Sunday, July 26, 2009
It’s a small world after all...
12 July 2009 – The Emperor’s New Clothes (ENC), by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Arts and Cultural Troupe, ends its run this afternoon, with a final matinee performance beginning at 3pm. Thereafter the craziness reaches to an uncontrollable apogee that affects the young ones, and the old old-but-young-at-heart. Of course, not neglecting post-production blues after the hard slog and the prospect of the familiar routines of rehearsals cum post-and-pre-rehearsal socialisation being disrupted of their regularities.
Ironically I have only grown to know the cast better at a late stage in the production, largely after the show actually opened. At this stage I recognise faces but I don’t know their names well. Otherwise I have heard a couple of names but I am unable to match them with faces.
This production is what I will really call a ‘small world’, because: (a) I run into people I have met before; (b) I meet new people whom both of us have vaguely heard of the other’s names before but never crossed paths; (c) I meet people whom we both share common friends; (d) these people are connected with their own degrees of separation. Intriguing connections.
1. The director, Jalyn Jie ('Sister' in Mandarin), had seen the re-run of Buddhist Fellowship’s Passage of Time in January 2008, she was a guest of Swee Lin’s, who played the protagonist in the musical. So she had heard my work. How I came to be involved in ENC was through a recommendation from Darren, whom I had worked with on SRT’s The Gingerbread Man as well as last year’s Tooth Fairy. Darren was once a member of the Hokkien Huay Kuan Arts and Cultural Troupe and had also done music for them in the past. At our first meeting, the connection suddenly clicked: so I was the same guy from Passage of Time, Jalyn realised!
2. I had run into Cheryl, one of the vocal coaches, on two occasions: (a) in December 2007, she guest-performed with the SMU Chamber Choir which I also guest-performed for as pianist; (b) in July 2008, she was the coordinator for some ASEAN Youth event in which our gig ensemble comprising of Rit, Moses and myself played for – she was Rit and Moses’ classmate at NAFA. No wonder her name looked so familiar on the roster of creatives.
3. Renhui actually knows Ah Foo of KMSPKS temple, and she, with Cheryl, know Kenji, my colleague at Stereo Image Productions, because all of them were once from SOMA. And Renhui had once been engaged by Wenfu to sing in one of his recordings, and had been to Stereo Image.
4. Cheryl and Renhui have been close friends since their Secondary School days yet they had no idea that both of them were to be involved in ENC as vocal coaches, they only found out from one another until their appointments had been confirmed.
5. Hock Hoe knows Michael and Stereo Image as he knows that there is the place where Wenfu goes to do his recordings.
6. I had no idea that Christina, from my neighbouring class when we were all at TJC, was a member of the performing troupe! When I came for my first rehearsal with the cast, the first impression I got of her was, ‘My gosh, she looks just like Christina – albeit a younger version.’ I only realise that she IS Christina when, after recording at the centre had finished for the day, did Christina tell Chee Guan, ‘I am closer to August than you, I knew him from JC days…’ And that is when it hit: ‘Christina! So it IS you!’ And the both of us have a mutual friend – Qianyi – who is from my class and in my JC clique.
7. Chee Guan knows Loh Wei, my fellow company mate and music enthusiast, and Joyce, whom I was once in the same group called Contego at UAN (Marcelly, who is now one of our Soracco singers and whom I worked with in musicals back at Five-Foot Broadway days, was also a member of this group). All of them (except Marcelly, so as not to pique confusion) were members of the AJC Choir.
8. Loh Wei himself knows Fu Lai Lao Shi (the guy who plays the Big Storyteller in the show), who ‘used to read him stories when he was a child’. His mum had been a member of some artistic troupe that included Fu Lai Lao Shi and Shoo Peng Lao Shi (who plays the Emperor in the show).
¶ 7/26/2009 12:45:00 pm 12 July 2009 – The Emperor’s New Clothes (ENC), by the Singapore Hokkien Huay Kuan Arts and Cultural Troupe, ends its run this afternoon, with a final matinee performance beginning at 3pm. Thereafter the craziness reaches to an uncontrollable apogee that affects the young ones, and the old old-but-young-at-heart. Of course, not neglecting post-production blues after the hard slog and the prospect of the familiar routines of rehearsals cum post-and-pre-rehearsal socialisation being disrupted of their regularities.
Ironically I have only grown to know the cast better at a late stage in the production, largely after the show actually opened. At this stage I recognise faces but I don’t know their names well. Otherwise I have heard a couple of names but I am unable to match them with faces.
This production is what I will really call a ‘small world’, because: (a) I run into people I have met before; (b) I meet new people whom both of us have vaguely heard of the other’s names before but never crossed paths; (c) I meet people whom we both share common friends; (d) these people are connected with their own degrees of separation. Intriguing connections.
1. The director, Jalyn Jie ('Sister' in Mandarin), had seen the re-run of Buddhist Fellowship’s Passage of Time in January 2008, she was a guest of Swee Lin’s, who played the protagonist in the musical. So she had heard my work. How I came to be involved in ENC was through a recommendation from Darren, whom I had worked with on SRT’s The Gingerbread Man as well as last year’s Tooth Fairy. Darren was once a member of the Hokkien Huay Kuan Arts and Cultural Troupe and had also done music for them in the past. At our first meeting, the connection suddenly clicked: so I was the same guy from Passage of Time, Jalyn realised!
2. I had run into Cheryl, one of the vocal coaches, on two occasions: (a) in December 2007, she guest-performed with the SMU Chamber Choir which I also guest-performed for as pianist; (b) in July 2008, she was the coordinator for some ASEAN Youth event in which our gig ensemble comprising of Rit, Moses and myself played for – she was Rit and Moses’ classmate at NAFA. No wonder her name looked so familiar on the roster of creatives.
3. Renhui actually knows Ah Foo of KMSPKS temple, and she, with Cheryl, know Kenji, my colleague at Stereo Image Productions, because all of them were once from SOMA. And Renhui had once been engaged by Wenfu to sing in one of his recordings, and had been to Stereo Image.
4. Cheryl and Renhui have been close friends since their Secondary School days yet they had no idea that both of them were to be involved in ENC as vocal coaches, they only found out from one another until their appointments had been confirmed.
5. Hock Hoe knows Michael and Stereo Image as he knows that there is the place where Wenfu goes to do his recordings.
6. I had no idea that Christina, from my neighbouring class when we were all at TJC, was a member of the performing troupe! When I came for my first rehearsal with the cast, the first impression I got of her was, ‘My gosh, she looks just like Christina – albeit a younger version.’ I only realise that she IS Christina when, after recording at the centre had finished for the day, did Christina tell Chee Guan, ‘I am closer to August than you, I knew him from JC days…’ And that is when it hit: ‘Christina! So it IS you!’ And the both of us have a mutual friend – Qianyi – who is from my class and in my JC clique.
7. Chee Guan knows Loh Wei, my fellow company mate and music enthusiast, and Joyce, whom I was once in the same group called Contego at UAN (Marcelly, who is now one of our Soracco singers and whom I worked with in musicals back at Five-Foot Broadway days, was also a member of this group). All of them (except Marcelly, so as not to pique confusion) were members of the AJC Choir.
8. Loh Wei himself knows Fu Lai Lao Shi (the guy who plays the Big Storyteller in the show), who ‘used to read him stories when he was a child’. His mum had been a member of some artistic troupe that included Fu Lai Lao Shi and Shoo Peng Lao Shi (who plays the Emperor in the show).
