Mid February

And I thought We Just Celebrated the New Year...

Hello. Been busy and sleepy lately. Sleep whenever there’s time. So what have I been up to.

Few days back, Bangsawan Workshop at Anderson Secondary School for Northern Cluster Higher Malay students ended. We ended with a full run though not with a full cast. Nevertheless I think it was an exciting run. Complete with syairs, gurindams, tableaux, silat and dance choreography. Students being students, they are not theatre trained therefore it is not a professional quality 8 minute bangsawan but I think it is enough to bring awareness to these secondary 2 students about bangsawan and to get them off their feet. Most importantly, to have fun with friends from various schools. 

My constant dilemma for these kind of performance based workshops is, to either choose the best participants to be given roles or to compensate performance quality by giving everyone a chance. I always choose the latter. What do you think ? Unless of course it is a project specifically mentioned by the teachers that they want the best. If it is not mentioned, I prefer to give everyone a chance to play… because… if not, bila lagi? (when else?)

Tonight will be my last rehearsal with Pentas Karyawan for our upcoming production before we take a break for exams. This is the 1st time in my 5 years there that we had to cease rehearsals and trainings due to exams. Well that’s how life is now. I personally never believe that 2 rehearsals a week can make you fail your exams. You pass or fail your exams in the classrooms. It is the attitude and commitment since day 1 of school, not 1 day before exam. Therefore I think this year’s end of year production is a bit too rushy than previous editions. And also I have to take into account members going for holidays after the exams. Ok myself included. No not holiday… but reservist duties. Darn.

And so I took a chance with having a shot at trying to drastically improve their understanding and rehearsal standards by getting a group of friends to do a “rehearsal demonstration”. I really hope the members learnt and realise the expectations of them when they saw these actors “behave” during rehearsals.

I am grateful to still have friends who would help me out without questions. In fact they were very eager to help out. I didn’t think I still have friends to spend time doing free things in the name of old time’s sake. Thank you Yazid, Izad and Zaidi for agreeing to help out in a short notice. Would have Saiful to join in too but had to forego it after a relative’s passing.

I am quite excited for this upcoming production but also quite worried due to the very very little training hours. I really hope the members can catch up fast after the exams. 

Do keep a look out for it. Promises to be a very different Pentas Karyawan presentation.