This was just in the news today and I didn’t even know about it till i was informed by Mister G. As some of you may know, The Actor’s Studio at Bangsar Shopping Complex is closing down this coming February 2009. Meaning that a number of performances will  be left without a home. This is quite sad, even though sure KLPAC can be the place to host all the performances but there would be just too many. 

Giving a bit of good news. Selangor’s very own state-of-the-art theatre is finally completed and all set to play a big role in promoting the performing arts in the state capital of Shah Alam. That is just so darn far away.. I can just imagine the drives to and fro just to get to that place. Especially for actors, singers and dancers who are performing there. 

The new art theatre complex, aka The Shah Alam Royale Theatre cost about RM43 million to build. The complex took about 4 years to buld, starting from December 2004 and finally completed this year in July – with about a years delay (why am i not surprise).

It is now the latest landmark in the capital city, located at Jalan Persidangan in Section 14, just behind the Grand Bluewave Hotel.

The complex features latest technology in sound and lighting. Well let’s see how it goes from here. I do hope that it doesn’t become just another monument and there will be shows there. My only concern, that it is really far from the KL city centre and honestly that is where all the action is. Hopefully it will grow anyhow.

It has been a long 2 month run in the church circuit. 12 shows at 12 different churches. It’s hard to believe how fast the time has passed as I’m writing this. At the moment the crew is on a short break before we finish the last two shows in the Church Circuit which is on next weekend at PJEFC and Petaling Jaya Gospel Hall. Now we are moving into the bigger show. 

I’m pleased to announce that Crazy Little Thing Called Love is coming to KLPAC and the tickets are up for grabs now. The show me and the rest of the gang is performing in will be on from the 6th of November until the 16th of November. The show deals about love and relationship. The kind of relationships between simple boy-girl, to family issues as well.

You’ll laugh, you’ll cry and who knows you may take a message home with you.

Publicity is going on now with LiteFm and in every other way right now. But if you can – do come and watch the show.  You can check us out at Footstool Players or even check out our page on Facebook : Footstool Players Page. ]]> http://www.linoralow.com/2008/footstool-players/crazy-little-thing-called-love-at-klpac/feed 0 http://www.linoralow.com/2008/uncategorized/my-day-with-wade-robson http://www.linoralow.com/2008/uncategorized/my-day-with-wade-robson#comments Mon, 20 Oct 2008 16:51:19 +0000 linoralow http://www.linoralow.com/?p=181 Today has been the most amaing day ever. Ever ever ever. The first time I got the sms that stated there was a Wade Robson Workshop going on in KL at Celebrity Fitness. I was pretty determined to go and check it out. Of course when you think about it, I first thought that I was going to be doing some class that is just going to be another instructor dancing to Wade Robson choreography. For RM250..that’s believable. But then later on I got word from my friend that it really is Wade Robson who would be teaching the class. In the flesh man!!

So on a very last whim, I decided to join the workshop even though I knew I would probably kill myself cause i would have to rush for call time. Worth every bit of it, I have to say. I had to run all over the place just to go and find an ATM machine to pay Jie who is the person we were to alias for registration. Apparently the company that brought Wade down is Soulful Symphony owned by our Malaysian Idol Finalist Dina. 

I arrived at One U Celebrity Fitness about 15 minutes before the workshop started. They gave us a bag of freebies which consisted of an adidas merchandise. There was a free dri-fit shirt, adidas notebook, socks, a celebrity fitness neckchain, two free day passes to celebrity fitness and another freebie for spa. 

Going in there Min Li and I went ahead to the locker to change. We could see every girl trying to be creative with the way they tied their shirt. To be either more fitting or shorter at the midriff or whatever. Honestly waste of time, cause in the end it’s all about being more comfortable to do the moves. Pehh. Of course we just had to take pictures in the locker room. That gym has one of the nicest locker rooms around. Very umm classy. Min took the blue while i took the red one. 

Warm up session was simple by one of our local dancers. Really sorry but I can’t remember their names. Then Dina came in to intro the man himself Mr Wade Robson!!! Woooooooooooo cheers all over the place… Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 

and then the choreography session began. Wade taught us some bit from a new show that is on in the near future. I forgot what it was but yeah he taught us some moves from there. 

