Linora Low » Performing Arts

Forte Talent Show Grand Finale

Linora Low — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 20:21:00 +0000

The stage is set, you have your top 12 contestants.. but only one can go be crowned as the most talented performer of the night.

Ladies and Gentlemen..

This is NOT AMERICAN IDOL!!! hahaha

But it IS The Forte Talent Show Grand Finale.

A Talent competition for anyone who believes they have magic in them.

I had the wonderful wonderful pleasure of being the emcee of this Talent Show organised by KL Baptist Church. I gotta tell you the night was a journey of mad fun! What is your talent in life? Singing? Dancing? Beatboxin a.k.a infecting a microphone with one’s own saliva? Being a stand up comedian?

I can definitely say the talent i saw at the Forte Talent Show Grand Finale was enough to make my jaw drop. The top 12 contestants that made it for the finale were amazing! On top of that, they are all soooo young!!!! Ranging from the age of 15-20+. The performances prepared for the night were impressive.

Here I am with my partner in crime for the night, Marcus Tan! I tell you he was a joy to work with and he is a superbly funny emcee. The amount of lame jokes that came out that night were unreal HAHAHA!

Judges of the night

(Left to Right) Terry Yeow - guitarist of Altered Frequency, Kenny Shim – Dance and Choreographer of Madworld, Juwita Suwito – A well known singer songwriter in the music industry and Jocelyn Ong – Very well established Singapore Musician.

Here are the Top 12

#1 – A family affair – Rhythm of Grace – Rebekah on piano, Hannah on vocals and Sarah on the guitar.

#2 – The Adam Lambert of the night – Joshua who came out singing Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen. He had the eyeliner, the jacket and the smoke!!! Whoaaa.

#3 – A very young lass, 15 year old Shannon who sang Happy by Leona Lewis. For someone so young she has a lovely lovely voice.

#4 – This girl had the best “PLEASE” of the night. Yi Shin sang Rihanna’s Take a Bow and i really did like her voice.

#5 – Liz here performing his Breakdance and popping locking routine! He’s got crazy arms and hands! Fab dancing!!

#6 – Cody and Lau, my two favourite beatboxers of the night! You guys were a joy to watch!

#7- Sam and Calvin who sang as well for the night.

#8 – Timothy Au, who i really think is out to break a lot of hearts haha. He sang Your Song by Elton John. And ooohhh my goshhh he is a crooner!!

#9 – This boy here is the very talented Khye Mun. He played his composition of the Angry Birds Theme song! it was just too cute. And he also designed the shirt he was wearing. You can check out his designs here. Khyemun’s Hand Drawn T-shirt ! : )

#10 – Alan Thong performing his contemporary / breakdance routine. Who would’ve thought that possible. His upper body strength is crazy!

#11- Tjoe who also gave a really good performance.

#12 – The lady who stole the night!! and i seriously mean STOLE the night. Huey Wen!! She has the most amazing voice and the most amazing talent! She did played and sang (obviously) a mashup between two songs.

So who won?

1st place – Huey Wen – Composer and Singer

Star quality!!!! I cannot wait to hear her stuff on itunes.

2nd place – Timothy Au – Singer

i’m telling you this boy is the malaysian version of Michael Buble. You can check out some of his songs here on youtube. Girls be prepared to swoon! I’m really looking forward to see when he’ll be performing next.

3rd place – Alan Thong Boon Liang – Dancer

Very talented. I can’t wait to see what he will do next.

Although i would’ve loved to see more dancers in the top 12. Here are the Top 6 contestants together with the judges of Forte Talent Show and Pastor Eddie of KLBC.

More shots of the night!

A shot of me with the other emcee of the night.

The very very leng chai Marcus! hehehe

Another emcee shot and yes i look like a firetruck hahahaha. Check out the shoes..

I cannot believe the photographer actually took my shoes hahahaha HILARIOUS!

