Opening the world's smelliest durian
Preview night's over. Effectively, fiftynine minutes' opening night's over (thought technically, that's meant to be tonight... I don't know, the guy's a Gemini, how am I supposed to understand?). Last night's show was "by invite only" - every member of the cast (and production team?) received 2 tickets to give to their friends & family. I managed to get a few more tickets so that I had all the biggest aunties of Broken Bridges there (ie M, SY & CY). Hey, start with the toughest crowd and everything else is smooth sailing from there. Piss-easy, as the English like to say (damned if I know why). BTW my monologue is called The World's Smelliest Durian.
Conveniently, 2 of the recipients were the BB writers, a part of my diabolical plan to ensure that I'm uppermost in their mind for all their future works. Visualisation exercise begins:
Writers: Thanks so much for taking in our play. (in unison - they're cute that way)
Director: No problem, it's great. Do you have anyone in mind for any of the parts?
Writers: JO!!!
Director: Ah... is she any good?
Writer A: It's a he, actually.
Director: But your play consists of 10 women.
Writer B: Don't worry, he'll manage fine.
Director: 10 Indian women.
Writer A: Aiyah, small thing only.
Writer B: Trust us, he'll be fine.
Director: Right...... (mutters) crazy Ipoh boys.
Great thing is that they all really enjoyed my performance. With this group, I know their feedback is honest - which is the most valuable thing for performing. In fact, M was so blown away and impressed and convinced of my acting skills that I'm almost insulted. MelBabes is going to get her crew to come, which is nice.
How'd I feel? Great. I had a mildly spicy Kerabu Fried Rice next door at the Food Foundry just before the show, so that totally wiped out any butterflies that were unfortunate enough to end up in my stomach. Yeah, queasy, but not the usual kind. But I knew I was ready - no worries about lines, no worries about blocking, no worries about emoting. Just had to bear in mind my director's notes. Which is THE best place to be for a show, I think. I always want to be in this zone before a show - so get all the rehearsing over and done with early, and get thoroughly prepared before every show. For me, passing through the backstage curtain last night was like the first open water dive - you've gone through all the training, you're more or less ready, gawd knows what'll happen out there, just go through the practiced routine... dive... and enjoy yourself. Could be like skydiving too. And bungee jumping. If anyone's going to do either of these, CALL ME!
Saint Petersburg
What a bloody amazing game. I'm still hooked, and thoroughly enjoying it. Playing a little too much two-player though - I'm beginning to get all the nuances and strategies already. Need more kaki! It seems that a German magazine, published last year, issued a mini-expansion to this game - with twelve new cards. Check it out here. Addictive strategic and highly competitive board game, anyone?
Bookworming
To fill in the blank from a previous post, the 3rd book I bought (and am currently reading) is called The Geography of Thought, by Richard E Nisbett (yes I got the image from Amazon). "How Asians and Westerners Think Differently... and Why", it says. So far, so good. Easy to read, a bit simplistic in its explanations (esp after Jared Diamond's Collapse), and mostly belabours the same point (Westerners - focused on smaller-picture, more object-oriented, linear; Asians - focused on bigger-picture, more environment-oriented, cyclic), but presents numerous experiments with interesting results. Of course, what I'm especially enjoying about it is that it clarifies some of the conflict in the way I see things as a certified banana. To be continued after I finish it.
Collapse, on the other hand, paints a scary picture. It's a wake up call to the state of the world as we know it. It's also a bit of a call to arms for us to start doing something about it. I love it. 2 things stick in my head: 1. He is "cautiously optimistic" about the future of Gaia. Lots of shit happening, but there is lots of evidence of us humans doing something about it. 2. It's a horse race (Horse A being 'Self-Wrought Apocalypse' and Horse B being 'Paradise Recreated'), and we can't tell right now which one's going to win.
The future of the world is in your hands, ladies and gents.
What are you going to do about it?
Conveniently, 2 of the recipients were the BB writers, a part of my diabolical plan to ensure that I'm uppermost in their mind for all their future works. Visualisation exercise begins:
Writers: Thanks so much for taking in our play. (in unison - they're cute that way)
Director: No problem, it's great. Do you have anyone in mind for any of the parts?
Writers: JO!!!
Director: Ah... is she any good?
Writer A: It's a he, actually.
Director: But your play consists of 10 women.
Writer B: Don't worry, he'll manage fine.
Director: 10 Indian women.
Writer A: Aiyah, small thing only.
Writer B: Trust us, he'll be fine.
Director: Right...... (mutters) crazy Ipoh boys.
Great thing is that they all really enjoyed my performance. With this group, I know their feedback is honest - which is the most valuable thing for performing. In fact, M was so blown away and impressed and convinced of my acting skills that I'm almost insulted. MelBabes is going to get her crew to come, which is nice.
How'd I feel? Great. I had a mildly spicy Kerabu Fried Rice next door at the Food Foundry just before the show, so that totally wiped out any butterflies that were unfortunate enough to end up in my stomach. Yeah, queasy, but not the usual kind. But I knew I was ready - no worries about lines, no worries about blocking, no worries about emoting. Just had to bear in mind my director's notes. Which is THE best place to be for a show, I think. I always want to be in this zone before a show - so get all the rehearsing over and done with early, and get thoroughly prepared before every show. For me, passing through the backstage curtain last night was like the first open water dive - you've gone through all the training, you're more or less ready, gawd knows what'll happen out there, just go through the practiced routine... dive... and enjoy yourself. Could be like skydiving too. And bungee jumping. If anyone's going to do either of these, CALL ME!
Saint Petersburg
What a bloody amazing game. I'm still hooked, and thoroughly enjoying it. Playing a little too much two-player though - I'm beginning to get all the nuances and strategies already. Need more kaki! It seems that a German magazine, published last year, issued a mini-expansion to this game - with twelve new cards. Check it out here. Addictive strategic and highly competitive board game, anyone?
Bookworming
To fill in the blank from a previous post, the 3rd book I bought (and am currently reading) is called The Geography of Thought, by Richard E Nisbett (yes I got the image from Amazon). "How Asians and Westerners Think Differently... and Why", it says. So far, so good. Easy to read, a bit simplistic in its explanations (esp after Jared Diamond's Collapse), and mostly belabours the same point (Westerners - focused on smaller-picture, more object-oriented, linear; Asians - focused on bigger-picture, more environment-oriented, cyclic), but presents numerous experiments with interesting results. Of course, what I'm especially enjoying about it is that it clarifies some of the conflict in the way I see things as a certified banana. To be continued after I finish it.Collapse, on the other hand, paints a scary picture. It's a wake up call to the state of the world as we know it. It's also a bit of a call to arms for us to start doing something about it. I love it. 2 things stick in my head: 1. He is "cautiously optimistic" about the future of Gaia. Lots of shit happening, but there is lots of evidence of us humans doing something about it. 2. It's a horse race (Horse A being 'Self-Wrought Apocalypse' and Horse B being 'Paradise Recreated'), and we can't tell right now which one's going to win.
The future of the world is in your hands, ladies and gents.
What are you going to do about it?
posted by Jo at 5:20 pm
2 Comments:
The writers so do NOT speak in unison! ;P Hey if your St Pete is as cool as it sounds, perhaps we can arrange a session and try it out! Though my board games days are long dead and gone... The game better not be addictive...
hey apologies for not being able to come to yr performances.. kinda crazy but i've been having to attend some event every nite - either wedding dinners or work-related things.. sigh..
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