Boy were they hard! For me anyway and that is terrible. It made me think ok if I were to go into something into an audition like “So You Think You Can Dance”…I’d probably faint from either exhaustion or possible humiliation. Thank goodness this was not a competition, it was just about learning to have some fun. 

I saw a number of familiar faces in the room. Some I knew personally from a long time ago in my dancing days and some only from the comfort of a tv screen. Those from the Tv screen were a number of contestants from the So You Think You Can Dance Malaysia Season 2. If you look closely at the pic above, there is one of the contestants watching by the foot of the elevated stage. 

The whole choreography took was only about 34 seconds, but it took us 1 and a half hours to learn it. Man.. That long for such a short time. By the time we got to like just 16 counts, my shirt was drenched to the core. Like really really wet and just soaking with sweat. Oooh and I have to mention that I don’t think Wade appreciated it everytime we went bickering and making minor noises in the room when we couldn’t get a step or when he did some cool move. Thinking back to the SYTYCD season 3 when he was training Sabra and Lacey, he was hoping they would be quiet long enough so that they could focus. lol. 

I would show how i did the choreography but I would die of embarrasment. I’ll show it one day, though. Let me practice it a bit more and let’s see whether I can do it better. Instead I’ll show how Wade did it…hehe

Look at his legs move man. This dude has been dancing since he was 2, started being a pro dancer at the age of 12 and then did choreography for others at the age of 14. He didn’t start with professional dancing, but a lot of it came from watching music videos, learning and practicing again and again. Till he got it. 

There was a special performance too by the dance crew Floor Fever and they requested for Wade to dance the choreography he did for Justin TImberlake’s ‘Sexyback’. Took him a while to remember but the crew were cool enough to say ‘Don’t worry we’ll help you..” Peeehh Yeah right. Wade Robson just needed to listen for a sec and WA-LA muscle memory kicked in. And then he started dancing. I’ll upload that video later.  

We found out more about the man during the Q&A session. This lasted for about 15 minutes and I was busy being a little miss busybody, but there were just so many questions I wanted to know and ask. On a professional level and just on a level of how he in his own way handle things as a dancer. 

Check out the video here. 

After the Q&A session, we were all to line up if we wanted to take a picture with Wade. Hell yeah!! of course I wanna take a picture with Wade. Even if my hair was a mess it’s fine, cause it’s with one of the people I look to for inspiration. Wade was seriously down to earth and he’s amazingly tall. That’s beside the point but I’m just really glad I managed to meet one of the people who inspire people all around the world so much in the realm of dancing. 

And of course I had to take a picture with Dina herself. 

It was a seriously too cool and that was a super wonderful experience!!!! And word up for those of you who are in Singapore. Wade Robson is going to be there too. Brought under the Danzpeople which you can take a look here. So get yourself dancing people!

That’s all I got. Whoa….. wait no I have some reservations. 

I love the whole concept of street dancing. A lot of this is inspired much by Michael Jackson who started his own thing all together back in the days when he was not hunted by the paparazzi for things he did or did not do. Michael Jackson is still one the most forefront people in the dancing industry that everyone has tried to grab a piece of in their own style of dance. You can’t not dance and not do a Michael Jackson somewhere. 

Anyway, I had already seen ‘ Step Up ’ the movie a while back and when my mister Soon Wei told me to go catch ‘ Step Up 2 The Streets‘ – it was in my wanted dance movie list. I just finished watching it. And man you gotta love the dancers in this piece, but I have to say that very unfortunately the storyline was a tad cheesy and the acting was so so. Nothing really solid in terms of deep characters. 

But that’s ok cause Step Up 2 is about the dance. It’s about physical movement, about expressing oneself through artistic movement, so I can forgive them for that. I’m not jumping up and down with the movie, but reading ABOUT the movie and the behind the scenes, sure gets me motivated. 

I’m especially very very impressed by how mature and honest the main star of Step Up 2 is, Robert Hoffman who plays the character Chase Collins. The hot dance star of the well respected MSA, who falls for street dancer Andie played by Briana Evigan. I wanna concentrate more on Robert for after reading this. I have even more respect for this talented young bloak. He has a real heart for wanting to let the industry now about the dancers who are hidden in the background but work their butts off.

