DRAMA ELECTIVE T-SHIRT!

Hey guys!
Remember we were discussing about our DEP shirt/badges? I was thinking it'll be great if we get it done asap. So who wants to design the shirt/badges? You can reply via posting.

Emily of Emerald Hill - Gillian koh:]

Sorry Ms Lenden for posting it so late, it kind of slipped my mind :p. it won't happen again! (or at least i'll try not to :] )

Ivan Heng portrayed his character Emily, very well. From the moment he stepped onto the stage until the moment he left it, there was not a single moment where he stopped being in character. He portrayed the female character so well that it puts most actresses to shame.

 He portrayed Emily by having very feminine gestures such as the swaying of his hips from side to side in a very Peranakan way. His hand gestures were also very feminine as they are very smooth, fluent, twirls. He portrays Emily the matriarch very well by keeping his head high with his chin sticking out. He gives specific strict orders and bosses around his/her servants very much like a typical head of the house Non ya. He keeps Emily’s peranakan upbringing and way of life true to the traditional 1900s non ya. He does this by using Malay terms that the peranakans use. Often it is to inject humour to entertain and engage the crowd. Emily has controlled movements – feet close together, straight back, hands in front or by her sides and head movements that was tilted slightly downwards.

There was this part of the monologue that struck me the most. That part was when Ivan Heng had to deliver a series of lines at a fast pace, enuounce the words properly, do a series of actions and concentrate simultaneously. That was the part that showed his prowess and talent in the acting industry. If I were him, I would have gone totally bonkers! I feel that this part was to inject humour into the crowd to lighten up the mood and change the atmosphere.

There were certain parts of the play where Ivan Heng had to switch characters. He had to switch from Emily to her husband’s father and then to Susie and back to Emily. What truly stunned me was that he could switch so fast and effortlessly. The characters were of a wide variety and for him to pull such a feat off, I really wonder if there is anything he cannot possibly do. He switched to Emily’s father-in-law by using a low pitched voice, an English accent, a different posture and gestures. The posture from Emily’s gentle, sweet and controlled transformed into a confident, educated pose. He would then switch to Susie in a blink of an eye. From Emily’s father-in-law’s character, he would switch to Susie who had a typical Singaporean accent that sounds like it was said through the nasal. Susie also had a very unladylike way of standing which was slouching. The characters, Emily’s father –in-law and Susie were very much exaggerated. This was to add a bit of humour but another side to Emily’s story so that it is not entirely biased. I feel that this extra window made the play much more enjoyable to watch.

There was engagement of the audience throughout the play which was mostly impromptu. I thought that Ivan Heng’s ability to think on the spot quickly was inspiring. He hardly stuttered or paused and made it seem like it was part of the play. And yes, I was fooled into thinking it was all scripted.

So, to conclude, I truly praise Ivan Heng for his talent and am eager to witness more of his work.

Emily Of Emerald Hill- Raeburn.

I thoroughly enjoyed Emily of Emerald Hill. Before watching the play, I felt really excite to watch the play, I was very interested as to how they were going to display Pernakan culture, however, I was also a little apprehensive as I realised that it was going to be a 2 hour monologue.

I was amazed at how Ivan Heng was able to make it seem as though there was another person on stage with him. There was one part of the play when Emily had to hug her son. Although there wasn’t another actor playing Emily’s son, Ivan Heng to reached out, bent his elbows and curled his fingers as if he were embracing Emily’s son. 

I also enjoyed how he changed the way he spoke. Once, was when Emily was on the phone with her friends and the caterer. When she spoke to the caterer, Ivan Heng, spoke in a fake English accent but Ivan Heng wanted to show that Emily had lost her temper he would speak Singlish. Ivan heng would also change the way he spoke when he change his character. When he turned into Emily’s sister-in-law, Ivan Heng would use a nasle, whiney voice. But when he turned into Emily’s father-in-law, he would have a very deep voice.

Lastly, I was astounded at the way he spoke. He was able to speak an incredible tempo. At some points of the play, to show that he was busy, Ivan Heng would speak exceedingly fast. When I heard him, I was so amazed at how he did not fumble on his words. 

EMILY OF EMERALD HILL-Nicole Cheah

We went to watch Emily of Emerald Hill played by Ivan Heng at the Esplanade. I was surprised that it was only one actor doing the whole play, as it was 2 hours long.

Ivan Heng I thought was really amazing as if you didn’t know that a man was playing a woman you would really think it was a woman. He’s mannerism on stage was exactly like a woman you would not mistake him for a man. Honestly, I admire him for playing a woman with much confidence, which was so convincing!

In order to make him sound and act like a woman, he used a higher voice range and talked with much enthusiasm, walked with his hips swaying like a typical aunty, he had his hands flying everywhere as he spoke to exaggerate everything he said as he was playing a nyonya. I also thought that he was really good at changing his accent to make it convincing during the part where he made several phone calls. He just changed the pitch of his voice and the emphasis on certain parts of the words to suit the various types of accent he used.

I loved the way he changed characters as it was very distinct and it could clearly be seen without us wondering what just happened. To change characters, he would suddenly jerk after walking really fast and turn around in an instant like “BAM! IM SOMEONE ELSE” with a completely different gesture and posture to characterize his new character.  That was really cool.

I also liked how he talked very quickly during one scene where he was nagging at the children to do this and that. Though he spoke really quickly like a bullet train he was able to enunciate his words clearly so that the audience were still able to understand despite the speed as normally when people attempt to speak fast it would come out as gibberish.

All in all I thought that Ivan Heng is a talented actor and really good in changing characters, as he is able to change his pitch of voice distinctively and change his mannerism to show the contrast in the character that he was playing and the character he changed into later. This allows the audience to clearly understand that it is now a different character and not be lost.

I really enjoyed this play it was something different.

Emily of Emerald Hill -Dawn Yiu

[Emily of Emerald Hill]
When I realised that this play was going to be 2 hours long and its only going to have only one actor acting, I was quite disappointed because I thought it would be really boring, however it turns out that I was wrong, really wrong.

