Venue: MGC
Time: 23 Dec 2006, Saturday, 7.30 pm; 25 Dec 2006, Monday, 10.00 am
So Christmas is over. And the play is over. Hmm.
I was grumbling about it so much before the thing but now I feel like I actually miss doing it. Hmm hmm. It was quite fun la. With all the interesting remixes Mark came up with, especially the Elvis one heheh. Anyway, I really learned some stuff throughout the process of the thing, and I think my piano skills have enhanced a little bit. At least now I know that I can play something other than simple arpeggios and those *bom-cha-cha things on the piano.
I'll try to put up the script when I have the time... and mood. Time is not a factor haha. Then it'll be easier to understand what we did that day. It's also a good way to remind myself that MGC is not made up of people who are totally tone-deaf and talentless.
When Mark told me Uncle Ivan approached him to help out with the play and that he needed the choir to do some singing thing in between, I went:
Huh? What choir? We don't have a choir!Total doinkness, in short.
Anyhoo, it turned out well, and it helped me see that I really should change my negative melancholic attitude and just believe that the people of God can do something for Him just because He wants us to. I should stop limiting the church's ablilities because in doing so, I'm actually limiting His power.
23 December 2006, Morning of the Event - 11.00 am
Mark changed the script.
The singing (we had 18 songs; not the full song la, just part of it for some) was still the same, meaning no changes in songs, and the sketch was unchanged, but Mark added some other stuff in the narration. He initially adapted the idea of the script from Sin Lan's Christmas book, but then decided that it was too Christian, plus the transition from one scene to another was just too abrupt and awkward. So he adapted some stuff from his NOC script (sis said so wahaha) and adjusted here and there. He also added the narrating part from "A Child is Born" by Johnny Mathis.
So Shaun and sis went to church with the other actors to practice cuz they hadn't even finished the scenes yet. It was then that sis messaged me with some urgent messages about the play and called me to tell me to inform the choir members that we wouldn't have time to go back and bathe etc (practice at 4pm) and to bring their clothes and other essentials since there were major changes to the script.
I called Livia and Qi to tell them. Ah Zheng picked up the phone when I called the house, and he went to wake Qi up (alw seems to be sleeping... like a cat! Wow maybe that's why she always meows! ...What's with the woofs then?). Of course Qi couldn't wake up and so I heard him scolding her wahaha (wanted to laugh but I thought someone might hear me ahem), and when she finally came to the phone, her replies consisted of virtually only "uh". I think that's how it's spelled anyway. Basically, she sounded like she would go back to sleep and forget everything I told her. And since sis emphasized that the 4pm practice was crucial, with a capital C etc., a terrifying thought passed through my mind for an instant. No, not a thought. More of knowledge.
Sis would kill me if Qi forgot.
As any sensible scared-out-of-her-mind person would do, I messaged Zheng and told him what I told Qi. His reply was:
Oh. Ok. Do you want me to tell Ah Qi ar?Doink. Did Qi really go back to sleep and not tell him about it? It's not like anything really bad would happen if they didn't bring their baju there right? It's just that they'd have to go home and they'd be late for the event and sis would freak out only mah. Err. Ya. Hmm. Anyway, I told him that I'd told her, so that was the end of it.
Marcus also called and told me that he was the songleader. And then he told me the songs some time later. Some last-minute-ness on the delegating by the coordinator, according to Marc.
23 December 2006, 3.00 pm
I had a look at the new script sis brought back. Lots of narration in between, and there were some parts that the choir was supposed to recite. They'd really need to practice. There was simply no time to memorize the thing. I was thinking: Wah so they hold the book and sing? So ugly...
Next, I had the inkling that Mark would want me to play some background music during the narrations. He'd already asked me to think of some Christmas songs to play. Jeez... I only play. I don't think of what to play. That's always been my problem. What I did for the last play was the same also. I just played what Mark and sis told me to play. I didn't have to think of what to play cuz they'd decide for me. I got worried about this. Sis comforted me with:
Just ignore him la.
Sis asked if I wanted to go practice with Marc at 3.30 pm for the singspiration. I said:
That means I'll have to go...We glanced at the clock. 3pm. Our house is 30-45 min away from church. Sis:
Err... now.Hmm. So tak jadi la.
23 December 2006, 4.00 pm - Pre-Practice
Mark assigned the readings pretty quickly, and soon everyone had their parts marked out on the booklet he'd printed out for everyone. Very nice booklet.