 

“Me and everyone in the film are all dancers. Dancers are the least respected and least paid, but the hardest working of anyone in the industry. We’re treated below extras, but we work harder than anybody. Doing the number wasn’t the hard part. We’re used to dancing a lot. What was hard was when we did re-shoots. We had to do re-shoots to get a better angle on one part, and it was on a night that was 30 degrees outside. We were at the Sepulveda Dam re-shooting, and they had these big tanks of water that weren’t insulated, whatsoever, so it was like ice needles hitting your skin. We just had a short amount of choreography that they needed to cover better, so we would do it, and then they’d play the music back and we would do it one more time. They had hot tubs and we’d sit in the hot tubs, jump out and they’d say, ‘Okay, go!.’ We’d do it one time and they’d say, ‘Okay, one more time.’ Every single one of us, on the second take, got these really weird eyeball headaches. Our eyes started to have these terrible pains in them. I don’t know what it was, but the cold and the moves caused it. That was Hell day.”  

- you can read more on Robert Hoffman’s experience here as well as Briana’s debut on Step Up 2 and her first onscreen kiss.. hehe.

I was a tad bit disappointed with the ending dance sequence which was the one everyone is raving about. The dance sequence in the rain which was probably the hardest thing to do. I have utmost respect for the choreographers – Dave Scott was the choreographer for the MSA Crew, the 410 was done by ‘Hi Hat’, and Jamal Sims was the overseer of all the choreography, and worked on Briana’s solos. 

What disappointed me was while the rain was terribly cool. But it was because it was done in the rain, that’s what made the dance so cool. Yes given the fact that it made the moves even harder to do. But i found the 410 choreography stronger than the MSA Crew, who are suppose to be the ‘winners’ of the street dance. They were some fabulous stuff happening for the MSA Crew, but i felt that there wasn’t alot shown for Briana’s skills at the end. I was expecting like tons of stunts and what not from her. Plus the ending pose was… ngeh. Yeah yeah I can’t dance as well as her, but come on!!! It’s the ending pose. Don’t just splat water into the camera or stand there straight up looking macho. Pose!! 

Another reason why I say the 410 was cooler. There was a sequence where two guys did break dancing .. in sync!! Their movements were so similar it was sick. Great angle shot. But hey.. it’s still a nice movie to get your heart pumping. With moves as solid and wicked as that. I don’t mind watching again.

Check it out man..

All that helps enhance one’s ability in terms of voice and speaking.

At Life Chapel, this was the first time we were plugged in with mics for “Crazy Little Thing Called”. All this while we have been busy throwing our voices. So no technology to help us. A big thank you to the P.A. people from Life Chapel for wiring us up so that the show would be a thumbs up. 

Now the things when you get plugged up with a mic is you have do sound checks just before going on and also always ensuring that your mic is switched on. One would think after going for a number of performances I would finally be aware that just beore I go on I should’ve doubled check before going on stage. The first act went ok, with no ones mic giving any issues. 

The second act however, reuqired us to change into our second act costumes. Sad thing, was that I might have accidently switched my mic to mute, with all the switching swashing of the costume changes. That is another reason why I do not like to fiddle with my mic. I either prefer it to be locked straight somewhere on me.. like the bra strap or a use a velcro belt so that it is stuck permanently to my body. It’s a lot safer that way too. Unfortunately, it was clipped on to my jeans and since it was sticking out, there was a point it got knocked causing the mic to fall off my jeans. Sigh that could’ve caused the muting. 

Hence when I got on to stage. There was one person who was booming with sound, while the other had to throw the voice like mad. I found it very interesting though, that the PA group kept on assuming that some of us had not used wireless mics before. Well with such a silly thing as not to remember to check it before going on stage, it’s no wonder they would think I was unprofessional in that manner.

**Smack myself on the head**

That was for one act which was ‘Impasse’. When it came to ‘A Late Lunch’ the mics were working again. It was very funny, just after Impasse I was thinking.. 

“Man.. technology, dangerous things to play with. Never know when they can flip and screw you over.”

After ‘A Late Lunch’

“Woohoo, I love mics. I don’t have to worry about going soft at the tender moments, I can still be heard. I don’t have to over reat too much. Nice!”

Heh… yeah I have a love-hate relationship with microphones.

