July 27, 2008

After spending most of today in a coma, and suffering from various stages of depression, I still have to worry about World Lit. The dreaded spectre of Mr Tan looms over me and I am powerless to resist…Stop! Go away! I plead, but it only drones on…..

So the reminiscences only lasted until 1:30am. The final ever performance all of us will have as part of ACSIS was quite possibly the best performance ever from everyone. Just about everything went according to plan, and apparently some in the audience compared it to Boot Polish – quite possibly the highest accolade that we could ever be accorded. Connor dubbed friday night’s audience as the worst audience he’d ever seen in 30 years of theatre. Thankfully last night’s audience was alot better, with one notable exception. As part of my opening speech, it was planned that I would be interrupted on purpose by a phonecall while I was lecturing the audience about the importance of keeping their handphone on silent mode during the performance. The scripted phonecall went beautifully. And then came another….

Me: Anyway as I was saying, handphones on silent and if i catc-
*phone rings* – Good god. Ohnonononono
Me: …I told you to stop calling me here….heh… Like I said, if I catch you using one, then it’s DC – Detention class for-
*phone rings* – Nyeaaaaaahhhh

I then walk off stage and fling my phone into the wings where thankfully Theodore grabbed it and covered the speakers while I walked back onto stage and feebly said: “Heh…some people just don’t learn do they….”

Needless to say, Hadi, Chun Wui, Cao and Asher were going mad over the cans.
“Wtf is he doing?”
“Oh man is he getting called again?”
“Is this for real?”
“What the? I didn’t know about this addition to the script”
“He just threw his phone away?”
“Guys, it’s real.”
“Wahahahhahahahahahhaahahahahaha”

Ferd thought it was real though, and reprimanded me for overdoing the hell out of a joke – until I told him that it was real. Thank you muchly, Barry.

I suppose it’s a good experience to have to improv on stage, but still harrowing nonetheless. Either way, it’s a memorable end to my Drama experiences. A play we’ve staged a total of 7 times, and which we worked on over the course of 8 months – the saga finally comes to a close. I’d like to think that over the course of these 8 months it’s profoundly impacted all of us involved, and after the all the exhiliration, it’s going to be tough to return to the humdrum of everyday life again. Over the course of this week, we caught a glimpse into the lives of professional actors who have to stage the same play night after night after night. Exhausting as hell, but who on earth would want it any other way? Nothing quite compares to the experience of chilling out backstage during a live show while laughter reverbrates through the wings as a result of Cao’s antics on stage.

I envy the year 5s. They can still afford to take a couple of days off and celebrate, sodomize, whatever in commemoration of the end of Competition Piece, and also know that they have a few more plays to go before they leave the club and the school. For the year 6s, it’s the termination of what has been an integral part of our lives, and when we get home we are greeted by world lit and IOC – all of which had been forgotten (virtually) during that one week of escape from reality. For that one week we were punks, preppies, arties….and milfs/filfs. To anyone who’s never been involved in a production before, I cannot stress how much ordinary life pales in comparison to stagework where the credo “The Show Must go on” reigned supreme. “The Show” was almost a living thing, which we had to dedicate our all to upholding regardless of our physical condition. Your own well-being always took a backseat to the show – Even during one of the runs where Bingei fell off two tables, he just picked himself up and kept on going like nothing happened. Now that “The Show” is no more, everything else seems so trivial – nothing demands our all in the same way that “The Show” did.

I envy Connor. At the start of year 5, I, along with most of the other clubmembers thought that he was just a stiff lipped teacher with totally no sense of humor, and who would make drama a boring experience. We couldn’t be more wrong. He’s got a brilliant sense of humor, and he’s done so much in his life that he’s always got a story about every single situation. In between putting on makeup or between runs, he always has a story or some anecdote on tap for anyone who asks for it. I honestly hope that my life would be at least half as interesting as his was.

In fact, all the drama teachers are equally fun in different ways, and the relationship has evolved to such an extent that they are not so much teachers as extra clubmembers, with their fixed place in the group dynamics of the club, and able to freely take part in the various inside jokes that have been created.

Zhe Xian: Oh my God I am such a sexy man
Me: (Shouting out) Does anyone here think Zhe Xian is sexy? Anybody?
*Girls flinch, Hadi raises his hand enthusiastically while most of the rest of the club rolls their eyes*
Connor: Well, I think he looked quite alright with his hat on…I mean it covered most of his face.

Not to mention their willingness to always listen to new ideas, and this has resulted in an environment that really fosters creativity, and Competition Piece would definitely not have been what it was had it not been for the level of student participation that was allowed.

If the role of high school drama is to educate and foster interest in stage, then it has succeeded brilliantly. Not only have we all been enriched by the experience, but I am confident that when IB is all over, and we get a break from NS, we will all come back again someday in the future to do a show together. I’m sure of it. And when that day comes, it will be just like old times, and who knows? This may be the end of my time in ACSIS, but is it merely another beginning? Ask me in 10 years.