Malaysian Signage Fail 02

Posted all around my apartment building:

Oy.

Oooo! Ahhhh!

And once again it's time for a new blog design change! Here it is, boys and girls! Let me know what you think! Comments in sidebar appreciated. Cheers!

(Oh bugger, just realised I never saved the previous design as a file on my hard drive for memory's sake. I've got the one before that, the rather gaudy blue one - see below - but not the most recent yellow/brown one. Oh well. Can't be stuffed reverting to the old coding now. Arf.)

Erk. Tacky. What was I thinking?

Malaysian Signage Fail

Saw this at Jusco supermarket in Mid Valley:

Free ice available for sale??Awesome!

Soul Selling, Short+Sweet, Screenings and Stuffing!

Hey everyone. Whew, busy weekend! FTL is kicking into fuller gear, with me preparing contracts, photocopying scripts and burning copies of demo CDs so that everyone who's committed to the project is able to start learning the songs and sign their souls away to us for the next six months or so, arf arf. So that's pretty exciting!

In other news, I've officially been informed that my entry for Short+Sweet Musical has been accepted, yippee! So it's going to be produced by end of September, and I'll be musical director for the project. Incidentally, the festival's artistic director remarked, "Nick, I think it's very wise of you to not direct your own piece... but I think it's even wiser for you to musical direct it." I think it's a reflection on (if I may say so) the complexity of the music. It might not sound terribly complex in the demos I posted below (just scroll downwards if you'd like to revisit!), but... let's just say, when you look at the written scores, you'd probably go, "Wat da phuck???" Arf! Anyway.

Auditions for performers are coming up this Tuesday, which is also when I'll meet the director I'll be working with. Yup, it's all a bit of a lottery: I submit my entry; the festival directors decide whether or not to accept it; then they let all the people who've submitted their names as potential directors read every accepted script and bid for the project they'd like to direct. Finally, we, the scriptwriters/ composers, get to meet the respective director who's been assigned to us. In other words, we, the scriptwriters/ composers, don't get a say in who we work with. Which is all part of the fun, I suppose!

On Thursday evening I met with the other people who've managed to get their ten-minute musical scripts accepted, and it's not a large number of us... just four in all. Which really isn't surprising, since, as the festival's artistic director said, it is a very difficult category. After all, we're combining scriptwriting with lyric writing and musical composition, with considerations required for choreography, musical staging etc... all condensed into a ten-minute script! So out of all the entries they received (and we have no idea how many there are!), ours were the best four. Gosh.

Thus there'll be four nights of performances late September, each night comprising all four of our ten-minute shows one after the other, which equates to less than an hour for each night's entertainment. And on the final night of the performances, the results will be announced as to the winners — this is a competition, after all! There are various categories, such as Best Script; Best Compositions; Best Lyrics; Best Musical Director; Best Actor; Best Actress; Best Director, etc. So fingers crossed, eh?? ;)

Apart from all these musical developments, this weekend has also been quite a social one. Well, kinda. On Friday night, Terry, Debra and I went to the movies to watch Inception, which we really enjoyed (Chan Ghee, who saw it tonight, wasn't terribly impressed, oy!). I thought it was clever and very entertaining! Heh! Then today (Sunday), Terry, Debs and I saw Despicable Me, which was very funny and enjoyable also, though the overall score I'd give it would be 6.5 out of 10. But don't just take my word for it, arf.

Anyway, for a guy who doesn't really go to the movies often (that's me!), twice in one weekend is impressive, LOL. I dunno why this is, though... I mean, I like going to the movies, and I used to go more frequently in the past. But prior to this weekend, the last movie I saw was probably Avatar. And before that... good lord, I don't remember. Anyway. I'll probably make it a point to go to the cinema more often from now on. Yay!

