I'm having a very bad tendency of going on long blog leaves like this one. But what can I do? A workaholic's gotta do what a workaholic's gotta do - work. During the past two months, there's been one thing after another going on, climaxing in the June activities. At least once June is over, I'll get to focus more on my studies. Oh, darn, there's still term exams. Oh well...
Maybe it's true when they say that I neglect my studies too much. I care a lot more for what I do and the opportunities offered to me, never learning to say no. Perhaps it's because all I am is what I am and what I do, if you get that. Whatever it is, I'm neglecting other aspects of my life (or what's left of it). Academic life is all screwed, flopping every test, not exactly for the reason that I didn't study. Really long story, won't even bother going on about that. Social life's quite fine I guess, with all the meetings and inter-school activities, my contact list gets a constant input. Still, I haven't been able to watch my year-long awaited movies (MI:iii/Da Vinci Code/X3). But my personal life is suffering a bit now. I get too caught up with all that I do until I don't seem to care much about others anymore, something I hope to change when this is all over.
Not to mention that this blog is missing out on its usual contents. Really low on inspiration now actually, with more design works than I can catch up on inspiration. I do promise however that by the end of the June holidays, I'll have something up to add on to my Anthologies or Grimoire. Chances are, you wouldn't even remember what those are anymore.
Back to the topic of this post, ACJC's Malay Language and Cultural Society (AC Perbayu) has recently had our stage performance titled 'Penantian' (Waiting). To the rest of the school, it's just a play. But to those involved in it, it's a lot more than that.
For the production team, the play is not like any other drama play. For starters, this isn't like the drama CCA, where they do plays as part of CCA. For us, we're just normal students (maybe not me) who have other CCA life and friends to be with. Having little or no experience at all in theatre, it was quite miraculous that we even managed to pull it off. But pull it off we did, and what a success it was.
The rehearsals were long and hard. It began months back, ending only at around six plus. Then it started getting longer as the day got nearer. Nine plus, then ten plus, then past midnight. It was gruelling, but not a soul complained.
Having the production team bonded is a mere understatement. It was more than that that we obtained from the experience. For once at ACJC, we (at least I) were around those of our kind - Malays (or Malay-speaking) and Muslims. That is something that I treasure greatly, as being in ACJC, or even in JC and growing up developing my own individuality, being proud of my race and language makes a world of a difference to me. That was probably the reason I decided to become an active Perbayu member in the first place. Believe it or not, I have pride in my race, as it is nonetheless part of who I am.
Hiduplah budaya Melayu.
Friends became aplenty during the production. I became really close with all the Malays (and Indonesians/Malay-speaking people). I have to admit that the roles in the production was a bit screwed up. The director became the secretary, the stage manager became the director, the assistant manager became the personal assistant and the cast did crew work. Suffice to say that there was insufficient crew. But that did not hinder us, the crew to not function. It strengthened us even more, leading to a segregation of rivalry between cast and crew, all in the name of good fun. That gave birth to the crew name 'Crew rulez, tau', that I shamelessly put on the last subtitle at the end of every performance.
Oh, and one of my greatest joy was discovering my long-time friend Laila J, whom I befriended at MOELC and last met like three years ago. It's quite an intriguing feeling, discovering an old-time friend. Besides her, I also got to know the other Perbayu seniors, whom I've grown to appreciate as they made me realise that even Perbayu has a spirit and passion to it. Not to mention that the control room people got nicknames for ourselves. I've got Minah Subtitle along with me, Bang Lighting, at the control room during the performance. Man, was that a laugh.
"Theatre is like a bee. When you get stung, you can either get hurt by it and never want to go through it again or revel in the sting and can't get enough of that feeling."
- Mr Sani Hussin, director of 'Penantian'
(ok, maybe that's a really well-done rephrasing of what he said)
I guess what he said really was true. For most of us, tha latter is true. A lot of us are already suffering withdrawal symptoms. I mean, there's a feeling of emptiness, not going for a rehearsal and tiring yourself out every afternoon till late night, after doing that for so long. The experience of making the production and staging it was simply incredible. The feeling of knowing that the audience is in awe at the performance, and knowing that they're like that because of you, is just remarkable. That probably is the joy in theatre.
"Life is short. If you were to die, at least do so knowing that there was a sweet moment in your life that will burn forever in your memory, and is worth dying for."
- Mr Sani Hussin, before the first performance
(another adaptation)
Another beautiful quote, that pushed us to our best and made it an unforgetable experience. However, there's still the rest of life to persue now. Everybody has to go back to wherever they left off before this miracle. There's still the post-mortem meeting and celebration BBQ party to look forward to, so there's still another moment to cherish. But wherever we go after this, all of us will have this burning memory with us to live for.
The same goes for me. I'm even moving on already, or forced to. Actually, I'm already at Pre-U Seminar as I type this, typing this entry on the school laptop after lights-out at NUS campus residence. Hope to get excused to go for the celebration. And of course, hope that there'll be another experience like this one to look forward to next year.
Di sini akhirnya Penantian untuk Perbayu untuk tahun ini...
Monday, May 29, 2006
Tuesday, May 16, 2006
Sunday, May 14, 2006
End it
 | You scored as Gunshot. Your death will be by gunshot, probably because you are some important person or whatever. Possibly a sniper, nice, quick, clean shot to the head. Just beautiful.
How Will You Die?? created with QuizFarm.com |
Oh cool. Yes please.
You know, the idea of apocalypse doesn't sound so bad right about now.
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