In this play, Ivan Heng played a role as a nonya. I thought he potrayed this character very well. At first when he spoke, although it was a deep manly voice I was just unsure of how the play was going to be, but at the end of it, I was fully convinced that he is a woman. The way he imitates how women walk,talk and even how they place their hands is even more feminine than what a present woman would do. The way he moved his body, swaying his hips back and forth when he walked,and the way he lazily placed his hand and arm on top of the other when thinking and speaking.

I thought that this play was very clear to me was also because of how he changed his character. Whenever he changed from a character to another, there would be something significant that Ivan Heng would do to let it represent the character making it clear to the audience which character is he playing. For example, when he changed his role to Emily's father-in-law, he would walk in a strut, speak in a deep English accent and always holding a pipe to his lips. When he changes his role to Susie, he would use a more irritating and nosey voice for her. 

All in all, I really thought that Ivan Heng is a strong actor, despite being a man, he could convinced the audience that he is a woman, and that the way he acts, talks, walk could change the mood and atmosphere of the play. For example at the end of scene 1, the way he sobbed and poured his heart out on stage was ( :O ) beyond words. His body was bent so forward as if he was pleading for something, and how he fling both of his hands out when Emily found put that Richard (her son) was dead.

I had a really good time watching this play and I thought it was definitely worth while sitting for 2 hours watching Ivan Heng on stage.

Emily OF Emerald Hill ~ xoxoLauren

I watched Emily of Emerald Hill on Friday the 11th of March at 8pm. When I'd first heard that we were going to watch it, i was actually quite doubtful about it, so I did some research on it and found out that this piece was a monologue starring Ivan Heng. What was really interesting was that Ivan Heng would be playing the role of a woman, I was very fascinated by this and i remember thinking that there was no way this show could be good, and that it would have sucked. However, i was proved entirely wrong that night.

I loved the way Ivan Heng was able to play the role of Emily despite being a man. I feel that at times, he played a better woman then an actual woman. (Does that make sense?) Ivan was able to show different emotions on his character; for example, he was really soft when it came to sad and mysterious scenes, like when Emily's son had died. Whenever Ivan wanted to change characters, which was quite rare, was simple but yet obvious. He made your of his posture and hand gestures when playing different characters. I especially loved how he was able to do improvised work with the audience when he spoke to us.

I was really amazing to be watching a two and a half hour long monologue and not feel “sian”. This was really something that I have taken home with me and I hope that I will benefit form it.

Emily of Emerald Hill-Nicole R.

Emily of Emerald Hill was really unexpected, in a good way. I hadn't expected this play acted out by one actor to be as enthralling as it was and i really thought Ivan Heng did a brilliant job in his role as a Nyonya, mother and wife. His characterisation was done so well, it was really distinct and i bet all of us were completely convinced he was a Nyonya. In the play, he had to act as if there were other people on stage and the emotion clearly expressed in his voice and actions made those imaginary people real which made the audience believe that there were other people on stage, which made the play an even better experience for the audience.

Because of the good characterisation which was probably due to the understanding Ivan Heng had of his character, Emily, i was able to understand that Emily is actually a very lonely person. She tries to cover this up through the many masks she wears and the audience can see this from the phone calls with the many different people she talks to. She impersonates a British person, speaks like a gangster together with many other things. Emily tried to hide from a loneliness, trying to preoccupy herself with attending and holding luxurious functions so she would not have to face her loneliness. However, you can see that once in a while, the lights go dark and Emily says something sad. This showed a slip of her facade that she put up to try and avoid loneliness. However, you can see her breaking down slowly through the play as one by one, her family members supposedly leave her, her son committing suicide, husband dying, daughter and son getting married and moving away from Emerald Hill.

Ivan Heng also connected with his audience by 'punishing' the latecomers and interacting with them even while the play was going on. I thought it was a really good incorporation of reality and the world of Emily Of Emerald Hill as it made it feel more realistic, like we were really inside the play. The stage gave a sort of three-dimensional effect that gave that feeling too, especially when the real firecrackers went off.

Overall i felt Emily Of Emerald Hill was really awesome and i would watch it again. But i'm happy i got to watch it at all. :D

MELISSA MAE - Emily Of Emerald Hill

Emily of Emerald Hill was just simply amazing. From the day that Ms Lenden told us that we were going to watch Emily of Emerald Hill, I was just really excited to watch it. My aunty is Ivan Heng's friend and she told me that the play was going to be worth watching. It was a 2 hour long monologue that was fantastically done by Ivan Heng. He did a really good job impersonating a local nonya aunty. He basically showed the audience how great he was at acting. He managed to change from character to character very distinctly and fast. There were a few scenes in the play where Emily would impersonate her sister in law, Suzy. She did this by dragging her words and the sound of her voice was as if she was pinching her nose to make that annoying nasal sound. Ivan's impersonation was very, very funny. Okay back to the point. When I was settling down in the theatre, I noticed that there was a chair on the right of the stage (facing the audience). During the play, I realised that the chair was significant as beside it, was a telephone. Emily call people from that phone. She even talked to people in "American" accents or Singlish accents. It was such a big change, but he managed to make it work out. The play started with Emily dancing towards the audience on the big stage; there were many doors on the sides. And she ended the play by dancing back into the back door of the stage. This was to show that she was opening and closing the play. The play also had many wonderful props. There was the dinner party scene where Richard (Emily's son) was celebrating the news of him going to England and his birthday at the same time. The prop was a moving staircase. Before the dinner scene, the "changing room" was joined to the staircase. The "changing room" just rose from the stage floor. It was really cool and people started going "ooooh did you see that?". I could also tell that Ivan Heng is quite a comedian. He made Mr Juraimy and Ms Tina stand up for coming in late and said things like "1050 people no traffic jam, you got traffic jam uh." Ivan also made them apologise to the audience for being late by repeating "I will never be late again". ALL of the KC girls who went were laughing so hard. This also showed that Ivan is a great stage performer/actor. He could come up with funny things to say on the dot and it ended up successfully. I almost cried when Emily got the telegram saying that her son, Richard had passed away due to suicide. The mood changed from "comedy" to "tragedy". It was really sad. However, I still found the play more comedic than sad.

