Debut Performance in English

Today marks my first theatrical performance in English.

Well, it isn't really a theatrical production; it is actually a dramatised reading of a new play titled "Pink Kisses" written by my classmate. But then, since there's some bit of acting involved (with our scripts on hand though) and that it was performed in a theatrical space with real basic theatrical light, it can somewhat be called a theatrical performance nevertheless.

Come to think of it, I first stepped into the world of theatre as an actor 12 years ago (that is excluding the time I performed as an owl in a fairytale poem in Primary 5 and performing in a street-side Hokkien opera when I was 15) with a Chinese drama club, but it wasn't long before I called it quits (due to some conflicts with one of their senior members), and since then I had performed solely with my Hokkien opera troupe. Hence, this is my first contemporary performance after a 12-year absence.

There are a number of first-time experiences for me too: first time performing without any projection devices or amplifiers, first time involved in dramatised reading, first time stepping into the role as a "cast member" in my school's theatre space, first time working with directors outside my opera troupe as an actor. The experience was great, although I felt that I could have done better. Somehow, being no longer confined by the strict set of bodily gestures I am so used to in my Chinese opera performances, there were times I just wasn't sure how I should compose myself. Perhaps I'm just more suited to perform in Chinese opera, but then again, I won't dismiss the fact that I might get involved in other contemporary theatrical shows again in future. That's not to say I will give up Chinese opera, just that I always feel that it's always good to try a bit of everything, for there'll always be things to learn form in every aspects of theatre. That's what I feel is the best way to upgrade oneself artistically, instead of just focusing on things that is of direct relation to oneself.

Unseen Shots from "You're A Good Man, Charlie Brown"

Earlier on I've said that we crew members parodied the cast before the show started. So here are some of them, courtesy of Caitanya who played Schroeder.

An elongated dog... Adam's (our drummer) upper body and my lower body...

Me parodying Lucy in "Lucy Opens Shop"

Me parodying as Lucy and Adam as Schroeder in "Schroeder"

Closing of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

"You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown" is finally closed last night and it was a good performance by the Level 3 Musical Theatre students, in collaboration with our Technical Theatre faculty. Other than yesterday's matinee which was like 60% full, all other performances were close to full house if not filled up to the max. Yesterday night's turnout even overstretched the seating capacity and I believed more chairs had to be added so as not to turn away anyone (I'm not sure though if anyone had been turned away).

My props table at a dark corner of the backstage

For those who still don't know what's my role in the production, I was one of the two assistant stage managers for the show. Over the intercom, other than identifying myself as "stage left" (since I'm stationed on the stage left side), I was also known as "the man on the stage left", or "Mr Stool" or "Mr. Baseball Bat", as I need to throw stool and baseball bat to my fellow actor as required by the director. Generally speaking, stage crew like me are not supposed to be seen by audience when the show is running. Hence, to make up for the loss of exposure, I had some fun with my other crew members while the cast is not around by parodying them on stage. Unfortunately, I don't think anyone had footages of these monkeying scenes of us, so I won't be able to post them up here. But to be honest, if I'm at least taller by 10cm, I might have joined the acting or musical theatre course instead. I'm actually equally interested in the performance aspect of theatre, so seeing others perform on stage tends to make to itch for acting opportunities too. But for now, I'll just stick to technical theatre.

Queen Julia from the Queendom of BopIt, also known as Miss Dogbone for having a throw a 1m dogbone on stage to Snoopy.

The cast of "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown"

Right now, I'm relieved that the production is over, but on the other hand I'm starting to miss working on this production already, because I really like this show since ages ago. Hopefully I'll get to work with the same group of actors again, though I'm not sure if there'll be any chance till the end of this academic year...

The backstage crew, finally exposed to public...

Burning of the damned leaf that refused to listen to the SM's cue by the SM after last night's performance.

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!

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!

Start of Production Period: The Odd Couple

So I had started attending rehearsals for "The Odd Couple", a drama production which would be held somewhere this month (I still have no idea when it would be held, although I knew my production period is from 16th to 27th this month!). I am the lighting op., and am really looking forward to it.

I have been very anxious when I first got the brief production schedule early last month, and being a bit kiasu, I actually went to get a zapped copy of the script, only to realised lately that we were producing the "female version" of the Neil Simon play and not the original male version which I had originally conveniently assumed. What a waste of money, but anyway both versions are more or less the same in terms of concept, so although I joined in the rehearsals much later than my other classmate who's doing the sound op., at least I know roughly the gist of the plot.

