In Quest Of Conscience

Once again, the time has come for the presentation of what we have been doing for the past few months: our Arts House performance, "In Quest Of Conscience". Before our rehearsal began at 1pm, we took our GP Package Test at 11am and went for lunch at a nearby coffee shop.

Just yesterday we made our first trip to the Arts House to rehearse a little at our performance venue, the Play Den in the Old Parliament House. The set we had been building in school all along was too wide for the stage space, and so we had to shrink it. Even then, the front row audience would be so close to the set that all they needed to do was to stretch out their legs. Nevertheless, the venue was very cool.

After a short run through in the drama studio and our preparations (changing into costumes, make-up, prayer), we took the bus to the Arts House. Once there, we were ushered into the female dressing room behind the Play Den because VJC was still performing in the Play Den. We were sitting in the dressing room quietly (almost like prisoners) until VJC was done. Then we moved the platforms from the storage room onto the stage and set up the frame quickly. A short warm-up and concentration exercise later, we sat in the frame while the teachers opened the doors to allow the public in.

The play went on rather smoothly. At one point someone accidentally kicked a C-lock out of its place and it fell to the ground with a rather loud clang. I had a conversation to act out in a few seconds' time, but I was the closest to the fallen lock. But I could see how I could adapt to the lines. I swiftly picked the lock up and went through my lines like nothing happened. When I finished my lines and the next line said, "'Stop, stop,' I told him. 'Go away!'", I moved back and silently placed the lock back to where it fell out from.

When the performance was finally over, we hung around in the frame a little more while until Mrs Creffield gave us the go-ahead to look for our friends in the audience who remained behind. Just like Camelot, flowers (and in Joshua's case, a huge bear) were presented to the cast, and after about 10 minutes, the signal was given to strike set. We swiftly removed the platforms from the stage and onto the truck waiting for us downstairs. We then got onto the bus and on our trip back to school, the madams told us about all the great comments they received about the play, one of them from Michael Corbidge, vocal coach during Camelot.

Went home at 11pm after ridding the studio of cockroaches which decided to move in while we were away. That's another production to my portfolio.

The group of us are performing the cowboy dance, Wild Wild West, at Carnival@Marina today. We arrived in school in the morning and got ready to leave school by 12nn, heading to the venue. Our stage was just next to the Arts Village entrance. It's sheltered, but still very hot weather (at least better than rain). We performed 3 times to only a few people who were around at the carnival, with only about 2 to 3 minutes separating each performance. Inside I was thinking, "Oh man, thank goodness it's only three performances!" But that means I'd need to have more energy, some of them in reserves for future performances.

It's a public holiday today too. I found the video of the TV telecast of NDP 2005 on www.ndp.org.sg, and I never really knew how great the NDP was until I watched the show online. It was just splendid; the music will probably be ringing in my head for a few months.

National Day 2005

It's Singapore's 40th Birthday!

If you'd recall, I got my tickets to watch the NDP at the Padang on Youth Day this year. I would be going with Jackson. We had arranged to meet at City Hall MRT at 3.30pm, which also was the time when ticket-holders to the NDP would be allowed to enter the parade ground, but when I arrived at 3.15pm, the place was already swarming with people dressed in red either heading towards the Padang immediately or waiting for other people. The MRT station became so crowded that SMRT staff had to get people to wait outside the MRT station.

Jackson SMS-ed me to tell me that he had taken the MRT in the wrong direction, and so would be very much late. I decided to walk around the nearby Citylink Mall and back to City Hall MRT station at about 4pm, when Jackson finally arrived, apologetic.

From the MRT station we headed towards the Padang in a sea of red. Entry into the Padang was smoother than I had imagined: we presented our tickets at the entrance, went through a security check with no bags to check and collected our Funpacks, which was the same as the one I got at the NE Show (even the colour was the same). It did take a bit of time for us to get onto the stands and be seated, but eventually we walked up the staircase to the Level 2 seats and moved to our seats. At the same time the Combined Schools' Choir was also walking out onto the central stage to get ready.

After handling the stuff in my Funpack, the Pre-Parade Segment started at roughly 5pm with "Let's Get It Started". I got rather high during the Pre-Parade Segment with the emcees' high spirits. The Parade segment and the Mobile Column were the times for Jackson and I to snack on the food in the FunPack, while the Show segment was, as usual, spectacular. My only point of suggestion was about Act 3 of the Show segment. Unlike during the NE shows, the 8 floats and qualities weren't used as significantly. The version of Act 3 during the NE shows was slightly better and more meaningful.

Dispersal was a less smooth affair. The whole throng of spectators headed to City Hall MRT station had to wait quite a while as SMRT staff and army personnels allowed small groups of people to enter the MRT station, lest it became flooded with people. Jackson and I were rather lucky since we were close to the front of the pack. We both headed to our house first since Jackson's school (JJC) exams were coming and he wanted to get my papers to study. We then headed to Zhi Yuan's house nearby where he also passed Jackson NJC's papers and took him to eat at Kopitiam nearby. I headed home for dinner.

I'm gonna miss NDP.

It's National Day Eve today, and ACJC's National Day Celebrations began as usual (in ACS schools' tradition) with a Thanksgiving Service. After the meaningful service, some teachers and a band made up of students led the school in National Day songs which we clapped and sang to. Overall I was satisfied with the celebrations; my only complaint was about wearing school uniform to school instead of a red T-shirt, like what the ACS(I) boys wore to school today.

The day wasn't over for me yet. After the end of the celebrations at 9-plus, there was a dance rehearsal for the Carnival performance at 11am, and after that there was a rehearsal for the Arts House play at 6pm. When the rehearsal ended, it was finally the time to relax and celebrate. I can't wait for tomorrow.

After the Arts House rehearsal today, a bunch of us headed to town to get clothes for the carnival dance. In the end, I went home empty-handed despite having gone to Plaza Singapura, Serangoon, Little India and Suntec City, 'cause none of these places had long-sleeved white collar shirts without pockets.

ACJC Fun-O-Rama XVIII is coming!

...in about 6 months' time. But this morning all students spent about 2 periods at our base classes to receive the Fun-O-Rama coupons to sell. Here are some details:

ACJC FUN-O-RAMA XVIII
Date: 18 February 2006 (Saturday)
Time: 9.30am to 6.00pm
Venue: ACJC
Coupons: $10 each. For every coupon bought, you will also get a set of Long John Silver's coupons, which LJS'S has kindly sponsored.

The funfair will be excellent; you should see photos of our previous Fun-O-Rama, held last year. So if ya wanna get coupons, call me!

PS: Our class teacher told us later in the day that since the Haunted House stall was favoured by a lot of classes, we would be doing the dunking station instead. So if you want to sabotage and dunk one of your friends, get your other friends to buy the coupons!

The results of the audition were released yesterday. Today is the first dance rehearsal for the Carnival@Marina performance; all rehearsals for A Christmas Carol will begin after the Promotional Examinations. Our Carnival dance has a cowboy theme, and it wasn't easy to grasp the moves at first. We ended the rehearsal 3 hours later, having learnt the moves for two stanzas, the chorus and a couple part.

Today is the 2nd dance audition for A Christmas Carol and another dance performance at Carnival@Marina. Before the audition, I was rather surprised to see my name on the results list for the Carnival dance, even though I have not auditioned for it yet.

The audition dance was a rather fast paced one. I once again screwed up the second round of sequence (like the very first audition I took part in for Camelot). Hopefully I do get into Christmas Carol too.