Friday, September 14, 2007

Tunku without his right hand

On Wednesday's run, which is the opening night of the YTL run (which went swimmingly well with a very appreciative audience, thankfully), Tony Eusoff conducted himself incredibly well on stage, and was the epitome of professionalism. Fella comes in to KLPac clutching his stomach, saying that "if this were I rehearsal I wouldn't be here" - believing himself to have indigestion of some sort, or something like that. On stage, he is Syed, Tuan Syed, Tunku's political aide. The slightly pained expression suits his character, who undoubtedly goes through a lot of stress in his role as Tunku's aide. Off stage, he is in agony. Even moments on stage where he needs to remain still, milliseconds drag out into endless eternity. By the end of the show, he is on the floor; resting, recovering, and allowing the pain to give him a serious smackdown.

Come Thursday, he is in hospital - eventually diagnosed with acute appendicitis, duly removed. Crazy bugger, I salute you. Good show. Rest well and have a good recovery - we're seriously missing you mate.

Come Thursday night, and Joe is a wreck. His cast have only had 3 hours of rehearsal with a frantically revised play that does not include Tuan Syed. His cast are a mild wreck too, especially Douglas who carries the burden of conveying some of Tony's more important lines in song. Thankfully, everything turned out great - and no one misses the irony of doing Tunku not just without Tunku on stage but without his aide as well. So good job all round guys and gals, that was just nutty balls.

So, as an interlude. We funnily had this fly / flies who drove some of us mental on stage. Let me tell you that this fly had an uncanny sense of theatre timing - here is a list of locations it landed DURING THE SHOW:
- my hand
- Tony Leo's forehead
- Nicole's nose
- Zamil's hair (with a serious Free & Easy tour included)
- my hair & face
- other places I can't remember / don't know about
Now 2 things about this fly. 1) by "landed", I mean "landed and had a nice stroll around". 2) this fly is one big bitch that is damn slow and stupid. The only way it could survive that long in Malaysia (ranked #1 fly-swatting country by the Book of Records) was by being on stage during a show, where no one could've made up a real enough story quickly enough to whack it in character. So, to make up for that lack of imagination then, here's my story now (with added embellishment for those versed in RPG lore):


Once upon a time, there was a boy. A very young and special boy. He was in line for apprenticeship for a very important role in his village - a doctor. But no ordinary doctor, oh no; for this was a special village too, located in a remote jungle in the exotic island of Borneo. He was to become a witch doctor, and the journey of learning was a long and arduous one.

But young Tony (for that was the young boy's name) proved a most adept and able pupil, and learned rapidly. For example, he quickly learned a spell most important to Bidayuh (for that was the tribe the young boy belonged to) culture: Grow Hair - most crucial for jungle survival. Body hair can ward off undesirable pests, it can camouflage the natural luminescence of human skin, and it can disguise a human as a nondescript native jungle dweller. Young Tony promptly cast the spell on his face, which proved useful for looking not-so-young.

Another spell he learned at a young age that bore fruit further in the future was Sharpen. Now this spell was important for the village doctor to know, as it meant that the doctor could bless the weapons of the village warriors before they went hunting. Young Tony, astute to the ways of the modern world taking shape outside his village, again promptly cast the spell on his face. One side effect of casting that spell on his face, as he would later find out, was that it came with an Aura of Gay Magnetism +10.

15 years later, and not-so-young Tony has put his knowledge to good use. He had grown powerful and expanded his repertoire, the most useful being Charm Director and Charm Producer. This, over time, landed him several roles in musical theatre but conjuring such witchcraft took its toll. 3 days before he was to end his most recent performance, his weakened body was attacked by A Cuter Bendy Sytis (a malicious foe indeed, by Bidayuh folklore), which overwhelmed him and landed him in hospital.

Poor Tony, who sorely missed his beloved cast-mates, decided to send an agent, a representative, an avatar if you will - over to KLPac to see how things were going.

"Lat tali lat BAGI LALAT!"

Thus went the Summon Fly spell ("Lat tali lat" being a lesser deity in the Bidayuh pantheon, the God of Small Things). So Tony sent his underling forth and eventually found the cast of Tunku the Musical hard at work, reworking the play without him. It conveyed Tony's well wishes physically to as many people as it could - but unfortunately its senses weren't acute and it landed on a certain Johann's hand in between songs. Johann, in a fervour of passion and adrenalin, promptly whacked Fly (Fly was slow to react as it was burdened with Bluetooth equipment to communicate with Tony) dead.