Today has also been a really "bad" day food-wise! Terry, Chan Ghee and I went to my folks' place for a laksa lunch, where we had two bowls of steaming hot noodles in curried gravy each! Mmmm, oy! Then Terry and I went to Mid Valley and had gelato before the movie. And then we sampled various foods and snacks at the supermarket. And then it was dinnertime, and we had more laksa at my folks' place. And then we went to Wondermilk, this coffee shop down the road, and had coffees, cupcakes and fries. And I just ate a curry puff right before typing this blog, which accounts for the greasy keyboard right now, arf arf. I think it's time to go back on the diet!! Gah, majorly bloated!!

Anyway, that's about it for now. Here's wishing everyone (all two of you who read this blog!) a good week ahead. I'll be back soon, I'm sure! Till then...!

The Sydney Chronicles: A Teaser

Yesterday was an interesting day. I did some research online and finally managed to trace down my old friend Jackie from Sydney, who was my piano teacher in 1998/99. I saw her contact details on a music teachers' website, zapped over an email, and later on she contacted me. We had a nice chat on MSN and managed to catch up (as much as one can over MSN in a short period of time), and it's amazing that it's been 11 years since we last spoke.

See, this, to me, gives me a sense of closure about my time in Sydney, because there were many things about my years there that were left unresolved. I've previously made references to Sydney on this blog (such as here and here!), but for the most part, the stories haven't been told. Well, Jackie was a part of those stories. Before anyone jumps to any conclusions, we were just friends (arf!) - though the assumptions one could make about the fact that I stayed with her for a better part of a year are just a small part of the story, heh.

Without going into too much detail, let's see... there was the continuous disciplinary action taken against me by the school, one after another. And there were the school sergeants, two retired military personnel who would skulk around the school in their fatigues barking army-like orders at you for a single hair out of place. Then, outside of school, there was the elements of dark magic, and the kittens that died, and the visit by the angels. I kid you not. Intrigued?? It certainly was intriguing. And scary. And traumatising. Hence my continued dreams about the school to this day.

The point is, I left Sydney with none of these things unresolved; angry and bitter at the school and eagerly waiting to get away from it; weirded out by the events at Jackie's house (which involved the abovementioned dark magic and dead kittens and angel visits). And when I left, Jackie was still quite upset by all that was going on. And I had no idea what happened after, because I was home and I was trying to put it all behind me. I wrote to Jackie (in the days before she had email, arf!) a couple of months later, and the mail was sent back to me with "No such resident" stamped on it. And that, my friends, was the last I heard of her, eleven years ago. Until last night, when we got in touch, and really, in ten years, we're both doing fine and have thankfully moved on (though my psychology, apparently, hasn't)... and it's another moment of resolution for me, because it closes the door on one of the "plotlines" that was left hanging from my Sydney days.

So I just wanted to share that with ya, boys and girls. Closure. Very important. One day I'll dig up my old journals of those days and share word-for-word what I'd gone through. It's probably not as dramatic as I'm making it out to be right now, but hey, I'm not a theatre lover for nothing, heheh. But in the meantime, here's a little reminder of the institution that I went to: the school photograph, comprising all 2,000-plus stuff and students, piled up on scaffolding for one awesome group shot. The school was superimposed into the background. Try to spot me. Arf!

The Worst Ten Minutes

Here's another demo from Little Girl Lost, my entry for Short+Sweet Musical 2010. The context: a mother has just had a glimpse of a little girl who was reported missing in a public place. This causes her to reflect on her experience of having once lost her own daughter. Lyrics below. Enjoy!

The Worst Ten Minutes by NickChoo

She looked just like my daughter. Yes, she did. My Allison.
Who always loved to wander… One day she disappeared.
It was the worst ten minutes of my life.
So I swore that she would never leave my sight.

Today she’s twenty-nine and getting married.
Twenty-nine, but I can’t let her go… I can’t let her go.
She was only seven when she hurried
Away from me, and I just let her go… I just let her go.
So I swore that she would never leave my sight.
It was the worst ten minutes of my life.

