Theatre, Musical & Ministry

Last Monday I just attended a meeting where the long term plan of the church's performing arts ministry was shared. Looks like one exciting year ahead!

If everything works out as planned, right after my performance in A Little Conviction, I will be jumping into it in January 2014, right before I start the rehearsals for klpac's Sinbad.

Looking back, everything sort of makes sense. If this was to happen 10 months ago, I think I won't have much confidence in contributing to this. So now, I eagerly wait for it to happen.

I remember in 2010, I had the idea of taking what I learned in performing arts and put it into church ministry. Somehow I didn't have the opportunity to do it then.  But now I believe my "kairos" moment has come.

Mid year crisis? Not really..

In 7 days, I will be half way done with 2012. So far 2012 has been quite calm and smooth sailing for me. Last year was basically busy with production from March until Dec. So this period was a welcoming one.

With only Dead Man Cell Phone & Malaysian Girls(penangpac run), I basically spent most of my time in klpac & The Actors Studio watching my friends perform. The last 2 shows I watched were both in TAS- indicinelive! & Songs for a New World. Both were very well executed and it kinda make me envious of them.

Actually I auditioned for indicinelive! back in March but could not make it to the callback due to my commitment to DMCP. Bad timing, but hopefully I can get to do this next time.

Anyhow, I will be busy with the following starting July:

1. Dama Orchestra's Empress Wu The Musical- the show will be staged from 27 Sept till mid Oct at pentas 1, klpac.

2. SIBKL's Christmas musical Everworld- Sunday rehearsal started in June til Aug, In Sept there will 1 additional weekly rehearsal but I will probably be missing most of the rehearsals till I finish Empress Wu.

3. klpac's  Short+Sweet Festival- wifey & I are submitting our very first short musical. I won't be directly involved in the project but will probably try to find the time observe the rehearsal & give my inputs to the director.

Busy, busy, busy!!!!

Fri night thoughts: Death of a BODYCOMBAT DVD presenter & Amazing Grace heard on American Idol

Tonight I went to see a comedy court production at PJLA by Allan & Indi. While waiting for the show to start, I check my FB and was surprised to discover that a fantastic BODYCOMBAT presenter Hernan Lopez just passed away.

Another harsh reminder to all that our days are numbered. So don't waste your time & energy on things that you don't have the passion for. Cherish what you have and learn to live life to the fullest. Nothing official has been mentioned about what happened, though someone said something about a fatal car accident. Regardless, I will remember him for his signature "Colgate" smile and his deliberate OTT presentation of BC40 Track 2 "I Know Kung Fu". Thanks Hernan for the memories & RIP. You will be missed.

Anyhow, coming back from the show(which I think it's a good way to relax be entertained), I almost wanted to skip tonight's American Idol repeat because it was showing at 11.45pm. Anyhow, I am so glad I didn't miss it. The highlight of tonight's show was definitely Ramiro Garcia, worship leader of Lakewood Church.

Ramiro was born missing one ear and the other one was only partially formed with just and ear lobe. His parents were told that he would grow up deaf and mute. Yet after going through numerous surgeries, Ramiro managed to woo the judges with his rendition of  "Amazing Grace(My Chains Are Gone)". What a talent! He was born to sing & lead worship in spite of his "handicap".

It makes me think about church ministries. I firmly believe that if God calls you to do something, He will surely equip you with the tools to do the job. For example, if He calls you to be an usher, you will generally be patient and very warm. Same thing for worship ministry, where we are to "Sing a new song of praise to him; play skillfully on the harp, and sing with joy"(Psalms 33.3). Imagine a drummer who keeps playing out of time or a guitarist who can't strum the chords properly. While spirituality is an area we need to look at, there has to be a certain level of competency when in comes to the technical aspect. 

I like what my pastor in Penang Christian Centre say: We give God our best, and that means serving with EXCELLENCE. Why must church music be second-rated compared to secular music, right?

Christmas Presentation 2009

And so I celebrated Christmas 2009 in KL, my very first Christmas away from Penang. Even when I was away studying in Australia, I've always managed to be in Penang for Christmas. But this year was a bit different.

Also diferrent was this year marked my first time back onto stage play after a long hiatus.