Holding up the angry bird, as requested by Judge Terry. It i hadn’t realised how red everything was hehhee. I would like to thank Khye Mun for lending me his Angry bird.

Together with the judges – Kenny Shim, Juwita Suwito, Terry Yeow .

Here i am with all the boys.. OOOOOo i’m blushing hehe. ^_~

All pictures courtesy of Justin Koh and Jaz Khai. I hadn’t realised they have the same initials hehe.

The Forte Talent Show Grand Finale was a blast!! I think the selection for the top 3 winners was pretty good. You have a very well rounded mix. Don’t you think?I had tons of fun emceeing the event. A big congratulations to the organisers that is KL Baptist Church and a special one goes out to Alvin Kok. If not for you, i wouldn’t have hosted and gave me the opportunity to meet all the wonderful people that night.

All the talents have such raw potential to become even better. So don’t ever stop guys! Keep going at it and don’t let anything stop you. God’s given you an amazing gift and you can do wonders with it.

Love you all! ^_^

Do check out Forte Talent Show’s Facebook Page!

The 7th Annual Boh Cameronian Awards

Linora Low — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:04:26 +0000

The 3rd of May was quite a mark for me. It was the night of the 7th Annual Boh Cameronian Awards held at the Mandarin Oriental, Kuala Lumpur… Why am I making it sound like a newspaper article!? And i know i’m very behind on this post. It was a Sunday and while I was rushing my way back to KL from Penang for an event I definitely did not want to miss. You know how actors in Hollywood get to go to big awards like the Tony Awards, The Oscars, The Golden Globes, The Emmys, The Baftas and a whole long list of movie awards. Yes well this is the closest i’ll ever get to going for an event that has to do with a prize giving for performing art works. So no way will i miss this event And i got a new dress for it too. heee. The night was special for me, since I was in two productions last year that got into the nominees list. One was in the musical theatre category and another was in the group performance category. For the musical theatre it was “Ismail The Last Days” and for group performance it was “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. It was a bit of a torture, cause i was torn between the two groups . Regardless i love both productions. The reception area where everyone was getting themselves registered. The theme of the night was “Love”. As in love for the arts hence a big big sign was smack right there on the stage. The emcees for the night were Fahmi and Tiong Wooi. They were very entertaining and left us giggling from their witty remarks. An award ceremony by the theatre people is never complete without performances. Instant Cafe gave their rendition of the Abba song “The Winner Takes it All”. You can watch the video here. Here are some of the other things that happened that night. Thanks to Kakiseni for the images. Mr. Jonas A. Schuermann and Suhaili Micheline binti Ahmad Kamil The ensemble of Air Con. The show everyone was expecting to sweep all the awards away. The Young Aswara dancers, giving a very upbeat and ..”oomph”.. performance lol Lee Lee Lan received the Boh Cameronian Lifetime Achievement Award with a prize of RM5000. I personally loved her line at the end of her speech. Which was “.. I have never worked a day in my life. I PLAY at my work.” Wow talk about inspiring On a wonderful note I was delighted to hear that Ismail the Last Days managed to sweep away 7awards out of 10 nominations. That was a complete shocker. We all went up on stage totally not knowing what to do. We all made Tony and Nick give the thank you speech, while we helped from the back. lol The awards won are:- - Best Performance by an Ensemble – US!!! - Best Original Book and/or Lyrics – U-En Ng - Best Musical Direction – Mervyn Peters - Best Lighting Design – Lim Ang Swee & Sandee Chew - Best Set Design – Loh Kok Man & Caecar Chong - Best Costume Design & Makeup – Dominique Devorsine - Best Performance in a Leading Role – Malik Taufiq

Back to the camwhoring days of the Ismail Cast. Hahaha.

