Gemuk Girls

The Necessary Stage celebrates the award-winning collaboration of Director Alvin Tan and Playwright Haresh Sharma with a provocative new work.

Kartini and Juliana are not your typical mother-daughter pair - one loud and overbearing, the other straitlaced and on the threshold of entering politics. Together, they are Gemuk Girls and proud of it.

One day, they receive shocking news about Kartini’s father who had been arrested and detained in the 1960s. Suddenly the floodgates of the family’s emotional past are thrown open. Can a family survive as they struggle to reconcile the past with the present? Will Kartini and Juliana continue to be Gemuk Girls?

Gemuk Girls is a bold and often darkly humorous look at family politics and the politics of the day.

Director : Alvin Tan
Playwright : Haresh Sharma
Cast : Aidi ‘Alin’ Mosbit, Najib Soiman, Siti Khalijah
Multimedia Designer : Loo Zihan
Set Designer : Vincent Lim
Lightning Designer : Helmi Fita

Performances
29 Oct - 1 Nov & 6 - 8 Nov, 8pm
1 - 2 Nov & 8 - 9 Nov, 3pm

Venue
The Necessary Stage Black Box
(Marine Parade Community Center) 

Tickets
$27 | $22*
* Concessions for students, senior citizens and NSF

Advisory: Mature Theme (16 years and above)

Tickets are available through the SISTIC hotline at 6348 5555, via the
SISTIC website at www.sistic.com or at any SISTIC authorised agents islandwide. Information on discounts and concessions can be found on the SISTIC website.

Gemuk Girls Phase II Preview

“Time will pass, and different permutations of the same action, will repeat”

Yesterday was the showing for Gemuk Girls (GG) Phase II, TNS’ upcoming Main Season play which would complete their trilogy (consisting of Fundamentally Happy, Good People and Gemuk Girls), the ticketing details and dates are here.

Comments for the show were generally quite positive, although I had only just managed to grasp the motifs I am interested in exploring.

TNS is one of the few local companies who believe in investing in a “preview” showing and “phases” to a project - of course this can prove to be quite taxing on the cast and crew, but ultimately it does make the final product much more polished and concise.

This time, unlike its two predecessors, GG will have much more intense use of multimedia, the process helped to iron out several potential technical kinks and cleared the path for focus on designing the multimedia content in the upcoming phase.

It is shaping up to be, in my opinion, an important play about political detainees in Singapore, and the trauma adjusting during and post detention for both them and their families.

Moli doing Alin’s hair - Alin’s character has this huge OTT head of luscious locks, which was achieved with Moli piling on heaps of hair extension pieces and wigs.

Siti K

上身不由己 Playreading

Picture from Danny’s Blog taken by Chia Meng

Was involved in a playreading last Saturday, it was part of the OCBC Singapore Theatre Festival, organised by W!ld Rice and Dramabox - called Testing 1, 2, 3. It showcases plays written as part of “Blanc Space” - a Dramabox initiative which incubates new Mandarin plays written by young playwrights.

The basic concept for the event was to have a reading of 6 plays in Phase II of development, to get a general response and feedback from the public so that the playwrights can get a feel of where their plays are heading. Dramabox plans to stage 2 of the best of these plays next year.

The play i read for was called 上身不由己. It is penned by Boon Seng, my JC Chinese Drama Junior and directed by Danny Yeo. It was a great learning experience, despite the short process - I have never done play readings before, and never in Mandarin, which I am not exactly very comfortable with.

I liked the play very much, it touches on various issues including teenage sexuality in the internet age, and it isn’t afraid to be politically sensitive. My character was a policeman who was a Chinese medium by night, and he had to go through huge emotional shifts throughout the trajectory of the play. It was difficult to grasp as the time frame was non-linear (i.e. he crys, cut to next scene which provides exposition on why he cries)

I hope I have done this play and the director justice, thanks Danny! here is a link to Danny’s blog on Omy.sg which has more information and pictures from the event, and here is another to an article with a video of rehearsals and Boon and Danny talking about the play. (click on Vodcast)

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Shot on a Muji Disposable

Super 8 Woes

Its the beginning of a new semester, and the start of my Final Year in NTU - which also means the impending thesis project. Overloading this semester in order to clear and hopefully obtain a Minor in Drama and Performance.

Recently purchased a beautiful Super8 Nikon 8x Zoom camera from a friend, and its been acting up ever since I sealed the purchase. Perhaps it doesn’t like its new owner? I can’t seem to find out what’s wrong with it, it just refuses to function normally - sigh, its been adding unnecessary distress and i think i would really have to send it over to Germany / US for repair…..

I mean that’s part of the package that comes with these old cameras I guess, their fragility and non dependency….. argggghhhhh

The Value of Silence

I chanced upon this yesterday while browsing on Facebook. It is from this year’s convocation speech for NTU’s School of Communication and Information, given by Adrian Tan (The writer of The Teenage Textbook) - it is strangely relevant to the forum yesterday.

“The truth has a great capacity to offend and injure, and you will find that the closer you are to someone, the more care you must take to disguise or even conceal the truth. Often, there is great virtue in being evasive, or equivocating. There is also great skill. Any child can blurt out the truth, without thought to the consequences. It takes great maturity to appreciate the value of silence.”

