Mousetrap

Courtesy of Asyraf Lee

2006-09-27T03:31:00.000-07:00

Nice fellow of talent.

*click*

I don't know why he linked my blog for reference though. ^^"

It will Never end....

2006-09-20T20:45:00.000-07:00

Tomorrow tomorrow tomorrow..life's a brief candle..

Our legacy will live on...

no matter who u are ....

no matter where u are from...

no matter how old u are...

the play will live on forever....

we will live on forever...

our characters will live on forever...

our love for each other...

our memories with each other...

our joys together...

our sorrow together...

how we ate with each other...

how we sang about each other...

how we sang with each other...

how we laughed at each other...

how we laughed together...

will live on forever...

Paravicini will live...

Casewell will live...

Major Metcalf will live...

Mollie will live...

Christopher Wren will live...

Boyle will live...

Giles will live...

Detective Sg. Trotter will live...

on forever...........

as long as...

we live...

we breathe...

we smile...

we cry...

it will live on forever...

Monkswell Mannor Guest House....

will live on forever...

It will live on forever...

in our minds...

in our soul...

in our hearts...

in our imagination...

it will live on in those who remember us....

and those who remember to remember us...

and Agatha Christie...

thank you....

The Mousetrap will never die....

neither shall we...

To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
To the last syllable of recorded time,
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
And then is heard no more: it is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing."

Luv,
Yugeindran Nair aka Yugi Bear aka Mr. Paravicini...

PS : I sincerely apologize if there had been any misunderstanding among us the wonderful cast
and lovely crew...the lecturers if i had said something wrong.....the directors if i had troubled
them..The Excited Audience if i had not pleased them on stage...Last but not least i would
like to thank everyone...exspecially to the director for giving me the part...the lecturers for
motivating me..and the cast & crew for supporting me...and for all those people out there for
believing in me.....till then Chao...................................................................

another chapter closes

2006-09-20T02:14:00.000-07:00

aloha
bonjourno
how d'you do
hi

i cried myself to sleep as sunday turned to monday..... another chapter closes in my book of experiences.......
what have i learnt
who did i meet
why did we meet
swirls of emotions flooded the inside of my poor cranium
the lovely and cherished memories are put forth in front of my eyes
some of the memories were fragments, some blur, some just so clear like bits of glass flung in the air expressing a memory
it was beautiful.....
i grabbed it within my mortal palm
put it close to my heart
a searing pain
my bleeding hand
yet i had to keep all of them
i had to
i flailed my hands in the air collecting all those bits of memories before it hit the aethereal floor and smashed into a zilion pieces
the beauty and pain of memory
i held those pieces next to my beating heart
and it melted creating a warmth
a warmth of a hug
a warmth of a teardrop
a warmth like no other
a warmth that helps you true trials and pain
a warmth that protects
a warmth that makes you laugh
a warmth that keeps one sane
a warmth that closes the chapter

bye
so long
a riverdela
aloha

2006-09-18T08:46:00.000-07:00

Being thrown under the bright lights of a stage play, feels like being hit on the face by a gust of icy wind. It feels like waking up under a really heavy and wet blanket, and you feel you are about to drown under glaring eyes, all ready to judge you for the very minute errors you will make... ready to punce on you like the daggers that they are...

At some point, none of that matters..at some point, there is almost nothing there... and you start feeling lightness, you see the dark spaces before you, there is nothing there...and darke shapes begin to form... sounds from the back, from the sides, fill in your ears, one by one... there are things there that you don't recognise, new things, things that are shapeless, carrying no form, no identity...yet they are there nonetheless, much more than physical manifestations..they are a part of you. The sounds, the shadows, the spirits that envelope the spaces in between...

The past three months have been... well... something else. Its like this entire chapter of life that stands on its own, yet is still connected so wonderfully with every thing else. All the faces, names and personalities that have i have come to know in those three months of working on Mousetrap...well, how can I forget them, how can i ever?

Its not so much as being trapped in character, or being trapped with the desire to get back in with the gang... no, those things are real on a surface level. Its much more than that. Its about growing up, and becoming part of something. Its about watching others grow and forming these unique relationships that can sometimes be so fragile, yet at times, rock solid. Half of the guys involved, i don't even know their full names, and i've only known them for three months... yet, when were together, those three nights, holding each other and sharing each other's comforting arms... well... need i say more?

Grand finale

2006-09-18T02:52:00.000-07:00

Again, many miscalculated who the killer was.

Not including my mother. She told me her guess during the interval, saying that the killer always appeared right after something bad happened. Never during the incidents.

Interesting observation.

