Archive for December, 2007
After it has all ended
Mon, 17 December 2007 5:47 pmAfter two weeks of neglect, my corner in my bedroom looks like this.
When I’m consumed by work, my corner turns into a junkyard.
It’s very disturbing because I hate mess. I feel lost and unsettled sitting in a pile of mess, which is very unfortunate because I’m actually quite a messy person, especially when I’m busy.
Fortunately, I’m not that busy anymore because 3 Men Meet 3 Women has ended.
Sad. =(
But, pictures!
My performance was the opening act for all three nights. It was very daunting, but also advantageous because I could get it over and done with quickly and go watch the other acts leisurely.
This was at the Arts House box office. The little “shower room” on the right was my stage. I was confined in that little cage for my 20-minute solo performance. I was supposed to paint pictures on it while saying my lines so it’s like another layer of entertainment for the audience.
Pre-painted drawings to start the performance off with.
I didn’t actually paint all that myself. Heheh. The bulk of it was pre-painted by my mentor-director. I just had to add a few more curlies and flowers during my performance.
The above photo was taken by Johnny Malkavian during my performance. You can view more photos here.
The glass panels look cloudy and yucky because we had to clean off the paintings each day for the next day’s performance and it was impossible to get the glass back to its original clarity. This was taken on the last day of performance so, by then, the glass had gotten really really bad.
Will post more pictures when I get them from my director, who took pictures of my rehearsal when the glass was still clean.
The second act of our show was very challenging, being located outdoors.
It was at the Stamford Raffles statue by the Singapore River (beside Timbre).
Building the set.
Performance night.
Chris, the actor, had to really project his voice because he had to compete with the noise from Timbre (the pub just beside the statue).
On the last night, the set was moved to the Arts House foyer because it looked like it might rain.
Third act was Shuzhuang and her playground, located in the now-defunct Q Bar in the Arts House.
It was an amazing experience working on this theatre project. I’m eternally thankful to Richard Chua of Little Red Shop for giving me the opportunity to do theatre in a professional capacity when no one else would.
I’m also grateful to my mentor-director Yeo Hon Beng for very patiently and creatively helping me unlock the skills I needed to undertake this challenging task.
I’m still amazed that I was able to pull the whole thing off. I wrote the following about the process of working on this challenge (which was printed in the show’s programme booklet).
First of all, let it be said that it’s impossible to co-write a script through e-mail. The challenge posed to me and my graphic designer was to jointly develop a solo act for me to perform. Both of us were enthusiastic. Both of us had ideas. But both of us were also very busy. We could never find a mutually agreeable time to meet or even talk on the phone. So we ping-ponged ideas via e-mail and it took us a month just to agree on a story idea, which left us with hardly any time to actually write the damn thing.
Secondly, let it be said that theatre practitioners are crazy. It is ten days to opening night and I am shedding tears of panic onto the first draft of my script. It has been rejected because it is one medal short of award-winning. So I indulge in a bit of hysterics, “How is it possible for me to suddenly turn into an award-winning playwright and produce a brilliant script and be ready to perform it for a paying audience in ten days?!” And my director smiles at me and says, “Of course it’s possible. This is theatre.”
– Shen Qiaoyun
Hon Beng was right. I managed to do it. Actually, he had to help me rewrite my script after my two attempts. So it goes to show that crazy challenges are possible to surmount as long as you have the help and support of people around you.
Oh, remember the chipped nail I got from cleaning my glass panels?
The whole thing chipped off after the second night.
Heheh. My poor nails.
And this:
I showed a few people and they thought I fell down or something.
Wahahaha! (Yah lah, I enjoy cheap thrills.)
It’s paint. *lol* Looks like dried blood, doesn’t it?
I got paint on my arms, too.
Unfortunately, I had to clean off everything after the last performance because I indulged myself and got a lot of paint all over myself. I had to clean it all off after the show or scare every passer-by on the street.
I left my dirty costume on, though.
Photo courtesy of Rikiro Chung, our project publicist.
More random photos!
Chris and Shuzhuang fighting with pretzel sticks after the last show.
Hong Beng and Debbie (designer) wearing Debbie’s impromptu creations on their heads.
Me camwhoring in the Arts House toilet.
Shuzhuang and Richard cleaning paint off their hands at the Telok Ayer Performing Arts Centre toilet.
Everyone got pink paint on their hands while moving the sets and props back to our base at TAPAC because someone forgot to shut the lid on the pink paint properly. Hahaha.
Anyway, my final thoughts on this project.
I value the experience a lot. I don’t think I put up an award-winning performance, but I think I did the best I could given the time I was allowed to prepare for it.
I felt my performance on the second night was really weak because I don’t know why I kept getting distracted by a zillion things, which was a shame because we had our biggest audience that night (about 30 or so people).
But I made it up on the third night.
I received three very different feedback for my performance from various people:
1. Touching
2. Disturbing
3. Weak
At least I still have room for improvement. Lots of room, in fact.
I’m already beginning to miss working on the production and hanging out with all the people who were part of it. Well, there’s still a cast party to look forward to, so it isn’t the end yet.
