This day, 12 September 2006, is the actual day of our performance, "Courtesan Yu Tang Chun". We may have already staged this show in Tampine East Community Club last month, but this version we've brought over came with a difference: the lovebirds do not get together in the end after all. We were told by our Taiwanese counterpart that our original "happy ending" was way too traditional and lack creativity, and hence the ending was changed, in a matter of weeks only.
This morning, we did not have the luxury to wake up late (usually we were expected to have more rest on the night prior to our performances to conserve more energy), as my panicky leader wanted more rehearsals. Upon reaching the theatre in the morning, Art and I wasted no time getting into action; she went to co-ordinate the lightings while I went to co-ordinate the flyers. Surprisingly, my leader did not bother us for the first half of the day. However, we were later given a big surprise: the TV station is coming to film our rehearsal in the afternoon! Luckily it turned to be just a dry run for the filming crew get familiarised with our show before the actual shooting at night. Somehow I felt that their shooting standard is much better than the one we hired to shoot our "Tragedy of the Song Palace". For that show, the shooting angles kept changing after every few seconds, making it an eyesore to watch!
We did not do a full rehearsal with makeup. Instead, we only did a costume rehearsal. Art and I had the "special privellege" to not don our opera costumes, as we need to constantly run up and down the stage. So far the costume rehearsal went on quite smoothly, although initially there was a big hiccups, as our stage manager, who was our dance instructress, wasn't able to co-ordinate the lighting and flyer cues well, but they were later solved. Not too bad for a newbie, but I felt that there were too many intentional pauses between changing of scenes.
After the rehearsal, we started our makeup. For some of our members, we had the luxury of having professional makeup artistes help us with the makeup, at a price of course! I had paid to have my makeup done too. Many people said my makeup looked too girlish, even I myself find it very odd-looking. I then later realised that the makeup artiste that did the makeup for me was specialised in doing makeup for dans. Still, I don't recall any dans sporting round pouting lips!
Time passed quicker when one doesn't keep track of it. Not long after, it was time for the actual performance, and then the show came to an end. I thought that was it, and was about to remove my wig (which I'd secured with lots of hairpins), but was given another big suprise: the voice for Juanjuan in one of the scenes was not recorded by the filming crew, and they wanted to reshoot that scene after the audience had dispersed. That scene has got me in it as well, and that meant I couldn't rest just as yet! I could see many dumbfounded expressions among some of my other members, as they had to change back into their original costumes and hairdo first. Later on, it turned out that they just need to record the half half of the scene, which only involved me, Juanjuan and Decheng. The other members were all fuming mad!
Two shows down, but there was still one last hurdle to cross: the discussion forum for our show, which would be held the following morning. This is the part I feared most, as opera critics and researchers would turn up and give comments to our show. Taiwanese people are known for their shockingly straight-in-your-face attitude, and I was afraid that I would not be able to handle their tongue lashing, if they find our show far below their expectation. Although our leader had told us that the discussion forum was actually a very relaxing affair (she had attended Tang Meiyun's discussion forum, and found that it wasn't as bad as she had originally thought), but afterall, her troupe is very professional, and there's very much less things to pick on her show, since her lighting, scenography and music were superb. I could only pray that those who turned up be more lenient in their comments, and leave the rest them for private discussions.
Note: This is the last post for this series, although there is a Day 5 for my visit to Taiwan.
This morning, we did not have the luxury to wake up late (usually we were expected to have more rest on the night prior to our performances to conserve more energy), as my panicky leader wanted more rehearsals. Upon reaching the theatre in the morning, Art and I wasted no time getting into action; she went to co-ordinate the lightings while I went to co-ordinate the flyers. Surprisingly, my leader did not bother us for the first half of the day. However, we were later given a big surprise: the TV station is coming to film our rehearsal in the afternoon! Luckily it turned to be just a dry run for the filming crew get familiarised with our show before the actual shooting at night. Somehow I felt that their shooting standard is much better than the one we hired to shoot our "Tragedy of the Song Palace". For that show, the shooting angles kept changing after every few seconds, making it an eyesore to watch!
We did not do a full rehearsal with makeup. Instead, we only did a costume rehearsal. Art and I had the "special privellege" to not don our opera costumes, as we need to constantly run up and down the stage. So far the costume rehearsal went on quite smoothly, although initially there was a big hiccups, as our stage manager, who was our dance instructress, wasn't able to co-ordinate the lighting and flyer cues well, but they were later solved. Not too bad for a newbie, but I felt that there were too many intentional pauses between changing of scenes.
After the rehearsal, we started our makeup. For some of our members, we had the luxury of having professional makeup artistes help us with the makeup, at a price of course! I had paid to have my makeup done too. Many people said my makeup looked too girlish, even I myself find it very odd-looking. I then later realised that the makeup artiste that did the makeup for me was specialised in doing makeup for dans. Still, I don't recall any dans sporting round pouting lips!Time passed quicker when one doesn't keep track of it. Not long after, it was time for the actual performance, and then the show came to an end. I thought that was it, and was about to remove my wig (which I'd secured with lots of hairpins), but was given another big suprise: the voice for Juanjuan in one of the scenes was not recorded by the filming crew, and they wanted to reshoot that scene after the audience had dispersed. That scene has got me in it as well, and that meant I couldn't rest just as yet! I could see many dumbfounded expressions among some of my other members, as they had to change back into their original costumes and hairdo first. Later on, it turned out that they just need to record the half half of the scene, which only involved me, Juanjuan and Decheng. The other members were all fuming mad!
Two shows down, but there was still one last hurdle to cross: the discussion forum for our show, which would be held the following morning. This is the part I feared most, as opera critics and researchers would turn up and give comments to our show. Taiwanese people are known for their shockingly straight-in-your-face attitude, and I was afraid that I would not be able to handle their tongue lashing, if they find our show far below their expectation. Although our leader had told us that the discussion forum was actually a very relaxing affair (she had attended Tang Meiyun's discussion forum, and found that it wasn't as bad as she had originally thought), but afterall, her troupe is very professional, and there's very much less things to pick on her show, since her lighting, scenography and music were superb. I could only pray that those who turned up be more lenient in their comments, and leave the rest them for private discussions.
Note: This is the last post for this series, although there is a Day 5 for my visit to Taiwan.
7 comments:
Too girlish the makeup except the lips...u can be on par with LXY...hehehehhe
Who's LXY?? I only know LKY.. hee...
Oh... I know who already.. hahaha... I think LXY's makeup is not as girlish as this!
not bad, quite charming..so can consider dan role now... hahahaha
Dun ever draw such pouting lips....I think they look horrid...hehehe..
I think I can draw my own lips better than them! =*
i like the way the pro drew our brown, eyes and nose. very clean. got chance must learn from them.
my mouth was also not well drawn. But overall, their make up are good. I asked around, 99% like the make up!
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