Bye June!

Now that June is over and done with, what a June it has been!

Freshly out of NS, I jumped straight into Short+Sweet Singapore.

Directed "Aided", written by Anant Shiva (who also won Best New Talent: Director at the Gala Finals!). Five shows, four days at NAFA.

Became very good friends with the waiter at the coffee shop and Maggi Goreng became my staple supper food.

And what I love from Short+Sweet are the number of new friends one can make! Great fun!

With Short+Sweet over, Yellow Chair Productions attacked everyone with a "Monsoon" of a time. And was stuck at Sengkang CC for 3 days, which was pretty warm and cozy. Haha. Old Chang Kee and tons of water became my good friend as accumulated fatigue was setting in.

It was a fun production and it's always great to work with a closely knitted group.

I'm proud of what the team has done and how far some of them have come. :)

And once the torrential rainfall was over, I jumped straight into "I Want To Be A Star" or aka HI Musical, a musical celebrating Holy Innocents' High's 50th Anniversary.

I was casted as the Discipline Master (the only non-staff/teacher/student by the way) and I had a ball of a time working with the students and teachers of the school.

I was always made to feel welcomed and I miss working with the actors, dancers, choir and THE SET TEAM! HAHA! And if you know me well, you will know how easily attached I get to people, organizations, things, etc. Haha.

The rehearsals were on a daily basis, long and tiring but the product was very rewarding. I'm so glad I said YES to the production. Spent 3 long days at Drama Centre and this time fatigue had already set in and I had to preserve my voice and plain water was my constant companion for the longest time and I made sure I brought my pillow along with me to sneak in little naps here and there whenever I got the chance.

I took some pictures here and there, will post them up in due time.

So, now that June has passed us, I can now take a quick rest. Or not.

I'm going up to KL today to find my cast for the play I'm directing at Short+Sweet Malaysia! :)

Will tell y'all more in due time!

Monsoon Reviews

Monsoon has just ended and it was quite the whirlwind! Haha!

Here are some reviews of the production from different blogs.

"I found myself laughing my ass off throughout the play, and crying at the end of the play."
http://falia-ragingbeaut.blogspot.com/2008/06/hows-weather-just-way-i-like-it.html

"I felt that the cast was great!"
http://jtchy.livejournal.com/8556.html

"My verdict after watching? As the blog title said: It was horrible."
http://phatybomb.blogspot.com/2008/06/by-way-i-tried-to-say-it-was-horrible.html

It's always interesting when you get differing views about your production.
It allows you to sit down and reflect to see how one can better one's self for the next one.
Don't you think?

Though, I must say I'm a tad hurt by the third one but hey. *shrugs*

The Monsoon is Here! The Monsoon is Here!

I'm putting this up again on the eve of the production because I want you to come watch this production of ours! We're almost SOLD OUT on both Friday and Saturday evening, so, help us make that happen! :)

Also, we managed to get a listing in Arts Beat complete with picture and a poster at the back and even in 8 Days that gave us the "feature" theatre listing of the week complete with poster!

If my call alone is not enough, take a look at the pictures below!













I've got cute boys and girls in my team! HAHAHA!

And I've got fun people to boot! So how?

Buy a ticket today?

Quick Post-Army Update

I know most of you would know by now that I have ORD-ed from the Army.

I've been meaning to blog a summary and reflections about my 2 year stint but I've not gotten about to doing it just yet. Mainly because I've been busy.

There was the mini ORD celebration that I had at TCC with a number of friends.

This was followed by The Spectacular, Spectacular Musical Party.

And the recently concluded Week 1 of the Top 30 plays for Short+Sweet Singapore 2008.

I rewarded myself with a good amount of sleep today.

But it's back to rehearsals for Monsoon tonight. Haha.

Stars

The fireflies danced around the broken street light. I wasn't so sure why they did that. To my understanding, only moths do that. Maybe the fireflies felt a connection to this broken street light. There are many broken street lights along this street but they choose this one. Every night it's the same one. But at least they illuminated this particular spot of the street and it's becoming my favourite spot.

This dalliance of shadows intrigues me, appearing before me like a graceful orgy. I stand in the darkness, just next to the spot of light not wanting the fireflies to know I'm there. I stare, fixated at the shadows that play freely on the gravel. And when I decide to look up again, the fireflies remind me of stars.

It reminded me of the days when I was a boy of seven and I had the solar system glowing in the dark in my room. I was never scared of the dark when I was a child because I knew I always had the vast sky and the rest of its inhabitants watching over me, keeping me safe. When I stirred from a nightmare or when I awoke to use the little boy's room, the stars always shone and the moon always smiled at me.

When I grew older, I took comfort in open spaces. The stars and their friends were not in my room anymore and I had to go outside. I'd find a field, an open track or an empty pool and I'd lie down. I had the littlest care for anything else when I'm on the ground. I'd look up and I'd smile to see my friends.

Over the years however, it got a bit lonely doing all that by myself. I had wished upon many a shooting star when I was a young boy and true to its promise, the stars granted my wish. I had found a companion who loved to do the same. A girl who not only found comfort in the sky but also the warmth in my hands. Not only would she would my hands when we counted the stars but she would rest her head on my shoulder and she'd snuggle up to me and she'd steal occasional kisses. And I'd just smile. I smiled for every wish the stars had granted me.

The years always passed, the buildings kept coming up and growing higher by the day but we always had our sky and stars and we shared this with our little ones. They preferred running across the open spaces instead of lying down like us but we never minded. We still held hands, I would now steal the occasional kisses and she'd still snuggle up to me. On occasion the little ones would try to squeeze in and they usually do it successfully.

I thought the stars and the sky would always protect me, protect my loved ones. The stars stopped coming out for me one night. I never understood why, I tried asking but I never received an answer. And the only conclusion I could come up with was that the stars would grant me countless wishes but it appeared I had been wishing upon too many shooting stars that no one else had been granted any wishes.

And the years passed, and the little ones are not so little anymore. Only she and I are left and we never lay on open spaces anymore. I sometimes try to find the stars but they're never there. And then one day, the sky took her away and there I was, left where I started. Alone, no more stars. Not until I found the fireflies.

And here I am again, with the fireflies. I open my eyes and they're still there. I lay myself down on the very spot where the shadows play and I look up and I saw the stars again. But, it was brief. The fireflies started disappearing one by one and soon, the streets were dark again. I laid there for a while longer, secretly hoping for the stars to come out again.

I don't know how long I laid there for but I it wasn't until I saw streaks of red vandalizing my night sky that I realised that I had to get up. I got up and I walked away, as quickly as I could. In my youth, I could've run but now I tried to scurry as fast as I could. I wanted to get away from it. The sun was never my friend. I miss my friends. Please return my stars to me.