So its the big day. Damn.
One of the poster for Dramaturgy.
(Design by David C. Photography by Celine LT)
The past 3 months flew by so fast and here I am at the end of the my last semester down at ADP.
Damn it all feels so weird and surreal. In a couple of months and I'm going to be in the US.
But heck, I have to focus on this finals first. Wow my first ever role on stage that is not myself or close to myself. I mean in a public performance.
I've never really played anything out of my comfort zone really. I suppose Gail is probably my first character that has something that I completely have not experience. The joy of being a mother, having a daughter, marriage life with the man I don't love; I mean I've never experience any of these before, and to be honest, I didn't think I would be able to pull them off. I'm very proud of myself of coming thus far. And now I am attached to this Abigail Lynn character, and I know that she will always be inside of me no matter how long after the performance.
So we decided that everyone has to come in by 8.30 to actually do bump and tag because we didn't get to do those yesterday. So yea, I got my ass there real early as usual, and just dumped my stuff backstage, before going out to do some errands. I had to print out the onsite script and prepare the RESERVED signs for our guests of honor tonight. Then I sort of just hang outside for a while till around 8.30.
I came back in and I saw Lih Seng, Leanne and a couple of others folding the program book. Damn. It looked good. Good job David for the designs :)
So, since majority was in, we began bump and tagging the floor. Eric and Josh came late, so we already bumped for them. The rest of the bumping went pretty smoothly, except for Stuck's bumping. Well let's just say Lycel was being a little bit difficult, so we didn't really bump for her. I mean she pretty much just left us halfway bumping. Heck I'm not gonna run after her and chase after her to stay and finish the bumping. If the running crew placed their props at the wrong places, not my problem, and neither it is the running crew's fault. It's because she didn't even bother bumping the floor herself.
Oh wells moving on. David, Vhina and I were running around like mad man trying to get everything sorted. I actually forgot to slid 3 program books underneath Rey's office, and when David called me, I had to rush to the office in the middle of the rain. And it doesn't help that everywhere is sooo damn slippery!
Pretty soon it was 2.45pm already. 45 minutes before the opening of the stage for the theater 101. The backstage crew from theater 102 were all in already. Vhina and I made sure that there were no hindrances and then we were set to go. Rey was already inside the theater, and he called out all the theater 101 people while the theater 102 people set up whatever they need to set up.
By the time 3.30 came, the door was opened. Leanne and Zong Yong was down at the entrance welcoming the people. Vhina was down at her post and I went around to double check if everything was ok. I also wished the 101s best of luck and to go out there and have the time of their life.
We started late, obviously, because even by 3.45, the house was only half filled. It was raining, can't be helped. But of course the show must go on. So they went on, and I can tell that the audience loved it! Good for them. But half way, the standing colored lights went out. Shit. There goes the lighting. URGH! Everything just has to go wrong these past few days.
Then by 4.15 they were done. They took the curtain call and rushed back to the changing room and changed to their black shirts. Oh no wait, they were already wearing black. HAHA. oh wells. Obviously, me and Vhina has to go and chase the audience out of the theater so we can actually set the stage and stuff like that.
Pretty soon it was 5. We were scheduled to start at 5.10 and looks like Rey told us to start earlier. Damn, our videographer wasn't in when we started. Because she had class that ended at 5. So she missed the first 2 performances. Apologies to Josh, Eric, Filza and Wei Lim. That was poor planning by me.
Damn the first 2 performances went pretty fast and pretty soon I found myself already right behind the entrance screen, waiting for the 3rd performance to finish. OMG it was even more nerve wracking being there, than on stage. I kept myself breathing and calm, and focused on Gail. I remembered the times that I spent with Eric, whats inside that room that I'm going into etc. Of course I also prayed. It's one of my rituals before going on stage.
Pretty soon the 3rd performance ended, and it was our turn. I stood behind the screen and with Vhina's cue, walked into my scene. Teck Sern forgot to make the noise though. HAHA.
That 10 minutes on stage was probably one that I won't forget, and one of the longest. I was Gail. I wasn't Celine. I was Abigail Lynn; mother of Elizabeth Young, wife of Frederick Young, and ex-girlfriend of Eric Evelyn Cooper, and damn it felt good.