We were all just fighting to grab a whole of the award. That one very tiny tiny award

My next big surprise, the one that really made my heart just stick to my throat when i heard the nominations.. was the award of the Best Group Performance. The Footstool Players with the show “Crazy Little Called Love” was up next with other group performances. You know it’s one of those things, where you hope with all your might that it is going to be great news, at the same time you don’t want your hopes to get too high up. Yeah i was having that feeling, which for that pure moment it got my stomach get anxiety pangs. I know I’m such a drama queen Well guess what Praise the Lord!!!! Footstool Players won the Best Group Performance. That was seriously the biggest icing on the cake for that night. A lot of hard work and a lot of love was put into that performance. And I’m so terribly proud of it.

Ok here’s a clearer one of the award.

Then after all that we moved on to the Heineken Party. We were there purely for the free beer and free Boh Ice Lemon Tea

Kampppaaaiiiiiiiiiiii

See what I mean by we were all there for the booze. One Heineken which is still a preferred beer on my part and a chilled Boh Tea can in my hand. Gosh there are just too many pictures to put up. So lets begin.

Me and darling Min Li all pretty in pink.

The suave Mr Tony Leo Salvaraj who also happens to be the Cleo’s most unique Bachelor. I know this title is so overrated

Again with Tony and Amber, who was the busy PR for the night.

Mervyn Peters won for Best musical direction in Ismail the Last Days. Here I stand with Min, Mervyn and his wife

The not so Ghostly Isma and Me

Nick Dorian, Powder puff Min min and me.

Me and Giden. I honestly am very proud to say that he took this shot cam whore style.And it turned out nicely

Three sisters alike. Me, Charmayne and Min

Kevin Theisera and me goofing off.

Last but not least Mr Alfred Loh, who just had to had to had to dress up in a skirt and come with two Pippy Long stocking pigtails.

Ok, the boys were just playing a fool. And i just had to do this. It was just too tempting. Another one of Aronil’s captions for the light hearted.

Ahhhh the award is all mine.. heeee me precious.

The 7th Boh Cameronian Awards was an absolute blast. Altogether it was 8 wins. Technically la. On my part I was happy that the ensemble for “Ismail the Last Days” got the wards for Best Ensemble and of course I was ecstatic when I heard “Crazy Little Thing Called Love” won.

Who knows what’s instore for next year. All the same that was an enjoyable night!

You can take a look at the full list of winners here.

Mama Mia The Musical

Linora Low — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 16:51:36 +0000

After taking things a bit too seriously in screen acting, or even since the day i started learning how to view films critically. I can never watch something ever the same again and same goes for even theatre. Half the time now I’m trying to see whether what I’m watching is believeable. So tragic, I know! I can’t enjoy stuff like i use to these days. But that won’t stop me from watching them A couple of months back i saw the movie Mama Mia with Meryl Streep starring in it. I saw that with Min Li and what are the odds that I saw the musical with her too. Bwahaha.

We had absolutely terrible seats I have to admit at Istana Budaya. My dad had gotten the tickets at a slightly cheaper price due to either some maxis or citibank thing. It was a whole family outing with us stuck right at the top row.. close to the top row anyway in the upper circle. Upper circle!!! Do you know how far that is from the stage?!!? I kinda wished i had bought binoculars. Plus it was really uncomfortable. The seats were to straight and seriously too high up…

… Ok i’ve just done an entire paragraph of knocking the seats. My bad The movie followed the musical quite closely, minus of course the fact that in a movie you can do a lot more in showing the audiences certain effects and what not. Sigh due to us watching the movie first and not the musical, all I could think about was the movie. The little bits of surprises or expectationt were gone and I kept comapring it with the movie. Bad me. Which i shouldn’t cause they are two completely different productions.

