Wednesday, June 14, 2006
the new waaave
finally, TNW is over and done with. must say that meeting new people and practising the fine art of diplomacy between (at last coherent count) 3 warring factions within the production crew an edifying experience. exploring the confusing backstage innards of the esplanade was a barrel of fun. opening doors and peeking into dressing rooms, passing (and touching! omg) signed photographs of putumayo world party, looking into west side story dressing rooms... fiddling with the esplanade steinway that (i am assured) the world-famous thomas hecht is going to play saint-saens on soon. hanging around the recital studio, chatting with all the underpaid, miserable, but horrendously-amusing, anecdote-filled ushers. (i have a newfound respect for those ladies and gents in purple. the things they do and see that we never usually hear about. tsk)
of course i couldnt have muddled through the logistical and poliical nightmare that was TNW without ruby and patrick, harsha, carol, pegs and paul. ruby the peranakan mamasan, with her wonderful naked-otak, bakaluah, and chocolate, and her husband patrick, with his incredible propensity to sleep anytime, anywhere. harsha with her unlikely pairing of a caustic, evil sense of humour and her inexhaustible patience. carol the "reformed lawyer" who supports england, pegs with her incredible theatre experience and connections, and paul with his stage-clearing, irish-accented bellows of rage, his chainsmoking, and his unbridled love of monty python. "we are the knights of... nnnih!" good times.
the people who deserve no love: philip, the "director", who was a lazy ass throughout the show, preproduction, and postproduction: only appearing at front-of-house on the last day, when the MPs were all slated to come, and not doing any work, backstage, frontstage, or publicitywise at all. getting his instructions wrong and giving inconsistent replies to simple but important things like ensuring the cast had tickets for other musicals, and then blaming everyone else loudly and repeatedly when the problems blew up in his face. taking his anger out on anyone in sight whenever he's in the least bit grumpy. disappearing for hours at a time, with his handphone off, repeatedly, the last and most notable time being 24 hours before the friday premiere till 2 hours before box office closed at 7pm on friday night. forcing harsha, ruby, patrick and i to do all the menial work (stapling, cutting, burning dvds) assigned to him, sometimes till 12am, while he crept into his room to sleep. if i never see that oily, lazy, twofaced bitch ever again, it will be too soon.
and his irritating minion, sharon. halfway through her production manager course at lasalle (she dropped out of a biotech course at ngee ann poly), she is ingratiating, annoying, doublefaced, backstabbing, incompetent, inarticulate, and just plain stupid. kisses philip's ass 24/7 and is cold to everyone who doesn't (ie everyone else). but in front of other people, is ingratiaingly nice: touches me on the back, smiles at me, (mis)uses my name often (she cant even pronounce my name. after correcting her repeatedly just gave up). every time i see her stupidly misaligned grin i feel like rabbitpunching her in the kidneys until blood pours out of all her cranial orifices. better than the mental sputum that continuously dribbles out that tear in the fabric of sensibility she calls her mouth. ugh. another one i'll be exhilarated to see the back of.
cast party this friday at hawk's place, official cast party on saturday. unfortunately sharon will be going for the friday one so bleagh. let's see how it goes.
+ fictions&fires
2:02 PM
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plangere, latin: to strike, or to lament.
in the depth of winter i finally learned that there was in me an invincible summer.
--albert camus
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to be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best night and day to make you like everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human being can fight and never stop fighting.
-- ee cummings
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