Silence should not be encouraged, but one must learn the art of thoughtful revelation.

Why do you come out? Is it for yourself? Or truly for your family’s sake?

Indignation 2008

This annual event is back again! There’s a talk which me and Junfeng would be involved in on Tuesday, I will be sharing Autopsy, and Junfeng will be sharing Katong Fugue and new footage from a documentary he is making. Here are more details of the programme:

Indignation 2008: Silence and aching hearts
Note: This is a private event, by invitation only, which will be checked at the door.

Organised by Alex Au

The gay issue is acutely personal, not just to LGBT persons, but also to their parents, siblings, occasionally even their opposite-sex spouses. While in Singapore, there have developed numerous channels of information and communication for LGBT persons, many parents, siblings and spouses continue to feel isolated.

Here is a roundtable for sharing and understanding.

Two filmmakers will discuss, through some footage they have interviewing parents of gay people, how parents react. Then well known psychotherapists Anthony Yeo and Juliana Toh will speak informally about love and acceptance and dealing with social expectations.

Most important of all, participants are invited to share experiences.

Date: Tuesday, 5 August 2008
Time: 7:30 - 9:30 pm
Venue: 72-13

To register for this private event, and for more information on Indignation, please visit their website @ http://www.plu.sg/indignation/

Melbourne

It has been almost 2 weeks since I last updated. Have been busy tying up loose ends, helping out in Kent’s short film shoot, and packing and preparing from this trip to Melbourne. So yes, before i know it, 2 weeks has passed and I’m penning this post from my hotel room, wrapped in a quilt, with the heater at full blast.

This trip has been really different from any other trip, I’m here on a workshop collaboration between two theatre companies - The Necessary Stage in Singapore, and the Tony Yap Company in Melbourne. I’ve been roped in to be the multimedia artist cum tech-go-to guy for this leg of the process.

How has it been different? This is the first time I’ve been put up in such a nice accommodation in Melbourne. I have my own service apartment, with a queen sized bed and a small kitchenette. This ‘work’ trip has also been different from other ‘holiday’ trips because the only places I’ve seen on this trip are the inside of this service apartment, the tram route to the theatre space, and the inside of the theatre space itself.

Ok, maybe I DID sneak out a few nights, but never more than a 2 km circumference around my accommodation.

The workshop is having its final showing this coming Tuesday, and we’ve been scrambling to get the show together. Just came back from rigging lights and am supposed to be editing a video projection now - but if I don’t get around to posting something now while I’m here, I figure I would have no time to post anything at all for the rest of the trip.

No photos this trip - left my camera at Ben’s place after the shoot, was taking conti shots and left them in his apartment, only realized on my way to the airport.

The workshop been an extremely enlightening experience, though I probably would be rather tired at the end of the next 2 days. Really ought to get back to editing the video……

Reel Revolution 2008

Reel Revolution is The Substation Moving Images youth film mentorship programme that pairs teams of youths with established filmmakers and challenges youths to produce video essays on social issues. Mentors this year include Jasmine Ng, Kelvin Sng, Jeremy Sing and Eric Lim.

Important dates:
4th July – Reel Revolution Introductory Seminar
7th July – Mentorship Programme Application Deadline
12th July – Learning Talks 1
19th July – Learning Talks 2
15th August – Video Submission
30th August – Reel Revolution Powwow

* Admission to all events are free and open to the public but places are limited so register early! To register email in your details.

For more information please For details and updates, visit http://revolution.youth.sg or contact Beng Kheng, Programme Manager – Moving Images at 6337 7535 / bengkheng@substation.org

EMBRYO - 5th Singapore Short Cuts

EMBRYO is being screened in the 1st session of the 5th Singapore Short Cuts @ the National Museum along with other shorts. Here are the details:

“In its fifth edition year, Singapore Short Cuts is one of the most popular and widely anticipated showcases of local short films in Singapore.

This year’s programme features new short films by acclaimed local filmmakers such as Kirsten Tan (Come), K. Rajagopal (The New World), Anthony Chen (Haze), and Boo Junfeng (Bedok Jetty) as well as premieres of outstanding work from new and upcoming filmmakers including Dreams of Youth by Daniel Hui and My Blue Heaven / 蓝蓝的天 by Yee-wei Chai.

In celebration of Singapore Short Cuts fifth year is a special screening on 12 July of some of the favourite Singapore Short Cuts films over the years. All screenings will be followed by discussions with the filmmakers.”

Date: Sat 12 July 2008
Time: 2 pm
Rating: NC16
Duration: 80 min

Lorong 27 by Kenny Tan
Pontianak by Raihan Harun
Lim Poh Huat by Lee Wong
Embryo by Loo Zihan
Zo Gang + Zo Hee by Jacen Tan

Free admission with tickets
More information @ National Museum Website

Free tickets to the 5th Singapore Short Cuts can be collected at the National Museum of Singapore (Stamford Visitor Services Counter) on Saturday, a week before each weekend’s screening. Tickets are available on a first come, first served basis, and limited to four per person. Any remaining tickets will be given out at the door on the screening day.