Been a long break before heading back to the scripts for “Crazy Little Called Love” but it’s been a nice break. Sort of. Actually it was a boring break and I couldn’t get back to ‘work’ actually. However needless to say, work has slowed down just a bit at the moment. Shoots have now gone to a couple of days, meaning i don’t get much pay. Problem there, meaning I’ve to start finding other things to do. 

That’s the thing with this kind of job, you never know when you will hit a dry spell. Sigh. You will also not be entirely sure when you have enough to back you up. Makes one worry a lot really.

I had gone for the audition at KLPAC called “A Christmas Carol” just before I went to Penang. Unfortunately, eventhough I felt the audition process went well – required me to perform one contemporary monologue, sing a Christmas carol and then do some improv acting. Due to my schedule, it just couldn’t sit well for me and the panel who was auditioning people. For when there would be rehearsals for “A Christmas Carol”, I would be busy performing at Pentas 2 during the first two weeks of November. That just would not do.. It won’t be fair on my part and also on the other people I would be working with, if say i didn’t turn up for rehearsals.

I already know how difficult it was as even FsP had comprimised my rehearsal period when I was with performing for Ismail. So not making the callback – I can completely understand. 

Just rather unfortunate really. I don’t really mind, for I know that there is a bigger message at hand when I’m working with Footstool Players and when I get into character for “Crazy Little Thing Called Love”. It goes to show though, that really you can’t do everything. To be very honest too, it would probably cause me to have lack of concentration if I had done both. Very texing. Sometimes you really do wish you just had more time in a day to go for things, take part in auditions, take part in other plays that could enhance your resume.. 

Just doesn’t work that way, people. Once you have committed yourself to something. Go all the way. And I’m going full steam ahead with “Crazy Litte Thing Called Love”. No regrets! Nevertheless I wish all the best to my friends who got into ‘A Christmas Carol’ and I’ll definitely be there to watch it.

“Monday October 6, 2008

A play on relationships

TOURING theatre company Footstool Players explores the themes of love, courtship, marriage and family in their new production Crazy Little Thing Called Love, a collection of comedy and dramatic sketches highlighting issues pertaining to relationships.

There is innocence, idealism, joy, hope, regret, heartbreak, sorrow and more €” everything that comes with that “crazy little thing called love”! You’ll laugh, you’ll weep, you’ll ponder €” and perhaps also discover.

The cast: The Foostool Players will be performing at Life Chapel on Oct 12.

The play, directed by Colin Kirton, will be held at The Life Chapel, 9 Jalan 17/12E, Petaling Jaya at 7pm on Oct 12 before a two-week run at The Kuala Lumpur Performing Arts Centre next month.

It runs for about 110 minutes, excluding a 15-minute intermission and is suitable, regardless of religious background, for ages 10 to 100.

Admission is free, and com plimentary dinner will be served at 6pm.

For details, contact The Life Chapel at 03-7955 8146 for further information.”

They are at it again. I can hear it.

Argh why can’t they just stop fighting. Ugh isn’t it already bad enough that I have things to deal with at school. All Dad did was just call up the home to ask for something.. and mom just took this tone with him. Which of course lead to them arguing over the phone again. Leading to me to just want to run away and not hear anything. And since I have no where to go I’m stuck in my room. 

Just stuck here all alone. 

I just want to breathe!! I need some space.. Just… gahh I can’t breathe. 

I feel like I’m just left to rot here. I want to just leave, and make it all go away. Why can’t it all go away. I’m so darn angry with everything. Everything. With school, with my friends, with dad and most of all with mom. Huh.. mom and her so called words of wisdoms. 

Words of wisdoms my foot, she wouldn’t be able to handle herself much, if she couldn’t even handle dad. I mean why were they always arguing anyway. What was so bad? Why was every little petty thing made into some earth shattering argument? WHy couldn’t it have just been where when one is upset the other just gives in, instead of taking the first fight into an even bigger circle. What do they hope to achive?

That they just want to teach each other a lesson!!??? A lesson of 

What???

I don’t get it. 

My brain hurts.. my head hurts… I don’t want to think.. 

God… I don’t want to be angry. Just make it all stop.. 

Please.. just let the hurting stop..

Gamba jehahoubao

Gamar Jebat

Gamarjobat..

I finaly got the name right. The first time I heard it I had a bit of tough time getting the pronounciation correct. Half the time I’ll get the front part right and i’ll just mess up the back part of the name. After watching the show though I will never get the name ‘not’ right. It was a spur of the moment when i bought the ticket. I had already heard some great reviews about this performance brought down by Gardner and Wife called Gamarjobat (Aha see! I got it right again). 

