Feb 10, 11:50am -

quoting bryna, yesterday night was the grand opening night of KR Production 06/07, and tonight will be the grand closing night. nearly half a year's worth of hard work (From the exco, and 2 and a half months from me and the stage crew) will come to an end tonight. it's a mixed sort of feeling that everyone experiences when something they've committed themselves to for so long finally comes to an end, that i am experiencing now. there've been many times when i've always wanted to stop halfway. especially because i wasn't going to continue staying in hall from next sem onwards. it didn't make sense for me to continue working so hard when i could be having more time to myself even for recreation. but i kept telling myself, this was something i had committed. a long time ago i made a promise to myself to keep all my promises and not let go of commitments easily. so i didn't want to let go of this so easily too. furthermore it has always been my dream to be working backstage of a production, and this one week i've spent in UCC has confirmed that my decision was right; i've not regretted joining stage crew.

really, there've been very bad times. initially right from the very first day, only 5 girls and 2 guys turned up, along with 2 set engineers, to create a 2-storey set with 4 rooms. it was an ambitious dream. literally, at that time. kim was demanding right from the start, and there was already a lack of manpower before we could do anything. on the first week, i remember, the materials were not there yet, because the designers could not produce a confirmed design. and so, the girls got to try out welding, mild steel cutting, and other 'male-designated' jobs before we actually started on making the set. we used a LOT of angle-iron; to make parts of the set. all that was on the first week. nearing the end of the 2nd week, the materials came. (so in actuality we lost 2 weeks!) then things started progressing, but at a very slow rate. many people stopped coming. only the 2 guys (weliam from my block and bing han from li chin's block, friendly guy whose help got me a C+ instead of a D in programming) were constant. kim kept throwing tempers, and tools along with them. okay li chin u might beg to differ, but i know i was pretty constant. i went everyday except the 2 days i had swollen eyes, the one day i had fever, and on all weekends. (haha okay all weekends i didn't go. hey, then, i could only see xin han once a week and i needed to visit my family too okay...) so.. yup, just wanted to do justice to myself. painting period was the week before school started, the new year's day week. rmb me complaining about how bad that week was? yeah... i was turning out looking like SHIT (my msn nick) everyday... brown paint sucks, and the washing of brushes suck even more (gotta soak them in turpentine like.. forever. i've got tons of turpentine in my body already. think if i get a fever i'll burst into flames, haha.)

there were many times when chin gi wrote 'chin gi rox' into the paintwork, and we would be laughing at her. we had many lame jokes, like how julian's hair got 'dissolved' by turpentine, about how we had so much paint on our bodies we'd need to get a tin of turpentine each to bathe with, and how if someone smoked next to you we'd go up in flames, about how etc etc etc....

Feb 11 4:55am -

grand closing night for KR Production 06/07 is over. following up from this (last) morning's entry, we toiled till the 3rd week of school when the set was finally ready enough for minor touch-ups to be done at ucc when it was to be bunked in. for the next 2 weeks or so, we had rehearsals every week on tues to thurs nights, and on sunday nights. moving stuff in, etc etc. it was then that i first saw our musical and it's originality and fell in love with it. after that, was bunk in period. this year, we bunked in at least one day earlier. our set was bigger, and much more stable, which meant - more work. on the first night, monday night 5 feb (yup this past monday) we started bunking in at 11pm and ended at 4.30am on tues morning, with me, chin gi and julian sleeping over at ucc to take care of the set. i still remember the shiok and high feeling i had (and have always experienced) when i was sitting in the lorry with the set I had helped to make. i think over the course of this time, me julian and chin gi have gotten quite close. not excluding shi min, sue, en ling, and even the new neighbour li chin doesn't like, charmaine. ahhaa.. after all. the main people who came down during december were me chin gi sue en ling and shi min.

on tues morning 6th feb i was woken up by eunice (esther's twin) around 8.30, just in time for me to go for my 9am lesson. i was SO sleepy. 9am programming tutorial, i slept almost 30 min of the single hour tutorial. next up was soci lect which was pretty interesting, and jap tutorial which i could not afford to sleep (think the teacher will kill me) so i managed to survive. last was math lect... needless to say, i slept all the way. should've gone straight to ucc and ponned it.. at least i wouldn't have slept then.

tues' night debrief was the harshest. most of us got scolded for not going into ucc early. they wanted us to be there since 2pm. i went after my math lect at 4pm. basically we're expected to pon all classes with no attendance taken. it was only after that debrief that i took things a lot more seriously.

