Drama Madness

Just when we thought the drama headache was finally over for good, along came English week and the fact that we had to perform one more time... in front of the whole morning session!

I wasn't that eager about it. (Come on, who wants to wail like a maniac in front of all your school mates and teachers?) And the week before was photoshoot week, so we had a lot more work on our hands (when have we ever not? :P) to concentrate on. The laziness factor was definitely there, with most of the drama team in low spirits about the performance. Add in our semi damaged and missing props along with the fact that we merely 'practiced' (in the most loose meaning of the word possible) once by running through the lines, I was really dreading the performance.

It was seriously chaotic. You people in the audience have NO idea what kind of havoc was being wrecked backstage.

No curtains, no bathrobes, no support stand for our kitchen wall (Thanks, Shu Zian and Renee for holding it up!), no broom, no 'umbrella stand', no white cloth to cover Jonie. For that, we ended up using the fancy table cloth Pn Yon brought instead. Hence, no fancy table cloth. XD

And the mikes were placed in really awkward places we couldn't reach. It was so hilarious when a couple of Form Four prefects 'sneaked' onto stage to pass us the mikes. Jonie and I couldn't hold our laughter in at the sight of them walking right onto stage in the middle of the performance to pass us the mikes and acting as if they hope they were invisible.

We ended up not using the mikes anyway. Which was why towards the end of the performance, with the heavy yelling part, you might have noticed my voice was sounding pretty strained. Heck, exactly one week ago I missed school cos' I was in bed with the flu. And there I was yelling my head off, praying I don't lose my voice the next day.

But at the end of the day, it was an awesome experience. Performing in front of people you know is actually a lot more fun. The audience responded so much better than the audience in the competition. During the competition, the audience was so unresponsive I was half wondering whether we weren't loud enough that they couldn't hear us.

Here in school, everyone was laughing every few lines and it was a great feeling to be up there on that stage. But the best part of the day was the scene where Jonie's character was supposed to die. When on stage, I never got into the habit of observing audiences, so I saw nothing. But after the performance, I was told that A LOT of people actually had tears in their eyes. Especially quite a few of the teachers.

O.o

There are no words to describe the feeling. At the very early stages of preparing for this drama, I never imagined that it could touch people so deeply. And heck, I was burying my face in Jonie's shoulder thinking 'This is stupid, this is stupid... when are the bloody angels coming? I'm so tired...'. Of course, having done the scene a bajillion times already, I'm of course pretty jaded...

But seeing a response like that from the audience, and hearing all their comments and praises later about it, it really puts all the work and commitment we've been putting into this drama into perspective. From yesterday alone, all the hours we've logged into this drama project really felt worthwhile. I felt even happier about the whole thing than the State Level competition where I won 'best actor'.

Granted that we've put so much effort into this drama and all we got to show for it on paper is '1st at Zone level', which isn't much. But in terms of experience, fun and lessons learnt, I think what we've gained from this is far more important than any dang Ko-Kurikulum marks.

I really wished I saw the teachers -secretly- dabbing their eyes with tissue. XD

Xin Fang: Teacher, you cry ah??
Ms. Chow: (bravado tone) NO LAH! My eye got problem lah! Drama-nya, why would I cry?!

Hahaha...

And now the whole morning session is looking at their Head Prefect and the rest of the cast from a whole new angle. As Pn Chang said, "Saw a whole new different side of you. Last time, I never even heard your voice. Thought you were a very serious person..."

SERIOUS??? I'm insulted.
Ask my mum when I fast forwarded though the CSI NY episodes on DVD just to show her the DL parts, squealing and laughing giddily.

Me: Ma, ma... show you something. -fast forward to DL wedding- Romantiknya, right?
Mum: You fast forwarded all that just to watch that part? Siao lah you! -slap-
Me: OW!

and...

Me: Ma! Wake up! You fell asleep!
Mum: No, I didn't! I was watching.
Me: No! You slept!!! -picks up remote and rewinds- show you again!
Mum: Haiyah! Yah, wat! I saw that part!
Me: No you didn't! -bey kam wan (not satisfied)- -rewind rewind rewind-

But I digress.

Thank you to Pn Yon for her constant drilling until we were all sick and tired of drama. XD. And thank you also to Pn Gan and Ms Leong for their suggestions as well. Also to Ms Poon for babysitting us so kindly.
Thank you to the wonderful drama team who was willing to sacrifice so much into doing the very best we could. MUAKS!

I'm so glad it's over for good. But I'm so glad we took on the challenge in the first place. :-)

NS... Kena tak Kena

The school was all abuzz today. For the first time, Michael Jackson's death was not the topic everyone was talking about. (Rest in Peace, King of Pop.)
Instead, every Fifth Former was asking every other Fifth Former they met:

"Did you check ledi?"
"Send in SMS... can check ledi..."
"What???!! It's out??!!!!"
"So-and-so kena you know! Hahaha...."
"Don't laughlah! Why I so suay (Hokkien for 'unlucky') wan..."

That's right. The list of 'lucky' 1992 kids chosen for NS is out and available for checking.

It's quite interesting to me. Even as late as the past week, NS meant nothing much to me. To me, it was "Oh, NS... okay..." It's one of those things that I just never thought much about. And somewhere, in the depths of my mind, I had this weird feeling of acceptance that I'll never get chosen for it... No idea why... it was just there.

So today I found out a bunch of my friends like PC, Xin Fang and Esther got chosen. Once I got into the car, I told my parents, "Hey, guess what? So-and-so got NS..."

And my dear mum said, "Really? So did you!"

-Stunned silence-

"WHAT??!!"

"Yah! I saw the article in the newspaper this morning and I kay-po mah, so I smsed in loh..." she handed me the phone showing the message.

'Tahniah. Selamat Maju Jaya.'

Oh. Har dee har... Was that the depths of my mind rolling around in laughter over the irony of it all?

I came online to check the website and boom... there it was again. 'Tahniah. Selamat Maju Jaya.'
Yeah, yeah, yeah... thank you... :P

I'm more shocked than anything. I know a lot of people dread finding out they were chosen. But after surfing around online, it is quite clear that the ex-NS trainees did really enjoy themselves there.

Two of my cousins went for it before, Vern (Kooky Jar) included. And after reading around many blogs, I see that it really isn't something to be miserable about after all. In fact, it does sound quite fun and it is really a once in a lifetime experience. Provided none of that NS camp 'horror stories' happen lar, of course... :P -choi choi touch wood-

We'll see how things go... muahahaa.... :-B