Phi Anh’s Reflections

Today’s workshop is indeed a very special session. As the dynamic duo Mr Connor and Mr Quek are away, our EXCO takes over and we the fabulous-all-the-way ACSIS enjoy the games with some extra “liberation”. I don’t think we would ever forget the very last game, which was loaded with ultra-ambiguous lines and supremely suggestive images, if you know what I mean. ACSIS has become a place where we really enjoy ourselves, while at the same time, subconsciously learn valuable lessons about being an actor.

However, the best experience today that must be mentioned is the time we, the Year 5s newbies, spent together drafting out the plans for making Dragon’s Head, the upcoming Drama Camp and the publicity for the FoA piece: “The Thwarting of the Baron Bollygrew”. Amazed always by the talent in acting of my fellow members, I was even more inspired to see their aptitude and creativity in non-acting matters. My group was so engaged in throwing out ideas that we forgot to note them down for the first few minutes of discussion. I was not in the other two groups, but I could see their serious attention and sincere enthusiasm. Even when we are tired, we still enjoy the work because we know we are contributing to the club that we truly love, the club which has apparently become an essential part of our school life.

But how to sustain this atmosphere? The day will soon come when our beloved seniors graduate. I have a strong belief that it would be no less exciting, because we know we still have our brilliant teachers, and De Zhong’s merriness, Pravin’s most entertaining lines, Chester’s hugs and kisses, and the rest of us, the coolest gang in school. Sorry, this part is a bit too emo, but I really feel it.

Yours sincerely,

Nguyen Phi Phi Anh

FoA Cast 2009

Hi guys, this is the Cast List for The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew

Storyteller: Boon Hwee
The Duke: Amil
Sir Digby Vayne-Trumpington: Ian
Sir Graceless Strongbody: Abraham
Sir Percival Smoothely- Smoothe: Jeremy
Sir Oblong fitz Oblong: Anandraj
Juniper: Jecolia
First Knight: Anton
Second Knight: Danson
Captain/Peasant: Utkarsh
Jasper, 15th Baron Bolligrew: Shubit
Squire Blackheart: Omeet
Peasants: Utkarsh, Eileen, Si Yinn
1st Man-at-Arms/Corporal: Nikhil
2nd Man-at-Arms: Tim
Lord Mayor: Pravin
Obidiah: one of the secondary pupils
Magpie: Edward
Dr Molocha: Yvonne
Mazeppa: Jin Yee
The Dragon: Kristen

 

For those of you who did not get casted, I mean it with all honesty when I say you are all really good actors and I’m sorry the teachers could not fit all 50 of us into speaking roles. I hope you will still be involved in FoA in every way you can.

For those of you who have decided to place IB above Drama, you should be ashamed. Kidding. A bit.

 

NOTE:
Mr Connor would like a first rehearsal at 10am on Labour Day for the first scene; This would involve Boon Hwee, Raja, Amil, Jeremy, Abraham, Ian, Anton, Danson, Jecolia.

 

Actual rehearsals will commence in Week 7.

ACSIS Assortments

As the name suggests, it combines the best mishmash of our weekly doses of ACSIS goodness. The purpose of Assortments is to share the good stuff with our friends and family, the joy and fulfillment that we ACSIS members get on a weekly basis. Also, Assortments allows us to look at an old script from a new perspective; a new cast, a new treatment…a breath of fresh air into a classic (MRT ride is a classic…right? At least I think so…)

 

Amidst the joy and excitement in putting up a show in less than 2 weeks (well, effectively we only had about 10 days..) there was the desperate rush for time, running around from one rehearsal venue to another, switching roles faster than you can say Anglo-Chinese School Independent Stage, but all in all, a fruitful experience.

 

Lots of the things that we’ve put up on Assortments materialized in a matter of minutes, during the workshops that we go to every week. Deep within the club is a wellspring of fresh ideas: the lift scene, the fight scene, duets, interview… it’s a pity we can bring all of the stuff we do behind closed doors to share with the rest of the world. =[

 

The senior students directed all of “Birthday of the Infanta” I and II. MRT Ride was directed by one of the members of the old cast, our very own President of ACSIS Edward Bingei. The Year 6s also supervised all of the remaining sequences and performances, except for the opening and closing sequence. So, Assortments is pretty much a student-initiated effort. It was a good opportunity to uncover some of the backstage talent buried beneath the brilliant onstage performances of our members.

 

Kudos to everyone, a good job indeed =] 

 

I hope the juniors amongst us have made friends with the seniors, and vice versa. Maybe we can look forward to another ACSIS Assortments towards the later half of 2009 =]

 

I’m proud to be a part of this great family =]

 

†Godspeed,

Everett

The MRT Ride*

Being in the MRT ride must have been one of the most fulfilling and enriching experiences in the drama club for me thus far. Working with the President, Edward, was amazing. His ideas were wonderful and he was really supportive. The MRT ride 2009 version may not have been as great as the 2008 version but personally, I felt that it showcased an entirely new spectrum of vibrant actors and actresses. Drama is ever-changing and I must say that we, the cast of the MRT ride, did our very best to emulate the legendary seniors and at the same time, effectively incorporate elements of our own to make it original rather than a “copy-cat” performance.

