Today was pretty fruitful and eventful, except for drama in the afternoon, in which we completely did not accomplish anything! Did I mention that I stepped into cement on the way to chantel's?! Argh! Boy, was I pissed! My coolio shoes were white and nice and FROM UK!
So anyway, slacked all the way at Chantel's and then we all decided to go to the botanic gardens!After we reached, we took a long trek, before arriving at the spot of congregation. Met Ruth, and Lianne, and enting and not many other people, which was mildly disappointing. Haha. Watched people play twister (ahahaha) and then played with meg's camera. Halfway through, we quietly hopped over to the drammadicts and started camwhoring.
They were pretty bored, and thus did weird things, like look at ants (?) and yeah, funny, random things. We were convinced to go back and oastracise ourselves (haha) but it wasn't that bad. It was nice to see people again and soak in the atmosphere even if it were just for an hour.
So, had a hard time making megan get back her speakers, and it was a pretty awkward scene.
Let's move on to the crux of today's post, CULMINATIO! (woah, cheem name)
After suffering for like, say 20 minutes of hearing shu go on and on and on about how pretty the GIRLS were, I was pretty much grossed out. But that wasn't the worst. Let me tell you about that later. Hahaha.
BUS STOP
I think the plot was pretty much relevant to our age and lives, and physical theatre was pretty obvious throughout. The repetition in movements created quite a good impact, and characterization was good too. It somehow reminded me of stock characters, like the perv, the jock, the prep and the coveted guy(?). I think the content made the most sense to me.
MAMA LOOKING FOR HER CAT
This was pretty draggy, especially in the beginning. And it also felt like our sec two practical piece. I thought more conventions could have been explored and used. The symbolism was good though, like the cat and paper planes. Kuo Pao Kun! reminded me of our eunuch o level piece :/ which shu is apparently LOOKING FORWARD TO.
NEVER THE SINNER
AHHHHHH! This was the highlight of the night, according to shu, cos her NATHAN was there! I think he was supposed to act gay or something? So throughout the whole performance, whenever Dick(Nathan) touched Nathan(the other gay partner), shu would squirm and sink deeper into her seat. She even called Nathan(the gay partner) a b**** just because Nathan(the hot one in shu's eyes) keeps touching him(gay partner). Sigh, the names are confusing me. Anyway, I didn't really get what it was trying to say and I guess there is an obvious lack in physical theatre? Characterization was good though.
STUCK IN NEUTRAL
Best, in my opinion. Symbolism and all were awesome! and the physical part was really good, rhythmic, graceful and all. It was very emotion evoking, and I almost teared at the end. Really effective!
Sorry for such brief descriptions but its 2:46 AM and I'm stuck in a dilemma.
date: Friday, June 26, 2009 @ 6:17 PM
title: low
Since life's been getting harder and all, I've been trying to write, to get it all out.
Honety's prime right?
I'm not sure if I'm ready.
mentorship, yes no?
expectations, parents, others, self.
sore boredom is driving me nuts.
thoughts are running crazily through my mind, can't remember.
Life's complicated, and I wouldn't say it's a good thing.
SOMEONE JUST TALK TO ME ON MSN OKAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
PS: I'VE BEEN STUCK AT HOME FOR THE PAST 119 HOURS, 20 MINUTES AND COUNTING
date: Friday, June 19, 2009 @ 4:35 PM
title: DUKY
so, after three years of yearning and awaiting, DUKY has finally come to fruition.
after going through this whole roller coaster of events, we finally made it to UK.
you cannot imagine how excited we were throughout the whole trip, maybe except when we were on the plane back.
much heartfelt thanks to everyone who made this trip possible, authorities on both ends- singapore and uk- and also all the students and dramaddicts! that made this experience a definitely unforgettable one.
It pains me with much regret now that we're all quarantined at home for seven days, but looking back on the last ten days in UK, I'm sure all of us will deem this worth it.
so, lets reminisce about the last ten days in UK.