The musical was still very much enjoyable. I had fun and some great laughs too. At least I didn’t have to hear a ”Mr Pierce Bond” sing! Aaiii The singing was wonderful and so were dances. I felt though that it would’ve been even more ufn to see the ensemble dancing along and performing with the rest of the main cast. Like the the number “Dancing Queen”. That would’ve been great, to see everyone dancing to that. I think my favourite number was the song “Gimme Gimme Gimme (a Man After Midnight)”. It got me really pumped. That was loads of fun and everytime when one ‘father’ dragged Sophie out to talk with her, the entire ensemble would be in dim light walking/moving in slow motion. So that there would be contrast and focus on the main characters talking. At the end of it all, i think the crowd went mad. Cause they all started standing up and dancing in their seats. haha. I know cameras weren’t allowed in there but I just had to take a snap of the people boogieng it down. hehe.

Sorry that was the clearest I could go even with some photoshopping. But yeah those people ARE standing, dancing, and going what looks to be a wave of some sort. If anyone reads this before seeing the movie. I thoroughly encourage you to go see Mama Mia! the musical. It’s a once in a lifetime hit sensation and while it’s still burning hot. Go catch it now at Istana Budaya which has noe been extended to the 4th of January 2009. And make sure you watch the musical FIRST!

The Astro-Nida Journey

Linora Low — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 08:42:18 +0000

The Astro-Nida Short courses are now over. The whole thing lasted for two weeks and I didn’t write much updates on the process on it, but I will now. It was a fantastic time and a wonderful experience being apart of this educational workshop. Even more so in the field which you love and want to try to excel as much as you can in. Here is the first day. As I went rushing up the floor of The Central Market, I met up with Calvin who also managed to get into Astro-Nida but under the script writing course. There we were running up the staircase of the Annexe Gallery to get to the opening launch.

Daphne Iking was hosting the opening launch also happened to be part of the Screen Acting course. The first week was learning some basic stuff on acting such as how to breathe and some vocal warmups. As well as learning about how to do characterization for a role using the Uta Hagen 6 steps - you can read it at that link. Then a small bit on how to use the Laban method (you can read that here) which is sort of a physical perparation to get into character. From there we then moved into some actual screen work. We were given scripts to memorise and work on for characterization, from seriously dramatic stuff like siblings fighting on who should take their mother of life support system to a simple script from Grey’s Anatomy.

This was where we did our screenshots and that was the setup for Grey’s Anatomy.. Boooyah man!!! I got to act in that script! But I was hopping for Christina instead i got Meredith – not complaining hehe just telling. After doing some scene study and shooting, all the writers, directors and actors sat down for a reading session. See we had 16 writers meaning 16 scripts. Out of those 16 scripts, originally 4 were supposed to be picked so that could turn them into short films. But all the scripts were really good, so the tutors – after about nearly two hours of arguing it out – they picked 5 instead. Woots!! Great for the actors and the 5 scriptwriters, terrible for the directors. lol. Long editing process. Yves, the screen direction tutor sure had a long two days.

We had some time to shoot pictures in class for a bit.

What I like the most about these two pictures at the staircase. I’ve always wanted to be in an art school and this was the closest I got to one. Imagine doing for a whole one year or three years of just purely interacting with the same people who have the same passion as you. We all spoke the same kind of lingo. We knew what were “eyelines” meant, what were the different kinds of shots called, what it meant to do characterization homework before a shoot. We all just understood what it was all about. Just that time of education where everyone wanted to learn a craft was just…. wow!

Who would’ve thunk that I would be working on Calvin’s script again along with MinLi’s boyfriend, Prakash who is also in the course but he was in the Screen Direction workshop. I was working with Laura and Kelvin in a love triangle. It was a situation where my character Linda had a huge crush on her old friend John -played by Kelvin. While John had a major crush on Vicki played by Laura. Felt quite Korean drama in a way lol. Here we are in the wardrobe department… our own version la.

That’s Laura over there putting on her makeup.

We had about two days to rehearse and work on the characters. Discussing possible camera angles with the directors. Finding out the back story about the characters from the writer. Then another two days to shoot the two minute film.

This was what our set look like. I have to say my three directors – Raymond, Prakash and Adrian did a fab job on making the plain room look into a cozy office for an ad agency.

