Sunday, August 22, 2010

Audience: The Musical

Since I'm hyped from watching the musical today, I was firing with all cylinders, and I had this idea for Audience: The Musical. Before I continue, I would like to stress that all these ideas are mine, influenced by ImprovEverywhere and Fried Rice Paradise and actually any musical which ever existed.

The basic premise is this: you have a musical where the audience is the stage and the performers are scattered around the auditorium. My basic story involves these random people who are part of the audience coming to watch a musical. The performance fails to begin on time due to technical difficulties, and the audience gets restless. The actual musical begins when the first performer in the audience begins to sing (probably about his irritation at why the show hasn't started). This continues in the vein of a normal musical, touching upon the stories of a few random "audience members" in a musical fashion.

Current ideas I have of potential numbers are: a young couple on a date; a man running in late; a family of four; a troupe of schoolchildren on a field trip; the supposed performers of the musical is actually there to watch on the real stage; and a STOMP-inspired percussion piece.

Of course, to be successful, the real audience cannot know the premise of the show before they are in the theatre. I'm wondering if it's false advertising to promote the show as something else, or maybe to keep it mysterious, secretive and vague about plot details. Then of course, in true ImprovEverywhere fashion, you have to get the actual performers to enter the auditorium with the real audience, blending in with the crowd, with their wireless microphones discreetly hidden under their clothes.

One of the snags I have right now is that once the surprise wears off after the first song or two, it will mostly be a musical, albiet that the performers are in the audience. Performer placement is another big worry as they have to be in a spot where everyone else in the audience can see them. A backup idea I had was to use live-feed cameras to spotlight on the performers, but that kinda takes out the whole, "unrehearsed spontaneous musical" feel.

Aside from that, this is something that I really really REALLY would like to do. Maybe it won't work in Singapore, or maybe it will, given the right creative team. All I need now is songwriters and lyricists and performers and a theatre and a director-producer-lights-and-sound team.

Shouldn't be too hard.
The Edna Man

Fried Rice PARADISE!

I just watched this production at the Esplanade. And I thought it was awesome. It was really funny at parts, and I discovered that Singaporean productions are actually pretty good. I loved the audience interaction, which is something you don't usually get in musicals or performances, and the music was amazing. Once again I'm reminded how much I would love to perform, and once again I'm reminded how much my parents love killing my dreams.

Oh oh oh and I met Dick Lee! He signed the CD that I bought. And I shook his hand! It's probably the closest I will ever get to someone remotely famous. Whoo!

Nasi Goreng, very nice!
The Edna Man

Monday, August 16, 2010

The Youth Olympics

I don't understand why some people are so negative towards the VERY FIRST EVER Youth Olympic Games held in Singapore. I mean, it's not about being patriotic or whatever. It's about the world coming together to celebrate the unbridled potential of the next generation.

I'm very much interested in these Youth Olympics. I've never taken much interest in sports, and I never followed the actual Olympics, but I'm very drawn to the ones being held here. Maybe it's because I know what it's like at competitions, when your goal is not just to win, but to meet with people and make new friends.

I strongly believe in tabula rasa. That's the idea that people are born as a blank slate, which mean that the possibilities are endless. I have worked with children for three years, and believe me when I say that children have so much more to offer the world then adults do. I have seen how parental influences can change a child's creativity and innocence, for better or for worse.

I see this first YOG not as another event in a list of a country's economic injections for the fiscal year, nor as an excuse to make a name for itself on the world stage, nor as a pride and propaganda for its people. I see it as an opportunity for youths all over the world to meet with one another, to open their eyes and see the world, an experience that will hopefully shape them into the awesome people we all hope to be in the future. And heck, it's a once-in-a-lifetime experience, happening right on your doorstep.

"I used to think that people from all over the world will be very different, but now I've learnt that we are all pretty much the same. We just live in different places." --Jasmine Alkhaldi, Philippines

The Edna Man

Monday, August 09, 2010

Light Up the Nation

Hello, fellow Singaporeans!

In commemoration of our nation's 100th birthday, let us come together to perform a feat never before attempted by any other country in the world. It is a very simple idea, and requires very little effort on your part, but we need your fullest cooperation from each and every one of you, if we are going to make this work.

On the 9th of August, 2065, the Google Maps™ satellite will pass over Singapore at night, for the first time. We took this opportunity to plan the largest national endevour since the Great Wall of China. And all you need to do is to either turn on, or turn off, the lights in your building, depending on where you are, for about five mintes. As the satellite passes over our island, we are hoping that it will capture the word SINGAPORE glowing on an otherwise dark island.

So we ask for your support, from each and every one of the seventeen million of you, to step up and Light Up our Nation.


-----

Okay, so I had another idea.
The Edna Man

NDP Ideas

I don't know why, but this year's NDP doesn't seem to have much kick in it. I think in the near future, when our nation becomes more receptive to new and unconventional ideas, I'll go volunteer design some of the performances.

So the first idea I had was of a Singapore Song mashup. And I mean a mashup, not just one of those community song medleys, a real honest-to-goodness electronic-audio-manipulation kind of mashup. Someone go check if Norwegian Recycling or DJ Earworm do comissions. (Or better yet, find someone in Singapore who can do it.)

My second idea was to have some kind of ImprovEverywhere influenced flashmob in the audience. So we plant some performers in the audience (or better yet, get the audience to flashmob it themselves) and get some kind of larger and more meaningful audience participation. As to exactly what that performance would be, I still have no idea.

And my last idea (for now) is to have a song performed by many different instruments from across the performances and across cultures. Someone needs to find a way to perform a mix of Chinese, Malay, Indian and Western instruments together in a Nat Day song. Then, you use one or two of those instruments in each performance before this one (which, incidentally, would be good as a finale or penultimate song). Then you fake a "technical difficulties" and get a portion of each performance (a number of performers, a float, etc.) to "accidentally" come on stage, looking bewildered, each trying to play their own instrument. Then they sync and come together in a impromptu song performance.

Yeah well. We'll see where this goes in the future.
The Edna Man

I Love My Country

You smug-faced crowds with kindling eye
Who cheer when soldier lads march by,
Sneak home and pray you'll never know
The hell where youth and laughter go.

-----

Happy Birthday, Singapore
The Edna Man

Saturday, August 07, 2010

Inception

Inception was one of those awesome movies that makes you think and think about it even when it's over. I understand why people can watch it multiple times (though wait for the DVD, it's cheaper) to try to understand the multiple layers. It's awesome awesome awesome, and you should really go watch it if you haven't. To commemorate this special occasion, here's a song:

WARNING: SPOILER ALERT

Dream Within A Dream (Ode to Inception), parody of Dream A Little Dream of Me as performed by Mama Cass
Guy washes up onto a beach
Stealing secrets from the mind, out of reach
But water wakes him and he's forced to flee
Dream within a dream for me

Jap guy raises the stakes up
Falling and dying both make you wake up
But pain is felt psychologically
Dream within a dream for me

The new team continues deception
Not stealing ideas
They're longing to trigger inception
Despite the fears

But there's a problem that will chill you
His dead wife's around and trying to kill you
Don't sleep deeper than level three
Dream within a dream for me

(Instrumental Break)

The rules are making everyone confused
Inconsistency
They think that the gravity's misused
To certain degrees

They plant the thought and get free
Synchronous kicks wake everyone before the
Abrupt endings making everyone disagree
Dream within a dream for me

Yes, dream within a dream within a dream within a dream... for me


-----

Hoping for a train, that will take me far away,
The Edna Man