darkholme

past life: theatre

For those of you who have known me long enough, you would've known that I've had a past life in theatre. Well, not IN theatre, but rather dabbling in theatre. There are various points in life where I've performed on stage before.

The earliest instance of me being on stage was at the end of Kindergarten 1 (St. Francis Xavier Kindergarten at Serangoon Gardens). It was the end of the year and it was a Christmas concert. I was cast as Joseph (as in, Mary and Joseph) in the Nativity play. Not bad huh? A leading role in my very first production. The next year, however, I was demoted to just one of the Three Kings (along with Jeremy - I have a photo somewhere. Will scan it in and post it up later).

Since that time, I mainly did small roles in primary school skits like one on Sang Nila Utama (where Jeremy was Sang Nila Utama and taught us all to say "Salam alaikum" in greeting. Joanna was his queen and was nicknamed "Queenie" for a while after that. Incidentally, there was some one whose parents owned an inflatable raft and we used it as Sang Nila Utama's boat.) Another little skit we did was from Charlotte's Web, in which Sandy Yeo (now a fantastic designer) created this huge paper-mache egg.

My first serious interest in theatre came in secondary school. Victoria has a bi-annual theatre competition called "Dramafest" in which any body can write, produce and stage a short play. Winners actually get $$$ for Best Script, Best Acting, Best Special Effects etc. My form teacher at that time, Mrs Poon had a very keen interest in theatre and as part of our English assignment we were made to write plays in groups. My group's script didn't get chosen, and instead, two other plays were shortlisted - one about a team of explorers going to Egypt and another about fairy tale characters together (like Red Riding Hood, Jack of Beanstalk fame, etc.) The two groups were meant to try and come up with a combined script using ideas from each one to enter Dramafest. However, things didn't seem to be moving, so Mrs Poon asked me, the class monitor at that time to get things into shape. I re-wrote the play to be about Fairy Tale characters going to Egypt to look for treasure. I don't know why, it's such a weak plot now that I think about it. Anyway, in true Kelvin fashion, it contained lots of corny jokes e.g. When Robin Hood and Red Riding Hood meet Jack of the Beanstalk, this is roughly what happens (said rather quickly):

Jack: Hi, I'm Jack. Jack of the Beanstalk.
Robin: Hi, pleased to meet you. I'm Robin Hood.
RRH: I'm Red Riding Hood.
Robin & RRH (pointing to each other): No relation.

Geddit? Robin HOOD, and Red Riding HOOD - No relation? I crack myself up. Not bad for a thirteen year old huh? Other than that, there's lots of other corny jokes too. Like Robin's favourite song is "Everything I do, I do it for you" - from the movie starring him.

Anyway, because the play was so char-pa-lang, like rojak, that it was called Potpurri - a combination of incongruous things. That was my first venture into theatre. It was staged at Victoria Theatre, unfortunately, I was down with viral fever in the hospital and thus couldn't watch the final dress rehearsals and the actual performance.

In Sec 2 I was sent for a course done by the Singapore Repertory Theatre taught by Rey Buono. It was an excellent course and that really really opened up my eyes to theatre. From that point on, I knew that I wanted to go to VJC to do Theatre Studies. Which I did, when I got to JC. I also did some front of house work for SRT at that time, for Into the Woods

My parents were not happy. Firstly, my dad wanted me to be an engineer, so the fact that I was doing Arts including Theatre Studies was quite a difficult thing for my parents to handle. What made things worse was for Theatre studies and drama (TSD), we spent an inordinate amount of time on rehearsals and practicals, which meant less time for the rest of my subjects. Looking back, it was definitely worth it! Like what the brochure for TSD says - "Many years after your 'A' levels, you won't remember what questions were on your other subjects papers. You will remember the experience of your TSD practicals."

Whilst waiting to go into the army, I was part of the backstage crew for the Singapore Repertory Theatre production of David Henry Hwang's Golden Child. This was indeed, the first time that I got close to a professional production.

Then came army, which disrupted the theatre part of me for most of the time (except for when we staged Changing Voices which is the post-JC production of the TSD "A" level pieces and the occasional 'wayang' to get out of PT sessions ;) )

In Sydney, I did Theatre/Film as my second major and got involved in a few productions. Did Eugene Ionesco's Killing Game in year 2 and got to know Deborah Pollard the fantastic, slightly crazy, Tadashi Suzuki trained performer and director.

With her, I was involved in two other productions outside of uni. These were performance installations mainly, not your main stream script bound theatre. One was Girt by Sea (2002) and the other was Shapes of Sleep (2003).



Girt by Sea (Manly Beach, Sydney, 2002)


Here's a quick writeup on the production. By the way, that's not me in the picture.

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Deborah Pollard in association with Urban Theatre Projects presents

GIRT BY SEA
Saturday March 23 & Sunday March 24

A FREE marathon performance installation at
Manly's harbour beach off the West Esplanade.
Stay for three hours or stay for three minutes. 3pm till sunset.

Max Dupain meets Ken Done meets Jacques Tati meets Bali

Australia has strongly identified itself as the bronzed Aussie nation. Our beaches are our national pride and our bikini clad/lifesavers imagery has become our hallmark identity. As Australia begins to accept and celebrate its multicultural identity, we also begin to embrace the many cultural identities that exist within this nation. Girt By Sea looks at cultural diversity through perceptions of the sea.

Girt By Sea will bring together a unique international team, featuring Indonesian artists Hedi Hariyanto and Regina Bimadona, and Sydney artists Deborah Pollard, George PK Khut, and Monica Wulff.

And an ensemble of 12 new performers. Joanne Harpas, Sara Sharpe, Estee Wah, Kelvin Lim, Michael Sieders, Michelle Zikmundovsky, Zayann Jappie, Susannah Palk, Minh Hau-Lu, Marni Clayton, Matthew Prest and Sarah Vongmany

Bring a picnic, go for a swim, stay for three hours or stay for three minutes. Girt By Sea invites the audience to sit in a beautiful beach setting amongst a montage of performance and visual arts imagery.

Mermaids vacuum the sand, Max Dupain’s photographs come to life and hunky lifesavers offer the ‘kiss of life’ for only $1, GST included.

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Shapes of Sleep (Performance Space, Sydney, 2003)

That is me right at the front of the picture :)
For those who are curious - here's a writeup on the performance

I think that theatre will always be a part of my life. Whether watching it, taking part in it or just supporting it. I realise that this post doesn't really talk about my thoughts. Hm... don't really feel like doing that at the moment - lazy. Oh well. Too bad.

posted by kelvin @ 4:48 pm