Out of all this, I have to say that the play was very good. It was worth $58+. And it was worth my time. :)

Emily of Emerald Hill~ VERA WAS HERE.

Emily of Emerald Hill

Talk about alliteration! Haha anyways, yes, the most anticipated production of the year, possibly of 10 years, ever since W!ld R!ce first started out. Personally, I wasn’t exactly looking forward to watching a 2 hour long monologue, more to the supper afterwards. (I’m sorry ,I love food, okay.) Not the point. The point is, that I couldn’t imagine myself stuck in the seat listening to only one person speaking for 2 hours or more. It seemed so boring, and I didn’t know what to expect.

However, when I first laid my eyes on the set, I knew the monologue had to be good. The set was really queer, as if there were many dimensions on the stage itself. I’m sorry I’m off tracking, but I could go on and on about the set and lights and sounds but I shall stop myself. Anyways, the most interesting part was that Ivan Heng played the role of a female nonya perfectly, so perfectly that I almost forgot that he was a male, if not for the fact that his voice was so low. His mannerisms (like the way he moved his hands with the handkerchief, the way he walked and spoke) were very much like a typical “auntie” and I was very impressed that he could impersonate a female even better than most actresses themselves. It requires a lot of skill and definitely a very good actor to play a role of another gender so this most certainly says something about Ivan Heng. There was a distinct change of character with the help of lighting. For example, when he wanted to change from a male character to a female one, the lights changed from black to pink, which was a generic stereotype. Whenever Ivan Heng wanted to change to the role of the father, we would always be ‘holding’ a pipe and this made it very clear that the character of father was being played. It was really cool how despite this being a monologue, Ivan made it seem as if there were more characters than just him onstage. He managed to create an atmosphere of more than just one actor and I think that this is a huge plus-point for Emily of Emerald hill.

What did you learn today? - Dawn Yiu

I watched the play "What did you learn today?" on the 15th of  January. 

I really like this play a lot after watching it as it was very unique. Instead of the normal plays where the actors just act on stage and just be in role and having a storyline, this play however is actually made up by small sections of the play being joined together to form 1 whole play. Where there is no story line for the whole play but a stimuli, whereas the storyline is being implanted in the small sections of the play to create one drama. The actors interacted and engaged with the audience. In the midst of the play there would be a few seconds or a minute of interval when the actors can take a water break and converse to the audience.

I think the message that this play was trying to tell us today is that whatever we do, wherever, whenever, we can always learn something from it. For every time the characters want to change to another stimuli/act, there would always be this time when we are suppose to meditate on a stimuli which is being given to us, and I thought that that was very meaningful because while we are watching this play, besides learning 'something' from this play, I get to think back about what I have been doing since growing up, and to learned that I have to start learning from my mistakes.

What impacted me the most was actually the part where Neo Swee Lin was talking about her younger times and how she actually misses her mother after her mother passed away. 

As to why, it is actually because while I was watching this segment of the play, I realised the great effort and sleepless night that our mothers have put in to let us study and have a better lifestyle, while we just go home everyday and complain about having too much homeworks, not knowing the efforts our mothers have to put into to let us study. Well, my mother was also the eldest child of the family and similarly to Swee Lin's mother she also had to sacrifice her studies for her younger siblings. Hence when she was talking about her mother, I realised that I actually missed my mother a lot and it actually made me think about 'things' and this was actually (why) that part of the play impacted me the most. 

I think that the little stories formed to make up the phases of life of what Lim Kay Siu, Neo Swee Lin and even some of us  has been through and what they have learned from it.

There was this part of the play where Lim Kay Siu is acting as a small kindergarden boy, and Neo Swee Lin acting as his mother.

Kay Siu was imitating a voice of a young kindergarden's boy whereas Swee Lin was imitating a voice of a stern, motherly voice. Without any props used, the relationship between the two characters can be seen very clearly, through their movement and language. 

As the mother sees her son, she hugged him tightly holding him closed to her as he wraps his around her waist 

I think that what they are trying to achieve for this scene is that they are trying to show the type of relationship the between the mother and son, whether it is close or distant.

What Did You Learn Today? - Nicole C.

The play “What did you learn today?” was very different from all the others plays which I have watched. It is different in the sense that the play was very interactive meaning that the actors literally engaged the audience during the play. This play only consist of various characters played by only two actors, they are; Lim Kay Siu and Neo Swee Lin. I think that both the actors were very expressive and really entertaining.

The whole structure of the play was broken down into smaller stories here and there. Honestly, I was very confused during the play as to what was happening. As for example, at first Lim Kay Siu played a small child and Neo Swee Lin played the mother, and consequently in a few scenes, they showed how they met when they were younger till they got married and grew old. There was also a scene that I liked very much showing a student’s perspective during a lesson in school where Kay Siu was a student and Swee Lin was the teacher. When she was teaching all we could hear was “BLAHBLAHBLAHBLAH” I thought it was very funny as it really portrays what some of us hear during our various lessons.

After watching various stories I realized that maybe these little stories portrayed are linked together. For example, the stories are like a summary of Kay Siu’s and Swee Lin’s overall childhood, school life where they had doubts and how they both met and got together. I think it was a rather interesting way of portraying what they wanted to get across to the audience.

From the structure of the play, I learnt that to convey a message across to the audience we could always find other ways to do it other than the conventional ways of acting out from the starting to the end. Also I found it impressive at how both actors were able to change their characters by changing their facial expression, posture, and tone of voice so quickly and most importantly it was very convincing from the audience point of view, which all the more made it very entertaining. This is definitely worth learning.

I think the most impactful thing in this play was the meditation segment where people are to voice their thoughts out loud on a topic like “what I would like to learn”. Many people responded during this meditation period. During this period it really allows us to think and reflect on ourselves of what we want to do in life and more. Also it allows us to hear what others think which sometimes are topics that are also true about ourselves and we can relate to them. They had the meditation segment 3 times throughout the whole play.

Lastly, Lim Kay Siew and Neo Swee Lin started to share their own childhood stories. I think it was nice that they were able to share their childhood stories with the audience so openly.