DAY ONE:
the flight, sorry to say, was absolutely boring. I initially thought it would be much fun to gallavant about on the plane. but no. sad, hard truth? it's terribly boring to watch like almost 10 chick flick movies with no moral values whatsoever. and after the 5th, you start to confuse their characters in the movies, thinking that you are still watching "He's not that into you" when you're actually at "Confessions of a shopaholic".
once we landed, we brisk-walked out into what seemed like winter, at least for me.
yada yada bus ride yada yada travelodge yada yada dinner @ wagamama where I had a taste of reliving my childhood. I had an ice lolly! peach-flavoured, it was okay but I was so excited!
we then walked around abit and witnessed exotic birds (they seriously looked like seagulls or something) flying around. even the dustbins are cool and classic (weird I know)
DAY TWO:
we went to school!
on the way to school, the scenery was breath-taking, plus there were lots of animals like cows and sheep and horses grazing, a sight that can NEVER be witnessed in singapore, so of course I whipped out my handy dandy camera and snapped away! but unfortunately, I was quite slow and didn't get to get good picture on the first day YET. (we would pass by the same route everyday for five days HAH there's plenty of opportunities tomorrow!)
in school, our first impression was:
"oh my gosh. the girls are so freaking pretty!"
they are seriously so pretty, I felt so chinese next to them. okay, I know I AM chinese.
we had these warm ups that really got us "burning". it was pretty physically demanding as it lasted for at least half an hour, or so it felt.
we also had this mask workshop thing where we had to make masks.
so after school, we went to Marks and Spencers to do grocery shopping and I bought plenty of tomatoes! they are really really REALLY GOOOOOD! IT'S A MUST TRY IN UK!
then we had dinner at slugs & lettuce. the beef pie thing was quite nice!
Day three was nothing much so i shall just skip it.
DAY FOUR:
we had more rehearsals for the joint play that Ridings High and our school was working together for. after that, the Ridings students brought us shopping! (not like I really like shopping but it was so sweet of them to offer hahaha) then we went to Liam's place to have a barbecue! the food was so good! and there was this baby- i can't remember boy or girl, but i think its a her- she was so so so cute! shu totally illegally sniffed her. her paedo instincts. but i smelt her too, and she really did smell like flowers hahahaha.
that was about all, we took quite a few group shots and then went back to travelodge.
DAY FIVE:
more rehearsals, which I do not want to delve deep into detail about.
Rock Island! All of them were really good! Especially Tom, so I was glad his band won! Autopilot.
We were also thinking that Joe should have a band too!
went back to travelodge and chantel insisted on making music videos(??) that turned out weird and cannot-be-seen-by-the-world. we then embarked on writing farewell cards (:
until like 2+3 am.
DAY SIX
we had three performances. but the last performance was the most important one because it somehow determined if the UK students could come over to Singapore for the exchange. So of course, we did our ultimate best, and for the first time in six days, I actually perspired (its 18 degrees there).
we were really happy after the last performance and we did the "Everybody Dance now!" clap-dance. then we had this buffet sort of thing and took more photos!
the ridings high students did something so unforgettable and touching, I'll just have to post it up here.
they sang and played this awesome song for us (:
then they gave us their ridings pullovers (:
it was pretty much indescribable and now as I'm typing this, I feel this warm fuzzy feeling inside me.
when we had to go, it was a really difficult goodbye. we kept hugging each other and telling each other how much we would miss each other and almost everyone cried. although I didn't know many of them well, it just felt sad and dreary that we had to leave this coven.
when our bus was getting ready to leave, all of them we like preparing to chase the bus. how sweet can this get man. it ended up with quite a few accidents which made us feel more touched. in the bus, we started singing all the songs we had sung with them. cue more tears and whimpers. when it really started sinking in, that we were never going to see them again, i felt really low.
the next few days, we were in London. nothing much happened except for musuem visiting and shopping.
oh oh! we watched romeo and juliet, Wicked and peter pan.