And again, the crowd laughed at the supposedly unlaughable parts. Especially during the Trotter-Mollie bit.

I give up.

Oh well. At least it was good laughter. People laughing with the actors. Not at them.

Whatever that meant in this context.

--

Today (17th Sept, 2006) was the much anticipated third day.

Act one, scene one went up with a draggy start, which worried us. Once over, at the backstage, Mollie had her head bowed down many a times, anxious about the energy level. Trotter punched his left shoulder once or twice, agitated by the lacklusture of the earlier performance and wanting so badly to do his very best. Wren looked pissed off when he was told about his rather unclear articulation (which was quite alright because he was bound to act pissed off in the scene with Giles anyway). Casewell stoned around a bit, looking worried. Metcalf and Boyle looked tensed. Giles paced around, looking deep in thought, and randomly did his choir-boy warm-up for his voice projection. For the sake of maintaining his character, Paravicini made a masochistic plea for me to slap him a few times.

After the cast went on stage for the second act, for a long while, I didn't think of anything but the script, my dying torchlight (door prompter here), my walkie talkie, and the crowd. I really wanted everything to work.

I feared that the last post jinxed the play.

But everyone was reassured by an outstanding ovation.

The trend was indeed broken.

:)

Climax 2 - Broken Myth

2006-09-16T20:26:00.000-07:00

It was said that there is a running trend for a three-day-play.

The first day would be the novelty day; the day of stage fright and anticipation of the unknown; the day of bursting energy. Hence, it usually ends up well.

Due to the success of the first day, the actors would find themselves relaxing a bit. After all, nothing should go wrong after a good head start, what?

Wrong. Once the actors relax, their characters seep out of themselves. The energy level would be significantly lesser than that of the first day. And if you were to attend both first and second day of the play, you'll be wondering what went wrong yet you can't quite grasp the reason why.

With blunders made and mistakes regretted, actors would be determined to repent themselves on the third day. They would push themselves like never before. Flawless delivery, immaculate portrayal, actors want the crowd to remember their performance as the best they have ever seen!

The third day was said to have the best performance of the lot.

We have feared that the trend would occur this year. Especially the dreaded second day.

But they broke it.

THIS YEAR'S CAST BROKE THE MYTH! OMFG yay.

Then again, it's too early to tell. The second day might have been replaced with the third day.

o.O

Let's hope that this post didn't jinx anything.

A full house again. We even had to turn away prospective customers.

Today's (16th Sept, 2006) crowd was...a smarter lot.

For one, they didn't laugh when Mollie and Giles were arguing. Or when Sergeant Trotter said: "As I can ski."

Then again, a good number of them laughed when Trotter said: "I don't care anymore."

... *speechless*

--

Important:

In case you're attending Sunday's play (17th Sept, 2006), please be extremely punctual or come earlier (play will start at 7.30pm sharp).

Otherwise, don't be disappointed if you don't get the tickets (we cannot hold back unpaid tickets or paid tickets for latecomers ) or a good seat.

No exceptions will be made. Thank you.

Climax 1 - Murdered mystery

2006-09-15T21:41:00.000-07:00

Fantabulous makeup (though Wren looked like he had applied more rouge than Paravicini), splendid costumes (though Trotter looked like a budding CEO), marvelous music (though it was only Nat King Cole), amazing sound effects (though there was no sound of a door creak), brilliant set (FIREPLACE PWNS :D though our lovely ancient telephone was replaced by a random telephone), and excellent props (though Giles was lousy in choosing an anniversary gift).

The preparation was perfect.

It was a full house.

The excitement was boiling and everyone was on their toes.

Trotter had a stomach ache and apparently that helped his pained expression for certain scenes.

Your current door prompter is proud to say that everyone was on cue, despite the fact that we had only two functioning walkie talkies by the end of the day (ideally, we need four: two for door prompters, one for running man, and one for sound/lighting man).

In conclusion, the play was a hit.

Though to mildly put it, most of the audience was...funny. Painfully so.

Because they laughed at many unlaughable jokes like "I can ski."

After the play over some Cha Kuay Teow, Harith recited a rhyme someone made up:

Roses are red,
Violets are blue,
I'm a schizophrenic...
So am I.

Stay tuned for more updates.

Prologue from a Prompter

2006-09-15T21:28:00.000-07:00

I was a script prompter.

To say that I had fun would be incorrect.

Because spending at least five to seven hours at night with a very inconsiderate air conditioner for weeks is not fun.

Nor is paying the script your undivided attention ~~so that the bigger stars don’t mess up too much~~ fun.

The other script prompter, Leonard, has my empathy.