wed i ponned the entire day, and went to ucc to work on the set. thurs i went for jap tutorial (which i absolutely cannot pon, think the teacher will chase me to the ends of the earth and ask "doshite chu-to-riaru ni ikanakattan desu ka?") and soci tutorial (both i was trying my very best not to sleep) and ponned the rest, fri i went for 3 tutorials in the morning and ponned the rest. by then the set was already done, so i didn't have to do much except paint miscellaneous stuff and decorate the rooms. (i'll put up the pictures once they're uploaded. u guys will go "WOW! the set is so beautiful!" hahaha...)

fri 9 feb was the first opening night. all the details are very fresh in my mind. i remember lying on one of the clubbing scene cushion chairs and looking up, wondering at the amazing fact that one of the dreams i've always had in this lifetime has been accomplished. you know how when u'r young u always make big dreams, which usually don't end up being fulfilled cos u tend to lose hope when you grow up? i've been wanting to work on the set of a production backstage ever since young, and now i had finally fulfilled my dream. it's like.. you're at the end there, at the end of you're dream, but when you finally walk down the path amidst temptations to give up, you succumbing to none of them, and overcoming most obstacles, coming out a bit hurt, a bit scratched, but happy to have reached the end, only to find that it's not the end, but the door to another world that is already slightly ajar....

i was looking up, and observing the technicalities of the ceiling, all the soundproof mechanisms installed there, the large commodity of lights (i initially wanted to apply as lights designer but i had no experience so i didn't), the various rows of standing lights almost 4m tall on stage right, our stage props and hand props put (not so neatly) in the area, andrea as ASM wearing her headset looking very stern, big boy zee sitting at the desk controlling the mikes, the stage crew hanging about doing weird things (samuel playing the guitar and some girls singing around him, hahahaha..) julie (julian) and chin gi having a potentially uh-herm conversation nearby, bing han playing with light sticks, weliam watching, sue staring into space, farah complaining about the dark... hahhahaa... things are so nice. i've always wanted to be backstage! really! and i was there! i was there! i was there! i was behind the curtains! the audience were waiting in front! (that was the 5 minutes before showtime. meantime in the background KRockers were playing, and Joel and Shili's voices were ABSOLUTELY wonderful, i totally LOVE their voices... they rock!)

there were many times during the course of production that i got irritated with bryna and seb and some of the stage crew girls who seemed to fussy to dirty themselves. but generally, all of them have been great. even the girls who seem so fussy with make-up and demeanor (like charmaine, jane, pei rong, sometimes en ling) but in the end, despite complaints, they still got down into the dirt and grit and did everything. it's not like they ponned... they came everyday! (during bunk in period) and helped without saying much, other than confirmation details. so really, everyone's great, everyone's nice, i love everyone.

tonight was the last night. the last night we could view the performance live (albeit from the side from the curtains from back stage) the last night we'd sit in the dressing room making lame jokes and laughing (got one time i fell asleep in a cupboard and no one knew where i was, heng i brought my phone in and julian called me; another time today kim and bing han were playing around with samuel with made-up photos of him being bullied by his block comm in order to get block fund, ahahaha..), the last night we'd see OUR BABY! OUR BAAABBYY!! OUR 2MONTH OLD BABY!!! our dear dear set! every single piece of it represented a portion of our hard work. EVERY SINGLE BIT. during intermission i was staring at the set. i was trying to burn it's look and feel and every single detail about it into my mind. i nearly teared; thank goodness it was in the dark. i was sitting behind the curtains, listening to joel and shili's voices, listening to the chatter of the audience, and reliving every bit of stage crew memory in my mind. i know julian weliam chin gi and bing han love this set a lot too(most of the time it's us there). and everyone is very proud of my set. i was really touched when bryna expressed on the behalf of the cast and everyone else how proud they were of our set. i was so proud when i recognized appreciation from the audience.

throughout the play, i continued this act of imprinting the scenes into my memory. it would be the last time i could see alex and latifah up there singing the sweet duet during the love scene. it was the last time me and charmaine would rush out to set our half of the clubbing scene. the last time i'd help the four guys to open wide the curtain for them to carry out our 'lift'. the last time i'd see all the props in the room. the last time i'd see the cast and ensemble moving live in front of me. the last time i'd see the rooms all upright and beautiful..

