Oh You Didn't Know?

If you haven't heard, let me officially announced that I have tendered my resignation as Group Exercise Manager from Fitness First. My last day of work is end of Dec 2011. 

Why?

In short, FF & I can no longer fulfill each other's needs and expectations....  kinda like what happens when a couple decide to break up, isn't it?

So what do I want?

If you have been following my blog, it is quite obvious that I'm very much into doing stage performances nowadays and I have been rather unhappy over the last one year. So, it is the best decision for both myself and the GX team.

What's next?

Well, there's a bit of uncertainty at the moment about what I will be doing but suffice to say I will be leaving Fitness First at the end of the year. My current project "Malaysian Girls" will start its run from 10 - 30 Dec 2011 in klpace before heading to Penang for 6 shows from 10 - 15 Jan 2012. However, I am doubling as assistant stage manager for the production, I will be heading back to my hometown 1 week earlier for bump-in.

With that, I leave you with another video clip of our media preview. For information on our shows, please click here:)

Malaysian Girls the Musical Preview

What do you know, we are just 2 weeks away from the premiere of Malaysian Girls!

Last Tuesday we had a media preview at klpac and did a 20 minute performance for our sponsors & media friends. Below is the video edited by StageKL.

We'll be performing from 10th Dec right till 30th Dec at klpac before heading up north to penangpac for 6 shows from 10th - 15th Jan 2012.

For details on our KL shows, please click here.

For details on our Penang shows, please click here.

video: TWEET ABOUT IT

This is the musical I did in September 2011 for Short + Sweet Malaysia Musical

How ugly can it get?

We are approximately 1 month away from the year's most glamourous musical. Not only this musical will be performed at klpac, we are going to penangpac in January 2012:)

Presented by The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre & Celcom
Original concept and directed by Joe Hasham OAM
Written by Mark Beau De Silva with added material by Cast & Creative Team.
Original songs & music by Ariff Akhir, Ian Chow, Min’z, Khairil M Bahar, Wani Ardy
Executive Producer Dato’ Faridah Merican
Co-Directed by Kimmy Kiew
Musical Director Mervyn Peters
Music Arrangers Ariff Akhir, Loh Ui Li
Choreographer Lex Lakshman Balakrishnan
Set Designer Melissa Teoh
Costume Designer Dominique Devorsine
Lighting Designer Tan Eng Heng
Sound Engineer John Siew
Stage Craft Christopher Ling
Improvisation Facilitator Kelvin Wong

Featuring: Tabitha Kong, Siti Farrah Abdullah, Aanantha, Zoe Taylor, Anrie Too, Amanda Ang, Sandee Chew, BB Ostella Adam, Alexis Wong, Amelia Chen, Karynn Tan, Shiva Shobitha , Pooja Jugal Kishor, Aliaa Sharif, Aminda Faradilla, with Freddy Tan and Alvin Looi.


KL Premiere
Date & Time:
Opening Night: Saturday, 10 December, 2011 @ 8:30pm
Night performances: 11 – 30 Dec @ 8.30
Evening Performances: 25 & 26 Dec @ 5pm
Matinees Performances: 11 & 18 Dec @ 3pm
No shows on the 12th, 19th & 24th Dec
Venue: Pentas 1, The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre

For Tickets:
Weekend prices (Friday – Sunday)
Adult: RM110/90/70/50
Concession (*): RM88/72/56/40

Weekday prices (Tuesday – Thursday)
Adult: RM100/80/60/40
Concession (*): RM80/64/48/32
* Eligible for students, disabled, senior citizens, TAS card holders & UNHCR card holders


Penang Tour
Date & Time:
11 – 14 January 2012 @ 8.30pm, 15 January 2012 @ 3pm
Venue  stage 1, penangpac
3H-3A-1, Straits Quay, Jalan Seri Tanjung Pinang
Tanjung Tokong, 10470 Pulau Pinang.


Ticket Price
RM60 / RM40 / RM30*
* Eligible for students, disabled, senior citizens, TAS car holders & UNHCR cardholders

(Launch date for ticket sales: 1 December 2011)

Video: LIFE DECISIONS

Here is the play we did at S+S Theatre 2011. It was recorded on the 3rd nighte, which, IMHO, was our best performance during week 1:)

S + S Theatre: LIfe Decisions

My involvement in late October's S+S Theatre can only be described as "full of drama"- I got in, I pulled out, and I got in again. Hmm... This could be a long story:)

OK, let's start from S+S Musical. The moment that I saw that my part in "Tweet About It" was a small one, I had hoped for something meaty in S+S Theatre. I could then have a bit of fun in the musical week and do more serious work in theatre. After all, I wanted to do something that is totally not me, so that I could learn and be a better actor.

I was very pleased to find out that I had 2 offers after the July audition and one of them was BB's "Life Decisions". The script was read in June's Baca rehearsed reading at The Actors Studio and I had a good idea what the story was about and what inspired her to write the grim tale. After reading the 2nd script, I picked "Life Decisions" which required me to play an senior business man who staged his own suicide to frame his enemies. Because I was busy stage managing Cartoon and also "Tweet About It", I was very diligent with "Life Decisions" - I started memorizing the lines from day 1 I confirmed my participation and within 2 weeks, I had memorized all my lines.

would you kill yourself to get back on your enemies?