But I hope it won’t end even after it ends, if you know what I mean.
I love my life, this perfect life.
I hate Facebook’s Super Wall and FunWall
Sun, 16 December 2007 3:05 pmIf you’re not a Facebook user, God bless your merry little soul (pretending that God exists) and please be off on your merry way before you get sucked into the muddy whirpool of senselessness.
Because, today, I am on a crusade to knock some sense into Facebook users who have Super Wall or FunWall or both (duh, people!) installed in their Facebook accounts.
Because — brace yourself now for the revelation of the century — neither of the walls are even remotely super or fun.
Oooooh… noooo! You don’t say!
Honestly, they’re horrendous misuses of Internet real estate. I cannot understand why people don’t see it.
There is nothing super or fun about:
- Junk mail, chain letters and forwarded rubbish.
- Having multiple copies of the same rubbish on your profile.
- Allowing people to advertise their services for free on your profile.
Do you see it?
Ok, see this.
Here’s a screenshot of a random Super Wall on a random person’s Facebook profile.
Do you see now how asinine it is?
Why should anyone give a shit about the travels of Mortimer the travelling bear? Let him buy his own damn plane tickets, man. And I don’t see him “dissapearding” as promised because I’m seeing him on every single Super Wall (and even FunWall).
I’m even seeing multiple copies of him on each wall. Come on, people, don’t you see? He’s not a travelling bear. He’s a photocopying bear!
Okay, now, let’s check out a random FunWall.
What is the matter with people?
Don’t you ever get annoyed having to scroll down endlessly just to try to see at least something that’s of interest?? Why would you want such junk on your Facebook profile? I really don’t get it.
who has a crush on u?…
man this is creepy its called mind reader. send this to every1 on ur list and then press F8 and ur crushes name will appear on ur screen**
Seriously!!!
I dearly want to examine the minds of people who read this and think, “Oh, wow! I’m gonna try this now!”
…
“Hey! It doesn’t work! How fun! I think my friends will love it! I’m going to forward this to everyone because I had so much fun trying it out and seeing it not working!”
Strangle me with a wet rag.
People who install either or both walls, why? How does it enrich your life to have repeated copies of spam on your Facebook profile? How does it enrich the life of friends who are visiting your Facebook profile?
I mean, what benefit does it give?
Does it impress the girls (or the boys) who are viewing your profile? No.
Does it make you more intelligent? No.
Does it save a starving child in Ethiopia? No.
Does it make your Facebook profile look like a landmine about to go off? Yes.
People who forward forwards to other people’s walls, why? Do you think your friend reads/watches them? Will your friend love you for sending them? Do you even realise that the “friend” you’re sending this chain letter to already has three of the exact same chain letter on his wall?
People who create those damned rubbish forwards, especially chain letters, WHY? Chain letters are so last millennium. You’re not going to get a Nobel prize for it and it’s not going to make people worship you and kiss your feet because they passed on your stupid chain letter to 50 people in their address book and, as a result, miraculously solved all their life problems and won a date with Angelina Jolie.
Hello??
The applications are not bad, per se. But people misusing them is bad.
I installed both when I first signed up with Facebook because I thought it was pretty cool being able to draw pictures and post videos on someone else’s profile. One could get really creative and have some fun with it.
But I believe in doing things in a sincere and personal way. If not, there is no point in doing anything, is there? Why waste time doing things just for the sake of doing things? So I drew pictures myself and typed nice, personal messages to brighten a friend’s day.
But I never got anything like that on my walls in return. All I got were impersonal forwards from people who received forwards themselves and decided to send it on to everyone else on their friends list.
I deleted both walls because it wasn’t adding discernable value to my Facebook profile.
I know I can stop visiting people’s profiles or even stop visiting Facebook altogether if the walls bother me all that much.
But that isn’t quite the point. The point is that it irks me that people are perpetuating a useless custom and contributing more rubbish to an already rubbish society of thoughtless, mindless puppets.
So, people, please. Grow a brain and think.
It’s lonely and scary up there
Sat, 15 December 2007 2:42 pmI’m having an unexpected break right now because we haven’t been able to sell tickets to our weekend matinees (3 pm show) so I have the afternoon off. We’ll only be staging the 8 pm shows for today and tomorrow.
It sounds sad and pathetic, but I’m secretly relieved. I was worried about not having enough energy to perform two shows a day because my performance is very, very, VERY emotionally draining. So, not having a 3 pm show will make it easier. I’m just slightly disappointed that I don’t get to test my limits. And I’m disappointed that only a handful of people will get to experience the result of all the hard work that the production team has put in over the last two months. But such is theatre in Singapore.
Anyway, I took a few pictures on Thursday, one day before opening night.
Very scary tall ladder.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen a ladder this tall. I feel really nervous when I see any of the crew members climb right to the top to fix lights. I’m already terrified enough climbing one of those regular step ladders that people have at home.
Producer, artistic director and crew members having a casual discussion.
Location is the now-defunct Q Bar at the Arts House. It’s one of the three spaces for our show. That long seat by the window is exactly where I was sitting when I was blogging from my DS Lite two days ago.
Poetry on the wall of the Arts House box office.