I enjoyed myself immensely. Collaborating with actors and actresses from different walks of life, Chester, Hui Yu, Shaun, Yu Su, Ian, Tricia, Paul (Bhavesh!), was remarkable. Different perspectives all merged together and the MRT ride was a crucible for the perfect rojak of the most diverse actors and actresses. It was not all fun and play and it was definitely challenging. It was not easy playing someone you have never been (and will NEVER be) in reality but Edward did help us get into our characters via interesting games.

In my opinion, the end product was picture-perfect. There may have been errors but most importantly, we had a whale of a time and we learnt many things from one another and from the Prez. It is amazing how plays and the experiences gained via these plays can help mould you into a better person. If we had a chance, I am 100% sure that the entire MRT ride cast would want to do this all over again, ONE MORE TIME! (who’s with me?)

-Written By: R.R.Pravin, 5.04 Numbers

*The MRT Ride was performed during the informal production, Acsis Assortments

The Birthday of the Infanta

Today the annual Lee Suan Yew Speaker’s Competition, for which we performed “The Birthday of Infanta” for, was held at our school. We involved two casts, one to act out the movements of the characters on stage, and one to voice the acting cast.

The audience was not as boisterous as I had expected, but still they laughed at rather odd, sad moments. To be honest, I don’t blame them. It takes a lot to be able to look into the depth of the play at first watch. Most of them were probably sleepy by then anyway. I really enjoyed the play, after having been given the opportunity perform it. Though it is very different from what we are used to, I guess it’s always good to expose ourselves to different aspects of theatre!

I felt this presentation of the play was very refreshing, and it actually worked really well! It was difficult for Jin Yee and I initially, since the both of us are very different in our manner of speech. Eventually we got used to it, and I was glad to hear feedback from my friends that we were (apparently) pretty in sync with each other today! Thank you Jin Yee, I had a wonderful time working with you, princess!

Of course, the rest of the cast was awesome! We definitely have a lot to learn (I need to stop shaking my head like an Indian when I speak) from the seniors who are all so focused and talented. Thank you all for being fun and supportive, and for teaching us so much, consciously or unconsciously! A big thank you to the MR and backstage crew as well!

Last but not least, thank you, to Mr. Quek and Mr. Connor, whose help were invaluable. Mr. Quek you have the coolest ideas which work out wonderfully and never fail to amaze me! I had lots of fun doing the play and though it was rather time consuming I’ve learnt a lot in the process. I would say every minute spent on the play was time well spent, and I wouldn’t rather have been doing anything else:)

THE END

-Jecolia

fanclub! :)

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Acsis Assortments – Photos

Hello Beautifuls, here are some photos from our informal event on the 28th of march:

(the event logo designed by our very artistic mr quek. tee hee):

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photo credit: Joshua Chin

Utkarsh’s Reflections

Drama reflections (8/4/08)

Today as Mr. Connor and Mr. Quek had previously told us was the script reading for the FOA piece, “The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew.” Unlike the usual action packed sessions with the semi-impromptu skits, this session was kind of dry. However the significance attached to it was a lot deeper than a usual session. It helped us familiarize ourselves with the characters and the script. The session was also kind of short and had a very unfinished air to it. Sort of like we hadn’t even scratched the surface on as to what the play was about and what it was going to be presented as. As such by the end, I was quite anxious to see what the final piece would look like, and so I long for the auditions to come.

The play itself seemed quite straightforward. It wasn’t very unusual, in the sense that it was traditional comedy, with a very predictable ending and a fairly easy to grasp plot. However the satire in the lines was very clever. How the play mocks traditional heroes and most unusually has its protagonist as a negative character.

The most burning question that I had been like dying to ask forever was that why are we acting plays that have already been dramatized? Wouldn’t it have been a lot better if we wrote our own, as then we might be able to cast more people, the roles would be really well suited to the actors, and also it might help us grow as humans, as we perform different and more varied roles. Also this might help us truly fulfill our mission of creating a student production, as it will be written, acted and produced, all by the students, with of course the awesome guidance of our teachers.

Cheers,

Utkarsh Sanghi

Just a brief response to Utkarsh’s question:

Thanks for the question, Utkarsh. I’m sure others have wondered about the same thing. From what I personally gather, it’s not that the club is averse to using student-written pieces. After all, we did put up MRT, which was scripted by a student, Jing Yan, never mind that he wasn’t an ACSIS member.

It’s just that writing plays is very, very hard. Especially for something as large-scale as FoA, which has to appeal to parents, young children and, of course, pass the censors. It takes a certain maturity and experience to churn out material of that quality and I think it’s reasonable to expect that 17 to 18 year-olds could make a valiant effort but not necessarily meet the bar.
The teachers would certainly like us to be more involved in the creative process of staging and take ownership of the stage (and, of course, so would we). It’s just that we need to start with baby-steps before we can run marathons. Which is why we’re starting out with things like ACSIS ASSORTMENTS, where we perform student-devised material.
Maybe the next step is the writing of a short play (as opposed to a one-hour plus epic like The Thwarting of Baron Bolligrew). If anybody has any ideas or material, feel free to approach the ExCo and we’ll convey it to the teachers! We’re always open to suggestions and ideas.

Regards,

Ping