Concert Season (part i)

holy peanuts it has been a really long time since I blogged. Life has been pretty darn hectic and it's the first Friday in a long time that I'm not out or too tired. Deadlines for assignments, Drama club and TSD rehearsals, and attending other concerts have been taking up my Friday nights (bet u never had a friday night like that huh) and it certainly does feel good to be taking a breather (self-prescribed getaway blogging session amidst the very real and very impending doom of assignments) at long frickin last.

So this week, we shall take a look into concert season for me! Ah yes, the money absorbing, yet soul-satisfying events -- and this is only the first out of a few (phew)! We start all the way back in March:

28 March 2014: VCA Drama Fest

Caught this year's VCA Drama Fest at VJ with Pradeeptha, Kah Heng and Yanch!

I'm so proud of them!!!!! 

It was incredibly heartwarming to be with company that made me feel like I was back at home. Watching the juniors perform their graduating piece made me so proud of how far we have come :") I also met Josh Wong and Carolynn Goh who left me with such wonderful words of encouragement :") Had been going through a very tough time and this day picked me back up and reminded me of why I'm doing what I'm doing :-) I was so overwhelmed by being back in Cedar company, of juniors and batchmates that take so much pride in what they do, that I started crying tears of heartache and longing to be back in that safe, supportive environment. Juniors came up to me and comforted me when they saw that I was a sloppy mess of tears and feels haha. Miss you so much, eldds!!!!

29 March 2014: TheatreWork's Marco Polo

Watched Marco Polo with the play buddy Sarah :-))

Sean Tobin, the actors Bright and Ebi and the playwright Jovi Tan!!

Sarah and I had a brilliant time chatting about the play and its symbols afterwards, and I was more than happy to draw comparisons between Marco Polo and Godot! It's about two blind friends that are reunited in the afterlife and try to figure out if they did make it to heaven or hell. Lee tells us about his top ten ways to commit suicide, including caramelising himself in sweets and letting the ants consume him. Jackson then responds (I paraphrase): "It's funny how your best way to die was my mother's best way of reward." Jackson, on the other hand, is trying to find his mother in the afterlife, to seek forgiveness after having abandoned her when she died.

Sequences that contemplate existence ensue, including the reading of letters to God, the jarring repetition of an unseen alarm clock -- which they try, and fail to find, three unknown bodies moving a bench around the stage, shifting and altering the landscape repeatedly (bear in mind that Lee and Jackson are blind), the plucking of "hands" from the set and comedic playing with the hands (i.e. cupping one's own cheek, tapping the other person with the hand).

Lee: "Heaven or Hell?"

Jackson: "Heaven."

Lee: "Nothingness or Hell?"

Jackson: "Heaven"

 Lee: "I'll pick Hell"

The play ends with a heartbreaking recurrence or an earlier segment: Lee tells Jackson they should walk in opposite directions but without calling out "Marco" and "Polo to each other with every step they take. When Jackson hesitates and doesn't want Lee to leave, Lee says that it's for the better, (I paraphrase again) because if "you find your mother, then you will know you are in heaven, and you will be happy and if I'm alone, I can live with the pretense that you have found her, and we are not in hell, then I will be happy. 

Jackson relents and they do so. The last scene shows Lee sitting alone, trying to suppress the loneliness with beach balls rolling out from the wings, and gingerly calling out "Marco?"

The play was so beautifully written and staged ♥ヽ(◕‿◕) that Sarah and I had such a good time listening to the post show dialogue, which brought up insights on the set design and various directorial decisions. We also enjoyed breaking down the piece, discussing the symbiotic relationship between Lee and Jackson, the concept of time, space and the afterlife, as well as life itself and it's regrets that exist all the way into this space. 

4 April 2014: VJ Phantoms' Impetus

Cast of Those Who Can't Teach // Mermaid Mel and I

A12 babies that came down to support us love love ♥ヽ(◕‿◕)

Raithoros OGLs who came down to support ♥ヽ(◕‿◕)♥ヽ(◕‿◕)

Favourite friends and Cedarians ♥ヽ(◕‿◕)♥ヽ(◕‿◕)♥ヽ(◕‿◕)

11 April 2014: ICS Night

Had a spectacular time laughing at male ego with Yanch at ICS night!!! My favourite dance of the night was Shalv and Anjali's shadow dance ommmmg!! It was such a groovy night with the many dances totally don't regret going!! No photos except for this blurry one with Yanch, Joey and SAAANJAAAAY

12 April 2014: SRT's Rising Son

etiolate at work

Products of Jolyn messing about with her camera

Ten bucks for a Dick Lee production who would pass it up??? It was the first of a trilogy, which automatically means I have to follow up for the next two years sigh. It was about a Japanese soldier living 

alongside a Singaporean family during the occupation and he was actually a nice guy just performing his duty. He tries to help them out by giving them food, music, books and telling them about the world outside, although his efforts are met with mixed feelings of apprehension (by the brother) and infatuation (by the sister). 

After the show we managed to get a photo with Caleb Goh who played the soldier and Benjamin Kheng!

And then we saw Tan Shou Chen and Seong Hui Xuan who played the brother and the sister hheeh

SRT's backyard 

Okay I guess that marks the end of my first concert season post! The next one would feature material from Assassinat dans le Salon, Musicfest, Dance concert and several more heh so watch me procrastinate and neglect this space. Till then!!

Concert Season part i // Concert Season part ii // Concert Season part iii