So last night was the first night of the Drama Festival of the Arts performance. The plays went beautifully – The chronicles of Jane was absolutely sublime. Didn’t catch the lower secondary play, but from what I’ve heard, it went beautifully as well. Competition piece was similarly successful.
The problem? The audience. They were pretty godawful – At the start of the show, only 60% of them were seated in the CPA, half of whom were walking around and climbing over chairs, talking, shouting, etc, which made my job rather difficult. Their rowdiness continued into the first play, and I’m fairly certain they more or less missed the first 10 minutes or so of the play until a certain transvestite walked onto stage and made the audience realise what they were missing. Not to mention the various whoops and shouts directed at the actors during the play which thankfully didn’t affect their performances. It was seriously the best run I’ve ever seen amidst the worst possible audience. Thankfully Competition Piece suited their tastes more, and Cao as always got the audience in stitches.
That being said, the audience wasn’t all bad. They were definitely a spirited bunch, and extremely supportive. It felt as though they were honestly interested in the plays, but just didn’t know how to behave during a performance. They cheered after the end of each play, and were truly very enthusiastic. In a sense it reminded me somewhat of the “old school” ACS audiences, especially during Boot Polish(Ha, Kyle). It’s always been a tradition that the Senior Admin would force the unwilling masses to buy tickets for FOA. However, back then, despite the imposition of the Senior Admin, there seemed to be a genuine enthusiasm to see the drama plays – it was the highlight of the year. I can attest to that from an audience member’s perspective since I had no pretensions of joining drama until secondary 4. And then The Birds came and destroyed the reputation of drama. Last year’s FOA didn’t help much either, and it seemed as though drama would forever be relegated to merely being a dumping ground for students being forced to buy tickets by the senior admin. And this showed, as the audience clearly looked like they didn’t want to be there. But last night, there was heart. Despite the rowdiness and the inappropriateness, it seemed as though the audience genuinely wanted to be there – just like in the past.
After the performance, Asher, Zhe Xian, William, Jeremy and myself went to Holland Village for supper and this was a topic that was being tossed around. That, and the fact that in less than 24 hours we would no longer be in Drama. For Asher and William, it would mark the end of an activity that had consumed them for the past 6 years, a third of their lives. For Zhe Xian and me 2 years (technically 4 for Zhe Xian, but he was a useless slacker in sec 3 and 4), and for Jeremey….only the beginning since he was the sole year 5. It’s odd that even though I was in hockey for 6 years, I never felt this same sense of accomplishment nor bonding with the clubmembers, yet despite being in drama for 2 years, it feels as though I’ve spent my life in drama.
Well, tonight’s going to be the final performance. Ever. Ever ever. Say hello to teary eyed reminiscences at 3am in the morning somewhere in Holland Village.
