I went to watch a bangsawan performance the other day entitled Satria Menara Putih. It's a restaged performance. I remember Yazid performing this play many years ago. I didn't watch that one so I thought maybe I should catch it this time.
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No I am not writing a review here. Don't worry. I have never believed in reviews. It has always been flawed by many factors. I shall not dwell on that here. You can always meet me and talk to me on why reviews are just for casual readings that are taken too seriously. I'm just going to give my thoughts on bangsawan in general here.

I personally am not a fan of bangsawan. I think it is backdated and boring and dead. But I applaud the effort to keep it alive as more and more Malay "things" are slowly being deleted from the system, having Bangsawan alive doesn't seem to be a bad thing. But to do that, you have to bring up its artistic and cultural standard. It must be "marketed" as Malay Opera on par with Chinese Opera and Indian Opera. Heck, it must also look and have the performance standard like an opera. 

To have that, it should be treated like a professional art form. Professional actors and practitioners. Professional creative and administrative force. Currently it looks very amateurish, with amateur actors and production. I reiterate again, I am not reviewing Satria Menara Putih. I am saying about bangsawan in general as I have seen it for the past 20 years. (Yes I am not a "young practitioner". I've been around for ages but will always be considered young and naive as the kings and ministers of the malay arts palace forever see that their worth are far more superior and unmatchable and will never abdicate.) 

To keep a drowning art alive, you have to keep it out of the water. You can't keep leaving it in the water and hope it will swim and stay alive. It will grow tired and start drowning again, hoping for someone to save it. Keep it out of the water. Its time has changed. Breathe new life into it. How? With good storylines, preferably Singapore based stories. Good directions and acting. Good production management. It doesn't even have to pay well but keep the production running properly all the way from the preparation to the rehearsals. At least for a start, learn how to start rehearsals on time and on schedule. 

What do Alice, Captain America, Ironman, Robocop have in common? To keep them alive after being dead or almost dead? Yes. Technology. You want to keep something alive in this millennia, you have to embrace technology. It's ok to keep the language and costume and the proses and phrases and storylines from the last millennium. Really it is ok. I enjoy epic plays myself. But you have to embrace technology to keep it alive now. Use multimedia. Visuals, graphics, videos, animation. With USB everything is easier now compared to 2003. Make use of it. Moving lights, instant set changes. Music and sounds. Surround stereo playing dramatic hollywood movie worthy sounds and music. It is not impossible. It's easier to do now. There are apps for it!

And of course, my personal peeve. Directions and acting. I have been a semi professional actor in some part of my life. But I have always been trained to be a professional one. Singapore is a hard place to be a professional actor unless you look good or have connections. But being a semi professional one doesn't mean you can't behave like one. Come for rehearsals on time and on schedule. Practice and practise with your whole heart, body and soul. Don't give me money crap. You want money, you go work somewhere else. Be a full theatre actor inside and out. Not just play acting with fake expressions using just your face. 

And directions. Directions have to be exciting. Standing and talking is boring. You have to satisfy the audience visual needs. You can't blame the audience for closing their eyes during the scenes. It's tiring to watch, and they won't miss much anyway. When they open their eyes, the actors are still at the same place talking. Therefore might as well listen than watch. The blockings, movements, stage directions must be vibrant to keep the audience at the edge of their seats throughout. Pace the actors' dialogue delivery and keep it interesting and logical. Their actions too. I don't get it... how can a queen takes a knife out with all intention to kill herself obvious for everyone to see (not to mention she said it in her lines that she's going to kill herself) with movement slow enough to feel like eternity and when she finally stabs herself, everyone acted shock. How could you be shocked? You saw it coming! And you had a lot (really a lot) of time to prevent it from happening. My goodness, direction was very bad for that one which I think is one of the many examples to learn from. 

But unfortunately, these people always think that they're right. And when things don't go their way, they don't know why or blame other factors. 

If only, I have the money and resources like them. I don't need extra. Just the same amount of money, the rehearsal space and time. Just the same. I get my own production and creative team. I get my own cast. I will get it done. I promise I'll do wonders. But I also foresee that the kings and ministers will still say it is lousy because I am a commoner and not part of the royals and aristocrats. 

