Journal Entry 15.06.03

Ten fifteen and I am standing outside the back entrance to Plaza Putra with my Indian Princess, clad in shorts, old shoes, socks and T-shirts even you’d like to rip off and get rid off.

TAS Dataran Merdeka is still in a mess. Mud is till everywhere and the rainfalls consequent to the rainfall have made the area a little flooded again.

The next two hours or so was spent carrying, moving and cleaning large pieces of furniture, electrical equipment and other miscellaneous stuff. It’s amazing how much sweat Kennedy produces. What’s rather nice to observe though is how much solidarity there is in the local arts scene. So many artists from so many performing companies have got together to lend TAS a helping hand and it is truly a heart-warming sight.

Later that evening, the Indian Princess and I went to have a look at our proposed replacement venue, Sobranie Classic Cinema. It is just so perfect for the production, all except an incredulously preposterous price tag of RM600.00 a night. For fuck’s sake, they hardly even manage RM200.00 in revenue per night when they have screenings! But I guess that’s how it is when one is burdened with commercial pressures.

Wicknes had invited us to his graduation performance at Five Arts Centre (in place of TAS theatre), after 10 weeks of tutelage under Joe Hasham. It was an Introductory Theatre course and thus the performance naturally had a distinctive amateurish feel to it; but it was good nonetheless. Two individuals struck me as much better than the rest while two lovely Chinese girls actually managed to let go their inhibitions and performed a truly delectable ‘sapphist’ lip-locking session in front of the 60 odd people in the room. I think that’s what Rey is asking us to do… Let our inhibitions go, that is; though lip-locking sure doesn’t sound all that bad. At risk of sounding gay or bi, sexual preference would be largely irrelevant, though a co-operative female partner would be much preferred.

Hmm… Wonder what the Indian Princess would say in response to Majid’s question in PA101 the other day about having to do kissing or love scenes whilst acting… Doubt it would affect her much though…




Journal Entry 14.06.03

Woke up late and missed the Mooting workshop by the DPP. Oh well.

The workshop performance for “Shorts II” successfully started at 4.20 pm, playing to a house that could fill more than 200 people but had only approximately 20. And to think I originally wanted to cater for 100 pax. The show went well and at 5.00 pm we were having a lively chat with the audience members, some of whom gave rather useful and justified comments and criticisms. I think the workshop performance was of great importance to the well being of the production.

The Indian Princess and I went home for pre-Father’s day dinner with my family. I think my Dad liked the present I bought him, a book that satirises men and women, specifically their differences, in character and capability – a useless book to me, but entertaining, nonetheless. Perhaps I shouldn’t have played it safe opting for it instead of the self-help book…

Soon after, we left home and headed to the Indian Princess’ lesbian admirer’s post-birthday party. Gen is just so fucking irritating, it’s amazing. But oh well, one has to sometimes maintain and upkeep that social, pleasant façade in life. But really, a gathering in a VIP room at Bistro 1957 would have been quite alright, if Gen (and her invitees) wasn’t so lame and boring all the time. To top it all off, she didn’t even buy us the drinks.

By 12 am, we were mortally sick and tired of the crowd and decided to leave. We gave Mo (a South African classmate) a lift to Bangsar and boy oh boy, was it an entertaining 10 minute ride! He was completely pretentious and un-shamefully boastful throughout the journey – probably due to the 3 or 4 mugs of beers… Nah! I gave him the cynical sarcastic treatment, turning and twisting all he said against him all the way, but strangely enough, he didn’t even notice a single bit…

I give the Indian Princess a lot of shit about being mean like that to other people, but if truth be told, I enjoy it as much as she does. Hypocrisy = Me!




Journal Entry 13.06.03

Today we played Mirrors. My mirror was Bindu who in turn, mirrored me. It wasn’t very good. For some reason or another, we just couldn’t establish eye contact; therefore our mirroring act left much to be desired. We were both to be blamed probably, my feeling as though I was constantly intimidating her and trying not to, her constant giggling and jovialness.

There were other games/exercises as well, but none that left a marked impression on me. But a discussion that ensued established the existence of a “Yee Yang Domination/Intimidation Syndrome/Factor” – hah! Michael Jordan’s not the only one with a condition/syndrome named after him! (Okay, it wasn’t a condition nor a syndrome, but a bacteria… but still…)

Anyhow, class was in general not too captivating today, owing probably to my pre-occupation with i) the destruction of TAS the two nights ago; ii) non-existence of a performing venue for “Shorts II”; and iii) physical fatigue after this morning’s rather vigorous spring cleaning at TAS Dataran Merdeka.