Initially I was supposed to be in this 3-parter on 6, 13 & 20 Dec, but because of the Les Mills Quarterly Workshop with Dan & Rachel Cohen, I was only in for 13 & 20 Dec. The role I played? My favourite... muahahahaha!

Below are some of the pictures taken on 20 Dec, the finale:)

the final rehearsal in the morning


Make up for the devils

Believe it or not, this guy is actually quite good looking in person

Putting on the red face....

Wifey helped to make me look bad

Almost done...

It is finished!

A lovely hubby/wifey moment

mucking around

The cast

I reckon this can be a good ad for some jeans company

Gabe showing off his wings

The temptation recap

The Father

The angelic hosts

The Son

Overall, it sure brought back sweet memories of my previous involvement in Penang Christian Centre. I'm looking forward to a new challenge next year.

Next year, I hope that we would be able to put up a full-length drama that will run for a few days. In fact, I'm currently working on something to be submitted to the church leadership. God willing, it will be a good one:)

Merry Christmas to all and Happy New Year!!!!

As Christmas approaches....

Here's a contemporary approach to a Christmas hymn.

Shades in concert!

Details next week!

I can sing

OK, something I should've blogged long time ago but kept forgetting. Since gf just blogged it, I might as well just tumpang the blog.



Did some recording for a church member back in Nov 2006 and the album is out already. Don't believe me? Read this.

Christmas Presentation

I've been actively involved in Easter/Church anniversary/Christmas presentations since the age of 15, most of which, were either in acting or dancing. So standing in front of hundreds of people is never a problem for me and perhaps it has helped me in my progress from a front row diva in the studio to an instructor.

Anyhow, as I grew older, my involvement sort of become different as well. Those days I spent most of my time in the fore front performing, but over the last 3 years, I've been involved in the planning of the presentations as well. 2003 marked the first I was asked to be the co-writer & director of a play for Easter. After much preparation, the Easter show was cancelled because the birds around Malaysia contacted flu. At the end, it gave us more time to fine tune the drama and when we presented for our church anniversay in July, it was even better.

Last year 2006 again I was given the opportunity to work behind the scene for the play "The Door" while Benji was in charge of the song presentation. Since we're only doing the thing in our church premise, it was nothing as big as what I used to do in Penang. Still, the challenge was to find the people to be in the drama, I have only been in the church for 2 years and I don't really know a lot of people. Thanks to Iggy & Benji, I managed to get a handful of people to do the simple 10 min mime.

Gf also had a part in the presentation and sang a song. So here are some pictures from the presentation:


The party boys

The wallop

The damsel
Our very own Lilian Too
The meditation
The director& producer

My angel of music

Thanks to all who have helped in the play: Iggy, Benji, Stephanie, Bernard, Oliver, John Rueben, Daniel, Julius, Fergasan, Sunny, Ashleigh, Yoon Foen, Jocelyn- you guys are fantastic!

On the first day of Raya, my true love gave to me...

Last week being Hari Raya, I was invited by Hazrin to his open house. So I went with gf lah...


Rendang, ketupat & lemang


with the host Hazrin

Hazrin is quite a friendly person. I only got to know him early this year at our BODYATTACK® tuition. For 2 quarterly BODYATTACK® tuition we had lunch together at Summit so you can understand during the last tuition I sort of missed him - He's moved to Penang.

After makan, gf & I went to Cineleisure to watch "The Prestige". Excellent movie that managed to capture our attention, despite the lack of action which I'm used to. Every scene somehow will keep you hooked on, eager to find out what was going on.

Speaking of being hooked on, we window-shopped The Curve after the movie and decided to eat dinner. We walked around before finally made up our mind to try this restaurant on the first floor abover TGIF called "HOOKED".

Nice ambiance and not too crowded either.

With a name like that, you don't need to be a rocket scientist to tell that its a seafood restaurant. We both ordered F&C and I added a mushroom soup to my order.



Cream of Mushroom


Fish & Chips

Good food and friendly staff makes it a place worth going... oh, they also have set meals with free refils.


Maybe gf should sign this picture and let themput in the restaurant as an endorsement?

So day 1 was quite full with activities. The second day of Raya turns out to be a bit long and boring because we were basically stuck in Desa Sri Hartamas from morning to evening, doing album recording.

YUP, MUSICAL ALBUM RECORDING.... go to gf's blog for the story.