But, I enjoyed myself. Thoroughly. It was enjoyable watching Mollie trot around with her cute ballerina demeanour, saying random things like “Eat my socks”; it was enjoyable watching Trotter laughing like the psychopath he was; it was enjoyable watching Wren practicing the art of air kissing Boyle; it was enjoyable watching Boyle screaming at all attempts to photograph her while her makeup is done; it was enjoyable watching Metcalf agonizing at attempts to shorten his already short script; it was enjoyable watching Paravicini trying to fully get into character by hitting on almost anything with boobs that moves; it was enjoyable watching Casewell being able to be more manly than Giles; it was enjoyable watching Giles getting a Dating101 class when everyone else felt that he couldn’t quite grasp the right idea of hugging Mollie romantically.

Enjoyment doesn't necessarily have to be fun.

We Have a Play

2006-09-15T11:56:00.000-07:00

And it's called the Mousetrap. And, well, it's ours because we just performed it last night, so there.

This first night was positive, although our play was apparently a lot funnier than expected, or perhaps, after three months of practising the same frickin' play, it's simply become dull and stale to me. Not that I believe that, of course. Even in the last days of practice, hours even, cast members were finding new ways of presenting their characters, because a play isn't just a set of words to be read in a set manner. It evolves with each enactment, because there are just so many ways of saying a simple phrase like... 'Doing all the work, you brute'. Watch, and you will see why after three months of being just an understudy I am still around. You see, watching a play form is really very fascinating. You start from the bare bones, the text, just sitting in a circle and reading. Then come the discussions, long and hard and through that the refinement of how the play is going to come out and then the directors spend hours and hours trying to get that idea, their idea, hammered into the subconscious of the actors. The long, crazy hours. And then, just a week or two or three before it's due to be presented, a whole host of people previously unseen come in and make the play what it is, a spectacle of light(ing) and sound.

Really very fascinating.

Mr. Paravicini's Major Wardrobe Malfunction

2006-09-14T19:35:00.000-07:00

halo..

the name is paravicini.....i must admit that yesterday on the 14 - 09 - 2006....i made a huge blunder in monkswell manner guest house...well what happen was that while i was hitting on molly my right suspenders popped and flew to my back.....everyone started laughing below...we as actors tried to control it.....well that moment i had to do crisis control.....so i tried to put it back in my charactor...but i couldnt because it was in the most unreachable area......so i thought the next thing i could do is that remove it ...as i was removing it was my seen with Trotter and he completely started laughing because he can never control his laughter.......well as usual everyone was laughing on stage...the scene was paused.....and repeated...damm and guess what it happened again but this time it was the final scene and the back portion of my suspenders popped.....i managed to put it back but unfortunately i lost focus.....i feel that during the making of mousetrap the play i have learnt one most important thing....The capability of being consumed in your character...in another way of putting it " FOCUS" ......after that wardrobe malfunction i learnt that because i immediatly became Yugi when it snapped and thats why the scene was screwed up...but if i was truly Paravicini and paravicini alone i would have fixed the problem up perfectly...So for all you actors out there i would like to share with u the lesson that i have learnt...if there is a blunder on stage only your character and your character alone can fix it up perfectly..and to do that you need to be completely foccused.

Remember remember the 14 of September Paravicini's suspender malfunction and blunder...

till then....Chao

Paravicini aka Yugi

Sinchew Daily pimps us!

2006-09-10T12:43:00.000-07:00

check it out - the media loves us!

L-R : Yugi as Paravicini, Matthew as Giles, Waimin as Mollie

Sick, sick, sick

2006-09-09T00:02:00.000-07:00

Well, as the title suggests, Ms Casewell is definitely sick. It is indeed very irritating when one is sick. And Mollie Ralston actually thinks that it is "funny" to be sick. Definitely very peculiar a thing she is. Anyhow, yesterday was rather an interesting day. But a word of caution; do NOT play Mafia if one is feeling under the weather. People will purposefully pick on you and FORCE you to make decisions when your head's spinning in all directions. For those of you who have never heard about Mafia...which tunnel was your head buried in? That aside, yesterday was definitely a relaxing day. But the Ralstons could have at least made sure that their radiator was working! My cold got a whole lot worse after playing Mafia in the living room. Good Lord, the things we have to go through as residents of this house.

Pictures and a word from your host

2006-09-06T20:03:00.000-07:00

...Why is Major Metcalf trying to fly?

Our esteemed director and one of our prompters going through the script again.

...How on earth can Mollie Ralston be so calm when there's an inert body lying right next to her...?!

This is what happens after a hard day's work...

There will always be mistakes. It's good to be able to laugh it off at the end of the day.