Some things happened on the way to church and in church la. Stuff like:
- Thought of the mics on the way to church. Thought they might be with Unc Anthony cuz he brought lots of stuff back from the Children's Hour Christmas Party the night before. WRONG! What about Unc Rod? Party was at his place anyway. WRONG! Finally found out that they were with Unc Tony. But he lives so far away... so had to ask him to come before 7.30pm with the mics. In the meantime, sis asked Mark to drop by Unc Rod's house to pick up the 2 mics that belonged to him first.
- Lin (Alto) had to go back to SUFES to give her supervisor the key
- Geng Yi & Kevin (Bass, Bass) messaged and said they'd be late cuz cleaning up Ju's place
- Zheng & Derk (Lights) suddenly disappeared when practice was about to start. Yik How had to take over temporarily. Switched back to Derk when he came back.
- Ju & Unc Anthony (Alto, Tenor) didn't appear until 3/5 thru practice cuz of the flood at his house
- Auntie Tina (Alto) quit the choir cuz of the flood at her house
- Mark (Director) was late for practice cuz of the booklets weren't done yet
- The projector was missing cuz Unc Tony took it home with him after using it at Unc Rod's place
- There weren't enough sockets to plug the church mics in
- No tinsel (vitally needed for the play) - Zheng had to go buy
- Lights for the choir weren't working out, so had to take out the 2 pendaflour lights so that we could turn on the set and have only 1 light on the choir
- Had to write chords for the musicians at the last minute cuz didn't know Marc wanted the full band
We had a group prayer before practice, and sis cried while praying. It all seems so mild now, but at that point, I really felt that everything was just so messed up, and I didn't really believe that we could pull it off. I really hate doing things like this. I mean, it's not that I'm not a last-minute person la, but this was kinda too last-minute. And I knew that every single one of the people gathered at the piano to pray, including me, had done something last-minute. I couldn't help but wonder which person's last-minute job would cost the success of the play. If it was me, then I'd feel horrible. That's when it became really obvious that it really wasn't the time to point fingers at other people's mistakes, and that the only way the event would work out was if God Himself made it work out. Would God choose to bless us with a smooth, non-cacat event? Or with a lesson that leaving Him out of His own work will never work out?
I don't know what the rest were thinking, but I think Mark and sis and I were thinking the same thing: We can only do our best now. The rest is up to Him.
23 December 2006, 4.00 pm - Practice
As expected (and as feared), Mark wanted me to play something during the narration. He planned the thing with me until Scene 2. Then we had to start practice, so he told me to hentam. I couldn't really hentam cuz of what I said above la. And also cuz of the complications that materialized because of the piano's muffler system.
Piano Clinic! (Copy Eyeshield haha)
A typical piano would usually have 3 pedals:
- Left Never really used it, and no one really told me about it, so from what I observe, I think it's just to produce a staccato effect on the keys. In short, it's the opposite of the sustain pedal. Rarely used.
- Centre Muffles the sound of the piano. Rarely used.
- Right Sustains the sound of the keys. Always used.
Mark said the music was too loud during the sketch (they weren't using mics). I tried touching the keys lightly, but it was still too loud. So I had to use the muffler bar. But during the singing and narration, I had to lift it up again. And since I have short arms -_-|||, I had to stand up every time I wanted to lift the bar. If it were only that, it would still be fine. But in between, I also had to flip the pages of the booklet. And since every section needed a different background song, I needed time to scan through the next section before playing so that I wouldn't play the wrong stuff. All different keys somemore! At that point, I also hadn't decided what song to play yet, so I had to think and play and flip and lift at the same time. It was really a sit-stand-flip-play-think time for me. I kept making mistakes like playing the wrong song, playing in the wrong key, and not playing when I was supposed to play.
Aargh.
A pianist is useless when she can't play.
23 December 2006, 7.15 - 7.40 pm
Nobody was really there yet, so I took this time hastily down less than half of my dinner and change. I also went scouting for someone to help me with the piano. Criteria:
- Long arms
- Alert, sensible, and with at least a little bit of music sense... if don't have then nvm la...
- Been to most of the practices, especially the last one
I scouted and hunted, and finally I decided that the only person left was Ah Zheng. But wasn't he supposed to do the lights or something? Eh? Turned out he was totally free. So he ended up as my crucial assistant.
23 December 2006, 8.00 pm - Jeng Jeng Jeng!
I took the games time to outline and highlight what I was supposed to play. I thanked God for the games time when I could finally cool my head and do some planning. To my horror, Jess only planned one game, and so one game it was. And that game was a pretty short one. Thankfully, I finished the thing. Well, sort of. It was so cakar ayam I was afraid I wouldn't be able to read it during the play.