She’s twenty-nine and getting married.
Twenty-nine, and how she hates me so, for I can’t let her go.
She was only seven when I carried her in my arms.
She said, “Mum, let me go.” Well, how was I to know…?

So I swore that I would always hold her tight.
Because of those ten minutes of my life.

© 2010 by Nick Choo; all rights reserved.

Calamities, Last-Minuteness and Lollypops

Hey, everyone! Long silence, as usual. Let's see, what's new... Umm... been having a bit of a clumsy week, unfortunately. First, my laptop went wonky. Well, that's not really due to my clumsiness; it was just on its last legs. So I had to send it in for a tune-up, which... um.... isn't all that exciting, is it? LOL.

The more exciting (and scary) thing happened today, when I was boiling the kettle. Wait, that's not the exciting bit. Before I filled the kettle, I decided to heat something up in the microwave oven. Wait, that's not the exciting bit. Then I filled the kettle - one of those electric plastic jug types - and set it down on the counter, next to the microwave, which is where it usually sits. Only this time, my clumsiness made me accidentally spill some water on the side of the microwave oven. To which I thought, "Oh well, no biggie, just wipe it up..."

Only I didn't get a chance, because suddenly there was a bright spark and a loud bzzzzaaap!!! from inside the microwave, followed by a bright orange flash and the smell of burning. In a panic I turned the microwave off, shut off the power and nervously looked inside. One side of the oven was charred black - the side where I'd spilled the water on the outside. Gaaaah!!

Like the fool that I was, I wondered if I could leave it for a bit and try it again. So I left it for a bit, and tried it again. Conclusion? Nope, you can't leave it for a bit and try it again. Bzzzzaaap!!!

So now I've got no microwave oven at home, gosh durn it. And to rub salt into the wound, after the whole fiasco, I broke my favourite glass - just nudged it off the table with my elbow, and smash it went. What a life, eh?? Arf arf. (Edited to add: Just broke a bowl, too. What's going on with me?! Oy!)

Anyway, that's about it for now. Oh, no, it's not! Let me tell you about the day I submitted my entry for the 10-minute musical thingy, Short+Sweet. The closing date was 11.59pm on Monday, 5 July, and typical of me, I pushed everything to the very last minute and just managed to finish it off by the skin of my teeth: 11pm, 5 July. Talk about cutting it close, eh?? No worries; they'd told me I could just email everything over: entry form, scores, libretto and all. So I attached it all to an email, clicked send, and smiled smugly, knowing it was all done.

Cut to: MAILER-DAEMON alert. Oy!

Turned out the recipient's inbox was full. Full. Gaaah!! So I did all the alternatives: sending attachments individually, emailing without attachments just to notify them, uploading the attachments to a server and emailing them the links for them to download, sending a Facebook message, sending SMSes, and making a phone call to the recipient's office on the off-chance she might be there at 11:30pm (oddly enough, a colleague of hers was, so I left a message). Short of a midnight run to the theatre to drop off my entry personally, I think I'd satisfactorily covered all my bases. I even called the recipient the following morning to follow up on the whole thing and explain what had happened. Thankfully this story has a happy ending, and a day or so later it was confirmed that they had received my entry in full. Whew!!

So that's that, and now I'm waiting for the next steps: interview with the festival directors, and then, hopefully, preparations to stage this ten-minute performance. And on that note, I would like to leave you with this demo of one of the songs (five songs in all) from the show. It's meant to be sung by a woman who has just found out that a little girl has gone lost in a crowded public place. And now this woman reflects on her own experience of having been lost as a child... but with a slightly darker undertone to her story. Check out the demo (by yours truly) below. Lyrics included. Enjoy!