The thing about shoots.. anything to do with the word shoot. Means you have quite a fair bit of waiting to do. That’s Raymond, giving some feedback I think. Prakash on the camera – our director of photography (DOP) and Adrian our sound man.

Prakash and Adrian hard at the editing process. The end result was gorgeous guys. I don’t think I could’ve asked for any better directors, who understood the actors and did nothing else but try to make the story look good. Two thumbs ups! Raymand wasn’t around cause the poor guy had an asthma attack the day just before the finale.

Friday night was the only time we got to party with everyone cause our tutors were to leave on Saturday night itself. It was a weird party, since we were all left standing not knowing where to go. I think we hung around for about 3 hours till finally someone made the decision that we were to go to Quattro.

Here are nearly all the actors, directors and a couple of lone writers (that’s one of them right there in the blue sleeveless top – her name is Charlene) all waiting in front of Quattro. Cause at first we didn’t know we had a table booked for us, so we ended up walking to klcc after some of us paid a RM20 valet parking in front of Avenue K straight to The Apartment.

Hanging at The Apartment first.

At The Apartment, we had beers all around. i have to say I don’t think I’ve drunk that much beer in a week. Aiii calories calories. It’s a party la give us a break.

This is Yves Stenning the screen direction tutor who is a real happening dad.

And the sweet script writing tutor Nicholas Parsons. He reminds me a tadbit of Hugh Laurie.

Last but not least, Tahnee Mcguire a real sweetheart who was our course supervisor. Right behind me is the other lone writer, Sophia Goh.

And final of the final. A picture had to be taken with the three chicas that I totally enjoyed hanging out with at nights after classes.

By the way out of respect for my tutor Mr Nicholas Bishop, I’ve not put up any pictures. We all had a nice discussion of what it means to be a celebrity and he is a well known one, especially in Australia with his own bunch of whacky fans. So just not to give them the satisfaction, no pictures

Nicholas Bishop is a fantastic actor and tutor. He did nothing else but guide us on the journey of acting. Giving us the right technique and tips squeezed in just two weeks. He also happens to be the person who started ‘The Screen Actor‘ course at NIDA in Sydney

I have to say, with the hard work from everyone along with his great directions, we all surprised ourselves with the results. Some have found this a new joy and I sincerely hope that they will continue acting for a long time more as there are untapped potential talent. All the 14 actors – me included – you know who you are!

Saturday was the day of the finale, where we showcased everyone’s work. Directors and actors who made the five short films, along with 2 minutes pitches from all 16 of the writers. Time for everyone to get their ceritifcations and say their goodbyes..for now. I hope I get to work with all them again. That for certain we shall.

I’m Accepted For Astro-NIDA

Linora Low — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 11:35:27 +0000

Woooot woooottt.. WoooooooooooooootOooOTooOToOOOOOotttttt Let me just jump around like a mad person! A few months back, I had applied for the ASTRO-Nida Dramatic Course that has been advertised on Astro as well as the papers. It’s back again for a second round. I tried applying for it last year but I didn’t manage to get in. At least I tried right. According to the email, I didn’t have enough qualifications to get into the course. Hence I wasn’t picked. I’m glad they did see my profile and gave me a reply to tell me I wasn’t chosen though. I hate being left in the dark. THen came this year.. my gosh how fast a year just flies by. I heard it was on again, the ASTRO-NIDA course and obviously i applied yet again. This time at least i ad some ammo to say, yes i have been actively involved with productions and what not. About two weeks back, I got an email from them, stating that I was shortlisted!

Woooohoooooooo. Phase one. I got my foot in the door, now I just needed to get another foot in. Then about a week later. I got another email.