Wicked was really awesome! nothing like you've seen in Singapore. We even got matching shirts that reads " I (heart) OZ" in purple! whoppee!
I really hope the Ridings High students can come over to Singapore! So that we can return them this favour, this memory, this experience, that I think I wouldn't forget in this lifetime.
RIDINGS HIGH - CHIJ ST NICHOLAS DRAMA EXCHANGE TRIP 2009
OH OH! AND CAP COUNCIL, ESPECIALLY CHERYL AND NADIA (although I didn't talk to them very much)
cap council is made up of a bunch of really cool and funny people! awesome much!
the dorms were awesome! (despite it looking like a prison when its dark and when you're all alone in the night, lying on the bed, trying to think that no one's near you. the transponder is annoying but sort of cool too)
the canteen was awesome! (it was air-conditioned and the food was good! albeit the sticky and slippery floor. I especially liked the grilled chicken, carbonara- which was surprisingly nicer than pasta mania's- and the FAMOUS CHEESE PRATA!)
the waffle shop was awesome! (they had really good service! the staff were nice and friendly and the waffles -main point here- were yummy! at least it tasted different from waffles outside)
the auditorium was awesome! (although it was very very very cold, it was pretty cool)
the poetry slam room ws awesome! (no particular reason, i just liked the slamming -to much surprise- cos I was initially feeling pretty emo about the slam-and-not-drama-workshop thing)
aCAPella was awesome! (funny much! all those skeletons dragged out of their closets!)
most importantly, the lectures were actually quite interesting! but I only liked a few, namely, Lee Thean-Jeen, Aaron Maniam, Philip Holden and Courttia Newland.
the writing workshops were better in my opinion! I especially enjoyed the Yew Kong Leong one. It was so funny yet intelligent.
so anyway, updates and funny things that happened.
headnote: I was very much emo-ing and being anti-social throughout the camp due to a few reasons. Firstly, there were boys. Secondly, overwhelming socialising was going on, which sort of put me off. Thus, I only talked to Lianne, Melissa and Charmaine. Which is quite pathetic I know, for a five day camp, but at least I made nice good friends! :D
Day one:
Orientation games were a little dead and short. one embarrasing fact though, when they asked for self introductions of a PLACE/LOCATION, I dumbly said "I live in my own bubble" Like WOW that was SO DUMB OF ME!
anyway, then we had two plenary lectures, in which marie chong attended too. during the second lecture, the fire alarm sounded. MC then frantically flailed her arms at megan and I (both ends of the auditorium) and kept pointing to herself, waving her hands towards her neck in quick succession. simply put, she was trying to mime to us that she was so hot that the fire alarm sounded. I was just like WOW YEAH.
hahaha.
then during lunch, she shared with us her life story, which, cannot be described in detail here so yes. after the ramble, she INSISTED that we go with her to find some stupid swimming pool in ACS(I). when we said no, she grumbled another life story of hers, how she used to train there when she was a kid and how she was NEVER going to see it again. of course we didn't go with her. we left her to her own devices while we sat on the fake grass field of ACS(I) and started formulating theories about why they needed a fake grass field. the opening ceremony was an utter bore, during which I witnessed more socialising. oh but I saw someone whom yuen ping would have loved to see.
that's pretty much it, we went back to the dorms and I had a hard first night trying to sleep.
Day two:
It was fairly better with the lecture and I sort of enjoyed the writing workshops too! nothing much happened, except that we learnt the bottle game from greg. It is quite exciting and addictive and I secretly think that it helps you train abs because after I play it for awhile, I always feel my stomach muscles hurting.
we also had our first performance workshop (poetry slam) on that day. I was actually feeling slightly dreary about it, especially after knowing that drama had michael corbridge. But it actually turned out quite fun and we got to make our own script and stuff, although I would have preferred more space and freedom in terms of expression. difficult story to tell here, so anyway, it was relatively enjoyable.
