Too Short Too Sweet
Dramafest 2009 - Twisted Fairy Tales
that's dramafest.
always TONS of fun but always too short...its amazing how a group of practical strangers can have so much fun in just over ten sessions of rehearsals..for the cameos..just 1 and 1/2 days in the dressing rooms. i guess its group solidarity and vision of a common goal - to have fun and to put up a great show.. doesnt hurt if we're a buncha good looking kids too :)

Dramafest this year? more about the fun and getting to dress up that made it so wonderful really...theatre wise. not so satisfied.. but even that was an aftermath reaction :) On stage at that time really, was really just elating to hear and see the audience enjoy themselves so much and see my actors act so well..even the young ones! glad my bossy pushing for better acting worked to a certain extent :))
i had so much fun i dun ever feel like leaving the stage or dramafest for that matter...if only we coulda hide in that little bubble of paradise for just a little while longer before we all went our separate ways because let's face it. the fun we had is never gonna happen again as it did during dramafest itself coz...well.. for one, not everybody's free to meet up and 2) there will always be some kinda unbalanced grp dynamics and well.. things just cant be as they were at dramafest.
i think last year's group attested to that..if only we woulda kept it that way JUST for a little while longer.. but well.. perhaps this impermanence and temporariness of dramafest fun and frens is wad makes it so great.
guess i'd just have to accept that.
but it wouldnt hurt to want to relive it right? :)
in all honesty, (okay this is a little embarrassing), when we were backstage, just 20mins away from showtime and Neeti told us it was almost full house and that only 40 tickets were left uncollected, tears sprung to my eyes unexpectedly...but of coz i quickly held it back before my cast could tease me endlessly about it (i hope no one but dee reads this haha) but well.. seeing how from a pathetic LT13 to last year's relatively emptier theatre to this year's almost full house, Dramafest has indeed come a longgg way. and being a Dramafest veteran, its is def much cause for joy.
hopefully my dramafest alumni item dreams will come true and we'd at least be able to relive all that fun from time to time..but otherwise.. its really 最後のさようならto dramafest, to hall and to mindless fun staying up late at night...long chats and wad not.. of coz there were tough times but cliched as it may sound (and i think its a popular hall alumni thing to say) if given another chance, i'd gladly do it all over again...
kinda jealous of the freshies and yr2s who still have such a long way to go...have loadsa fun and make every second in hall count. do all that you've always wanted to do its your only chance now..
sigh. emo-ing before several deadlines is definitely no economical on my time but i guess it helps to get it out of the system :)
on a final note, here's wad i posted on facebook about what i regretted most about my play in dramafest.. and btw, those who watched the show, i'd reallly reallly love to hear ur feedback.. good or bad bring it on :)
"Hey guys!
i noe im adding to the spam that's post-dramafest high but well, we gots to revel in the high! (coz life is short n full of assignments)
alright since thanks and all have alr been given, it shall remain short and sweet
anyways first up, HUGE thanks to my cast and co-director! don't think can thank you guys enough :) thanks for the time and effort you guys put in under my command. rellly appreciate it!
to joycie: thanks for everything (esp my SLIGHT diva-ness during the prep period hehe) and always taking care of our welfare with notes, chocs and snacks :)
to bry+suff: great work guys its been tough shit but we pulled thru and did well :) thanks for the advise and feeback you guys gave man.. without you suff, the sexy men wouldn't have been borne. haha
speaking of whom, i think i have a love-hate relationship with. i mean not with the guys per say but with the idea of having had them on stage.
(alright, henceforth this note is gonna be rather honest and may require some thought and intellectual provocation so if you cant bear it. u can stop reading anytime. BUT its fodder for thought and will be good for the many budding thespians like most of my cast and andre)
anyways ive decided to say it now rather then later since dramafest is still rather fresh on our mind.
thing is, i am, in all honesty, at odds with our end product (with Happily Ever After) that is. I mean we got HUGE response from the audience and stuff and alllll my neighbours loved it but they all seemed to love it only for the naked men!!!! (no offense)
not that im jealous of your fame or attention (coz well, attention to you=attention to Happily Ever After wad), in fact, im glad for the humongous reaction you guys garnered from the mass audience BUT....im afraid that would have cheapened our play to a mere chick flick! While Happily Ever After excelled at appealing to the mass market, the theatre snob in me is disappointed with myself.