Tony cried out in pain as a small essence of his power was struck down with a cry of "Separation!" Undeterred in his love for his favourite people in the world, he again Summoned Fly:

"Lat tali lat BAGI LALAT!"

"Dengan SENSE OF TIMING!!"

"Dan RHYTHM!!!"

And so it was. Fly 2.0 reached out to members of the cast; during songs, on stage, and always safely.

Fly 2.0 now lives happily with the ducks at KLPac.

Tony recovers well and happily lies in bed all day.

THE END.

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Monday, September 10, 2007

Your blog requires updating

Indeed it does. Man, I'm so glad for this current break that's ending tomorrow. Got to finally fix the bloody internet connection at home, and seriously spoil myself. Curries, spices, overstuffing food (coincidentally 2 family makans happened recently), cakes (3 from last night's dinner, 4 if you include kuih talam!), chocolates, coffee. Gah. Sin and sodomy. Ok no sodomy, just the sin of gluttony. And sloth. Caught up on some serious sleep and gaming.

I think things are starting to re-coalesce into some semblance of normality again, finally. Went for an audition, doing some reading, doing some writing. This coming week will knock things askew but at least it's just a week.

Acting

Tunku the Musical. The first run's over, with quite the muted bang of Gala Night on the 5th. A real shame the PM couldn't make it, I personally am disappointed though I suppose he'd have a headache thinking of the most politically correct reaction to the play. Apparently he went to visit Tun Dr M. And had a budget to sort out by the end of the week. No excuse, really.

Having Mel Gibson watch us made up for it a little (a lot for some). I feel sorry for him as he was reluctantly dragged onstage to congratulate the lead cast and musical director. Of course everybody loved him, or having him there - but who is he, really? Sure, he's a hotshot actor and director; but what value is there meeting him so briefly like this? Yeah yeah I'm mildly annoyed that I didn't get to shake hands with him too. Cow-ass-donkey-creature.

So one more week (YTL run, get tickets here), with 2 new challenges: a mild revision of some scenes, due to a slightly smaller cast (by 13, I think); and one day with 2 shows - Saturday 15th has a 3pm matinee and 8.30pm night show. Exciting, yes. Tiring, yes. Scary, kinda; because it's come close to the date where my schedule's looking kinda empty.

And there appeared the audition for Rose Rose I Love You. Held at Low Ngai Yuen's office (I think) at Sea Park (near Taman Bahagia), I went there rather poorly prepared (no resume, no new song). What helped was, upon opening the door, who do I see but Joe, Zach, Mir, Fariza and Pat. Shana, Wai Keat and Maria joined in soon after. It really helped in passing the time (1.5 hour wait). This house should be renamed Lesbian HQ. Alas, there goes my powers!

Every audition's a good experience lah. Went there, told a bit about myself and how I got involved with theatre. Got to read the part of an "effeminate tailor", which was quite different to the little character placard I was earlier working with which said "32-year old successful towkay with a large family womanizing in a club". Played up my gayest and campest side, but don't know how they felt about it. Then sang the first verse "What A Beautiful Morning" reasonably well, so that's pretty cool. Result? We'll see tomorrow.

What else is up for the rest of the year? A possible Christmas production. Going to audition for Aladdin, unless something good appears before then. Still waiting to hear if Remy needs more ensemble (what a crew and cast to work with!). Which reminds me - what's happening with The Amazing Race Asia 2? Oh bollocks, I just found this at the AXN website: If you don't hear from the producers by 6 July 2007, it means your team is not selected.

Shame, it'd be damned fun.

As an extension of my going to US idea, I'm seriously contemplating Singapore. Like a test run, go there for a few months, learn some dance, hook up with the arts scene, get into TV and on stage. Anyone know anyone in Singapore?

Writing

Wahey, 2nd issue of Asset Trader is out! I think I have 2 articles in it - I haven't got my copy yet (do I get one free?).

Interestingly, a random dude adds me on Facebook. After much usual screen of "Have we met before?", I find out that he writes for TELL magazine, which I hadn't heard of before this. I buy one copy, it looks interesting, and I'm waiting to hear about how to contribute. World works in funny ways, eh.

Mark came up with a very interesting, clever and far-reaching idea which has resulted in my cracking my head on a new 30-min script. I'm working on an idea suggested by Joe but as I've thought through it, it's getting quite scary. It's very "Mark" but it'd be a most interesting subject and probably, tale. If all works out to plan, it may be fleshed out on Pentas 2 or Actor's Studio BSC by Jan 2008. Crazy scary shit, but cool balls!

