"outta da big sky into da big sky country!"

well. oh man. i dunno where to begin haha i've missed so so so much.
anyway, it's 11.53pm friday night now. i've just finished bathing and am super tired.

remember the thing about the horrible drama audition?

somehow, by God's divine grace I was shortlisted to participate in the competition. So there it was. Renxin, shimin, wanwei and me joined the competition, representing Cougar house. Haha. We met very very interesting characters along the way, Yang Han, this China dude with a funny accent, Ching Yee, this super cute J1 gal who acted as a retarded 10 yr old, n Weiling, another J1 girl who depicted a distraught mother.

Under the guidance of our house facilitator - miss drama queen Xin Jie - we went through a week of gruelling practice, rehearsals, emotional turmoil and man, the drama. Haha. We went through it all not exactly smoothly, but we made it nonetheless. :)

At 6pm today we were all in the holding area Nexus waiting anxiously for Renxin our lead to come back from her dance practice. We were told to get into character and stop talking to each other but of course that was hard to do. Esp with shimin around. We tried though, and we managed to, a few times. We were the last group to go up and one by one the other teams vacated the room. Darkness fell. Literally. Time was running out. We were to be backstage next and renxin was not back. Finally she came back in hurried manner, tears streaming down her face. Yes, her dance teacher's quite the horrible character. Renxin was told off for joining dance n stuff n ya.

Well we were all kinda at a lost at what to do. We just tried to console her n get her back into character. THe other groups had like more than an hour to get themselves into character but Renxin oh man. She had to stop crying, switch her focus and get into character in less than half n hour. But she did it! Of course we prayed for her too haha.

If ur wondering what our play is about...

it's called 'Little Airplanes of the Heart'. Renxin plays sam, a 10 yr old boy who wants to build a plane and fly to Montana. That was initially his Uncle John's dream, but Uncle John died trying. His spirit lives on, and Yang Han, yes that China dude, plays Uncle John. Wanwei plays Sam's mother, who tries over n over again to make Sam act like any normal boy and for him to give up that seemingly crazy dream. Jilly is played by Ching Yee. She is Sam's cousin, Uncle John's daughter. Yes she's a bit retarded and tries twice to get Sam to play with her by offering to lift up her skirt and show him her underpants. (She wore Yang Han's the Simpsons' boxers on that day). Weiling plays Cheryl, Jilly's mom and distraught widow of Uncle John's. Shimin and I were sorta what u call 'ca-le-fe' (side actresses) but we put in our ALL. haha. and i think it turned out well. Shimin was Principal Becker and I was a rabbi ( a jewish priest) conducting an unneccesarily dramatic funeral for Uncle John.

I can tell you that the worst part of acting is before getting on stage. It's the butterflies in the stomach. The nerves. The crazy rushing abouts. The distracted mind. FOCUS FOCUS!! Easy to say hard to do. For me lar at least. Haha. Wow. I prayed i really prayed hard. I was just really afraid that i would laugh on stage coz yeah my one and only scene is supposed to make everyone laugh like mad. Minutes before we were to go on stage everyone was just going nuts. Suddenly staring blankly into one spot. Then at another time rehearsing lines, seemingly talking to themselves. And with other ppl. AIYO it was mad lar. Haha.

In the end we went up, brave and strong. As Xin Jie said, we go up, explode on stage, and leave. I think that was precisely what we all we did. Haha... I dunno why but audiences seem to laugh at most unpredictable moments. I was listening to it all from backstage and finally it was my scene. God help me.

I stood up on the chair. Lights came on. Uncle John lay in front of me with his leg up in the air. I breathed in and pushed his leg down. Then the 2nd time. Audiences laughed. I breathed in. And i started, "Vee may not know veeree 'ee izz, but like Joooo-nah, in zee' belly of zee' whale, 'ee will not ezzcape zee zight of God....." yep. there was a funny accent haha. I really did it as dramatic as i could and MIRACULOUSLY i was not tempted to laugh at all. Haha. I saw some familiar faces in the audience btw! :D haha. Aiya i gave it my all lar.

Everyone did well except that Uncle John couldn't unzip his jacket at the end to give it to Sam. The zipper got stuck haha. Oh yeah did i mention that of all days Yang Han twisted his neck during sleep today, on the performance day haha. Anyway we were SOOO relieved it was over. It ended with a tremendous line, Sam saying, " I know, but it's not the same." I think that was the winning line haha.

Prize giving ceremony. ALL actors were on stage and we were at the very last row so no one could really see us. But we were screaming all throughout. Screaming so loud that we couldn't hear what they announced properly. But one thing we didn't get wrong, RENXIN won best actress!!!! Haha and she did that by acting as a 10 yr old boy. When it came to the best performance, we were so excited, we didn't hear it properly. Shimin started screaming so I thought we won too and so did wan wei and we started jumping like crazy til Renxin said "aiya puma won lar". Haha, cougar does rhyme with puma, and jaguar for that matter too. Walau. Haha. Apparently they were the most popular group, the one with the most audience votes and i guess that really contributed a lot. They were kinda the underdogs coz Panther was supposedly the best house. Haha :P

Ah well. We did our best. Ren Xin got best actress. Xin Jie bought us McDs. What more could we ask for? Haha. :)

We're still the best!!! :D Haha.

Thanks EVERYONE who came to watch. Esp my beloved roomie and renxin's roomie who rushed down from their CCAs just to watch our performance. In the middle of my lines the ushers had asked my roomie kwang ying to move downstairs but she said to them, "can I move later?" just so she could watch my one and only scene. AHHH!! i'M SO touched i could cry. Li Ming and Kuan Chin and Sue Wen came too! And thanks to my classmates who came to support renxin and shimin and wanwei too! Jia Le and Jian Wei n Swee Kiong and Jing Jie etc. And to yi jet and hui yan who voted for cougar though they were cheetahs'. :p Oh and thanks kok yi, sir ron n so many others who wished me good luck even though i had only one scene haha. I LOVE you guys.

Most importantly, Thank God. I overcame tremendous nerve problems and came a long way.

In some ways, drama is like real life...

Though I am a 'ca-le-fe' in a drama centred upon someone else's life, God knows it means a lot to me. He is all the way there, with me backstage, behind the curtains, present in the audience cheering His head off for me. What matters to me, however small it may be, matters to Him, a great deal. :) I couldn't have done it without Him.

This whole drama adventure was God trying to tell me precisely that, that He's always there for me. All my petty failures and aspirations and unrealistic ambitions, however small they may seem in the eyes of the world, matter greatly to Him.

Praise Him Jesus forevermore.

Goodnight :)