the house that regine built.

okay, so it wasn't a house, it was a set, and i didn't build it singlehandedly- i had a lot of help from able-bodied guys who did a lot of the carrying and lifting. but 'the house that regine built' sounded a lot better than 'the set that regine built with the help of many able-bodied guys who did the carrying and lifting, even though she also did some carrying and lifting'. that's a crap title.

it was the day before malaysian night, notts uni malaysian society's annual play. this year it was slightly different- there was a mocktail party instead of a dinner, and the play was to be held in a old tv studio instead of a theatre. i was roped in to help relatively late- the rest of the committee had been appointed and had been working on it for weeks and weeks before i even heard of malaysian night. but when jo asked me to help out with the creative aspects of the stage/set- they were having some problems with practical ways of achieving what they wanted- i went along in a sort of 'consultant' role and would up being part of the committee and being billed as 'set design' in the programme book. basically i wormed my way into the corridors of power, the inner sanctum of the organising committee, without going through the proper channels, ursurping and invading someone else's territory and creating a little division of my own. hey, i'm not a student of politics for nothing. machiavelli has nothing on me.

this production taken up a lot of my time, there have been some fairly stressful moments, lots of ideas born out of panic and desperation, infrequent meals and little sleep involved- but quite simply, i missed drama. i missed the whole vibe of being in a production, the energy, the constant flux, the progression and the coming together of so many different elements, the working towards a goal, the emotional ride- the highs, the lows, the andrenalin, the creavity involved... purely and simply, i missed it.

this time, instead of acting, i was involved in quite another aspect- i was designing the set, and building it. i came up with a concept to tie into the whole evening, and the peculiar situation we found ourselves in- holding a play in a studio instead of a theatre. the concept was just not to hide the fact. play with it. pretend that the play we were doing was being filmed and syndicated on national tv- get people walking across the stage before hand, get the MCs to be the 'director' and his 'assistant'... fun for the whole family!

all was going relatively well until friday, when everything went 'pfffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffft'. friday morning: get up at 7.45am to shift all the materials for the stage from uni to the studio. got told we didn't have tiered seating, so we had to hire a stage. promised a stage by this guy. guy tells us in the evening that he can't do it. by friday night we didn't know if we had a stage. that was a bit worrying. sat morning: get to studio by 9am. we have to cart in stage ourselves. i spent the morning re-doing the menu for the mocktail party after spotting 4 spelling mistakes in it. had to wait for stage to arrive before i could set up my sets. set up sets. discover stage too small for original configuration. some frantic thinking led to new configuration. a lot of shifting walls around [no mean feat when they were attached to steel fences and anchored by concret blocks]. finally sets up, but walls a bit floppy. went home to change into formal clothes, straight back to studio and spend the hour before event starts fixing up the hastily-erected sets- drilling holes in hardboard in my pleated orange satin skirt and black top. good thing i had the foresight to bring flat shoes, or i would have been wielding power tools in heels in the darkness behind the sets.

but it went alright. there was no time for a full dress rehearsal, but it went alright. no one had really practiced on the sets and the stage, but amazing, it went alright. despite my fears that the modified set would collapse and kill someone onstage, it held, and it went alright. despite the fact that there was no time to really touch it up, it looked good, and it went alright. the play- an adaption of one of p. ramlee's comedies- had people laughing heaps, and the bit with the MCs posing as directors of the 'live action, filmed for tv' production, was really well-received. they loved it. so the production quality wasn't top-notch- u could see the actors walking around backstage before they actually got on stage- but the bottom line is, people came, they laughed, they enjoyed themselves, they had a good night, which reminded them of home.

and as for me, it was a challenge to think of ways of building the set, without the technical expertise and the requisite tools. and a very tight budget. i loved the creative part of it, the dynamic process of creating something, being bound by constraints and coming up with ways of overcoming them, without compromising too much on the end result. i feel like a stretched myself, and i realise now that it is possible to do much more than u think u can. it's been a blessing in that way.

it also reminded me of cafe internationale, when i did deco, and of the other plays i have been in. and also, my self-help in the IH kitchen came in handy too, when the others didn't know how to use the industrial dishwasher and were washing everything by hand, and i was like, 'hey, i know how to use the dishwasher, i used to work in a kitchen like this!'. which just goes to show that u never know when your life experiences may come in handy, even the boring ones like doing wash-up in the IH kitchen.

conversation i had with akmal, the scriptwriter:
me: 'so did a lot of your friends come to see the play?'
him: 'yeah, did yours?'
me: 'well, some are here, but i didn't invite them, didn't know they were coming. just met them here.'
him: 'oh, how come?'
me: 'i have no asian friends'.