What did you learn today- Gillian

What did you learn today?

               I felt that the play had a variation of scenes that at first seem to have no link to the scene before or after it. However, after i thought about it, i discovered that they were actually inter-linked. I felt that the whole play was about Swee Lin and Kay Siu’s characters. I felt that the freeze frames were about the story the characters were about to tell.  These characters are somewhat based on their dating experience. It progressed to show them getting ready to be husband and wife, later them growing old together and eventually one of them dying. It seemed like a fairytale. Until, they start bringing us into their past and showing us their early part of their experiences – where the struggle to achieve the fairytale began.

              The play was not the typical play in which i would have expected. A typical play for me would be a play in which the audience would not participate actively but would only watch as a third party. The play was part of a typical play and part of an untypical play which is the engaging the audience type. This i feel got me to understand the play better as it made me reflect and ask myself what the play was about and what it had to do with me.

            The play is potrays a variety of perspectives of learning. Learning from our past mistakes is an example. I realised when we were meditating and the questions asked about our past experiences made us reflect on our mistakes and faults. The meditation process was one that of a audience participation. After reflecting on my mistakes and learning from them, i decided to participate actively in the meditation questions that were up for grabs. This made me bolder and ask questions because in life, we need to ask questions as well. The meditating process made us reflect our mistakes because if we are in denial, we will never learn what was wrong with us in the first place.

             I learnt that we do not always need a lot of props or costume changes to portray the scene or character. It is the acting substance that counts instead. If you have a variety of props but standard of acting is not good, the props and costumes will not do any good. You can have the least amount of props but still pull off the performance because of the acting. In the play’s context, watching the scene where Swee Lin was a student and Kay Siu the teacher, all they needed was a pointer, a pair of glasses and a stool. The rest was up to the actors to paint the picture for us through their acting.

What did you learn today?-Nicole R.

This play had a big impact on me because this was the first ever play that i've gone to that actually puts in meditation intervals and in those quiet periods, i felt the audience and actors became one in mind and actually shared each others thoughts without having to express themselves vocally. It gave me time to properly reflect on the message the actors were trying to portray through the different scenes. I discovered that the audience were all thinking on the same wavelength through the thoughts of people that shared and the replies of "me too" after they shared their thoughts.

I also felt a connection to the actors as they were actually comfortable with sharing their private life such as how Neo Swee Lin shared about her mother and when Lim Kay Siew sang her a song after which i felt so touched as  they were sharing their close husband and wife relationship with us when usually actors tend to keep things very proffessional, so this was also a first for me. It let me sympathise with their feelings and it kept me attentive and reflective instead of having a fixed storyline.

I felt the play was about the ups and downs of life and how school life could be like for both students and teachers and how learning could be hard sometimes, with both teachers and students learning from each other. It taught me that life was a journey of learning which we caThe scene that impacted me most was when the student's voice was portrayed by Kay Siew playing the violin in high, squeaky tones and the teacher not understanding and getting agitated, screaming at the violin to "sit down and shut up!". I thought at that point, that to truly learn and understand what is being taught at school, both teacher and student must be able to communicate and understand each other. If not, it will just end badly with the teacher getting angry and uptight and the student being confused.

The structure of the play was one scene showing the positive side of life then a meditation period followed by the negative side of life. Overall this play was different in a good way and i would love to see more of Neo Swee Lin and Lim Kay Siew's acting. It was really in-depth and helped me to reflect.

MELISSA: What Did You Learn Today?

In the play 'What Did You Learn Today?', I found it really interactive, funny and dramatic at the same time. I also liked the fact that Neo Swee Lin and Lim Kay Siu were the actors in this play, and the fact that they are married. 
The play started out with them singing a song. Kay Siu played the guitar and they took turns singing the song. Halfway through the song, they got all of us to clap along with them and sing the chorus with them. As I've said before, it was an interactive play. After the song, they started talking to us and I found them really funny. Whatever they said was true. They also started the play by telling us that if they forgot their lines, if they got a wardrobe malfunction, we would see it. They also said this at the end of the play, only with a darker tone. 
When they started the play, I was clueless about what was going to happen in this play. I didn't know what to expect. I was very impressed by the way they performed. They were so expressive in whatever the did. For example, in one scene of the play, Kay Siu played the student who had to present something for speech and drama. Swee Lin played the ignorant teacher. When Kay Siu's character finished talking about his parent's getting a new house, Swee Lin's character started critisizing him. Kay Siu's character then went on saying how much he hated his teacher. He then strangled her till she was lying on the floor, barely conscious. He scolded her a "cunt" and started shouting vulgarites at her. I found that so impressive as they are married in real life and she actually allowed him to say those things to her.
I liked the meditation part of the play. The sound and lighting crew would dim the lights and they would play this relaxing sound with a powerpoint slide saying what they wanted us to reflect on. I found it very effective as we, the audience got to say what we reflected on and people would listen to us. I wanted to say some things but I was too shy at that time. I liked it because it was calm and quite. It was relaxing.
This play also made me tear up. It was the scene when Swee Lin's character passed away and Kay Siu's character was still speaking to her, pouring his emotions out. I was so touched as this showed that they loved each other till the very end. It made me realize that even when you're old, you can still love and not take your partner for granted. 

Model Citizens Letter-Nicole R.

Question: (to MP's wife)Are there any things you would change if you had the oppurtunity to go back in time?-Ms C (or something like that, i lost the paper)

Answer letter:

Of course! I would never have let my husband go into politics. Because of that now I have to suffer although people think its so easy to be an MP's wife, they assume that I get everything I wish for because I have power. They don't know that Everyday, I have a set routine. Once every week, meet the people. Do you know how boring it is? And why meet the people if I'm not going to help them? Everything is all 'disapproved'. In fact, I wish I had not left China at all, that I had not listened to my mother. In China, there is more excitement, more fun! Over here? My whole life is planned out for me. I wish I had never married my husband and that he had never gone into politics. Who needs power if you are going to live like this? I hope this answers your question.

