The Merdeka Swim

AC Perbayu Drama Production: Merdeka! & AC Swim Team Camp

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NOTE: This entry is a detailed account of past events, and might prove to be a tiresome read (sorry, I have a lot to bitch about). Thus, proceed with an open mind or use this as a reference.
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Originally, I wanted to write about the Perbayu drama production and the swim camp separately. However, since their simultaneous clashes, both events played vital parts in shaping my mentality of those two groups at the end of the week, thus I’ve decided to give an intertwined account of them. If this gets too draggy (believe me, it will), just skip paragraphs (as things are neatly organized by paragraphs and headings) because I just need to divulge my thoughts regarding individual things.

Sophomore year of junior college has never been as stressful. It was the first week of the June holidays, and while many people are starting to celebrate, me and many of my schoolmates never seemed to acknowledge the fact that it was term break. The term holiday is overly deceptive, especially when you still have to report to school at the same time everyday except for Sunday. What makes this holiday extraordinarily packed was because of the clash of the Perbayu’s drama production, swim team camp and my Malay ‘A’ levels all falling on the first week of the holidays.

Let us begin on the Friday, 25 June, at the end of the school day which marks the start of term break for many. When many began to realize that fact, the Perbayu realized that it was the start of rehearsal. Which prompts me for an intro on the Perbayu drama production. So here goes.

AC Perbayu (Malay Cultural Society) has been carrying on a legacy of producing a professional theatre standard drama production every year. This year was no different, and Merdeka was our pick. Merdeka, originally scripted by Rafaat Hamzah, was a personal pick of our director, Sani Hussein, who incidentally acted in a previous staging of the play, making our production Merdeka’s fourth staging. With all these to live up to, we still have to overcome the obstacle of an ill equipped venue for our performance, as the proper auditoriums were occupied by other CCAs. Thus began our quest to transform a lecture theatre into a black box, complete with lights, multimedia facilities and back stage.

As multimedia head, I was basically in charge of everything that ran on electricity for the production. My familiarity with the ceiling layout, choice of lighting and multimedia efficiency made planning not too big a hassle, but an ill equipped venue presented the problem of having to manually add on these features to the lecture theatre. That was the reason why I was so glad to have people with such efficiency and initiative to be on the control station team with me for the production. As reluctant as I was to admit this, my lighting guy really did an impressive job mounting the lights without me, with just the aid of my wiring layout plan. The stage manager noted all the multimedia cues promptly and the subtitle guy… well, knew how to click.

Saturday morning knocked me back into the reality of academics when it started with a last Malay remedial marathon before the ‘A’ level paper the coming Monday. Not surprisingly, my confidence was shaky in that area, what with all of the events occurring simultaneously. But I knew I had to persevere this as the thought of a third taking of the paper seemed too torturous.

That day marked three days before the first show, and that night was preview night for the performance. The transformation of the lecture theatre to a black box was almost complete. The actors were doing their actor thing to improve their performance. But amidst all these final preparations, it dawned on me that my multimedia part was nowhere near completion. For the first time in my director’s, and my, experience, the performance was to be done in mixed media. Which means that other than the acting, there will be sound effects and video presentations to supplement it. That indirectly gave me an acting role among the crew, as ironic as that sounds.

This mixed media idea was a headache from its very conception. When I first took up my role, lighting was already troublesome as I had to source out for my own lights for the lecture theatre, figure out how to mount them to the ceiling, and devise a method to connect all of the wiring to the control station at the back. Then I had to come up with a way to conceal two LCD projectors and still have them within projection range to the stage. My own multimedia part was the biggest problem of all. I had to source out for clips from the time of the nation’s independence. I mean, I know I’m resourceful and all, but this really required me to do manual digging from various archives. But I knew I had to do it perfectly as since there was one major character omitted out from the original script, the video footages were meant to symbolize him. On preview night, I had yet to compile all of the clips and made them ready for the preview run, so they had to do without it.

Sunday, the sacred day of rest, proved to be ruthless on me as I still had to report back to school in the morning. You see, my swim camp started the previous day, and due to my various commitments, I would only be popping in and out for camp every now and then throughout its five day run. Since Sunday was clear of all the other commitments, swim camp had me for the day. Which prompts me to introduce my role in the swim team. Here goes.

Freshman year in the swim team proved to be only introductory. Hardly any of the new swimmers were given a shot at the national interschool championships as we were nowhere near competition ready. This year however, with added experience and a lack of people to fill in the slots, the seniors are all given something to swim for. On my part, the executive committee has kindly granted me a chance to do the one event that I am capable of, the long distance 1500m freestyle. Thus I am obliged to prove my worth, earn that chance and not waste this one opportunity to not make my participation in the swim team all for nothing.

So for that Sunday, I was stuck in school with the rest of the swim team, with the thought of the Malay ‘A’ levels the next day daunting on me. That’s not to say that the camp was not worthwhile. I honestly enjoy every moment with the team. Like they say, the closest people are those you live with, work with, sleep with, be naked with in the changing room with and have body contact with half naked in the swimming pool. The camp’s itinerary was quite simple; you either eat, rest or train. Well, there were exceptions here and there throughout the camp, but Sunday’s schedule was like that.