Gaming

Board: Hooked on Puerto Rico, I wanna play it lots more. Only trouble is, each game lasts about 1.5h and knocks us out enough to not wanna play another immediately. Because it's reasonably complex, it does require some serious brainpower to play. That's partly why I love it - and also the fact that there are so many other combinations and factors I've yet to experiment with. I'm semi-off Catan now - kinda bored with it lah. Too much dice, not enough strategy. It's still a fun classic, just... there are more interesting games out there, you know?

PC: Hooked on Age of Empires 3 - recently bought myself the DVD game, together with the expansion The Warchiefs. Enjoying the campaign mode, it's reasonably entertaining. Interestingly you can buy PC games at 1U - there's a games (PC and console) shop on the 2nd floor (I think), at the bridge between the old wing and new wing. Also bought Supreme Commander, which is disappointing. Or maybe I just don't get it. Too large scale for my anal needs.

Books, Movies, Plays

Finished Death Of A Salesman (Arthur Miller), the classic play. Tough to get into at first, as it's quite American, but so sad in the end. I'll need to read it again to understand better the sequence of events as it's quite clever. Currently on Elie Wiesel's The Judges - so far so good. Excellent premise, can't wait to see how things run. Elie Wiesel wrote Night, which is a beautifully horrifying book - excellent stuff but oh so dark. Also semi-reading Confucius' The Analects and Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, both in one little pocket book by an Englishman. As interesting as both books are, it's challenging reading this dude's notes on translation and meaning. Ah well, maybe I'll discover the Cina within.

Finally watched V For Vendetta. Great stuff, thoroughly enjoyed it as well as the great visuals.

Saw 4:48 Psychosis and Bunga Manggar Bunga Raya. Wonderful wonderful wonderful (in any order). One's running in Pentas 2 till 16th Sept, the other just ended today. 4:48 had great actors, excellent script and kickass set - so psycho, so mindfuck, so good. Dark shit. I don't completely get everything, but then again I'm mostly sane.

BMBR is classic Five Arts (to me) - I don't really get everything but I absolutely love it. Good statement on Malaysia, and some parts were so heart-wrenching in its truth. I really believe I was meant to watch BMBR alone, today; all the stars aligned for me. Here is my tale: I leave my house at 2:45pm, and there's a jam up Bangsar Hill (roadworks on one lane). I enter the car park and spot an empty lot, but it'll take some time to get there; nevermind, it remains vacant for me. I rush to the box office, it is 3:05pm and I'm dying for a pee. Suresh offers me a student ticket that'll not be collected - wahey, 50% discount! I rush to the loo, rush back, and eventually seat my ass down. Only then the lights go down and the show starts. Ta muchly, Universe.

Self-work

I've got myself meditating regularly now. Well, throughout Tunku - I kinda lazed out after, for a bit. 5-15mins, depending on how much earlier than 6pm I arrive at KLPac. Wonderful place to seek peace and serenity actually - the little docks really take you to another world, with still waters, rustling reeds, happy ducks and dozy winds. I downloaded some stuff from Silva Ultramind, which was free and really good - it's a 30min mp3 that has a rhythmic beat in the background (beating to alpha time, apparently... a slower pace than what we're used to in the city or something like that) with a dude talking you through relaxing your body and mind, and centering yourself. Love meditation - the peace and clarity that comes from it is better than drugs lah.

I've kinda restarted flossing regularly now. Every other night, well again until after Tunku , where I seem to have just flopped into a pile of lazy crap. Restarted because the last time I set out to do it, my floss kept on disappearing whenever I wanted it. Don't you hate it when people touch your stuff. But one anecdote shall spur me on - "Sure you don't have to floss. You just oughta floss the teeth you wanna keep."

Heh an great habit I've developed is regular exercise. Been doing a good pattern of warm-ups for Tunku - running up and down stairs, with some push-ups and sit-ups, and a good load of stretching. Outside of Tunku there's walking (running) the dog, runs and weights. A personal challenge I've set myself out to do (and it scares me to declare this but wtf) is to have a body that can be considered for the cover of Men's Health by the end of the year.

So far so good, making good progress but I really have to work my arms. Skinny buggers. I might need a 6-pack for a production next year but that's a story for another time.



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Sunday, September 09, 2007

Quote of the Day

The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority.
The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority.
The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.


- AA Milne

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