Will show pictures of the sets another time because I haven’t had time to photograph the finished sets.
Last night was opening night. I was the opening act.
All day, I walked around with butterflies in my stomach. As the time for the opening show drew nearer, the butterflies started to wage mutiny and feed on my blood and soul. All day, I tried to calm myself by distraction, slow breathing, self-psychoanalysis, running my lines through my head over and over again.
I was nervous because I felt that I still didn’t have a 100% hold on my performance. Because of the limited time we had for rehearsals, I haven’t successfully ironed out all the kinks.
Oh gosh, I feel nervous now just typing this out.
It’s a kind of crazy fear that makes me beat myself over the head repeatedly and ask myself why I put myself through this in the first place.
WTF were you thinking, you crazy bitch? *bonk*
I have no answer. I love performing so I must do it. Then why am I scared to death?
I tried to make myself believe that I was on a film set and it was just another day in my life doing a role for the camera. But I think my brain was too alert to be fooled.
It’s a very scary and lonely feeling to be standing alone on a stark, quiet stage under a flood of spotlights, dark figures seated in front of you, waiting patiently yet eagerly, demanding to be entertained, demanding that you make it worth their time sitting there to watch you.
Knowing that there’s no room for mistakes. No cuts, no take 2s.
It’s a horrible feeling, in fact.
Well, but only the starting is horrible. I started shaky because of all those thoughts running through my head which I tried to dispel but they simply hid at the recesses of my mind and nipped at me silently but consistently.
After the scary start, I could begin to enjoy performing.
I think I did okay. No major screw ups. I think my audience was reasonably satisfied with my performance.
I was satisfied. I know I can still improve a lot but I think I did the best I could under the circumstances.
On opening night, I had like 15 people in my audience. About 10 of them were part of the production team. Haha. Well, it’s a small production. Even bigger plays from bigger theatre companies have difficulty selling $25 tickets to a public bred on the fanfare and special effects of Hollywood movies, which cost only $9 for up to three hours of mindless, mainstream entertainment.
Anyway, I survived opening night! I couldn’t quite believe it. A few people said my performance touched them. I feel touched when I hear that. Funny.
And then I begin to stress again.
Can I do as well tonight? Or can I do better?
My nails suffered some abuse while I was cleaning up my set, dirtied after a full-dress rehearsal. My performance involves painting on a screen and we have to clean up the paint after each performance to get ready for the next.
During the cleaning, I tore one nail (although you can’t tell clearly from the picture because only the outer layer peeled off) and got black acrylic paint on another.
I suppose I could have tried to use thinner to clean the nail but I decided to leave it intact on a whim because it’s like a battle scar that holds sweet memories of victory and happiness.
See how it seems to have seeped into the nail.
Having supper at Lavender Food Square after the show.
Tickets are still available for tonight 8 pm and tomorrow night 8 pm. Just arrive slightly before and inquire at the Arts House box office foyer.
Tuzki and his MOTO Q
Fri, 14 December 2007 7:11 amAdvertorial
Once upon a time, there was a bunny named Tuzki.
Tuzki was created by Wang Momo, a Chinese animation student at the Beijing Broadcasting Institute.
Momo at first used Tuzki to tells stories of her life on her blog. But because Tuzki was such a precocious little bunny, he couldn’t stay on that little blog for long. One day, he just wandered out and grabbed the world by storm! Tuzki instantly became an Internet darling, appearing everywhere, in MSN conversations, in forums, in blogs.
As if that weren’t enough…
Tuzki is also a bunny prodigy! He created a wondrous technological gadget that allowed him to perform all his favourite Internet activities while he’s out and about, for instance, climb Mount Everest (one of his hobbies).
What an adventurous geek bunny!
Tuzki named his new creation the MOTO Q. With it, he can chat on MSN, surf the net, blog, email, edit documents, make powerpoint presentations, take photographs, listen to music, watch videos and even make phone calls!
Tuzki must be a rich little bunny now because he’s got Motorola endorsing his new masterpiece of modern multitasking. That’s why it’s called the MOTO Q, but Tuzki likes to call it Q for short because he’s a cute little bunny!
With pre-installed Windows Mobile 6.0, Messenger, Media Player, IE and Opera browsers, and HSDPA wireless connectivity technology, the Q acts just like a PC so Tuzki isn’t afraid to wander around all day and climb all kinds of mountains and cross any number of crocodile-infested rivers because he can MOTO Q anytime, anywhere!! (As long as he remembers to charge his batteries.)
The Q’s full QWERTY keyboard is one of Tuzki’s favourite features because it makes blogging so easy. And Tuzki just loves to blog.
But he’s not telling us his blog URL. He’s afraid his bandwidth would bust because he already has too many fans around the world.
Poor Tuzki. Being a famous geek inventor hip bunny isn’t easy!
Make no mistake. Tuzki may be a geek genius, but he is as hip as hip can get. He loves grooving to the latest MP3s and chatting on MSN while climbing his favourite mountain.
Really. What an amazing bunny!
Don’t you just love Tuzki?
Don’t you just love the Q?
OMG, never mind Tuzki. I need the Q!