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooottttttttttTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT Yesh, by the sound of my woot I got in!! Yeah man Yeah! It’s nothing short of an achievement, but I really Praise God. That it’s all jsut been falling in to place. I honestly didn’t think I could get in, but hey don’t know if you don’t try and leave it to God to do His will. I’m extremely ecstatic! I got another email then from the ASTRO person we are all to alias with. She mentioned who was going to be our teacher. An Australian actor by the name of Mr Nicholas Bishop, who is also a NIDA graduate and has been tutoring at NIDA in between shoots. Oh my gosh I’m sooo excited. Assisting him is Tahnee McGuire both are from NIDA. That’s the most I know about my teachers for next week hehe. I’ll have more updates soon.

The New Art Theatre Complex

Linora Low — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 15:01:46 +0000

This was just in the news today and I didn’t even know about it till i was informed by Mister G. As some of you may know, The Actor’s Studio at Bangsar Shopping Complex is closing down this coming February 2009. Meaning that a number of performances will be left without a home. This is quite sad, even though sure KLPAC can be the place to host all the performances but there would be just too many. Giving a bit of good news. Selangor’s very own state-of-the-art theatre is finally completed and all set to play a big role in promoting the performing arts in the state capital of Shah Alam. That is just so darn far away.. I can just imagine the drives to and fro just to get to that place. Especially for actors, singers and dancers who are performing there. The new art theatre complex, aka The Shah Alam Royale Theatre cost about RM43 million to build. The complex took about 4 years to buld, starting from December 2004 and finally completed this year in July – with about a years delay (why am i not surprise).

It is now the latest landmark in the capital city, located at Jalan Persidangan in Section 14, just behind the Grand Bluewave Hotel.

The complex features latest technology in sound and lighting. Well let’s see how it goes from here. I do hope that it doesn’t become just another monument and there will be shows there. My only concern, that it is really far from the KL city centre and honestly that is where all the action is. Hopefully it will grow anyhow.

I Miss Them

Linora Low — Sat, 06 Sep 2008 07:31:25 +0000

Ismail: The Last Days ended last Sunday.. and to be honest i didn’t really have time to mourn over the fact that I will not be seeing my cast members anymore, for i have other projects i need to concentrate on. However though, my dahling Min Li just did up a post on the last day of the show – you can read it here – and it nearly made me choke back a tear. You know WHAT Mister CK, I don’t mind being a wuss in saying that i miss them (I know you’ll read this one day or another).

***Warning heavy picture post by the way. ***

So let me just share some of my moments of what happens on a normal day when the audience is not looking at us on stage. Bare in mind I’m inspired by Min Li’s post for this. 6pm – 6.30pm I shall be making my mad rush to get to KLPAC on time, where upon arrival I will probably be running as fast as I could. Then I’ll start screaming for Steph!!! Who is our stage manager, she made this ruling try to come 10minutes before call time which was 6.30pm sharp if not you are considered late… ouchie.. Our names on the door of dressing room 2.. We kinda had a bit too much fun and started making fun of everyone with another person ahha.

Where Min and I had prepared our costume which has blastedly fast. The first time I did it for the full dress rehearsal i got out on stage late.. oh my. Since then I got so paranoid, that I would be late and miss my scene. But after much thought, as long as i was calm, I got on all my clothes in time and with ease too. See there’s a reason why people say “Chill Chill”!! I’m going to miss the days that I borrowed Min’s black eyeshadow and eyeliner, Zizi’s rainbow colour pallate from Elianto, having Ann (our wonderwoman!) who will do my hair, while I did Min’s hair. And all the other in the dressing room chitter chatter.. before we headed out on stage. The Lin and Min duo… twins.. sistahs… whatever la..

