Playhouse '06 - Pirates of the South China Sea

Playhouse '06.

To the uninitiated, this is an annual intra-faculty competition between the different Medicine years, where each level puts up their own play for competition. Now, the current M3s have always been an enthusiastic bunch for playhouse, especially when it comes to the actors and actresses, but somehow, we're always struggling to find pple to do the rest of the work, i.e. lights, sounds, costumes, make up, props, backstage crew..

Somehow, I found myself in the role of props I/C this year - not without much trepidation, of course. Well, I thought I had snagged myself a pretty good bargain, by ensuring that the person who arrowed me into the position - a certain Ms Janice Tung - stayed on to help as partners-in-crime. =P

1 script, 3 scene backdrops, 17 days, a million prop items. -_-"

On hindsight, I suppose if we were to go back now and redo the whole props thing, we probably might not have done something this massive. I wonder what got into us - this whole thing was literally a miniature float / presentation, squashed into the premises of LT13!!

Props - the construction

Work started on the Wednesday of the measley 1-week holidays with the purchasing of materials like cloth, mahjong paper, brown paper, lots of tape, more tape, and even more tape. -_-" An appeal to the class for manpower & materials literally fell on deaf ears. Oh, if there's 1 thing I've learnt here, it's that email appeals for help NEVER work. Sheesh. Anyway, I'm still grateful to the kind souls who actually did turn up to help - Joyce & Shaohui & FQ on Thursday, and Harti, Jiahui, FQ on Friday! Spent the days in the production line for masts, barrels, steering wheels, churning out the huge props slowly..

Saturday was somehow not spared either. -_-" Plus the following Monday evening till almost 10pm considering that Tuesday was Deepavali.. Plus the next Saturday.. -_-" Wah. That even discounts the countless weekday afternoons spent at the area behind the Medsoc room area trying to rush the job. Somehow, on hindsight, those 2.5 weeks (17 days) seemed to move by so slowly. Kudos to my fellow partner Jan, and stalwarts like Susan & FQ, who conscientiously offered their help through this time, despite the start of clincal postings..

We couldn't even finish the props by the first rehearsal 1 week before, let alone the 2nd rehearsal on the Thursday before Playhouse, and even fulldress rehearsal on Friday! O_O Actually, come to think of it, we were running it pretty tight, since the actors might not know which props were gonna turn up, but with such limited manpower and resources, and such a humongous list of props, I'm still surprised we managed to pull off the whole event, with ALL the props actually fully accounted for on the playhouse day itself, with full manpower only for the real play itself! =P

Here's the rough final list of the scenery props designed & created:

Pirate ship scene:

1. Ship Mast (for the curious ones, yes, the height = 5m)
2. 2 sails - the top with the skull & cross bones, the bottom plain. (more trivia: our original skull & cross bones flag was stolen on the first Saturday! *&^%$#@!~ What the!? As a result, we had to downsize. -_-")
3. Ropes
4. Ship head - consisting of 2 individual railings, 2 platform boxes for Denise to sit on, and an elevated step up platform.
5. Steering wheel
6. 7 barrels
7. Wooden Plank

Mermaid Lagoon Scene:

1. 5 rocks - of varying sizes
2. 3 seaweed nettings - heartfelt thanks to the kind souls who loaned me their badminton nets, i.e. WenHann, Wongyi, KaiXiang
3. 1 Oyster Shell + 1 Golden Pearl
4. 2 adorable sea creatures - dolphin + sea turtle
5. Shipwreck

Swamp Scene:

1. Wall of creepers
2. Mermaid Lagoon Scene *altered*
3. Shipwreck

The mast & sails during rehearsal! (the silly bigger sail was so huge, it couldn't enter the backstage door while attached to the mast! So we had to bring them in separately, before assembling the 2 parts together onstage after the M1 play ended!)

Anyway, those are the HUGE props.. It doesn't even count in the smaller props!

1. 8 Pirate swords
2. 6 Mermaid spears
3. 1 Tridon
4. 1 Treasure Chest
5. 1 Deck chair
6. 1 prison cell + screen
7. 1 pina colada
8. 1 prosthetic hand
9. 1 prosthetic leg
10. 1 chicken wing -_-"

and much, much more..

Props - the big move!

We were scheduled to shift our props via truck on the Friday before Playhouse! (Saturday) and boy, am I grateful for all the help in shifting the props into the truck, and to LT13! While FQ gamely directed the driver to the LT in the front seat, the rest of us were huddled inside the stuffy sealed truck, which was navigating the hills & valleys of NUS.. -_-" Hanging on for dear life and trying not to suffocate in the hot stuffy truck - it was certainly a memorable experience!

Friday's rehearsal went off pretty smoothly *Many thanks to those who turned up for rehearsals and all, even though you were posted to some other far away hospitals!* and before we knew it, it was Playhouse day itself! The Saturday was a mad rush indeed..

From repairing the props, to shifting the props to the correct backstage wings, to briefing the backstage helpers, it was all rush rush rush, as we eagerly anticipated the start of the play at 2pm. *Thank you to all the helpers who so willingly agreed to come down last minute to help out for backstage crew!*


Repairing the barrels!

The moment the curtains drew a close on the M1 play, we sprang into action! First went the mast with the sail tying, with simultaneous arrangement of the layout of the ship to ensure maximum efficiency! The play started off without much of a hitch, as we successfully navigated scene after scene of minor props movements before the BIG one..


Tying the mast & the sails!




Steering Wheel! =)

The Mermaid Lagoon Scene must be the most headachey one. *_*! Having been nagged by the directors to cut down on scene change time, we came up with the idea of specialization! Each backstage crew member would be in-charge of 1 specific item change during this massive backdrop change, so that all props would be moving simultanouesly to pull off a quick scene change! The result? 24 different individuals running across stage, each with their own individual target. And yes! If I may dare say, we pulled off the lagoon scene change without too much of a hitch, even though it was our first time actually doing it with full manpower! =P

After that, with the hardest bit gone, it the Swamp scene wasn't too much of a hassle, as we sat back to enjoy the rest of the play.. =) The lights & sounds were excellently timed and apt; the actors were brilliant, living out their own individual characters alive within on stage; and I thought the costumes were great! Especially loved the mermaid's costumes with creative use of sequins to form the scales! Kudos to Nat & Kokwei!


The pirate treasure chest - with the 17,000 pieces of gold which was lost and never seen again!

The final result? We won Best Costumes & Make-up, Best Props, and Best Play!!! =) Words simply could not describe the elation and relief I felt - joy at grabbing the Best Props Award, relief that Janice & I have not let down the many pple who so willingly spent their time to help us make props and volunteer for backstage crew..

A million thanks to Janice, Susan, FuQiang, Dave, Joyce Tan, Shaohui, Harti, Neela, Randal, Victor Chong, KaiHong, Jinesh, Ernest, David, Aziz, Jiahui, Raj, JingJing, LiZhen, Stanley, JingXiang, Kevin, Mark Lim, Sunder, Larry & Melvin! This would not have been possible without you guys! Thanks for being such a great team to work with! =)

Of course, special thanks to my partner Janice, who stayed back late on countless nights and weekends together so as to ensure the final product! For your wonderful creativity!

YES, we did it!!! =)


Props + Backstage Crew!!


M3 Playhouse Cast & Crew!


M3 Batch - we ROCK!