Miscelleneous Thoughts After A Performance

On Saturday, our opera troupe had a performance at Fajar Neighbourhood Shopping Centre. This performance was sort of a last minute engagement, and we only had about 2 weeks to prepare. Luckily for us, the core programme of this performance is an all-time familiar "The Teacher, The Thief", and hence we could skip away with a lot of the rehearsal to concentrate on 2 new actors who had were roped into the show to replace 2 other actors who could not make it for the performance.

Unlike previous performances whereby we started performing at 8pm, this show was scheduled to run from 7pm to 9pm. Hence, I had to go to konghuay for my makeup an hour earlier too. I reached the destinatation at around 4pm, and everyone else had already started to make up. It wasn't my style to start so early, so I walked around leisurely to get my makeup box and accessories ready.

One of the practices of our troupe is that all actors are to wear white pants beneath their opera inner garments, for the thinness of these garments will reveal the colour of the clothes you wear, and it will be very unsightly. Hence, it is not uncommon to see people turning up in all white whenever they had to perform. I am one of the "rebels" who actually didn't follow that practice. In fact, I turned up wearing a beige t-shirt, a winter cap (I just dyed my hair, and my hair were very dry and were standing up like hay) and brown 3-quarter pants. I think I looked more like a "mat-rocker" or "hip-hopper" than a Chinese opera performer! However, I always make it a point to wear 2 layer of opera pants in order to hide the colour of my pants.

For those who do not know, I have the reputation of being the fastest actor to finish making up. In fact, there was once whereby I arrived at my performance venue just 10 minutes before the show commence and managed to complete my makeup in 5 minutes! But no way am I going to do that again, because it was simply too rush, and there is totally no room for any mistakes. Having said that, I am not someone who will take ages to complete his makeup, for I simply don't have the patience. And starting my makeup early will tempt me to experiment with colours, which usually will produce devastating effects. Hence, I am more comfortable with using just shades of red and orange on my face, unlike my other troupe members who uses other colours like blue, yellow and green (Amai excluded!). Sticking to these colours also mean more efficiency for me, since I don't have to search for one eyeshadow after another. I know some people would frown on me for sticking to the traditional way of makeup, but I don't quite care, because we all looked almost the same once we stepped onto the stage!

We left konghuay in different batches at around 6.15pm to our performing venue by taxis. This is how we usually travel to our performance venue, if it is near our headquarters. I'm not too sure if the taxi drivers get a shock initially when they saw us, but we're already so used to travel around like that. Years back we even walk straight into MacDonalds to buy food and drinks in opera makeup and costumes as well!

The sky didn't look good, and threatened us with a slight drizzle. We were worried, as the temporary performing stage, though built with a canopy above it, was still vulnerable to rain. The sound crew were equally worried, because all their equipments were fully exposed to the weather. Luckily the sky cleared soon after, and we started our show at 7pm sharply. We performed 3 shows: scene from "Romance of the Dragon Princess", excerpt from "The Arrogant Princess" and traditional short opera "The Teacher, The Thief". I was the busiest crew of the day, as I had to double-up as the chief percussionist during the first 2 segments due to the absence of our chief percussionist. Anyway, the 3 segments were staged smoothly, and the audience liked us. (So far I've never heard or met audience who don't like us!) The only hiccups with the performance though, was the design of the stage. It was simply too small, and the lighting system of the stage was simply unsuitable for acting. (4 spotlights were placed on the floor and shining up at the actors' face)

After the performance, the stage crew packed all our belongings into our vans while we actors leave first to standby unload at konghuay. While waiting for the rest to return, we decided to take some candid photographs for fun. This is how we are; we can be very serious on stage, but once off-stage, we can be cheeky and fun-loving like anyone in the streets!