Journey This Far...

Just recently I was reminded why I got involved in theatre at British Council's Pecha Kucha event @ Leonardo's. It was truly a heart-warming event where directors, designers, producers, performers and artists all came together and shared their journeys for 6minutes in 20 slides. I figured out it is time for me to have my very own Pecha Kucha moment here for I've been leaving this blog dormant for 6 solid months! Time to reflect (Feb - Jul) and chart my route forward!

FEBRUARY 2010
Su-Feh & The Body Workshop @ FAC
Had the pleasure of working with Lee Su-Feh, one of Marion's long time dancer buddy who's managing BatteryOpera in Canada. Working with Su-Feh was such a pleasurable experience! They had a week long solid training which led to a sexy performance at FAC Studio itself. Audiences were treated to mandarin oranges and atoms made out of wires scattered all over the space. So why I call it sexy? Well, imagine the female body exploring and moving with curves and away from curves all over in Tai-Chi like motion. Beautiful...absolutely beautiful!

CNY Family Trip to Beijing
At first I was skeptical cause I'm not really a cultural and aesthetic appreciator kinda traveler. At least that's what I thought China was all about. Plus, I was nominated to be the official photographer. If it wasn't for the Great Wall, I honestly would have skipped the trip. Low and behold, China took my breathe away not because it was -7 degrees Celsius but because the place was monumental. Everything was epic in size; the lakes, the structures, the history... We had a private tour experience and that made the trip extra interactive and educational! I tried to be Hero and told myself I would conquer the 5 points of Great Wall, dropped it down to 3 and I only managed to conquer 2... It was just too cold and I wasn't equipped to climb the steep steps. We visited other important highlights as well such as The National Theatre, The Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace, Houtong Street, TianMen Square, The Bird's Nest Stadium, everywhere was an architecture wonder. Finally, things were dirt cheap there so as long as you bargain well. I had my parents to bargain for me...haha! Traveling with relatives can be quite insightful. Din't realize everyone can be so whacky although there are time they can be really annoying, nevertheless, I love all of them dearly.

MARCH 2010

I Have A Date With Spring @ His Majesty's Theatre, Perth.
Talk about growing up! My first job away from my country for 10 days! Perth will forever be part of me as I had my first major on-the-job injury of my life. Well it wasn't that dramatic where I almost died or anything but I had my first stitching, almost got myself fired cause deemed incapable of working and anesthetic jab directly into my wound all in 2 hours. On top of that, major forms which Melissa had to fill on my behalf cause my right thumb was bleeding like mad. Of course, apart from all that jazz, Perth was another great learning experience cause we saw how efficient and effective Perth crew was and life in Perth was so healthy. Can you imagine having fruit salad with Ah Hung for supper at 12am watching football? I drank milk and juices everyday on my way to the theatre. And on top of that, we were housed in the lavish Medina serviced apartment.

HSBC In The Arts @ Actors Studio Lot 10
Maybe is just me but I have this extremely curious nature to find out what every theatre backstage look like and with HSBC in The Arts event, I was given the opportunity to recce the area as production manager of FAC. Glad to have met up with other PMs of other companies that evening. Hands Percussion, Instant Cafe Theatre, Young Coral Academy, Dama Orchestra were all given a slot to perform some of their best numbers over the years. Definitely an honor to be in the same room with these established companies.

Asian Producer's Conference @ The Annexe
It's funny how I thought to myself, 'wouldn't it be great to be able to work with different organizations/people and learn from their methods of working' and BAM, June from
FAC put together this conference and we had people from Singapore, Malaysia and Japan all under one roof sharing about their environment and working methods in their artsphere. Very enlightening! Each country have their own set of challenges and also their set of advantages.