I could feel myself getting hot when Eric said the lines, "You don't love Fred". You know, that sense of heat at the back of your head when you just got caught doing something bad? Yea that feeling. I could feel it. I felt that I was in character.
Yea, there were minor slip ups, but I'm proud of myself and Teck Sern for pulling through and ad-libbing when we did make mistakes. Obviously, given more time, we could have done better. But I think that we made the most of the time we had and obviously we didn't give the audience a half-assed show. We gave them our best.
I was pretty scared that it was too draggy and too boring for some of the people. I mean I saw two guys down in the front row playing with their phone. Seriously? Come on, that's not nice. But heck, I have a show to run and a whole house of audience to entertain. I really couldn't careless about two guys at the sidelines.
By the time we finished, I was exhausted. Gail really took much out of me. When I let go of Eric, I became myself again. I couldn't help but smile at Teck Sern because we both know that it was finally over, and we both know that we've given them the best that we could have had. I have no regrets.
The only regret would be the fact that I probably, shouldn't have worn the shawl. I didn't practice with them and heck I looked really awkward with them.
Note to self. NEVER USE A PART OF COSTUME THAT YOU'VE NEVER PRACTICE IN.
When we took a final bow, I couldn't hide the genuine smile of joy that I had on my face. Sure it was over, but it always feels great to hear the applause of the audience. And it felt great; standing in front of these people with my talented and awesome classmates. It was a great feeling. Its a great feeling, knowing that we've given it our all that night.
It was an awesome night, we finished actually finished earlier than planned, thanks to the quick change of scene by our running crew, which consisted of Dharen, Kelvin and Tarang, as well as the accurate cues by our light and sound crews which consisted of Amanda, Gloria, and Debra. Of course not forgetting the leader of this crew, Marissa. Many thanks to the theater 101 people that helped us out. It wouldn't be such a success if it weren't because of you all.
Thank you to Sarah Yong for being our make up artist and did some of our make up as well :) And then to our photographer Au Xin Ni and our videographer, Momoko Uchimura as well. Looking forward to the photos and videos.
I thought some people were great. I thought Leanne and Adam was amazing. Lih Seng was on fire yesterday. He was literally crying on stage. Filza was on fire. When Leanne and I were preparing ourselves in the changing room, I could hear her shouting at Wei Lim.
I thought we all did well last night. No one screwed up real badly, but there were some really exceptional ones. Overall, I think we all did a good job and gave it our all on that stage. I love my class and this is definitely one class I will miss.
All the theater classes and their respective Lecturers.
Above, Theater 101 Section 4, 5 & 6, with Ms Pat Chan
Middle, Theater 102 (cast of Dramaturgy) and Theater 101 Section 3 with Rey Buono
Bottom, Theater 101 Section 1 & 2, with Ms Pat Chan
(Photo by Au Xin Ni)
THE PROGRAM BOOK
Design by David C.
Photography by Celine Letizia & Joshua Wong
Photos in the program book taken by Nikon D7000
The Cover Page
First 2 pages, hey I see me :D
3rd and 4th Page
5th and 6th Page
Last page about Rey :D
If you ask me, I still can't believe that it is all over. When we finished, we had a group hug and to be honest, I wanted to cry. But I didn't want to. Dude, my make up's gonna go all over the place and shit like that. And plus, let's not get all sentimental. I might not see all of them again. I mean this is my last damn semester, I sort of didn't want it all to end. If I could, I would stay in theater for the rest of my life because that is something I really like doing.
Its such a sentimental and sad post. I mean no one likes goodbyes anyway, and no one likes separation. I always feel this way. I mean whenever I finished a performance, I would miss the days where I would spend hours rehearsing. Somewhere in my head, I would want to go back to the time before the performance, and redo the performance again and again.
I've ran out of things to say, I've got one more post about Rey's feedback to me and Teck Sern, then after that, this blog is shutting down. I feel kinda sad, because I know that I've given in my 110% in this class and now its all over already. It all seemed too fast.
I want to go back to the days where we would have our theater classes and then go out for breakfast.
I'll miss you all, my theater buddies.
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