A message from Giles Ralston:
I must say I'm quite put off! Just the other day, Sergeant Trotter took it upon himself to speak to me as if I was a common mutt! He simply pushed me aside, pointed a finger into my face, and told me to 'stay'! And nobody took it upon themself to even respond to my cry of outrage. Really, these guests of mine... it really would have been better if Mollie had just sold this house when she inherited it.

Pictures from Rehearsals

2006-09-04T11:12:00.000-07:00

Christopher Wren

2006-08-31T02:06:00.000-07:00

Sir Christopher Wren (1632 - 1723)

Portrait of Christopher Wren by Sir Godfrey Kneller. Although he is known as an architect and designer, Sir Christopher Wren's career did not begin with training in these disciplines. Before the age of 17 he had invented an instrument that wrote in the dark, a pneumatic engine and a new deaf and dumb language. Among his first contributions to the world was the perfection of a working barometer. His talents were extraordinarily diverse.

After an education at Westminster and Wadham College, Oxford he became a Fellow of All Souls where he was distinguished in maths and physics. At Wadham he experimented with opium as an anaesthetic enabling doctors to perform prolonged surgery. Then in 1662 Wren joined other mathematicians, scientists and scholars to form the Royal Society of London for Promoting Natural Knowledge.

Born to the Dean of Windsor, he led a privileged early life playing with the young Prince Charles in Windsor Castle. His predilection for learning and science was evident at an early age, but his interest in architecture was equally strong and may have been inspired by a book which he read as a boy, entitled On Architecture, written by the Roman author Vitruvius. This interest perhaps first expressed itself in 1663 when he visited ruins of the Theatre of Marcellus in Rome where he studied the plans for the original building. When he was later asked to design a theatre for an Oxford college it was to this design that he referred.

Wren's most famous contribution to architecture is his dome at St Paul's Cathedral and, fittingly, he is buried there in the crypt. His other contributions to architecture include the Royal Exchange, the College of Physicians, Chelsea Hospital, the Royal Naval College, Custom House and Drury Lane Theatre. His plans to create a new London after the Great Fire of 1666 were never entirely implemented, although 52 churches were built to his design.

The Psychological Theater

2006-08-30T10:20:00.000-07:00

It is bewildering and mystifying the way the theater of the mind works. There are few forces as powerful as the mind; the imagination and the strength of emotion working in tandem can be incredible tools for those who know the art of using them. It can be used to create a host of perceived realities and illusions that seem as solid as light; playing upon vulnerabilities, prejudices, biases, preferences, and other predispositions. These predispositions create avenues for those who can find them; avenues to create new possibilities, new emotions, and new behaviors that either play upon or against those afore-mentioned elements.

Such is the mechanism behind most forms of art. There is this incredible blending of imagination and emotion that creates this boundless, borderless world where anything is possible, far beyond the limitations of the physical world. A vast field where the mind roams, once the false borders and restrictions that are put in place are broke down. Psychological walls of beliefs and values that are inconsistent, irrational and ultimately unnecessary only hinder the mind from being what it can and should be; a world of its own, a world of elemental forces far greater than any in this ‘real’ world.

Such is the mechanism behind drama plays. The playwright creates the world; the actors become the psychological elements and forces that manipulate the audiences. What is the measure of a successful play? For me, it is the extent of the control that the actors are able to exert upon the minds of the audience. Unlike other forms of art, where the reader or listener or viewer is able to allow the mind to roam free, theater plays are all about manipulation and influence and control; the audience is never allowed to go further than what the actors would want them to. An interesting reversal of the entire concept of art; but then again, theater is not really art, is it? It becomes more an exercise of control and power. The script itself is a medium, a door that opens up possibilities; therefore it retains its artistic purity. However, when there are actors interpreting characters, and making decisions on what they want to portray, it becomes consolidated; it becomes established; it becomes structured. Power is established and control is exhibited.

Such control becomes integral for the play. Psychologically demanding plays such as mystery thrillers require a huge amount of control and depth of the part of the actors, who have to make sure that the audience only thinks in a pattern that they have already set, and not beyond. Every single realization, assumption and deceptions must be something the actors expect and set out, for only then can they establish the climax that they seek. Characters represent mediums for this form of control to be exerted. The audience will expect it; it is only when they are able to make judgments and think beyond the expectations of the actors that the play fails as they will automatically be disappointed. They want to be taken for a ride; they want the unpredictability that will give them a rush of emotions and feeling. That is what the actors should aim for.

admin test

2006-08-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

hi everyone,

this is an admin test for the Taylors College's Society of Performing Arts annual production blog. test test test.