Her reaction to this planning was very strong and she shouted "No" very loudly and strongly. What the heck! Even if she's not comfortable with me pairing up with her, does she have to scream out loud? I was very angry for making me appear like an outcast, but I decided to just put up with her eccentricity.

As for today, she treated me like a pest again by moving away the moment I sat down beside her. You see, during drawing lesson, I was supposed to pair up with another female classmate, but as she had to leave halfway through the lesson, I was left with no partner. My friend Mister G, who was pairing up with Miss C, was just beside me, and hence I decided to join them. The moment I sat down, Miss C packed up all her things and requested the lecturer to pair up with someone else as she "don't have anyone to pair up with". For goodness sake I didn't even chase her away, and what she meant by having no one to pair up with? If she didn't like the idea of grouping up in threes, then why did she choose to group up with another 2 classmates later on? I don't know what I have done to irk her so much, and I'm certainly not happy with how she treats me like poison. Luckily I'm no longer going into the same faculty as her in the next academic year, or else I'll still have to put up with her childish cranky behaviour!

"Modern" Olympia

Edouard Manet had a world-famous painting called "Olympia", and today, I realised that our school has got an "Olympia" too!

Original "Olympia" by Edouard Manet

Our version of "Olympia" by Glenn!

See Day @ Lasalle

Today I went to the See Day at my campus. As previously mentioned, the See Day is the open house for our institution. Although I was not required to help out, I thought it would be nice to see how the displays of other faculties, as well as supporting our own foundation studies.

See Day flyer

Our lecturers painting on a big canvas outside our studio space

Me playing with my White Head

Faculty of Media Arts displaying within our studio space as well

Faculty of Design's exhibition space

Me and my reflection; I know it doesn't quite look like me!

My "model" against my bamboo-charcoal drawing, done on the spot

Abstract artist-wannabes' favourite space!

Abstract Art - My Curse

I'm never good at abstract art; or perhaps I have not learnt how to translate my emotions into abstract art pieces. Today for 2D lesson, we were supposed to make abstract drawings based on music clips being played via the sound systems and keywords on various emotions. In total, we have to do 20-odd drawings, and you could have guessed it, it was a disaster to me!

I'd laugh my head off if you think this is a pile of master artworks!

The only 2 pieces I'd consider still passable; the top being a response to a metal music clip and the bottom being a response to a xylophone-like musical sequence

A response to a chain of 11 sound clips; reflects well on my state of mind then: totally confused!

White Hat Parade @ Lasalle

Today we had a White Hat Parade around the whole campus, as part of our final assessment for our White Hat/ Wearable Head Structure/ White Head Structure project. Well, almost the whole of the campus; some groups had to climb up to the second level and up, whereas for our group, we only went around the first level, as well as a portion of the basement. It was really fun seeing everyone (almost) in all sorts of hats, though I feel that some are too costume party-like and not quite according to the learning outcome of our project.

On a side note, tomorrow and Sunday is the "see day" for our institute (open house, that is), and 3 of my works (1 Chinese ink portrait, 1 bamboo-charcoal drawing and my White Hat) have been selected for exhibition. However, my last check at the exhibiting venue showed that my bamboo-charcoal drawing had been taken down. I wasn't told why was that so, but I believed my drawing could not fit into the overall composition of the displaying area. Anyway I still have 2 other works there, and I just hope that they won't be removed again at the last minute (since I don't think they're really very outstanding, in my own point of view)!

My classmates in parade

People from other classes

Some of the White Hats chosen for exhibition by my lecturer's classes; the one which looked like a toppled Esplanade roof belongs to me (I don't have any pictures of me wearing the hat. Whoever has taken photographs of me in the White Hat please email to me!)

Another view of my White Hat; my worksmanship wasn't really good, and I'm surprised that it actually got selected for exhibition

Other "prized" White Hats

That's a self-portrait of me in Chinese ink, done by observing myself from a mirror; strange that it doesn't look like me, but another course mate whom I do not know!