2 and a half months of hard work, 2 hours per day of fame. 1 and a half months to build, half an hour to dismantle.

that's our set.

during curtain call, i was very very happy. i was very high! hahhaa.. i really love stage crew a lot. maybe or maybe or maybe more than my block. i sure don't know. and this experience has definitely changed my thinking about staying in hall. i cannot deny it any longer. no matter how much i try to distance myself from the other people around me, i still love KR a lot. i still love KR KR KR KR KR KR KR KR KR a LOT!!!! and i'm considering joining rag... li chin u?

after curtain call the c block people (me julian and weliam) rushed out to take photos with our block people, cos today was the slot scheduled for them to come. my sis was there and so was jie fu. i was quite disappointed that xin han didn't come, but that's over, and i didn't let that affect me anyway. after a lot of phototaking we went back to dismantle the set. i didn't even have time to mope over the dismantling, cos when we arrived back they had already started. as i pulled down the triangles i remembered painting and then subsequently repainting them in the dining hall with chin gi, and how we ran out of paint and had to look for alternative solutions, and how me and sue painstakingly cut them with scissors before julian found penknives, and how me and sue made our makeshift cardboard house....

we managed to dismantle the set in record time because everyone helped. yi ping the light designer, the tech officers, some of the cast (okay the guys only), ALL OF STAGE CREW LIKE DUH, and even some of the business exco people (small steph, she was REALLY helpful). after moving a lot of the stuff out i had a bit of fun using the gigantic broom to sweep the stage, before exiting from the back exit.. at the loading bay we all helped, WE ALL HELPED, it was so touching haha. after some time while waiting for the lorry to come back, the stage crew found the bubbles and started blowing them (we used them for the last scene to create atmosphere for the lovebirds alex and latifah~) and had great fun. haha.. it was the big bubble challenge. slowly some of the cast came out to blow bubbles too, namely priyanka and xiao wei (those acting as these characters of course). julian started giving out the oranges we used in the dining scene, and soon everyone was eating an orange. kim was playing with the colourful wind wheel and bing han and weliam were playing with the drills.

after that we slowly went back in lorry trips. along the way when i was in the lorry i saw my c block people walking back to hall from fong seng after supper, haha. and we were all waving to each other.

after some time, everyone was back, but extremely tired. i was exhausted from moving stuff, i was very tired. but after some piano-playing and singing in the hall performed by samuel and charmaine i was energized and later on scrubbed the rag area floor with renewed vigour. ahahaha... such a cliche phrase. whatever the case only me shi min chin gi weliam bing han kim samuel and julian were there scrubbing, the rest had went back to sleep. imagine our shock when later on we were waiting for supper to be delivered (ordered from samuel and kim who drove out to buy) that eric was at fong seng with charmaine and en ling! samuel was a bit irritated that they weren't helping to scrub but were having supper instead and so didn't fetch them back, haha. anyway eric has been constantly teased at throughout production at being desperate and favouring girls, and later on as liking charmaine, so they were like 'oh eric's enjoying himself la, don't bother about him'.. i didn't order supper, but i koped food from them. subsequently chin gi who was falling asleep on the chairs went to bed so in the end just left me and the guys. but it didn't feel weird, just very normal. later on sunny joined us and we talked till quite late, (quite some part on alan and jane, and then on the guys ranking the girls as all below average, so i ranked the guys all as 2/10, AHAHAHA), and in the end i accompanied julian to distribute our pretty programme booklet to all the other stage crew members, then we went back to our rooms, i went to bathe, and now here i am. it's now 5:43am so i've been blogging for 45 min le. haha. expected longer, thank goodness. tmr (later i mean) waking up early to go home and hopefully church, then going out with xin han.

now i'm in a dilemma. if i don't want to fool myself, i really want to continue staying in hall. but i already told my family and xin han that i wouldn't be staying next sem. xin han says we don't have enough time together (we've not met in a week) and my family wants me home more often (to what... feed the ... fish? haha jk). plus i want to work and catch up with the angels during the 3 months break but if i am to stay in hall i'll probably have to join rag cos i dun have enough points. but rag i'm joining really for the experience la.. cos i can still ask block comm to help me stay i think.

anyway, in the case of the long-decided-forgone angels' overseas trip, i asked a LONG time ago just that i didn't post cos i was too busy and no one asked me to anyway. i asked the sunday immediately after jaq's bd celebration, i can't go, duh. my mum was a definite NO, my dad's black face was answer enough. i'm not joining u guys for valentine's day for obvious reasons (oh and talking about that, i have a midterm test on vday, at SIX PM!! SUCKS!!) but i hope we can have another outing soon. haha.

on an ending note, because of my stage crew experience, i'm really tempted to join rag. but i'm in a dilemma, as abovementioned, so how?

whatever the case, i'm really happy. to be in KR.