MELISSA: Model Citizens Letter

Wendy, Why couldn't you let go? 
- Lauren


Dear Lauren,
I couldn't let go because he was my one and only son. How could I let go? Could you let go if you lost your son? 
He was the only joy in my life and now he's gone. A mother is not supposed to outlive her child. His death made me realize just how much I needed him in my life. Without him in my life, I always feel like something is missing. I needed to know what caused him to commit suicide. That's why I went online almost everyday to talk to Tony. I felt a need to talk to him so that I would get answers to why, just why, he would want to end his life.
Every night I go to bed, I cry myself to sleep. I think to myself, how did that even happen? How could he have died? What did I do? Was it my fault? I miss him terribly, my heart aches just thinking about him. I couldn't let go, how could I? I cry whenever I go through his things. I cry whenever I see the photos we took together. I cry whenever somebody mentions him. I'm still not over it. 
I hope that in the years to come, I will try my best to overcome it.
Your's Sincerely,
Wendy.

What did you learn today? - Lauren(:

Lauren <3

What did you learn today?

This play was different from others that I’ve seen. It is different in a way such that it is very much more interactive. At first when they started the show, I was a little uncertain about what was going to happen. I was afraid that they might come up and ask people from the audience to come out into the centre and assist them. I’m actually not sure whether I was happy that it did not happen.

I felt that the actors did really well. The way they switched from one character to another was tremendously well done. For example, when they were happy in one scene and immediately after that the following scene was a fight scene and the way their mood changed so quickly is something I believe we can learn.

I really liked the way that both Neo Swee Lin and her husband Lim Kay Siew both acted together in this piece. They were not afraid to share with us their personal experience and all about their lives. When they were talking about themselves, I felt that they were really brave and open. To be able to share one’s personal feelings so openly, it takes a lot of courage. Therefore I admire them for this.

From my understanding, I don’t think that the play was focused entirely long one story line. The playwright wrote it such that it told a story about life but from different aspects. The first part of the play, the couple sang a lovely song that got the audience to interact and sing-a-long. Then they proceeded to explain what it was like being a child and not knowing much. As a child, there were many things that they did not understand and it showed really clearly in their acting. They then moved on to what it was like in school, as a teenager. They portrayed that growing up was not easy and that there will be ups and downs in life. They also thought me that when I’m young and still probably naïve, I will make mistakes, and it’s all right because people makes mistakes and its only natural. From these mistakes, I will learn and improve. Then they moved on to when they were married and they showed how couples fight. Then they showed how even when they are old, their love is still as strong as ever! When Swee Lin “passed away”, I was really sad and even teared a little. The scene was so touching and the way all of Kay Siew’s emotions poured out was just so touching and I could feel the sincerity and love that he had for her.

I felt that the meditation parts of the play was really good as it allowed the audience to be a part of the play and voice out what they truly feel. Sometimes people are to shy to actually admit these feelings but i think it really helped to gain more self-confidence. I was actually really amazed at myself, as I could not believe that I had to courage to say something. The meditation parts made me reflect on life and think back about all the things I’ve done. It also however, made me realize that I actually have nothing good against my name… 

What Did You Learn Today? -Vera (:

I liked the fact that Neo Swee Lin (a former KC-ian) and her husband both participated in this play. It really was a display of their teamwork and close relationship. It was heart-warming to watch them open with song which they were singing so passionately and the atmosphere just hauled us to join in with them. I wasn’t looking forward to it at first because I thought the play was just pure engagement and zero performance. However, I was proved wrong when the lights dimmed and the couple got into positions. I waited in anticipation.

The structure of the play was basically many different scenarios broken down and separated by meditation periods. I thought that the meditation was a good way for the audience to voice out their thoughts and opinions and also feel connected with the actors. Thanks to the wonderful hosting skills of the pair, we were all put at ease and managed to answer the questions naturally. I think that the playwright’s intention of breaking up the scenes with the meditation was to remind us to stop and think, or reflect at any one point of our life, especially when we are moving on to the next phase of life. That is why Kay siew shared on his experience of the second phase of his life, which was boarding school. The playwright wanted us to reflect on what life has taught us, to make sure that we are actually uncovering “Life” layer by layer every passing day, and that we actually mature and learn from life’s everyday experiences. During the meditation session, someone said something that struck me hard. “I want to know what life is all about.” So, what IS life all about actually?

The playwright tried to illustrate what life was using mini scenarios between 2 people and I thought that pretty much summed up what life was ABOUT. But what life really is, as of I had learnt today, is doing ordinary routines in an ordinary way with an extraordinary heart and mind. We must always think before we speak or act, that is why Swee Lin had been repeating the same lines, “think before you speak” in multiple scenes. Life is about thinking, not acting. Life is about learning, and thus, the title, “What Did You Learn Today? So, I think this is what I’d learnt today. Today, I learnt life isn’t just about living, existing, being here, or breathing. Life is profound and is meant for young people like me to figure out what it is. Life is a mystery.

I shared twice during the meditation period. At first, I was hesitant but the secondary 4 seniors lead the way and were the first ones from our school to share. Subsequently, I also shared twice, saying;

1)      Why can’t I learn to be more focused?

2)      Why can’t I learn to appreciate those around me more?

To me, the most memorable part of the play was the part when Swee Lin shared her childhood life with us. (We were planning to go “WHOO!” when she mentioned KC but she didn’t even. L ) Anyway, when she had mentioned that her mother who had passed away for 5 years but still thinks of her every day, I couldn’t control my tears. This brings us back to the point of appreciating those around us. It depicts a scenario where a loved one is lost, and how a family member reacts to it. Here, you can clearly tell, life is also about coping with huge losses and to learn to handle situations like these. Kay Siew did a monologue and it mirrored how self-centered people nowadays are. They are so preoccupied with themselves, they never actually spend the time well with their loved us, they never actually lived life to its fullest, and as a result, end up wallowing in regret.  This serves as a reminder to all of us not to live for the sake of living, only concerned about materialistic rewards and most of all, ourselves. Also, when Swee Lin “died” and Kay Siew was standing up, it sort of formed levels between them. Similarly, it also made Kay Siew seem more superior as he was higher in level and this illustrated the “all about me” mindset.