Then night came, the Indian Princess and I ended up in the Auditorium at HELP Institute KPD for a rehearsal for tomorrow’s workshop performance. It was surprisingly fruitful. There is hope yet…




Journal Entry 12.06.03

Out of the four main elements of nature, water is the one that I hate most as of today. Yesterday’s downpour completely destroyed Plaza Putra, Dataran Merdeka, i.e. The Actors Studio Theatre, The Actors Studio Box, The Actors Studio Academy, The Actors Studio Bookshoppe, The Actors Studio Office (nerve centre) and Dama House, home to the Dama Orchestra.

Yes, completely wiped out.

I heard the news from Ming-Jin this morning at 11.30 am, after spending 2 whole fucking hours at the printer’s trying to get the graphics for Shorts II sorted out.

I don’t think I fully realize the gravity of the situation yet, somehow. It all seems so surreal… Here’s hoping that it’s not all as bad as it seems to be.




Journal Entry 11.06.03

I love the way music can bring about wonderful creative ideas. At today’s rehearsal for my group’s sketch entitled “What’s in the box?”, I choose to have Gustav Holst’s “Jupiter” from the suite “The Planets” as accompaniment music. It was simply wonderful.

After half an hour of ideas and tryouts, we decided on a rough outline to improvise with. We did not however “do before think” as suggested by Rey but found that it happened quite simultaneously. I find myself not agreeing completely with Rey that “doing” first before “thinking” leads to more creativity and better outcomes. Perhaps it does, but I do believe it quite requires one to have an ample repertoire of ideas and creativity to achieve that great result sought. For one such as myself who is severely deficient in that respect, it was and still is rather difficult to “Just do it.”

So now we have a paradox – to utilise the conscious mind or to set it free?

I cannot yet make an informed judgement, but I will soon enough.

On a completely different tangent, I noticed something extraordinarily weird today – the skies were abnormally dark with winds blowing very hard. Picture this: it is barely 5 pm but the street lights were already on.

I wonder whether street lights are manually controlled or is automatic in operation…




Journal Entry 09.06.03

Today we learnt new vocabulary: Theatre Vocabulary.

New Vocabulary #1: Movement & Stillness
We started the class walking around the space. Then, Rey added variations, run, walk, move and stop. It was quite cool for we had to just feel and know when to move and when to be still – as a group!

New Vocabulary #2: Kinosphere
The funky word means personal space and the exercise we did was to explore and experiment about how much (or little) space we can fill. It was fun, though I found myself quite repetitive in my movements, expressions and gestures. I suppose I can fill space, big and small, but I’m just rather boring to look at. A waste of space.

New Vocabulary #3: Tableux (Statues)
This high flown word is the arty farty way of saying statue-like. Basically, you contort and make yourself into a position and stay in that position: voila! Tableux. I like this new word a lot. Probably has something to do with my band training and how well I can just focus and be still.

Oh yah, today we started relaxation exercises. It’s been quite some time since I’ve done one and man, it felt good.




Journal Entry 06.06.03

Milling and Seething – A Variation on Space.

Ingredients:
• 12 Budding Actors who will do pretty much anything you ask them to
• 1 Command-Giver with a tendency to move wooden blocks about
• 1 Big Empty Room
• Air-Conditioning

Directions:

1. Have all 12 budding actors stand-up and walk around the room.
2. Have them now walk in a constricted space bound by 6 wooden blocks.
3. Move wooden blocks about, changing the size and boundaries of the space.
4. Pair the actors into twos and ask them to focus on a certain part/characteristic of a person.
5. Repeat steps 3 & 4 a few times, then remove the boundaries of the space.
6. Repeat steps 3 & 4 till you get bored.

Result:

Interesting observations about one-self. Variation in breathing, walking, seeing patterns, though all having a tendency to avoid populous areas, preferring lonely, quiet, un-crowded spots. Also interesting to hear other’s observations about oneself – I am an intimidating person after all. I’m also rather unemotional, though mostly when I’m focusing proper. I suppose the thing I need to learn now is how (and whether I can) channel that concentration towards producing emotions.