Friday, July 19, 2013

30 plays in 60 minutes!

That's what you get in Never Eat Too Much Before Rapture which I watched on 6th July 2013, in KLPAC. Aside from the wacky sounding name, it is also chaotic, random and of course, AWESOME!

Never Eat Too Much Before Rapture(NETMBR, pronounced Net-tem-ber) is a very uniquely conceptualised theatre performance where the audience(we/us) decides the order of the plays being performed. Hence, each session is really different as the order will differ, depending on the number being shouted out by us. The really cheeky bit is the part where the onus falls on us if all 30 plays did not get performed within the 60 minutes time frame. Besides that, all 30 plays were written, produced and directed by all 9 cast members(credits roll at the bottom, as usual XD)

Now that leaves an average of 2 minutes per play, but seriously, is that enough? Oh, did I mention that 60 minutes include setting up time for each set? Yeap, so within the 60 minutes, you can imagine how many things were going on! We were shouting, actors/actress were jumping up and down getting the numbers(I was laughing hysterically during this part), scrambling for props and getting into place! Now, you get what I mean when I say chaotic and random?

Next on, about the plays themselves, 30 of them, some poignant, some comedic, some physical, some literal, all truthful and enjoyable! Pepper in lots of stage play techniques and it got me thinking that if I was given the chance or opportunity to rename the whole thing, I would call them Rojak! (Ops, going off-tangent here) Back to the plays, there were also some bit of improvisation going on as there was this particular short play "The Show Changer (Everyone's going to hate you for picking this)" that 'kills' a cast member. And his body is laid there, while the shows go on! (Remember, we are on time constrains here) What happens if there is a solo performance by him which had not been played yet? Well, the ensemble basically resurrected him using whatever they can link from the previous one.

With all that being said, actually I think the best part was the last performance, and it happened by coincidence, true and pure coincidence! By some strange power, "The Importance of Family Albums" was the finale of the session and is one of the pieces that actually struck a chord in me(side track a bit, I am actually fairly camera-shy during my formative years, and still am, I suppose, hence I don't have much photos of me from younger days). Anyway, the best part was, after the whole monologue was performed, the whole house was called for a group photo session! It was a really random one! And we still had a little bit over a minute to spare! (I guess can consider as achievement unlocked? XD)

Omg! Why did I write so much??? Meh! Basically what I want to say is, if NETMBR ever gets performed again, which it definitely should, please go watch and support them! Oh yeah, credits roll (in order of the leaflet provided) :
1. Alexis Wong
2. Jeremy Ooi
3. Grace Ng
4. Dinesh Kumar
5. Jen Yee
6. Ui Hua
7. Ho Lee Ching
8. Freddy Tan
9. Amanda Ang

PS. Tickets price can be discounted up to a maximum of RM 6, depending on the mini-games you play beforehand :P

Monday, July 1, 2013

Topic : How Arts Changes Countries

Here is the second installation on my take about Borak Arts! I am completely taking the lazy way out and skipping all the keynote addresses and speeches. So, the first session is basically highlighting the impact of arts on countries and the countries being observed in this session are Korea, Australia and Malaysia. There are some obvious similarities and differences and let's see that further.

Korea is being represented by Korea Arts Management Services (KAMS) and their take is more on whether was it the other way round, "Was it is the country that was being changed by the arts?". There were mentions of how the Korea government is carrying out a 'cultural renaissance' where they are pushing for creative change and focussing on happiness of their citizens. This has in turn led to a proper welfare system being made for artist without the government trying to threaten growth by limiting diversity. Basically, the Korea government is supportive of the arts industry and makes it sustainable without interfering the creative direction. And I can see that this is not just lip-service from the Korean government, with the Korean Wave and all happening.

Moving on next, we heard from Australia Council for the Arts (ACA) just a brief introduction, this organisation is fully funded by the government but the government does not have veto power over it which pretty much makes it an independent body. And I guess Malaysia can really make do with this because I really saw how the balance of bureaucracy and support is evident here. Besides that, ACA acts as a ground for training and developing the arts industry in Australia and they have this awesome 'artistic vibrancy tool'(a really cool measurement tool that can really help the arts, in my opinion) which I think requires some really good knowledge management system. However, I guess the highlight of the presentation by ACA is when the words were spoken, "There is no nation if there are no arts!" or something along those lines :P

Last and definitely cannot be the least, we have Malaysia, and the main focus of what is being said is something along the lines like trying to make the arts an income-generating unit of the country, hence quite a few usage of the word 'product'. I wouldn't mention which government agency it is but I do have to mention this, they are trying their best to increase the number of projects being supported, however, only if the projects have commercial viability, which to me, there is this big gap that needs to be filled. Because based on my observation, most arts practitioner or production houses are more passion-driven and while they may be financially-constraint, they rather get another job to sustain themselves. Hence, most production houses and art practitioners are quite not-for-profit, which is not very in-line with what the government is looking for.

Anyhow, after listening to all three countries, I would say it is interesting how each of them view the arts differently and it is time for the Question and Answers session between the panellists and the participants. I am a bit worn out at this point, so I am just going to briefly summarise all that transpired. There was one point that research and interaction with the artist was mentioned. There was also another one about artists measurement which talks about other stakeholders, 'world domination'(geared towards the Korean Wave), 'unfunded excellence(an exercise done by ACA) and the importance of long-term vision. Finally, there is also this point about trying to develop professionalism in traditional theatre(one of the Malaysian government's initiative).

All in all, the first session was already a mind-blowing session, and did I mention that the moderator for this session was Freda Liu, a presented and producer of BFM 89.9? Yesh, go unleash your imagination and picture the awesomeness of the whole session!