I think the pressure on me was highest at that point in time on that day. Spending an entire day with the swim team reminded me of my obligation to perform in the sport and being the eve of exam day, I was reminded about academics. On top of that, the drama director kept calling me to add changes to the video editing and to check on my progress.

Malay ‘A’ levels was a doubtful experience. I have now confirmed the fact that I cannot be allowed to sleep past 7 hours lest I don’t mind feeling sleepy all day. That was my undoing in the paper, as once again there was bad time management in composition and an incomplete last question in the comprehension due to my constant dozing off. At the end of it, I was left feeling unsure of the fate of this paper.

Straight after that, I had to report back for drama rehearsal. Along the way, I had a pleasant surprise of bumping into the swim team as they went out for the swim outing and dinner. Bad luck has it that I had to miss it for the rehearsal. Damn. Rehearsal went on as per normal that day. By this time, all set preparations were completed. All except my video.

On Tuesday morning, I was positively panicking. It was nice being able to drown all that at training. Yeah, I spent the night in school at camp. But once again, I had to leave them during the day for rehearsal. Wow, this is getting really tedious, even for me to write, so I’ll just skip to the main points.

The first run of Merdeka that night was quite pleasant. Other than the thought of the swim team having a barbecue at the other end of school bothering me, it went quite well, of course, since the principal and college teachers came for that show. Except of course for my minor glitch that displayed the wrong backdrop. But it wasn’t so bad as the audience thought it was part of the plan. Phew. Oh, we had our photoshoot by the photographer that night. It wasn’t that fun but we needed some formal shots.

By the end of the night, I was thoroughly exhausted. The swim team seemed like that too, but it didn’t stop them from staying up all night to play cards and an array of idiotic activities. The most idiotic activity came to us during the wee hours of the morning at 3am. A startling morning call was made and we had to report to the swimming pool five hours early. Yup, it was one of those boot camp night torture sessions. A lot of screaming, yawning and silent swearing was made at the pool deck. Then off we went into the pool for a training that had no end. It was called the ‘endless swim’ for obvious reasons. 100m sprints again and again until god knows when. And then, what do you know, it’s 6am and we’ve reached 6km worth of freestyle!

Obviously the last day’s training was cancelled. Most of us were loudly groaning either out of frustration or hunger. Some understood why we had to do the senseless swim, and some didn’t. Either way, the teacher in charge explained it to us anyway. After his little speech, we did realize that if we managed to complete the entire 6km in 3 hours, we had no excuse at all to slacken down during training. That revelation gave us all a renewed confidence that perhaps making it to nationals isn’t such a farfetched aim as what it previously seemed. Through our drunken haze of exhaustion and rushed breakfast, a warm feeling stirred along with a fiery passion towards Bishan JC.

The end of swim camp marks the start of a full day of drama. Still aching from the swim, I reported back for rehearsal. Finally, after what must have been an age editing the videos, my multimedia was completed! Half an hour before the matinee, I set up the completed multimedia just in time for the stage manager to open the house.

The matinee run went rather well on my part. In fact, it was the most perfect among the three performances. Lunch was served after that, and we had a movie screening of the world’s most mixed up Malay horror movie. Instead of the conventional linear timeline, the movie was in flashbacks and fast forwards all the time, making it rather difficult to figure out the actual story. For a Malay horror movie, it should have been M18 for intimacy and mind-boggling complexity. I on the other hand, enjoyed a quick nap in my snug sleeping bag amidst all the screams in front of the projector.

For the last show, preparations were once again rushed. Everybody was busy up to the very minute the house was open. Everything had to be perfect as the last show had a guest list made up of some VVIPs. Other than our celebrity director, he had his theatre people with him along with the drama’s playwright, and we had all our parents there too.

“Merdeka! Lagi sekali, yang bersemangat. Merdeka!”
(Translation: Freedom! Once again, with passion. Freedom!)
- Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew, excerpt from Merdeka video

When the stage manager announced “Thank you for watching the performance”, everybody heaved a sigh of relief. That concluded all our hard work of preparations and polishing the entire show.

At the end of it, when any one of us think about it, the drama means a lot more to us. Just like last year’s drama production, we’ve made plenty of friends. By this time, I’m thoroughly exhausted at writing this, so let me conclude quickly.

The AC Perbayu legacy is something that all of us want to hand down and have it continued as there have been so much that we benefited that we want others of the next generation to similarly experience. There is something about showing to the world what Malay ACSians can do that has such thrill and pride in it that we just feel obliged to uphold. So let this be a testament to the Malays of our society and those of our kin.

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The author Seraph is a not so average college guy kicking about in the pool, slugging on the computer and runs odd errands in the name of culture in school, and simultaneously saves the world and his personal life and writes about himself in the third person outside. At heart, he is a youth rights activist, an anti-feminist and an extremist ideologist. His essence runs Legal Grounds.

Penantian AC Perbayu berakhir...

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...