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Ismail Rehearsal Day 1

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Yesterday was the first day of rehearsal for Ismail Woo hoo!!! Yes I’m terribly excited. By the way you can join us on our The Facebook Group.

Ismail The Last DaysPicture courtesy of the actual blog site of Ismail The Last Days.

Now on to the story. Making my way to klpac was pretty much another tense thing just like the audition, maybe not as bad but still my thoughts were just about preparing for what was to come as I didn’t know what to expect and didn’t even know what the story of the play was about. I was about 20 minutes early to rehearsal time which started at 7.30pm sharp. And when i say sharp I mean Sharp sharp sharp that you can slice your hand off and it can still be reattached to your body because it is so sharp! Ok that was way exaggerated but, punctuality is a must for this. Which will be great discipline for me and also as a person raised in a country where time is always taken for granted and on other occasions I will end up being late. So here we have it ladies and gentlemen: The Script of Ismail in my hands.. or on my table anyway.

Ismail: The Last Days Official Script

Heading into the rehearsal I was delighted to see old friends and new ones that I will finally get to work with in this production. Some of them were from the past classes I took at KLPac like the Practical Aesthetics Class and The Acting for Beginners Class. It was really a joy to see them all and even some well known faces in the performing arts circle. In fact it’s a real BLESSING to even be in this. I can’t begin to even say how happy i am to be among the few to be involved with this. (Those who have been involved before, say all you want on the pain I shall be in, I’m ready!) At the same time though, there will be a number of pain, heartache, disappointment and frustration along with it. At first I was a bit nervous even scared about the first day of rehearsals and this is my friend Min Li also shares the same feelings as me. It’s expected that there will be some hard times. On my end I felt anxious about the whole thing…I don’t know maybe it’s because I want it badly. Maybe it’s because I know it’s a possible stepping stone to a better career. I’m not fully sure. But I do know that I’m going to work my butt off for this. I’ll go in for rehearsals super early just to get ready. Not for sucking up – no – as some may see. No rather, it’s to build my mentality that I need to prepare for the roles as part of the ensemble. Everyone plays a part in this show, and what I love so much was how Joe as the director gave a very deep insight for us to look at this play. Not just in the script but us as actors and how we should see ourselves worth in this production. I was very appreciative of that. The entire rehearsal process will be documented and made into a video wheeee also by my friend Alexander. So it’ll be nice to see what goes on behind the scenes of this production. Nick Dorian, Fang and I have also started a blog site for the production, which we will up date every once in a while. You can view that here: Ismail The Last Days. This is what happens when you have avid bloggers in the midst. :P

The Final Act and Just the Beginning…

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I’m back home.. a very tired me and yet extremely satisfied and happy me. Today was the final presentation of Joe Hasham’s class Acting for Beginners and I can’t tell you who thoroughly thrilled, happy and proud I am of that class, and to be in that class. We have come a long long way since the very first days of class which was in February. So we had 10 grueling weeks of learning the surface of what acting is about. Now that it has come to an end, I feel rather upset and happy, for no longer will I see these people every Saturday but at the same time happy because we managed to survive all the classes. They have been tough, even if it is a beginners class but it is tough. Todays presentation was basically showing the audience – friends and family – what we have been doing for the past 10 weeks, what we’ve learnt and what we have to show for it.

Acting for Beginners Class 2008

It started of with us standing in the ‘actor’s position’ which is just you standing perfectly still and focusing on to one point. Your feet are shoulder width apart and hands down to your side. Standing in this, you can stand apparently for hours…thank goodness we only stood for 10-15 minutes. The purpose of the exercise is for you to prepare yourself for the physical and emotional actions that are to come. If say I were asked to move in any manner I would be ready to go. If I were to feel some sort of emotion I will be focused enough to go. Followed by that we then got into the appearances, which I had blog about earlier. . Praise God for finally finally for once, we managed to get the appearances worth watching! I was so happy when I finally FINALLY FINALLY got lust done. For over the 9 weeks I had never not once, shocked or made Joe smile for that appearance, particularly because I was not brave enough. Even if my movements were sharp, it doesn’t make much of a difference because I hadn’t done it well enough to make someone in the crowd squirm. So the images I’m going to show you are the things we did had to do for appearances (but these aren’t so clear, i’ll get better ones later). In this order. Joy, Sorrow, Anger, Fear, Love, and of course Lust. Doing this exercise, gets you to feel the emotion in your belly and see how you can project it to the audience using imaginative ways with your body. Wait I take it back I’m not going to show it yet :) But I will show Anger for now. Click to see our expressions.