Not forgetting of course we have to do mic check. The last day was a real run (but by right we should’ve been focusing a lot on what to do on stage..notty notty). Nabihan finally said she’ll sing her Britney Spears version on stage haha with Tony and Ronnie dancing to it. She had been bugging us with that nasal voice for a whole month. Thanks to Min first for the video I still have to render mine How we all look (the girls in the same dressing room as me anyway) just before heading out to standby mode. Then once on stage this is how it goes. I would be standing next to Tyler cause he and I will be the ones running in first. From there on it’s all adrenaline and waiting for our next cue when to go in. Lawrence: Everybody on Staaaaggeeee.. Probably one of my favourite in the entire show. The 1940s scene where we all dressed up in gowns, gloves and white tailcoats. Hehehe this was so much fun to do and it’s also probably cause it’s the lightest number in the show. oooooooooooooOOOOOOOoooooooohhhooooooo! The following picture is from the party scene at Frederick’s house. I still don’t know how to thank my ‘husband’ Lex for tying ym saree for me all the time just before going on. And thanks to Ann Wonderwoman for the pics Me and Min waiting at the side almost everyday just before going in to do Pak Utih. We’ll also be miming out what Razak, Ismail and Frederick would be saying just to entertain ourselves. Finally we are all now waiting for the finale.. Where we are at Ismail’s grave… Originally I had my hair piece on causing my head (according to Nick Dorian) to look like the alien’s head in Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull… NOT!!

This is what we all looked like right after the show ended.. can you see the red noses that will put rudolf to shame and the red teary eyes. I thin Nabs (the girl hugging Kerry Ann in the middle was still emotional there). My face was still all red just trying to keep the tears in. Dang you Zakri-Razak-Ismail why did your voice have to break on stage.. that was pretty much the trigger that turned on our tear duct faucets. And there was the last day of Ismail… We all tried to dress up a bit more for the last day and check it we got umbrellas that can be bought.. but they seem to be seeling like hot cakes. Me and Min got just about everyone to sign on our umbrellas.. and we’ll never use them haha. I miss them all sniff hugs

Opening Night

Linora Low — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 19:40:31 +0000

Tonight marked something for me in my life.

The program book and a special gift left on our dressing table It was the first time ever on stage making a professional appearance as an actor, performing to a crowd of 400+ odd people. It was the first time i sang an acted for a big production such as this. This was the first time I got to play different things all at one go. This was not the first time however i have performed for royalty before… This was forever the first time.. I struck a chord with my parents on performing. My parents had come to watch the show of course and when I walked out.. regardless of the fact that I am their daughter and they came to support me. The smiles on their faces was enough… and the one that touched me most of all… well there are a few but I would like to mention two things.. 1. My dad spoke about the part that touched him the most and was sentimental.. which meant he was concentrating. My dad has a thing for sleeping in plays and to hear him focusing on the show must have been a huge effort .. lol… 2. The reaction that stole everything… my mom and my parents friend… cried during the show!!! They cried!! I can’t believe that they cried. I’m overwhelmed to hear that..because I’m satisfied as an actor then that at least the torn message that was shown in the play was brought out and moved someone. Even more so that it is my mother who is some tough chick mind you! Love you, mom. The last thing that really made it worth all the hardwork which will go on for another 22 more days. My dad is glad I went with acting. I don’t know how true it is him saying that but it meant a lot, lot , lot to me to hear my dad say that. I still wanna cry just thinking about it actually, for they have never seen me perform.. sure this is not a thing where on stage with a solo, it’s a collaborative effort. It is the first step… and for those who are already veterans that’s great… for me it’s what will keep driving me and i’m gonna make it stay that way. Before the show started, Joe, Faridah and Mervyn said a few words of encouragement. Along with a special message from U-En, our writer who is away in Jakarta and even with just words… he still knows how to dramatise his message The words were enough to move us all, to really want to give a dayumn good show and moved us enough to want to make me scold them… cause a few of us teared. It was so sweet, and the rush of everything… the thoughts of our rehearsal days, the journey of getting to this very point of opening night. The hard work and scolding we got from time to time. The harsh realities of some of us who work during the day just to run to Ismail to do another job…. it all just came in one blow and Joe said this

“Tonight the stage is yours. Own it!”