Better Judgment by NickChoo

When I was young, I turned around
And then I found that my mum was gone.
Amidst the crowd, among the strangers, I began to cry.
And then this guy from the corner store...
He asked me why, what I was crying for.
But I was scared; I could not reply. And he asked me,

"Would you like a lollypop?" "Would you like a lollypop?"
This stranger from the corner shop.
And I said okay, against my better judgment.

Now this girl, Emma. She can't be found,
And I'm afraid he might still be around.
Amidst the crowd, among the strangers...

"Would you like a lollypop?" I can't make the memory stop!
"Yes please." Against my better judgment.
Against my better judgment. Against my...

(C) 2010 by Nick Choo; all rights reserved

Blah Blah, They're Pinky and the Brain!

Yo boys and girls! It's been a while, sorry bout that... but it's been back to routine, focusing on work, developing my ten-minute musical, auditioning new people for FTL (long story!), and basically trying not to fall apart from having to do too many things all at the same time. Apart from this, there's not much else going on (because, honestly, who's got time for more stuff to be going on?). Can't believe it's only been about a week or so since the CT crew left for Perth - it definitely feels much longer. And yet, time's a ticking... the deadline for the ten-minute musical was supposed to be today, but fortunately they've extended it by five days, so I have a bit more breathing space to get it finished. Damn me and my complicated rhythms! Oy!!

The other day I received word that Off The Edge, the mag I worked for for the first two years since coming back from Perth, has officially been shut down. A bit of a shame, really. As much as it became a bumpy ride towards the end there, it was a good mag, and it's been going on for about five years now, and it's quite unfair for it to have ended so unceremoniously due to changes in management (purportedly). I sent a text to the former editor (who has since stepped down) conveying my sympathies. And I think it's water under bridge with regards to this uncertain tension between us since my leaving. Ah well. We all have to move on.

Work-wise, am proofreading and editing a book that my current company TNG is going to publish shortly, so that's rather tedious, heh!! And after work I'm going to grab some dinner with Terry before resuming on the music scores for Little Girl Lost, my musical entry into Short+Sweet 2010. Yup, that's the title - you heard it here first, folks! (Except for those of you who I'd already told much earlier. In which case, you didn't hear it here first, folks!) :P

Well, that's really about it for now. I'm going to leave you with this little video clip that my friend Dave shared via Facebook, which I find really clever in terms of writing, and also stellar in terms of tongue-twisting performance by the voice actors. It's Pinky and the Brain, which I've blogged about before, so it sure brings back some good memories of sitting at home in front of the telly waiting for cartoons, heheheh. Without further ado-do, here we go. Enjoy!

Children's Theatre Malaysian Tour: The Final Days

Hello, ladies and germs! It's a rather cloudy Tuesday afternoon, and I'm sitting at home, having been graciously given the day off to relax and recuperate by my lovely boss Jac. But I'm not really relaxing or recuperating, because I've been catching up with some household chores, gone shopping, updated the collection of pics and vids, and I'm planning on working on the ten-minute musical soon, so... yeah. Heheh. No rest for the wicked, eh?

Anyway, let's recap: Sunday, the day of the two shows at the Temple of Fine Arts in Kuala Lumpur. Got to the venue in the morning in time to set up, get ready and perform, and all in all, I think the morning show went really well. The turnout was just fine but sadly not fantastic, although that's to be expected given the rather limited publicity these performances have had.

Between shows, a bunch of us went over for coffees at the Oldtown White Coffee place nearby, which was pretty fun. Then we just hung around the venue until the second show in the evening. That, too, went well, and it was attended by one of my dear friends Shanthini, who runs a theatre academy in KL, so it was cool to be able to introduce her to Jenny in the hopes of future working relationships. Awesome. Here are some pics. In case nobody has figured it out yet, you can view bigger-sized versions if you click on them, heheh!

Claire passes out between shows | Jason strums his new toy

Performance and post-performance

Incidentally, you can view these photos and more by checking out the Children's Theatre photo album on Facebook!