That is something I always feel "terkilan" about. If only I have the resources that they have, I will really make it worthy. But for now, I can only just blog about it and think what to eat later.

If only...

After taking a break during the December school holidays we resume our bangsawan workshop. 
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In November 2016, the students were exposed to the basics of bangsawan where they were introduced to its characteristics and characters. They were also taught the basics of performing for theatre such as vocal trainings, stage dynamics, tableaux, stage blockings, stage balance and levels and also the art form of silat.

​We then took a short break during the December holidays and now we proceed on in preparing for their short performance. 

This year, the Northern Cluster of Higher Malay students, hosted by Anderson Secondary School will be presenting “Syair Siti Zubaidah: Perang Cina”

Today, they were given roles and did blockings for the whole 15 minutes piece. The students are very active and excited but also very disciplined. Will be looking forward for the next session where we will polish up on the acting and also choreographing their silat and malay dance items.

Arena Pentas 2017 concluded its run on the 13th of January 2017. 5 playlets were presented to the audience for 3 consecutive nights. The build up to this event was also constantly promoted on this blog and various social media outlets and profiles.

Heartfelt gratitude and thanks to those who spent their time attending this event. The students value your support and your feedback.

There are a few things different about this year's edition. Instead of the usual 4 playlets per event, we have expanded to 5. Good job to the writers and producer who were willing to try out something different. We might also for the first time ever in this series to be covered by a local media outlet. And of course, the one that we hoped to motivate the members more would be the awards given out. Just something different for fun.

I managed to get 3 arts practitioners to help out in judging the 5 playlets. 

Thank you Mr Saiful Amri, Mr Hidayat Nordin and Mdm Asnida Daud for being very supportive and enthusiastic in making the event and judging process exciting.

We gave away 5 awards that night.

I hope the members enjoyed this small gesture because..... "bila lagi....??"

I personally enjoyed this Arena Pentas edition very much. I do believe that the members could have done much better if they had put in more discipline and better time management. Hopefully they learned from this experience to do even better in the next production and the next Arena Pentas season. 

Nevertheless, everyone's a winner. I know it sounds cliche but really. In theatre, we play for the team and never for individual's glory. It has never been about the product. It has always been the process. And everyone's a winner because everyone went through and completed the process. 

Thank you TRCC staff, Producer, Directors, Playwrights, Judges, Stage Manager, Sound Operator, FOH, parents, family members and members of the audience.

Arena Pentas 2017 Day 1

I am personally a fan of these Arena Pentas series. On its 4th season and improving slowly. This year we have 5 pieces to present. Short sharp straight to the point playlets.

Why am I a fan of these series is because the students will be given a chance to produce, write, direct and perform their own playlets. Well, it is just a playlet of maximum 15minutes each. What's so special about it? Well it is special. What is it? The limitations.

On a theatrical point of view, the students has to work within strict or even no budget. So how do you produce aesthetically pleasing plays with no budget? (I hear groans saying schools are cheapskates...) Well, in the professional world, other than the mainstream and commercial theatre, most practitioners have problems with budgets. I for one do dream to direct a mega scale theatre performance but, it is just a dream that I might never achieve. So how do we with such limitations produce works that are worth the audience time and money. What can we do to wrestle their time away from the comfort of television and movie theatres? Making the best of budget limitations by sharpening creativity.
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The students have to work within space limitations. In a 5 metres by 5 metres arena space. So small....? Should be easy right? Wrong. These students are humans with dreams and ambitions too. How do they scale down their ambitions, dreams and visions into that small square and yet make it aesthetically pleasing yet meaningful. You can't put godzilla in there but with some brainpower and exercising creativity, you can. 

80 audience member per night only? In the dance studio? Not even a professional venue with small number of audience, this must be a rip off. It may be so if you would like to think so. But to these students, it is a test of their focus, confidence and ultimately acting skills. Your audience are not hidden in the dark. You are not supported by fancy lights. It is not television where scene cuts are allowed. Full 15 minutes of focus and discipline with the audience breathing down your face. They see every teardrop, every sweat, every saliva jumping out your mouth, every eye movement. It is an arena for professionals and they are there having a chance to saviour it. 

You may like some stories, you may not like others, it doesn't really matter to me.  What matters is, they are given a chance. An honest chance. And honestly, a chance that they might not be able to get again after graduating.