APRIL 2010
Gostan Forward & Cuckoo Birds in Esplanade Theatre, Singapore
My 2nd job away from my country for 2 weeks. Cake Theatrical Productions really took good care of us. We were living in Somerset Cairnhill Service Apartment which was just next to Orchard! Took the MRT back and forth to the rehearsal space every single day and had day offs which allowed me to explore places and food! It was a double jeopardy for me cause we get to rehearse at DramaCentre @ National Library and perform at The Studio in Esplanade. Get to observe how Natalie and Tze Chien work as directors. This was a fun project, Hui Chew and I had to crawl under the stage every nite to reset costumes and props, and of course, the infamous Dow feathers which we had to vacuum after each performance. No complaints cause we really had a good time together working with our SM, Joanna and Taufiq our sound operator. We were the fantastic 4 of Cuckoo Birds!

Boh Cameronian Awards @ Mandarin Oriental
Immediately after our team returned from Singapore, that very same evening, we were prepping ourselves for the final Kakiseni Boh Cameronian Awards held at Mandarin Oriental. That was to be my first and last award ceremony and I had a blast just to be in the same room with almost ALL the theatre practitioners in the industry. Glad I was exposed to the hidden Sultan Lounge which indeed fit for any Sultans around. Oh, Cuckoo Birds garnered 3 awards; Best Lighting Design, Best set Design and Best Director!

MAY 2010

So You Think You Can Mamak @ PJLA Laugh Fest
Joanna Bessey was directing this piece and I was given the opportunity to stage manage her comedy. Met really young and interesting comedians along the way and muahaha, get to check out PJLA backstage! I think its a sickness already checking out backstages! Joanna was another pleasurable director to work with. Actually come to think of it, all the directors I worked with this year are super-duper warm and cool people! I also realize, Malaysians must have their comedies!

Singapore Tourism Booklet
Me trying to be a hero, I felt doing a coverage on Kuala Lumpur City, covering 56 locations would be fun, exciting and able expand my writing capacity. To be fair, it was indeed loads of fun meeting people and visiting places I thought I would never go. However, at the same time carrying Munchkin's heavy tripod, running under heavy rain and walk along the fuming streets of KL was no glam! It may look like a holiday but oh trust me, it was all work and no play. Even eating food was work so Munchkin can get a good editorial shot. Ok lah, no more writing gig for the time being!

JUNE 2010

Kita: The Musical @ Istana Budaya
It's been a year long since I worked on a production in Istana Budaya. As I walked thru da building, memories of the previous production started running thru my mind. Da horror of HUGE set pieces quickly flashed by but I told myself, Adrian BOLEH! Now thinking bout Kita: The Musical again, I laugh remembering the things we had to push. From a bus, port ramp,
kampung house, to a stadium, to the big 1 sign...fooyoh!

JULY 2010

Nomad Fringe 2010 @ Ang Mo Kio Secondary School My 3rd job away from my country for 3 weeks! Concerned family & friends were beginning to ask me if I was gonna leave Malaysia for Singapore! I said no cause i feel is not my time. I describe working in this project as positively traumatic! How something traumatic could possibly be positive rite? This project really took me out of my comfort zone big time and we all know that if we really wanna grow, we gotta lift our butts up and get dirrty! Well Nomad presented that opportunity for me to grow in so many ways. Site specific projects away from the usual theatre environment does challenge anyone, designers, actors, mgmt team alike. I'm not particularly technical savvy and to be given the opportunity to be assistant tech manager to Joanna, fooyoh my technical know-how increased along with the trial and errors, haha! I won't say I know everything but I definitely learnt a great deal in this one. Getting dirrty...yes, mud in my shoes, enamel paint on my skin and sweating like a pig under the hot sun made me feel like a MAN! And to think working with one or two diva is painful...imagining working with a school of young divas called teenagers altogether? Oh my goodness...I never murdered in my life and to have thoughts of it then, Father Lord, FORGIVE ME! A little emo moment for a while, darn, those kids really grow on ya and when I finally stopped my agitation, open up to their potential and see them living it...oh my goodness, that is the greatest gift I received. Worked with another awesome team, Li Ting, Xiang Bin, Jean, Nizam and wife! Sharon exposed me to other institutions as well such as FairField Methodist and St. Andrew's Secondary School. My heart for young people grew even more!