And it was with all the fumbles and great moments, we took it all

I think this deserves a mention too.. Mervyn Peters our music conductor along with his wife Yutsam.. they are such darlings. Mervyn had given each and everyone of us flowers. As we had gone into our dressing rooms, we were so extremely delighted to see a rose placed on our dressing table. It’s so terribly sweet! Then after that his wife, bought the entire cast chocolate cake!!! We were allowed for that time to eat chocolate!!! oooohh yummmmmm.

That’s for just the opening night.. the bits that mattered the most. As for pictures.. hehe hang on more will be coming.

Ismail Rehearsals Are Always A Ball

Linora Low — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 19:42:31 +0000

I really wish that I could do this everyday, where there are either rehearsals or just shows or auditions i could go to. It’s terribly fun but if only it will bring in the bread and butter here…sigh. Warning this post is going to be pic heavy and it will show a shorter version of the Ismail journey.. Anyway I want to say I’ve been really enjoying the Ismail rehearsals that have been going on. The musical is set to open NEXT THURSDAY people on the 7th of August at 8.30pm. This will run for a whole month everyday except for Monday.. phew tiring as it maybe but I’m really looking forward to it. We are now at the touch up sessions of Ismail. We’ve already seen the set, sang with the orchestra and been mic-up to test our levels individually. Yeah yeah I know I sound so jakun.. but this is my first time being in a musical… even if I am just an ensemble.. I’m relishing every bit of it. Here are some the pictures to entertain you guys. http://picasaweb.google.com/Aronil/IsmailJourney Thats it for now guys.

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Linora Low — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 20:51:52 +0000

I have a story to tell… At Ismail rehearsals, we will sometimes begin our session with some breathing exercises. Now the thing with our breathing exercises is that it follows some ‘yoga’ techniques which requires us to get on our knees. Hence it can be a bit painful on the knees and ankles. This becomes rather uncomfortable and obviously the best way to keep them from hurting is to either use a pillow or a blanket, to give some cushioning to the floor. In KLPAC there are three big pillows and since there are only three we have to really rush to be the first to reach any one of these pillows. There are a certain THREE PEOPLE i fight with for this pillow – whom i shall identify later. I have come to accept that sometimes I can’t get the pillow, but this time I saw one of the big pillows left unguarded, next to the bags.

Here I am… I found the pillow and the most obvious thing to do is to grab it quickly before the person who left it alone sees. With eyes deadlock on my target, I grab it with all my might and sink my finger nails into the soft cushiony thingie called…. cushion….i can’t think of a word, k? But it’s the BIG PILLOW!!!

See my happy face! I was so happy that it was left unguarded i didn’t realised a small tiny problem. As i get ready to run off with my prize possession… something held me back. Click on it to view a bigger picture and see if you can spot my problem…

As i pulled it towards me, by giving it a good yankidy yank. This is what happened.

I got stuck..

Why?

The fella actually PINNED the big pillow to his bag!!!!! Talk about wanting to make sure no one steals your stuff while you are away. Sniff sniff, as I pulled the pillow, i felt it weighed down. When i turned to look, i saw a humongous pin attached to the pillow and the bag….

What i can’t have the pillow???

Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

Wait… breathe…

nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

I cry okay!

I shall now reveal who are the people i fight with for the BIG PILLOW!

**hongky accent** The peeepel hor I fight fight with for the beeg Pillow hor… is that short haired person at the back who looks like got no lip (fang: don’t hate me ^_P ), Minli – my blogging event buddy and finally that dark thing there that you cannot see except for his teeth (don’t hate me even more for that ^_P ) LAX!!!! **end of hongky accent**

That fellow hor (oh wait still got sumore) he is one funny funny funny dude and he makes rehearsals a lot more alive. Hahahhaha while I don’t forgive him for taking the pillow and kacauing us a lot.. I still think he’s cool. Hah!! See!! I’m still such a nice person! ^_P

Lesson here.. come earlier… earlier.. like super super early and save the pillow and when you are done… hide it!