After the show, we did the bump-out and I headed back home to prepare for the Malaysian-tour cast party, bwaa-haaaa!! Yup, we had a little get-together at my apartment (some 25 minutes' drive away from where everyone was staying, which made it a little logistically tedious, but those who were intent on partying actually managed to get here, which is awesome!). Actually, it wasn't so much my apartment as it was the poolside downstairs, which I managed to book for the evening! Yeaaaah, pool paaaarty!!! The gang showed up, some of them ready with bathers, and we managed to splash about for a bit before the condo authorities turned the lights off at 10pm. Stupid residential rules, arf arf. At some point my housemate Chan Ghee decided to join us by the poolside - much to his dismay, I imagine! ;))

I think it was about midnight when the guards finally told us to vacate the area (I'm not exactly sure because Joel "Evil Mandarin" Sammels brought along a bottle of rather delectable Thai whiskey, and ooops, I think I might've gone overboard with it just a little, so the rest of the night is, as usual, one major cloud of fuzziness). We adjourned back to my apartment, and the party continued for a little while longer as the major cloud of fuzziness grew greater and murkier. Of the bits and pieces of my memory I remember people eventually leaving, and poor Chan Ghee (bless him!) having to escort them downstairs to help them get cabs back to the hostel in KL. Oy vey!! :P

All the wet shenanigans!

Water on my camera lens, arf! | Chilling by the poolside

Stephen shows off his sexy legs

Yesterday, Monday, was back to real life for me as I headed back into the office for work. But after work, I drove to the Low-Cost Carrier Terminal some 40 minutes away to meet and send off the majority of the Children's Theatre team as they prepared to board their flight back to Perth. Awwwww. (I say the majority as some of them decided to extend their stay and are still in KL, and I just might meet up with them tonight if all goes well. But I digress.)

Murali helping Jenny to re-pack her luggage

Me and Stephen | Me and Val

Me, Jenny and Andrew

Group photo!

So they checked in, and then we spent some last-minute quality time at one of the coffee shops at the terminal; we said our tearful melodramatic goodbyes, exchanged best-of-lucks, keep-in-touches, hug-hug-kiss-kisses and stay-fabulous-dahleeengs...

What's with that face, Nick Choo?!

Andrew finds out that the rubber cup-holder-thingy isn't made out of chocolate | Salmiyah and Jenny

Me, John King, Kat and Scott | Say cheese!

...And then they were off, leaving me and Murali behind as he's spending a few extra days here. So we watched as the crew headed towards the departure gate, filled with a sense of wistfulness that the whole adventure has come to its inevitable conclusion; feeling grateful for the friendships forged and the new experiences gained through this tour; feeling exhilarated by having to perform on an international level, and exhausted because of having to perform on an international level; and feeling relieved, happy, sad, and a myriad bittersweet emotions that the tour has, for these lovely people and my humble if not-so-good self, come to an end ... for the time being.

Till next time!

Byebye, JB! Hello, tedium!

Yo boys and girls! Back in PJ/KL, almost back to real life once again! I drove in from JB on Thursday, and managed to make it back in a record-breaking three hours. Nobody ask how fast I was driving, arf. After the really, really smooth drive back north from JB, the first thing that happened when I entered KL was that I got caught in a massive, headache-inducing traffic jam for about 30 minutes, with a desperate need to pee, LOL. Oy, tedium!!! Can't say I was very happy to be back!

Yesterday evening we moved into the Temple Of Fine Arts in Kuala Lumpur, which is noticeably different from TFA in JB. The KL one is in this huge fancy building, with many floors and many rooms for various musical and dance purposes. The performance space we're in is a big room that's not as well-equipped, somewhat ironically, than the JB space. But of course, we'll do the best we can with what we have. The other thing that potentially works in our favour is that I managed to cart my big-ass keyboard to the space, rather than rely on my older (but much cherished) portable keyboard. So the sound, assuming the system works, should be much superior than the JB performances. Fingers tightly crossed.

