Knock, knock, knockin' on Heaven's door....

Upper6 Drama 08/09 presents
Knockin' On Heaven's Door

That's the title of our play. Why? We thought it would be interesting naming it after a Bob Dylan song for Mr. S who is leaving, though the content of the song have absolutely nothing to do with the play. Anyway, I know we finished it ages ago but I still wanna blog about it anyway.
Our play was very simple. It had no storyline. It had no dialogues. It had nothing that most play would have. Heck..It didn't even have a proper stage. We chose the art centre staircase as our acting area and it should be the first in KTJ history to have an exam piece there. Basically, our play was about the Seven Deadly Sins. We screamed, crawled to earth, acted hysterical, became puppets, descended to hell, became demons, tried to kill ach other, die again, and went to heaven.

Our stage

Walk into the light

I played Anger. I actually wanted Lust but Leila wanted it more, so I decided on Anger instead. It was a sort of a challege because I have this perpectual smile etched on my face but I managed to change that smile into a scowl. As a Poe fan, I just had to incorporate something Poe into my monologue. I based my monologue on 'The tell-tale heart', I just had to change the dementia into rage. Wasn't as hard as I thought it would be, I just had to keep a straight face while screaming. Oh..I love screaming at people. I wish I could do it more often just that I don't want to be sent to a mental institute.
I insisted on doing a dance in the hell scene after watching so much videos of 'So you think you can dance'. It was hard to find music that sounded remotely angry so I chose 'Warriors' from Lord of the Dance. It was kinda weird dancing contemporary to Irish music but it was fun. I scared a hell load of people in the process. I am not exactly pleased with the dance itself, but what more could be done in such a short time. I did managed to throw in a few of my favourite moves. Pas de chat, step, Grand pas de chat, step, pas de chat, fall. Ballet to Irish music. I would like to meet another dunderhead who could think of this. I am never going to show Ms. Yeu this video.

Cast and crew

Oh, and I got full marks!!! Yay!! But so did everyone else. Oh well, it was sorta a group effort anyway. I have to thank God for giving me the strength to last throughout the entire play. I swear I was getting lightheaded during the freeze. And I shall never look at James' face ever again. I froze at the wrong moment which meant that I had to stare at him for the next 8 minutes or so without moving an inch of muscle. Very smart Deborah..very smart indeed. Oh well..it's all over now.
I miss it though. Especially the screaming. Oh well, we'll see what the next play brings forth..

Never watch a Nutcracker Ballet in September!!

Two weeks ago, I went to watch the Nutcracker Ballet by Dance Space with Ms Belinda and Tania at KLPAC. The idea of attending a Christmas Ballet in early September was not exactly elating but I was thrilled nonetheless as it would be the first live ballet that I am attending that would be performed by a somewhat professional troupe...or so I thought...
The Nutcracker is a ballet that all ballet lovers have seen a gazillion times yet never get sick of. The Tchaikovsky music for this ballet is one of the most enchanting ever in the classical ballet world, from the exuberant party scene, to the climbing notes of the growing Christmas tree, to the twittering waltz of the snowflakes, to the melodious waltz of the flowers, ending with the sweetest grand pas de duex of the sugar plum fairy and her cavalier. I should have suspected that this production of Nutcracker would not take on the traditional form when the brilliant composer's name failed to be mention on the poster or anywhere on the leaflets. Only parts of Tchaikovsky original music was used and the rest was some kind of mismatch random music. I don't mind unfamiliar music but sometimes, it best to stick with the original.
This Nutcracker by choreographer Steve Goh takes on a slightly alternative story line, with the main girl named Claire instead of the conventional Clara or Masha(as the Russians would call her). Claire receives a toy nutcracker from a magician, her sister gets jealous and breaks it, the magician fixes it, and the nutcracker came to life at night to fight the army of mice. He then take her to the land of sweets where they meet the sugar plum fairy. She summons up a celebration for the victorious Nutcracker and an array of dances are carried out. In the end, the nutcracker prince marries Claire and they live happily ever after. Nothing is wrong with this storyline at all as I have seen a more bizarre Nutcracker before but the problem lies with connecting each scenes. I felt that the production was very disjointed and lack a certain story-telling substance that all Nutcracker should have. I know it is a school production and I shouldn't expect much but I am paying RM150 to watch at least a decent Nutcracker. Come on, my ballet teacher in Seremban thought that Sleeping Beauty was part of it. This just shows how badly the ballet was communicated to the audience.
A typical school ballet would always, and I mean always have small little girls, some as young as 4, swinging or flopping around to the music, and this production is no exception. It is understandable of course. Parents want their child to have some time on stage. Lines after lines of little girls in mice costumes and painted faces came scuffling out, nodding their heads about and running in again. They were cute but not particularly enjoyable for me to watch (I did not pay RM150 to watch kids run around). And this brings me to the Chinese dance section of the ballet which was absolutely a bore. The one in the real nutcracker is around 1 minute long; This one, which of course used some modern Chinese music to allow all its little girls a chance for the spot light, was too long to sustain any bit of attention that remains.
Moving on to the main characters. The girl who played Claire, I have to admit, is a very good technician. However, this is another case of good dancer, bad choreography. The choreography was a bit repetitive in certain scenes especially with the bluebird lifts (plus the prince was not even strong enough to bear her weight). The male lead was not as good as the female, actually nowhere near the standard line. Well, this is Malaysia and I understand that the stereotypical view imposed upon male dancers here so I salute the three male dancers in this production.
There was nothing special about the set design, though I like the lights around the rim of the stage which lights up during the Land of sweets. The costumes were not that spectacular but what can one expect when one resides in Malaysia. The last tutu worn by Claire was a bit too 'bling bling' for my liking. It was almost blinding when the lights hit the tutu as the prince did another bluebird lift.
I know I am being a bit too critical but Ballet is something that is deeply embedded in me that I could not, I mean won't let it go if something is not right. Hope for a Malaysian company? Not anytime soon.

Busy..busy ..busy

I've been so busy lately. Endless things to do. I promise I will update soon.