After the games, it was immediately our turn. And we were all, wut... so fast... cannot...
Something like that la. I was like that anyway. But it didn't feel as awful as before la. Zheng came over and said:
Time for some page-flipping action.Dot dot dot.
After Scene 1, Zheng relaxed and said: Good, good. It's very good.
Really? I felt I'd started too fast for the first 2 songs. No time to dwell on that though. I only had a brief 15 seconds a capella narration part to prepare myself for the next scene.
Anyway, things went as planned, and maybe better than planned.
The choir sang in tune! And so berperasaan! Marcus usually looks so distracted when he sings, but when it was time for his solo, he was so ber-feel. Sis said so la. I was too busy looking at the next section to look at the choir. One of the only times I really looked at what the choir was doing was when Unc Anthony sang his solo. Cuz I needed to follow his timing and it was a pretty slow and out-of-time kind of rendition, so I had to read his lips. Wahhhhhh so emo man! Esp the "a baby born one blessed nightttttttttttttttttttt" part wahahahahhahahahahaha.
Oh ya. When Mark assigned some sentences to Qi, she said it so mati-ly and so tak-emo-ly. But sis told him to give it to her anyway cuz she was doing it on purpose.
Wah. She actually said it properly. Except for some parts where she was nervous la.
Computer stuff will be old even before you get it out of the boxWahahahahha! And she smiled! She smiled!!!! I saw her million-dollar smile when they were singing "My Christmas Gift" on the "stage". I was playing, but I turned and told Zheng: Qi's smiling! Qi's smiling!
He looked startled, then immediately took out his handphone and snapped that very rare picture of Qi with the ends of her mouth curved up haha. Oh, and she swayed properly too.
Yen Mei also did very well with her solo, and the Geng Yi-Yen Mei-Kevin part went well. Actually only Yen Mei and Geng Yi doing the duet, but Geng Yi can't sing in tune without someone there to guide him (Yen was doing the 2nd voice), so Kevin (standing beside him mah) had to sing the song into his ear while GY sang his part. Hence the trio.
The sketch was really hilarious. Jeremy was especially expressive. He always practices sambil-lewa-ly, but when the real thing comes, he pours his heart and soul into it. Shaun played the dumb one at first, always asking what this was for and what that was for. But he developed into a more intelligent being haha. After that he was the one who found this and found that in the ornament box. Sharma and Sin Lan did their parts very well, and everyone's voice rang loud and clear! The audience laughed most of the time during the sketch ^^ I laughed pretty much too la haha.
23 December 2006, 8.00 pm - Post-Musical
What made me really happy that day was the fact that Seok Ling (best friend) kept her promise and came for the event. At 7.40 pm somemore! Late la, but not technically cuz everyone else came around that time also. In fact, she was one of the earliest. Hmm.
Kathy (former classmate) and Yong Qiang (fencing club prez) also came. Was really surprised to see those two. Adrian invited them both. I felt a little ashamed that I didn't invite Kathy myself. After all, we were from the same kindergarten, the same secondary school class, and for 1 month, from the same F6 bio class. I guess it was cuz I'd invited her before in the past, and she'd always not turn up, except for once in F1/F2, when she came for Sports Day or something. I shouldn't have given up like that. That day, I realized that I'd given up on virtually all my friends, except Seok Ling, and that mum was right when she said I'm always sticking to my old friends. I should be going out into the field to be a fisher of men, but what am I doing picking on the same fish-man (hmm) all the time?
I'm glad Adrian invited them, cuz I really got closer to them that night. I've never really said anything important to Kathy, except a few polite remarks and expressions. Although I worked with Yong Qiang for Hari Ko-ku (our clubs merged), I didn't talk to him after that, and I could barely bring myself to give him a polite smile or wave when I saw him. He's a very nice person, and I wonder how I could've thought of him as a scary (he's the fencing club prez! Tikam people wan noe) and unapproachable person. He's actually quite funny haha.
I always thought that I can't mix with people and the only close friends I'll ever have is Seok Ling, and some of MGC people. But sitting around the table together like that helped me see that I can make friends, and I can make close friends, if I just overcome my shyness and negative perception of people.
In Conclusion (Finally, right? Haha)
All in all, I'd say that God chose to bless us with both a smooth event, and a well-needed lesson about how we are supposed to live for God as His chosen people.
We are citizens of heaven and ambassadors for Christ. Live with that dignity.
Amen.
*Bom-cha-cha is mostly MGC pianists' playing style which I think no other church's pianist use cuz I've never seen anyone use it. Are we simply using a unique style or we just outdated? Hmm.
*Staccato is a jumpy effect