I was disturbed by the vulgar language involved and it made me feel awkward, but it also set me thinking. If this play was supposed to be educational and inspiring, were they trying to educate us on how to use vulgarities? Certainly not. Again, this is a reenactment of everyday lives and it only reflects how thoughtless and rash people nowadays are, to use vulgarities on one another. This also created much impact on the already heated argument and it helped to increase the tension. We often forget to be civilized citizens. And life should be dedicated to being the best you can be, thus, we often forget what life really is about.

 

Primary One- Vera (:

At the “classroom setting” exhibit, we learnt about baby sign language, which I thought was very interesting because now I know what my baby sister, now 5-ish, was trying to tell us in the earlier stages of her life.

I

The setting is in a classroom and I think this is so as it talks about early childhood education and it applies to children. The white woman just conveyed what she was trying to say through her expression and body language. I think the producer did this because he wanted the message to be seen and read instead of heard. This would make the content more obvious and also, there would not be a need for sound, which brings us to the point of the silent video. This increased the tension in air as we tried to watch the video closely. This makes us feel as if we are really communicating with a baby as young babies are not able to talk. I think that they got a child to sign the language as the age gap between she a baby is smaller and the parents are able to get a feel of what it is like having a young child communicate with them in sign language.
II
The background music is lively and cheerful when describing children and lightens the atmosphere. I think that the mother is teaching her daughter these words form the newspaper as she would like to expand her daughter these words from the newspaper as she would like to expand her daughter’s vocabulary at a young age so that her foundation is already built up. She also uses facial expressions when teaching different words to her baby to convey different meanings. It helps the child to learn better when there are emotions involved.

The Tables
Though the pictures on the desks flashed so fast, I could make out multiple pictures on the table I was sitting at about natural disasters, injury and death. The vandalism on the tables also speaks of topics along similar lines. What I feel is so significant is that the pictures of the tragedy flash and change so fast right in front of us, just like how the world is in tragedy and in a devastating state and deaths and wars are occurring in so many different places, just like how there are so many different pictures. Similar to how the pictures flash before us quickly, the world is changing right before our very eyes ever so quickly, with wars and natural disasters happening so often and frequent, and like how the pictures change all the time.

At every table, there is a different theme (eg. War, food, globalisation) and I think each table represented a different aspect of the world and they situated it in a classroom to show how the issues of the world boil down to the classroom and how the teachings in the classroom matter and that’s why the video was talking about early childhood. It shows how the foundation in a child is very important and it could even determine the fate of the world. Our babies are our future of the world.

Similarly, the babies on the tables were holding crosses and ticks to show the link between education and early childhood. Some tables are stacked higher than the others and this shows the relation to some aspects in the world being more significant than the others.

Primary One- Melissa

Overview of the Exhibition: 

The first art piece that caught my attention were the plastic babies placed on every table. Some tables were higher than the others. Every plastic doll seemed to have a very grim expression on their face and were also carrying a cardboard cut out that either had a green tick on it or a red cross. At first, I thought that ticks and crosses illustrates if the baby was accepted in society, if they were, there would be a tick next to them. But after watching the video, I had an impression that the plastic dolls with the ticks and crosses were associated to the video that we'd watch. I felt that the ticks and crosses showed if the baby was disabled or not. I think that if they had a cross in front of them meant that they had a disability; such as they were deaf or blind. 

At the very end of the exhibit, there were many chairs and tables that were facing a huge screen. The tables had a small screen where there were flashing images and graffiti on it. Every table had different images and writings and each table had a different topic. The topics on the table had to do with the video that was played on the big screen.  Although there was no audio, I understood what was happening, as there were subtitles. In the first video clip, there was an Asian women and a blonde haired women. The Asian women did sign language whereas the blonde haired women did very vague hand gestures. I think that the video showed how much difference there was of someone who knows sign language and someone who only makes gestures and movement of someone speaking. The next video clip showed another women who was doing sign language to a baby. There were a few negative words such as, 'unemployment' and 'domestic violence'. I then realised that the words that words had a relation to the writings and pictures on the tables. There was a table, which had flashing image of heading that said broken marriage and also, a picture of actors and actresses who had divorced. The table writings also had words like, violence, tears, unhappy conflict and anti love affair. Walking around the exhibit, I had also saw a picture of a girl who was skipping alone in the basketball court. I felt that the picture showed social isolation. This picture reminded me of when I had started Primary School. When I was Primary One, my classmates and I would be on different ends of the courtyard and we would play by ourselves. 

Discuss one photo in depth:

One of the many images that I found very interesting was the one, which looked like a class photo. In the photo, no one was smiling. Instead, many of them had a very uncomfortable expression on their face and some just had a blank look. The class consist of many races. I think that the picture showed that there was racism in the class. 

Education in Singapore

I feel very blessed to be able to study in Singapore. I think that the education in Singapore has many benefits and has many opportunities for us to do well. Moreover, I think that the education in Singapore is very all rounded, as it has both physical education and academics.

Idealism vs. realism

Idealism is when you envision or see things in an ideal or perfect manner. Whereas Realism is to have an actual view of a situation. I think that being an idealist is causes us to see things in a very hopeful manner. I feel that there must be a balance in the two and we cannot be too idealist or realist. Being too idealist would make us over confident and may have lofty ambitions, but lack the clarity and focus to put them into action in an achievable way.

Globalisation and Nationalism

Globalisation affects people and states all around the world. It characterises a world that becomes more and more interdependent, not only economically, but politically and culturally as well. Nationalism is the belief that nations will benefit from acting independently rather than collectively, emphasizing national rather than international goals.

Model Citizen - Letter to Character (Nicole Cheah)

Melly,

Why get a job in Singapore?

-ili

Hey ili,

Why get a job in Singapore? I looked for a job here because Singapore is one of the countries, which is nearest to Indonesia. This allows me to save on the cost of my air ticket for when I wish to visit home since I am only earning $300 a month. Furthermore, Singapore is a multiracial country and since my main language is Bahasa Melayu and English, I am able to converse with the people here easier. Rather than going to other countries to work like China or Hong Kong where I am unable to speak their languages which are Chinese or some dialect.