Day three:
after the plenary lecture on that day, it was tea break. so now let me tell you this horribly sad story of tea break. we initially joined this queue (there were two queues), but after queuing for about ten minutes, there was NO MORE FOOD. so, we joined the only other queue. but after less than ten seconds, a dozen people started cutting our queue! Desperate, cold, hungry and sleepy, we were annoyed. hungry men are angry men. so, we went back into the LT and found out that all the books were sold out! how much better can the day get?
but, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing workshop by Dr Yew Kong Leong. It was by far the most interesting and my favourite one! many funny events happened and I will cite one here. this group came up with this play about foreign talent and then they received comments. It went like this:
"It's so ridiculous! The play doesn't really make sense!"
"No, everything will make sense because this is Singapore."
The guy who was trying to defend his group was speaking with this weird eyebrow twitching actions which was so hilarious.
Then, same group, different guy.
this character is a foreign talent from Bangladeshi, he is named Ahmed (pronounced as ar-chi-med)
"Ahmed (ar-chi-med) sounds egyptian!"
"He's half-egyptian and half-bangladeshi!"
-nods to self, pleased with witty remark-
Ain't it funny?!
dinner, practiced like mad for slam and also stole a few glances of drama.
Day four:
the plenary lecture was a life saver. Prof Philip Holden mentioned Kuo Pao Kun's play which happens to be our o-level script! so, of course I jumped at this opportunity to ask for more elaboration and analysis on that play. The amazingly embarrassing thing was, I had to ask "Can you elaborate more on the context of the 3rd reading (which was titled 'Descendants of the EUNUCH admiral') and maybe his choice of writing material? yeah..." in front of like a few hundred people which includes species from the opposite gender. embarrassing much!
but anyway, megan and I then went to ask him more about the play in private after his lecture which deemed more useful then my weird question at first. yay us:D
then the forums commenced. I thought that forum one was actually quite interesting, contrary to popular belief. see? I actually make good decisions! there was this painting of an anime like character maid which instigated much debate about whether she was smiling or crying (HAHAHAHA) and it immediately reminded us about someone (HAHAHAHAHA)
the second forum was slightly boring, again contrary to popular belief (sometimes I wonder if I'm really weird or what).
had this gathering thing in which we had impersonations and waffles, magic tricks which creeped me out like mad and the councillors performance. GREAT GREAT GREAT! sleepy unglam face unglam sleepy face!
practiced more slam, then we packed off to the actual site to practice some more.
Day five :
:( I woke up like at 6, to find melissa outside my door. she asked if I was ready to go down. I was like "huh? I just woke up"
Luckily I zoomed down in 20 minutes (thanks to my exceptional ability of rushing in the mornings -I train every day- hahahahaha!) and wasn't late. the last plenary was somewhat interesting. not very lecturish but it taught us all some important concepts of life despite its length. we even had a teach-slang-session whereby the speaker taught us some british slang(yay for uk!) and we taught him some singaporean slang.
practiced more more for slam then went down to actual site for technical and full dress run. It was quite cool to see all the performances (they were awesome!) but when we rehearsed, I tripped, fell and hurt my foot. now, it's officially a sprained ankle and am worried that I can't go for uk! but oh well nevermind, it's quite mild.
The real run was awesome! Charmaine and I didn't miss a single word! I'm keeping my comments for the other performances to myself, but in general, they were all really awesome too! It was incredible to see how much they came up with within a short span of five days.
It was kinda sad that CAP had to end and now I missed the dorms, the canteen, the waffle shop and above all, all the people and aCAPella.
I guess I'll try to keep this awesome experience in my mind forever, and not forget it within the next few days which I'm extremely vulnerable to since I suffer from some brain capacity malfunction (I'm dead serious).
CAP has been awesome, so I hope my brain won't give up on me this time.
At least if I forget, I can always look up my archive and read this!
PS: Martha insists that I credit her on the use of some of her adjectives at the very top of the post. In which case you haven't noticed, there's an adjective for every letter in the alphabet.