I thought "The Odd Couple" was really an interesting play, and I actually enjoyed sitting in for the rehearsals. I'll try to see if I can do a bit of video recording of the rehearsal next time round during rehearsal.

I was taking snapshots of the set before rehearsal commenced and I saw a shadow zoomed past; it was my SM Caleb trying to get all the props ready. I think my troupe's "SMs" should consider themselves very, very lucky and pampered to only turn up on performance day without knowing a single thing about the plot!

My LD Wang Meng with 1/3 of the cast in the background

The temporary "dressing room" for our cast; I can't imagine myself doing costume changes in such a chaotic place!

Respect and Professionalism

Lately an incident in the arts community here has become a topic of discussion. A Straits Times reporter, having sat through only 10 minutes into a performance for the Singapore Theatre Festival, wrote a review on that performance which was filled with inaccuracies and misleading information. This sparked some unhappiness among some local theatre practitioners, and I felt equally upset. Where has the professionalism of this reporter went to? I'm sure he should have learnt at some point of his academic life that one need to have thorough research before he even write a thesis, report, review, whatever, and in this case, shouldn't he write only after he had finished the show? It is downright disrespectful of the performance and its production crew to write a review based on simply assumption of what would happen for the next 9/10 of the performance which the reporter had missed. To put it on an even simpler term, I'm sure at least he's heard of the phrase "do not judge a book by his cover", and sadly, this was what he did. The more disappointing fact was that the Straits Times weren't even a single bit apologetic towards this incident; all they did was to put a small disclaimer in the papers stating that the review was not "incomplete" as the reviewer did not finish the show. Is that all the Straits Times have to say to this incident? What about the discourse of professional ethics which was obviously left out? A lecturer of mine once told my class that sometimes she got upset when she reads the Life! section of the Straits Times because of the shallowness of the contents, and now I can understand (I haven't read the local papers for ages since I do not like the style of it). At this point of writing, I understand some theatre practitioners have started sending letters to the press to voice their unhappiness (sadly I didn't, as I know well enough my linguistic power only allows me to diss in my own blog), and I believe as usual, the management of the Straits Times will jump up from their cosy armchairs to react accordingly, as what has been done before for other similar and/ or not-so-similar happenings. Or will they not do anything? We shall see...

Finally Found: "William Teo: His Work in Theatre"

There's this particular book on the late local theatre practitioner William Teo which I had been searching high and low for months, and I finally found it at Earshot Cafe at the Artshouse.


Actually, I've seen this book before a few years back at the Esplanade gift shop (or whatever you call it), but I didn't buy at that point of time. I did browse through the book briefly, though, and I thought his works seemed interesting to me. However, I soon forgot about the book, its contents, and even the subject matter after some time. It was only during my interview for admission into TTA that William Teo's name resurfaced again, when my programme leader Shao Ann commented that my design for my specialism project gave him the impression of how William Teo would have done in my place. Therefore, I began hunting for the book, but alas, Esplanade gift shop do not carry it already. I went to a few major bookstores too, but neither do they have it. Even Select Books, a local bookstore which carries lots of rare southeast Asian publications, no longer have it in their stocks. "Our supplier said that this book is too old and has been out-of-print already!", the lady over the counter told me after checking with their supplier. Luckily for me, I stumbled upon Earshot Cafe's website by chance and realised that they still have it, and hence decided to head down to the cafe to get it.

I'm still very excited now, at being able to get my hands on the book. I think I'm going to frame it up, or even lock it up in a metal box under layers of chains and padlocks!

A.C. Paper Theatre

I've just built a theatre of my own, in location of my bedroom! Actually it was model theatre, which I had done up to aid me in my scenography work which will be becoming more significantly important in my opera troupe. I'm not too sure how it will affect me as an actor (since I didn't join the troupe initially to do behind-the-scene works), but most likely I'll be busier than ever.

My paper theatre: made of mounting boards and cartridge paper.

Stage is modeled after the one at Chong Pang Community Club's multi-purpose hall (the venue which we perform the most frequent), with a scale of 1:50, including all props and model actors.

Can you see who they are? They're Amai and Yanni, two of my model actors!

My other model actors.

In case you can't tell how big/ small my paper theatre is, here's a clue to it!