Also, as you know there is a low crime rate in Singapore. It is much safer than compared to the other countries. In Singapore there is also a political stability. These factors make me feel very relaxed and comforted. Singapore is also one of the well-developed countries.

One of the most important points is that I wish for my family in Indonesia to have a better life. Which is why I would want to work here and eventually get them to come to Singapore too if possible. The schools in Indonesia aren’t exactly safe and may be dangerous especially for my younger sister. Anything could happen so I want to ensure that she is safe and protected so that my mother will not worry so much.

- Melly 

Ili Yasmin - Overview + Model Citizens letter.

PRIMARY 1 EXHIBITION

When I was at the exhibition, I felt very confused at first. I was thinking of what to expect. It was my first time experiencing material to use for devising a play. It affected me in a way because many things I saw there was familiar to me. Like the school tables, the baby dolls, the ticks and crosses. On the ways there were pictures of girls from an IJ which was familiar to me because I am currently an IJ girl.  I could relate to it because seeing things that are very familiar made me feel comfortable.  I thought the exhibition for Primary 1 was trying to prove things that we learn like racial harmony(the cheongsam, sari  and baju kurung put together.) , being active (picture of a girl in the basketball court using a skipping rope.), social studies ( the girl standing in the way of the visualization of Singapore ) and math ( girls carrying Barbie dolls but one girl has none.) These were the things that we learnt in class. It all meant that these were the things that we were taught in Primary 1. They were trying to put across what is right and what is wrong. For example, Math is good. It makes us think.

Write a note to someone in a photo.

Dear students in the class,

Why are you just sitting there? What are you doing? In the picture you look like you’re staring into space. What exactly are you doing? Who is teaching you? What are you learning? Everyone looks so bored. Are you trying to show me the perspective of students in a classroom? What are you waiting for? You could be doing something else more fun. So what is it exactly is making you behave this way?

DISCUSS A PHOTO IN DEPTH

The picture of the of the cake uniquely Singaporean struck me the most because it was made of things that made me feel at home with. Things like Durians, Gem biscuits, agar strips and rambutans. It struck me because I grew up around these things that made me a Singaporean. It also makes me feel like I could relate to this because if it were presented to foreigners, only I could recognize and decipher it. It also showed me that different things can make up something Singaporean. Like Noodles didn’t originate from Singapore but yet it has made its impact to be considered Singaporean.

SOMETHING ABOUT EDUCATION BUT NOT EXACTLY EXHIBITION

When we moved on to the Something About Education But Not Exactly exhibition, I felt shocked at the sight of school chairs and tables with a small screen embedded in the table flashing pictures repetitively.  Upon sitting down, I watched a video.  The first part was of two ladies called Laisarn. They were introducing to us Baby Signing. The asian Laisarn was very expressive with her signing when she was giving her talk. The Caucasian Laisarn kept nodding and just gave reassuring nods.  The both of them gave me different impacts because due to their reactions. The Caucasian Laisarn made me annoyed because all she did was nod and made gestures with her hands. The Asian Laisarn made me happier because she kept enforcing signing enthusiastically.  When they had to interact with a girl who has learned signing since young, it showed me the contrast between the two Laisarns. The Asian one did a lot so that the child could follow along with ease but the Caucasian Laisarn’s teaching method in  a way forces the child into self learning.  It showed me the two different types of learning and teaching techniques. I didn’t know what exactly to conclude from the video. Was it Asian teachers give more when it comes to teaching and Caucasian teachers don’t really care? Or was it Caucasian teachers use self learning exercises or how Asian teachers teach and lead you through? I want to know whether in the end, do Caucasians want to live with how they’ve learnt independently or how Asians live with the fact that they will forever depend on someone teaching them things.

The second video was of a mother and a child in a cheery atmosphere probably in their backyard. So while cheerful music is played in the background, the mother begins to sign the following words.

·         Happy Baby

·         Beautiful Girl

·         School Exam

·         Tuition Fee

·         Child Abuse

·         Social Isolation

·         Discrimination

·         Extra Marital Affair

·         GST

·         Unemployment

·         Domestic Violence

·         Mortgage

·         Superannuation

·         Stock Market

·         Freedom

·         Global Capitalism

·         Illegal Immegration

·         Post Imperial Nostalgia

·         Avian Flu

·         Global Warming

·         Intelligence Agencies

·         Humanitarian Disaster

·         Relief Operation

·         Radicalism

·         Terrorist Attack

·         Air Strike

·         Ethnic Cleansing

·         Rape and Murder

·         Genocide Mass Grave

These words were signed to the baby while in the background, the music still played. I felt quite perplexed because normally these weren’t the words you’d normally tell/sign to your children. These words have a too cryptic of a meaning to tell children. Some of these words are quite depressing. Some of these words are too vast for children or babies to even understand but since mothers are normally nurturing their children, maybe she is preparing her child for the world. Maybe she’s letting her child know what to expect.  When I looked at my table,  there were vandalism on the table. My table had said Global Warming and the pictures of global warming flashing on my little screen. I soon got why were we there and what they trying to teach us. Since now lessons are presented through videos or tutorials, the first video was telling us what baby signing was all about so the second video was to show how to use the signs and what signs we could use and apply to what we have learnt. So when I looked at my table, it is what we apply in life. The pictures on the screen and vandalism on the table of global warming was what I had learnt and it shall be an impact, vandalized forever onto something I used to learn. It has created an impact that big.

EDUCATION IN SINGAPORE

I think education in Singapore is very different compared to the education in other countries. The education here is good enough because in places like Korea, education is enforced throughout their lives. Education is a constant 24 hour ordeal for them. Most of them don’t even like studying but they don’t have a choice because everyone’s too competitive. In Singapore, education only makes you compete with yourself. Education in western countries is rather bad, in my honest opinion. This is because since they don’t lead them and tell them  what to do, they wouldn’t care even if you did tell them how important education is unless your message of education got through one student.