In the KL space

After bump-in and run-through last night, everyone went their separate ways, so Jonno Langdale and I decided to drive out for dinner. I got to bring him to Ming Tien food court in PJ, a.k.a. the Tacky Place, which was hilarious because, if you're familiar with Ming Tien, it's got a Hawaiian theme, complete with order-takers and servers dressed in Haiwaiian shirts. And wouldn't you know it, guess what kind of outfit Jonno had on this evening? Here's a photo:

Heheh. Only disappointment was that nobody stopped him to ask him to take their order. Oh well. :P

Well, that's about it. Since coming back I've basically been working on some stuff for FTL (more auditions happening this afternoon to replace people who have indicated that they can't stay on for this year's potential production), and I've also been developing my entry for the Short+Sweet Musical event, a festival of ten-minute musicals that I hope to be involved in. So... fingers crossed. Tonight I'll hopefully catch up with some of the CT gang. I'm thinking Bangsar this evening. Maybe. We'll see. It's blisteringly hot outside, so I'm incredibly heavy-headed right now and can't think straight, arf. Till later... ;)

Nick's Excellent Cross-Country Adventure, Part Four

Hey everybody!! Wow, it's been a totally hectic couple of days, I can tell you! Apart from my working for the website in the daytime, the past couple of evenings and nights have been filled with performances and post-performance festivities. Yesterday (Tuesday), we had the first show at the Temple of Fine Arts in Johor Bahru. It was a really, really good one, I felt, and even though at times it felt like the audiences' attention waned a little (possibly, perhaps, due to the language? The accents? I dunno), in the end, they — the kids in particular — loved it.

It was so cool (despite the incredible humidity; oy vey, my makeup was running down my face!) performing out here in a rather remote venue that's conventionally been used for Indian classical dance. As some of the TFA people said, it was the first time they'd ever had such a show performed in their space, and I think that's a truly wonderful thing to be able to experience, on our part. Some of the performers/characters — in particular Scott, who played the grasshopper Guan Yu — were such a smash hit, all the young members of the audience were rushing up to him and getting all squealy and wanting to take photos and stuff. Hilarious! (Although many of us believe it's because Scott's the only [natural] redhead in the cast... coupled with his green grasshopper outfit, the combination of colours must've dazzled the audience blind, heheh.)

Andrew (Bluebeard)'s fan club | John (Kangaroo)'s fan club

Scott S's international fan club!

Scott's fan club strikes again! |Group shot with the lovely people from TFA

After the show, I took a small group of us to get ice-cream and munchies, and then a bunch of us got together for drinks, and plenty of it, at the hotel's al fresco dining area downstairs. That went on for quite a while, and the ending was (as most drinking nights tend to get) a little bit fuzzy. Hmm. I'm thinking perhaps the less said about this, the better, arf arf. Some things are best kept in the memory. Like, the memory... of the mind.

Awkward pause.

Even Jenny joined us! A rarity! | Me and Jonno having a moment

Jason H | Another group shot with Jenny

Helen, Meagan, Leanne and Serena | John, Stephen and Hannah

Nick's bright idea

Tonight's (Wednesday) performance at the TFA wasn't as tight as yesterday's; in fact, there were mistakes made left, right and centre, including missed cues, dropped lines, props that fell apart (hello, ship steering-wheel thingy!), and missing items (a major one was when Andrew K's Buccaneer Bluebeard reached for the huge red feather belonging to the titular Phoenix, only to realise he didn't have it. Later, Joel S, who plays the naughty Mandarin Sun Bear, made up for it by saying, "Buccaneer Bluebeard gave this feather to us... eventually." Arf!).

For the most part the cast covered it well. And let's face it, apart from the protracted awkward silences until someone manages to pick up from where they'd inadvertently floundered, none of the audience really had a clue. So it was all in good fun, and again, the crowd seemed to love it! Yay!