Gamarjobat is a brilliant comedy piece by the Japanese duo famous for their coloured mohawks. Ketch (red mohawk ) and Hiro-Pan (yellow mohawk) perform a variety of sketches and mime. Their entire performance is purely physical theatre and the only kind of sounds you will hear from there are typical Japanese grunts.. hahaha. You can understand everything they do or even when they are conversing with the audience with just their body movements. 

Entering into the theatre, we were first greated with some loud Japanese music and all you see on stage is this silver case. They then run out of the backstage waiting for the crowd to applause. If you give a measily applause they will question and poke fun at your clapping. Giving them an even better reason to do some improv thing.

I don’t know how to explain the whole thing, but their act was amazing. It was very very entertaing and it was worth the RM66 i paid to sit directly in the front row. I had thought that by sitting in front you would have the biggest chance to get picked on and called up on stage. Surprisingly though, the duo had picked on a number of people in the middle section. 

You’d be amazed that Ketch and Hiro-pan are not well known in their own country but they have performed all over the place now. You will tear, you’ll be in pain and you will beg for them to stop. Cause the amount of laughing at the very beginning of the show was enough for me to think i was being tickled. 

The show ran for a good 1 and  a half hours with no intermission. My gosh can you imagine how tiring it must be for them. But it looks like such fun. Hahaha. Out side you can see a foldable chinese screen or japanese one for that matter. On the screen there are comments about the show written on little pieces of paper. Of course I had to write down my thoughts too

At the end of the show guess what I saw? 

Hehe.. I mananged to see the posters for ‘Crazy Little Called Love’. Hehe So nice to see the next piece of work at the Performing Arts Centre as another one of the pieces you are involved with hehe. Shamelessly someone placed the flyers on the top section of the rack…. hmm… 

Overall I’m giving Gamarjobat a 10 out 10 for making laugh till I cry. It was worth it people. So go catch it if you can at the Actor’s Studio Bangsar!

***You are to scroll down this page***

***Failure to do so will cause the writer to feel irritated***

Ok ok i tried… 

I just got back from the movie Eagle Eye. If you’re a person that loves big cop chases, detective work, cars being smashed to bits, with bare if not no romance. Then you’ll love Eagle Eye, starring Shia LaBeouf and Michelle Monaghan. 

In short the story is about a young man, Jerry Shaw (LaBeouf) who has no fantastic career, does what he pleases and has issues with his dad. He lives life freely without responsibility till he gets the phone call from his mom, that his brother has died. This is the start of his whole life being turned upside down. After the funeral next thing he knows he’s getting phone calls from a mysterious voice and he’s on the run from the FBI, hooked up with some ‘associate’ called as female – Rachel (Monaghan).

Beware spoiler up ahead.

As the two run for their lives, following instructions from some voice over a telephone that sometimes guides their escapes through LED flashing signboards. At the same time pinpointing their exact position and can even tell their entire background in a flash. Where is a person’s privacy man!

Phew.. the storyline sure had me glued to my seat, with the amount of thrills you get from the chase scenes and wondering what could possibly be next. Jerry and Rachel find out that the mysterious voice is actually from a computer that is under the USA military defence or something like that. The USA has so many hidden secret associations as back up it’s hard to keep up. CIA, FBI, … yadda yadda yadda.. and that’s how we come to Eagle Eye. A highly intellectual computer program that has been programmed to protect the citizens from terrorist attacks and what not. 

The genre of the film was around cyber terrorism and how the computer while a wonderful machine, overtakes humanity because of its imperfection. Very much like how when there is a virus in our computer, we will have soemthing to wipe it out. In this sense the computer found that certain human leaders were virus and a threat. Doesn’t this remind you of I-Robot. 

It makes you wonder though. We depend so much on the computer, to the extent we create them to calculate our risks and actions. But what happens when the thing we create decides that we aren’t good enough for our own good. 

The movie was all right, it was a seat gluer but somehow it failed to deliver at the end. It felt like there was a bunch of movies all mixed up with it. And the ending of how everything was resolved didn’t have such a big impact. Overall i’d give a 3/4 thumbs up.