I mean, before I got you guys I was already struggling with the issue but eager to go out with an OMPH (and justifying to myself that it was a feminist play where men is commodified), I went ahead. pity i only managed to see the whole piece with all the cast 3 days before dramafest, since it was SO HARD to find people as great and spontaneous as Bengtatt, Andrew and Allan. By then, the focus during rehearsals had shifted from the coherence of the play to the deliverance.
Dont get me wrong, my professional frustration is not only directed at our lovely sexy men; it's with the overall concept of the play. I mean, after our abysmal first try at the 1st combined rehearsals, i was at a loss as how to make the play better and kept thinking it was a restriction of the script that didnt allow me to get too stylised or symbollic.
but after an intense post-mortem talk with danielle just now, I finally came to a conclusion. I am not satisfied with our play because it was too commonplace. Maybe its a bit egoistic or wad for me to think that way but well, theatre snobbiness is a natural, hazardous by-product of 2 years (albeit 2 years longgg time ago) of Theatre Studies & Drama.
In any case it has nothing to do with the script (yes joyce, NOTHING!) but to do with my own inflexibility. Whatever you guys did/saw on stage is pretty much what ive already conceptualised at the 1st reading of the script (exp w.r.t to set and lighting) so when rehearsals started i just went with the flow.
Unforch, it only took after the show that i saw/felt the flow was too....simple and amateurish. At least to the (theatrically) educated audience. Then, danielle and I pushed each other to think of ways we could have made the play better, and the ideas just started flowing. Just thought to share with you guys some of our post-dramafest strokes of brilliances. And also, admittedly, to appease my own theatre ego to show you guys that I AM capable of better theatre (i hope) beyond what was on stage.
From danielle,
she would have done it puppet/doll style. i.e. having all actors act in stylised manner and jerky actions akin to a puppet show, like with the first scene, having sleeping beauty, fgm and cinderella all start the show lying on the floor before being jerked up ala puppets. but of coz this would have required intensive rehearsals and perhaps a change in the script to accommodate the role of a puppeteer or at least something to justify that kinda symbollicism n stylisation.
From me,
If i was to do it any different, first and foremost, I would have justified the 3 sexy men's presence coz while i always like to ask the question "what's the significance of ...", this time round, i forgot to question myself properly. so if i was just to change certain stuff and retain most of the play in its entirety, I would just make the 3 sexy men = the 3 blind mice. which would tie into the actual Cinderella story with the animals and carriage. Then, in the last scene, I'd have the 3 blind mice(present sexy men) stripped of all their sex and glam and turned into servants of sleeping beauty's, all positioned around her house cleaning and dressed in rags, looking pathetic in harsh general lighting symbolic of the revelation of truth and irony of the previously glamourous scenes with fancy lights in allusion to the theme of twisted fairy tales and unfulfilled Happily Ever After-s.
well, or something along those lines. In any case, the point being, such a simple change would have added so much more depth to our play yet, i overlooked it and concentrated too much on the aesthetics and stage effect. its like, im surface directing!Concentrating on fanciful blocking, multiple entrances and the symmetries and balance of stage.
oh well, that being said, its just a post-mortem and while i regret that i could have done better, I wouldn't have changed my cast in any way. You guys realllllly worked hard and acted well. my neighbours did make mention of how brilliant you guys were too so.. THANKS AGAIN! this was just a rant of my artistic frustration. its like i constipated on the play for so long now then i got release so must share. HAHAHA
but anyway for our budding thespians, please always be aware of such (and various other) issues and dun be like me!always ask for harsh reviews and be self-reflexive!!
thanks guys for being patient with my lor soh note :) and feel free to comment (even scold if you think im wasting your time making u read this)
LOVELOVELOVE,
yunwen "