This is the beat of my heart (playing and plays)

A quick summary of events of August: lit week + Teachers' Day

TSD hell week

Was just that. At first, we realised that out 1st draft wasn't going to work, so our group stayed back that night to work something out. Turns out, the other group was also staying and so we had our first TSD class photo. Featuring me with the unchanging smile.

Something I said triggered Mr B to lash out at us about our decision to change our entire group piece a few days later. It really was a huge blow on our group because it was for the best that we departed from our first idea and yet we kept receiving mixed signals about how we should continue. 

That week taught me lots of things. I got to hang with my TSD classmates a lot and I realised that I truly appreciate them because of all the things we go through together. I'm starting to really like them all and I want to get to know them better :") At the same time, I think our group really needs to pull our shit together for the better. I'm going to end off this part here because I can't afford to go on without offending the art. Goodbye.

24 Hour Play-writing Competition

Held at Sun Yat Sen Nanyang Memorial Hall, the 80+ participants had 24 hours to write a 20 minute play based off 5 stimuli provided at different times. Since Sarah couldn't make it, I was really quite ready to take it on myself but thank god I found Nithya, who was also alone. So we went on  alone together. 

It would have been fun in a big group of friends, because I felt like I was swamped with Sota kids on all sides + competition veterans that made me feel like such a small thingy. The environment was intimidating: all the people were chill about their scripts, really into developing hour long plays, ACCENTS. ACCENTS ALWAYS SCARE ME. 

Meanwhile, I was trying to deal with a month long fixation on TSD and SNL scripts with huge casts and simple or obvious storylines for easy development. Not exactly the best background to stem forth from in a competition that challenges you to break down those boundaries. That was my biggest competition: my own fears of "this is not good enough". Under time constraints with the people tapping away at their laptops, it's hard not to feel pressured and inadequate. I'm quite satisfied that I actually survived that mental challenge (not to mention the lack of sleep), even if it meant submitting a shit script based on the character I play for TSD (Hey, if I couldn't break free from those constraints, I had to write something I could actually put to good use right?).

  

Looking back, at least their goodie bag was great + there was a cute boy (physical manifestation of water - chill as hell and like a mirage yknow wow cute boy u real?) + the toilets were gud + tee shirt was comfy + dinner was good. 

Everything but the Brain feat. a series of demonic faces in poor lighting and editing that would make instagrammers faint, featuring our see-favourite-actors-but-cannot-touch-them face

AKA Birthday play with Sarah. I almost passed up this play because it was in the (hellish) August but then Zhen Hui reminded me that I had given up EVERYTHING ELSE to catch it. By everything else, I mean High Class, Army Daze, Optic Trilogy, Asian Boys, Cook a pot of Curry. So yeah.

It wasn't as good a production as Boom was (obviously) but there were still some good moments and spectacular performances by Amanda Tee and Gerald Chew. I was hyped up to see Edward Choy as Samuel because of drumroll please Gordon Chua's insistence of how cute he is. I hereby declare that it was only stage persona because, upon seeing him after the show, he gave me poor vibes. My biggest concern was that the lines said by Elaine weren't given enough time to *Mr B voice* breathe. I thought the play was moving along waaaaay too fast at times, but I'd like to think it was a stylistic approach, if I may quote Dhiraj, to show the two worlds interweaving. 

Some golden lines from the day out:

"AH something ran down my leg!"

"It's a cute boy"

"Audrey said he has a special talent for locating guys nipples. But then again, it's not that hard right? I mean, where else would they be? Where else would I be? Where the nipples at."

Survey question: What did you enjoy about the play? "Edward Choy. Eh shit have to put my name." "Write Mrs Edward Choy."

"GO TOUCH HIM THEN PUT UP YOUR HOOD AND RUN"

Sarah's response from inside the toilet cubicle to a conversation held by two teenage girls talking about a boy outside the cubicle: (deep manly voice) "oh my god"

"I'm going into the cubicle only to pack my bag"
...
"shuyu u done?"
"Almost."
"You know I'm only in the cubicle next door because you need to pack your bag?"
"We used to watch plays with such poise."

Teachers' Day Celebration

The best parts of yesterday were:

• Mini Fall Out Boy concert with Sharifah and Lidiya because Project Firefight (whoOOoO Hubert) played thnks fr th mmrs
• Cedar Banja!!!!!!!! After the song, we gathered about 12 Cedarians and we did the Banja BUT obviously I had to do something stupid like slip and fall. BUT BUT BUT then there were like a dozen other Cedarians who came running towards us shrieking BOJIOOooOOOo and we did a second Banja :") GREATEST FEELING IN THE WORLD 
• Staring into the Lego Lord of the Rings display case with Yancheng
• Study-talking with Cedarians Audrey, Kai Xin, Arinna, Anjelii

Also, I think that my class is actually really fine. The boys are all so nice it makes me want to cry because they are not assholes that think they are too cool for school like boys in the other classes and I just really appreciate them wow A++ human beings. 

Other things that happened this August (several already discussed in my previous post)

• SNL
• 2 hour long walk with Audrey along the beach :')
• Short chats with Valerie :')
• Chat with Fifi
• Phone calls with Gordon :')
• Rants with Dhiraj :')
• Birthday affirmations :")
• Made friends with somebody I had always wanted to 
• Talks with teachers 
• Cute boys tender boys witty boys nice boys sensitive boys bOYs
• Decided that my body is really nice + I have very nice lips and ears 
• TSD practicals are over and I'm really excited to push myself further after seeing everybody improve like crazy
• Have been a bitch but also realised that I don't have to be the nice person all the time.

That is all.

Have another koala:

(me thinking about cute boys)