IDEALISM vs REALISM

I feel that it’s better to be a idealist because if you try your best and get something not so bad, then it’s alright because you know you’ve tried your best but if you were a realist and got something really bad in life, you only have yourself to blame but the stigma against idealist is that they get so hard up that they forget everything around them.

NATIONALISM vs GLOBALISATION

I think Globalisation is important because we all function as one earth so whatever happens to the world, we have to help each other. Not fanning out and letting people in our country would just create problems and tension between countries hence hindering possible help.

MODEL CITIZENS LETTER

Melly, why did you want to get married to Zul and get rich?

I don’t want to get rich. I wanted to live like a Singaporean. Here, they have such a simple life. I want to raise my children in a safe environment like Singapore. If I were to raise them in Indonesia, there was the probability that they will be raped, sold off and have no education because I don’t have enough money in Indonesia to support them.  In actual fact, I didn’t really need Zul. I knew I could’ve been a Singapore alone but it was the fact that being a Singaporean alone scared me. I needed someone who knew Singapore and also, I loved him. As I said, I had nothing to live for. I want something to live for. Something like my own family. My own HDB. Sending my children off to school.  To live in a safe environment. This was what I wanted. 

PRIMARY 1 – Nicole Cheah

GENERAL OVERVIEW

On 10^th January 2011, I visited the exhibition “Primary 1” in the esplanade. The exhibit was rather intriguing in terms of their portrayal of what they wanted to show.

The first exhibit that I saw was a large number of similar looking babies sitting on stacked classroom desk holding cardboard crosses and ticks. Personally, what I thought they were trying to portray was how favoritism existed in society even though everyone is equal. I say this because all the babies looked the same regardless of whether they were holding a tick or a cross. This could mean that the babies with a tick were smarter academically or they are an all rounder however the babies holding a cross were lacking in something thus they were discriminated. Further more all the babies were sitting on classroom desks, it could also portray favoritism in classroom among the pupils.

Moving on, displayed on the wall were loads of pictures some showing different kinds of pictures. The placements of the pictures were shown in such a way that there was a contrast. For example on the right side of the wall was a picture of three children holding ticks and in the background was people doing construction works whereas on the left side of the wall showed a picture with three children holding crosses with a man slacking of by sleeping on the table in the void deck instead of doing something more productive. I presume that these two pictures were trying to show us how to improve the country by putting in hard work.

Next up, was a picture with a bunch of students seated together staring blankly at the screen (They looked really bored). I think this picture was to show how students are like during lesson time and generally what they go through in their everyday school life.

Finally, the last section of the exhibit consisted of many tables and chairs with a big screen in front portrayed just like an ordinary classroom. The screen was showing about sign languages there were 2 ladies explaining about using sign languages to babies. One of them was an Asian women used sign language to communicate the message whereas the other lady just stood there doing nothing but just gesturing and nodding her head. I thought that this exhibit was related to babies or children with disabilities thus it shows the point of view of those who can’t hear or understand anything yet. For example it shows the point of view of the baby who would most likely pay more attention to the Asian women doing sign language compared to the other who dose nothing. This allows the baby to understand better.

Later on in the video it showed a mother using sign language with a baby. While the mother did the sign language, they showed the baby’s reaction towards it. The mother was probably trying to communicate to the baby what was happening in the world as she starting showing words like “Unemployment”, “Stock Market”, “Global Capitalism”, “Humanitarian Disasters” and much more.

The interesting thing about this exhibit was how it linked to the tables that I had mentioned earlier. On these tables were carvings of all these words. Furthermore, each table had a screen, which flashed many pictures very quickly. Upon looking at the tables clearer, I noticed that each table had a specific theme like “Finance”, “Natural Disasters” and many others. These tables strike me as what the students have to cope with apart from their studies, which makes them quite stress. I believe that this exhibit was to emphasize that there are many things happening out there in the world that we have to prepare.

Finally, I think that this exhibition was really meaningful as it shows part and parcel of our childhood, school life and other things.

DESCRIBE ONE PICTURE IN DETAIL

I thought the portrayal of the message within the picture was really creative. It was a picture of a huge variety of FOOD. It totally consisted of a weird mixture of food that we would never imagine putting together; there were noodles, fruits such as rambutans and durians, I think there was also some sort of jelly with sauce and there were also biscuits with a colourful topping! All of them were on the same platter piled on top of each other regardless of the type of food combination and non of them were placed separated or segregated from the rest.

I think it shows how food could complement each other nicely despite their differences and make a whole new creative and stunning dish. In other words, the food symbolizes how the people who could live together harmoniously and peacefully without any discrimination or racism and as a result, it makes a peaceful society. Mainly I think that this picture was to portray and promote a multi-cultural society without any discrimination.

I feel that this image is very meaningful to me as if everyone could just live together despite all their differences and what not. There would be no arguments, meaningless wars, racism and discrimination. Without these the world would be a much better place.

LETTER TO ONE PERSON IN A PICTURE

To the girl sitting alone on the table in the canteen:

Why are you sitting here alone instead of playing with your friends? Are you troubled with something or are you confused about what to do? If there are any problems at all, you could always talk to someone you trust and confide in like your parents or sibling. Its best to share your troubles with someone you trust as your problems would feel as if they are halved also, the same applies when you feel happy or excited which will make your happiness double. Sitting there alone won’t get you anywhere so get up and go sort out any problems you have and you’ll feel much better!

EDUCATION IN SINGAPORE AS A STUDENT

As a student it’s great that I can study in Singapore as I think that Singapore makes an effort to try to make our learning more fun and enjoyable in school.

IDEALISM VS REALITY

Idealism is like a belief of a perfect life and situation however, I think that this most definitely cannot be achieved 100% as nothing is perfect. In reality we should just try our best in whatever we’re doing and hope for the best but not perfection as if there is always perfection, we wont have the motivation to get better.

GLOBALISATION AND NATIONALISM

Globalization means the fact that different cultures and economic systems around the world are becoming connected and similar to each other because of the influence of large multination companies and of improved communications.

Nationalism is the desire by a group of people who share the same race, culture, and language to form an independent country.