Complications with the play started when I discovered that the director is based in Penang and would only be coming in early October to rehearse the play. To make things even more challenging, up till late Aug we still had not found a female actor to play the assassin. The director also had his own unique concept on how he wanted the play to be. I felt that I really needed him to be here in KL to guide me.

After he found the actor for the assassin, the director basically asked us to meet on our own to rehearse and he would come later to clean up the play. After meeting with my partner, I discovered that she was going away for 3 weeks in September! How are we going to rehearse then? I was beginning to doubt if this play was going to work.

All bruised

Then things sort of got to a point where I did not want to do the play anymore when the female actor pulled out from the play. I decided to pull out too and suggested to the director to assemble his own team in Penang instead.

And so I put my time and effort into "Tweet About It" and I had fun with the team. However, I was still not happy that I did not get to do something dramatic. Towards the end musical week on Saturday afternoon, I found out from BB that the Penang director had pulled out too and she was getting Nicole Ann Thomas to direct the play. They were also looking for a new cast. Inside, I was thinking perhaps I should "apply" to rejoin the production but I was already busy with the Malaysian Girls rehearsals too. I tried not to think too much about it then.

Conversation between Lee and Tevy

The event that helped me make my decision to rejoin "Life Decisions" was the S+S Musical competition results - wifey won the award for best female lead for her role in "Oriental Takeout". Like I said earlier, as a husband I was very proud of her achievement but as a fellow actor I was envious of it. It was not like I wanted to win the best male lead award as well but I was lamenting what I could have done with "Life Decisions". So within 24 hours I texted BB and asked if they had found anyone to act and offered myself. BB informed me that she would let Nicole know and it would be the director's decision to take me or not.

Fortunately for me, by the next day BB informed me that I was back in "Life Decisions" and we had less than 14 days to put up the play! Nicole managed to get one of her friends Hazlin to play Tevy. Hazlin is a very experience actress who sort of retired 3 years ago after getting married- I would later find out that I watched her performance in "The Odd Couple" back in 2005.. Another one of those "I-can't-believe-I-am-rubbing-shoulders-with-performers-I-used-to-watch" moments!

Regret? Fear?

Under normal circumstances, it would be alright to prepare for this play but with less than 14 days before tech run, it appeared to be one heck of a challenge for everyone! I am usually nervous when doing saomething new but I was really SUPER nervous with this one. I must thank Nicole and Hazlin for their guidance and help in this one. This is the first time I am playing someone older than my actual age. I already don't behave old for my age, what more now playing an Ah Pek?

Slowly, with Nicole, I managed to discover who Lee was for myself and began to become older. I still feel that I have not "aged" to the level I needed to be to play Lee effectively for the performances, but I was moving in the right direction - at least I don't sound like a youngster:)

"Is it selfish to want to die?"

To cut the story short, we managed to stage "Life Decisions" with less than 10 rehearsals and I must say it was tough and yet rewarding to see how far we've come. Our opening night performance was shaky at best, but the subsequent shows we got better. In fact, I believe our 3rd show was our best effort yet - I could sense the uneasiness among the audience watching the drama unfold.

Now that we are into theatre week 2, we will have to wait till this Saturday night to find out if "Life Decisions" will be picked for Sunday's Gala Night performace. If we make it, we'll definitely give our best effort to make this a play to remember. Unlike most S+S entries, it is not a comedy and it requires a lot of work to make the play believable. I do hope that we had managed to do enough to be selected:)

Update: We got in!!! We're performing tomorrow at Gala Night! :))))

"Tevy, what does your name mean?"

S+S Musical: Tweet About It

Last few weeks have rather interesting. Besides attending the Malaysian Girls rehearsals as the assistant stage manager, I am also involved in the annual Short + Sweet Festival Malaysia as a performer in the musical & theatre categories. So let's start with the musical then:)

Attending auditions is one thing,.. to be offered anything sort of depends on your luck I guess. I am fortunately offered a part in a simple straight forward musical called "Tweet About It". Actually wifey was offered the lead in the same musical, but I encouraged her to accept the other offer which was more challenging as a performer. You can read about her experience here.

My role in this is a small one, so it's kinda stress free compared to other productions I've participated in.  It's also a great to make new friends too. Check out our pictures, courtesy of DustyHawk.

Apart from the opening night, we performed to a packed house for the other 3 nights. It was a fun experience to do this. While most of the plays were either okay or very good, there were a couple that I didn't like(I watched the video taping). Well, I now know who to avoid in next year's musical:-)

Overall "Tweet About It" did okay- our supporting actress Sachie won the Festival Director's award for her performance and so we didn't go home empty handed. Big winers were "A Taste Of Love", "My Prince Will Come" and wifey's "Oriental Takeout". Wifey also took home Best Actress Award for her role as the prostitute. Was I happy? Well, to be honest, the husband part was very proud of wifey's performance but the actor part was envious that I didn't get something more I can work with.Eventually this led me to my re-involvement in S+S Theatre which I had pulled out from earlier... but that's another blog entry:-)