After the show, we packed up my little Myvi to the roof with items for me to cart back to KL in the daytime. Yup, everyone's leaving JB tomorrow, with the CT team heading off in the morning as they're hopping on a plane; I'm going to be driving in, oy vey, on my own, for the whole four-and-a-half-hour journey. Whoohoo. Fun. But yeah, I'm looking forward to getting back home and sleeping in my own bed for a bit. Not like it hasn't been a blast, sharing a room with Jason and a bed with Murali, arf arf. Good times.

Well, I'm gonna sign off here for now, but before I do, I leave you with this absolutely pointless but at the time incredibly amusing story about Joel, who plays the naughty Mandarin Sun Bear, and who turned out after the show this evening to be a wickedly beloved character. All the kids were dying to meet him, and he was acting all evil-like and going grr argh graaarrrggh and the kiddiewinks were laughing and screaming their heads off and running away ziggedy-zaggedy in fear and absolute childlike joy.

Tang, the Evil Mandarin and Buccaneer Bluebeard (with often-seen blue stuffed toy)

So a bunch of us, in our post-performance drinking session that concluded about an hour ago, imagined the locals here erecting a huge statue of Joel as the Sun Bear, which led to someone coining the immortal quote: "Joel S is the Paris Hilton of Johor Bahru." And then somehow the thread went further, and we began imagining leaving Joel behind in JB, and coming back eventually to discover he through his wickedly charming ways he had taken over the state, and it's now known as Joelhor Bahru, and posters of his Mandarin Sun Beared self are adorning the walls of his Mandarin Sun Bear palace and the people are devotedly worshipping the Sun Bear, catering to his every dicktatorial whim and fancy, him having risen to the ranks of unBearable.

Good night, folks!!

Nick's Excellent Cross-Country Adventure, Part Three

I'm back with more updates on Monday's goings-on! After work at the coffee outlets, I managed to head over to the Straits View Hotel nearby, where I quickly freshened up before heading to the venue for the bump-in for the show. The venue is the Temple of Fine Arts (TFA) in JB, and it's located in a rather isolated village. From the outside, TFA looks like an ornate, old-style wooden house, which is what accounted for my earlier remark about the potential "culture shock" of our performing there. (It certainly would've been a bit of a culture shock for the Aussie boys and girls, I reckon. And believe you me, it was also a bit of a culture shock for yours truly, too. So there you have it).

And I was pleasantly surprised by the space we get to perform in. You see, I'd thought we'd be, like, having to perform in one of the rooms in the house. Turns out there's this large performing space out back, complete with a rather sophisticated setup of lights and sound systems. What makes it even more special is that the area is considered sacred for the Hindus because they believe that art is a gift from the gods, which, is really rather enlightening, don't you think? Yeah. So you know that old adage about books, covers and judging? Still applies, in this day and age. Who would've thought?? Colour me impressed.

Anyway, I got there in time for some of the performers from TFA to put on a classical Indian dance, which was this super energetic piece with lots of hand waves and feet stamping. They only showcased about five minutes of it, and we were rather awed when they told us the full piece could span 35 minutes or more, oy!! I'm sure many of us began to wonder what we looked like in their eyes, we bunch of current and former uni students, arf arf. Anyway. After the dance, the team got together for a further read through of the script (they'd begun earlier before I'd arrived), and then there was more gear setting-up before we managed to do a full rehearsal run of the show.

The classical dance | Script read

A glimpse at the space

By the time we were done, it was after 1am. When you consider what a long day I'd had, what with the early morning breakfast and departure from Singypoo and TNG work and driving here and there and whatnot... I'm extremely pooped! (Which isn't to discount what a long day everyone else had had, of course!). It's almost 3am now, so I'm going to head off... but naturally I'll be back with more of tomorrow's events, which will include work in the daytime (not foreseeing anything too exciting then), and the first public show at TFA at night!! Until then... sleep tight, folks!