Anger Appearance

After appearances we had the short little skits where we were paired up into groups. Doing the scripts entitled “I am”, “The Park”, “Roses In The Rain” and “Before Now”. All done with our interpretation of the text. Followed by another teamwork effort of “I Am Me” where we in groups of 3-5 we all had to be the same person. The last thing we had to do was a piece called Chapter 6, where we all are following one script and we are seeing the same thing. Flow is key here. Finishing the class, is such an enormous accomplishment and once again I’m so terribly proud of the group because everyone gave it their all and for some of the people I know, they have grown and matured to be more disciplined in the things they want or need to do. It’s about commitment and whether or not you want to do this thing called the arts. For those who were once so incredibly shy, they are now very open and willing to give all they can to a part. No longer are they shocked by certain things or afraid but they or rather we have taken a huge step in this learning process. We got to wear specially made academy shirts and or course were given our certificate of attendance. ^_^

Certificate And Academy T-Shirt

So once again CONGRATS TO THE ENTIRE CLASS OF 2008!!!!! While the class may have ended… The show doesn’t end there of course… ^_^

I’m In!!

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Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh! Well yesterday was a real crappy day cause (I’m still sick by the way), but I got a call this morning that really really perked me up. It was bout 9 plus in the morning and I was still trying to get some rest. I got a call from a number that I did not know but answered anyway. The minute the other person on the phone spoke, I recognised that voice and my breath held for a moment as I sat up straight in bed. It was Faridah Merican’s voice, and she was going to give me the news on the I had absolute . Drum roll please…**just a small one**

I MADE IT!!!!!!!!!!!

YESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I was so ecstatic to hear I made it! I made it into a local theatre production! Yes yes yes! Can you see my glee, I was jumping up and down just to hear that I made it into the ensemble. Hey! ensemble is great right now, as I’m just starting, but out of over 50 people I made in to the 20 performers they needed for the show. To give the icing on the cake, she said I was ‘impressive’ that day….Oh the joy to hear something like from someone like Faridah. Makes you feel like you can do anything, but most of all makes me want to work harder!

This means that, I shall have no life except rehearsal life up to the show date which is August. Rehearsals start as of May 5th and I should be getting the schedule soon!

Back From The Audition

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The jitterbug feeling died off when I got there. Thank You Lord! I must say it was a mad Monday, but I think it was all worthwhile, even more so to see long ago friends, catching up with them and even better to see their faces there was a great comfort. I can’t tell you how, really really encouraging it is to see people whom you can either click with or other people who share the same passion as you. It’s completely like another life altogether and it’s such a wonderful joy. To be able to this works, with your friends. Ahhh! ^_^ Being there at KLPAC for the Ismail audition.. I don’t know what it was but it really felt like an audition from a movie like “Fame” or something. It really did! Perhaps it was the crowd (which was a lot of people, think about 50 over). Perhaps it’s the ambiance that KLPAC has, which just breathes the performing arts/theatre or whatever it is. Perhaps it’s because where I was standing were really with people who wanted this as much as I did…well at least some of them anyway.

All the people auditioning for Ismail at KLPAC

I\'m trying not to freak out

Isma is getting to her happy place

Min Li Says Cheese

But I’m glad that the audition went well overall. I’m glad to at least have gotten a callback from the first one, I’m glad to have seen some ol friends and new ones there. Best of all-for me anyways- I finally got to give a go at contemporary dancing for the audition. Which was what we had to do, maybe if I’m inspired enough I’ll make a video on just the steps the fantastic dancer/choreographer Aris Kadir from the show Passion, who happened to be our dance director just now and the previous audition sessions. I thoroughly enjoyed it and even if I don’t make it, I’m glad I was able to dance that short choreography. Oh the joy I have when I am able to dance… pure ecstasy ^_^ See me smile. It wasn’t so scary this time round and maybe that was because we were doing it as a group and not all eyes were on you. Whatever the outcome, It was a fun experience and it makes your eyes open up more  to realise… that it’s though and you have to really show what you got to give. It’s only one chance and that’s it. All the best to everyone else at the auditions. Hope that we get to work with one another soon. ^_^

KLPAC Open Stage!

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I am so excited!! When I first heard about this from Johann I was all ears. But now that finally it is official, i am ecstatic. This is exactly the chance that those like us in performing are waiting for. KLPAC is holding an Open Mic program. It is set up by Gavin Yap and Joe Hasham, to well known figures in the performing arts scene in KL. The stage is open to anyone that has a good script and willing to give it a shot at performing in front of a crowd. This is a great opportunity to let others see see your ability and talent. Who knows you may get spotted. And it is none of the ridiculous reality bits where people have to vote for you and so on, but it is pure performing. I’m not dissing reality shows, mind you…. I’m excited!!

You can find out more about it here at the KLPAC page. The main things you have to know?
  1. Application starts as of now 19th Dec and all FINISHED scripts must be sent to theplatform@klpac.com. OPEN FOR SUBMISSIONS NOW!
  2. It is purely drama and theatre, physical theatre can be considered though.
  3. All performance pieces must be written by the performer(s). If the piece is written by someone not involved in the performance, then it must not have been published or publicly performed prior to the day of performance.
  4. No more than 3 performers per piece
  5. All pieces must be no more than 15 minutes and no less than 5 minutes in length.
  6. No mics – crap….. but good too work on throwing your voice on stage.
The dates are as such. Taking place at 8.30pm every first Monday of the month throughout 2008: 7 January, 4 February, 3 March, 7 April, 5 May, 2 June, 7 July, 4 August, 1 September, 6 October, 3 November & 1 December Now I just need a script. Anyone with any ideas?