PopPacket

On Sunday, I went to KLPac inaugural open day. Renowned actor, Joanna Bassey conducted an acting workshop for teenagers which I attended with about 20 other participants aged between 10 and 25 (my guess, although some participants did look pretty “matured”). The workshop lasted for approximately one and a half hours and Joanna introduced us to what professional acting is about and taught us some acting techniques.

Body control - It is of utmost importance for an actor to have a full control of his/her body. The first thing we did was warming up. It involved the typical stretching exercises like the what we did in PE lesson at school but this one, practically each and every part of your body has to be “warmed up”, from tip to toe. Every single muscle needed to be flexed, each frigging cell had to be felt. Well I am exaggerating but it was the first time I actually did a “warm up” on my mouth, chin, cheeks, eyebrows, nose and ears. The bottom line is, you need to activate, to feel, to take charge of the whole body.

You may practice this by simply doing the usual stretching exercises like in a PE lesson. But don’t forget to stretch those the lazy muscles underneath your face and also your tongue. Then, move your body, literally every single part all at once (like a jellyfish or a crazy monkey).

Voice projection - An actor’s job is to deliver a story to the audience effectively. One of the most important instrument of delivery, especially in a stage performance, is the actor’s own voice. The audience must be able to hear what being said clearly.

An actor must therefore master the proper breathing technique, where the ribcage expands and the diaphragm lowers as air filling up the lungs, instead of the opposite which most people tend to do when told to breathe in. When speaking, the voice must come out from stomach i.e. utter the words while breathing out. One should be able to feel a little vibration in the nose up to the forehead (practice by humming with different vowel sounds). The voice will sound louder as the air vibrates and it travels to the audience (my theory). Without proper breathing technique, one will hurt his/her throat although the voice can be heard.

Intonation - On top of a loud voice, an actor must say out his/her lines clearly. The audience must be able to hear the sound of each syllable clearly. Joanna taught us to exaggerate the sound of each letter of a word in a line. We practised a number of tongue-twisting lines like “she sells sea shells…” (with exaggerated ‘s’, ‘sh’ and ‘l’ sounds) and “Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers” (which I had the most trouble with).

You can practice all the three techniques above by breathing out while saying, with exaggerated pronunciation, any random word and at the same time moving your body or walking around in random directions.

Interaction - Acting is never about “me, me and me alone”. When acting, one interacts with another object, human being or otherwise. The interaction must be made obvious. If an actor communicating with another actor, the latter should know that any speech or action is intended for him/her to respond. (A non-response is a response when acting. This one I add myself.) One must always be alert as the other actors might be trying to get him/her to respond to something, whether or not it is expected.

We practised this interaction part by playing some interesting games. We all formed a circle and one player “passed a clap” (by clapping) to either person on his left or right. The next person (who the clap was passed to) then pass it to another player. Each player may change the direction to pass the clap as he/she wished. There are two other games based on the same concept i.e. interacting with another player/actor but they are a little bit complicated to explain. The last game was pretty challenging. Instead of passing a clap, we had to “pass” an action/a sound and instead of passing it to the left or right, we had to pass to someone across in the circle.

The workshop was fun and I could say that it was the most fulfilling activity I participated in that day. It was a little bit awkward though because we didn’t know each other and some people were quite shy. Joanna was really nice and inspiring. I wish we had more time where she could share with us her experience on being an actor or how she became one and how we could get started as professional actors ourselves.

All in all, the whole open day event was great. The amazing a capella performance by Wicked Pitches was a crowd favourite. I saw quite a big number of people turned up for gamelan show (which I missed out, unfortunately). The props and costumes exhibition at Pentas 2 was really cool and colourful. However, the event could have been better. There were some new activities (such as the acting workshop) were added but not updated to the schedule put up on the web. Some activities (like the film screenings at IndieCine) didn’t follow the given schedule. It was such a let down that I missed out the 12-11 documentary.

The guided tour was apparently merely a backstage tour in the main halls, namely Pentas 1 and Pentas 2. We got to walk through some spaces that are usually not accessible to the public e.g. dressing room, control room, the stage, the green room, the “catwalk”. It would be better if they hold the event for a day or two and stretch the schedule a little bit allowing 10-to-15-minute breaks between activities.

There were so many activities that I wanted to join (e.g. theatrical biomechanics, musical theatre workshop) but most of them sharing the same time slot with other activities. For some activities (especially the workshops and screenings), they could have conducted a repeat in several different time slots so that those who missed the earlier sessions can join to the next ones. I also had trouble locating the venue for each activity and most importantly the nearest washroom (apparently there was only one accessible to the public: the one next to Pentas 2). It’d be easier if there was a floor plan because some studios/rooms are quite hidden.

It was a great event and Faridah Merican offered me her mineral water when I was practically almost dehydrated that day. Such an honour. Really looking forward to the next open day.

Mercy is a massive new tune by this wonderful singer, Duffy. Check out Mercy video. Motown and blues is back. Yay!

Naked alarm clock is a very reliable flash-based alarm clock. Comes with easy-to-use interface and four different alarm sounds. However, there’s no snooze button.

This is a continuation to my earlier introductory post. The blogs mentioned below are randomly picked from my Google reader subscription list. They may give you some ideas on the kind of stuffs I am interested in.

In the first entry of LifeClever, the author told his way of organizing buddy list in IM according to how often you chat with them. I don’t really have problem with overflowing buddy list because most of the people in my list seldom go online when I do, especially those who I like to talk with.

Another friend from secondary school wrote in his first entry about his failed attempts to blog in the past. I guess the present one is for him to keep. He said that he is “a bit paranoid [about] privacy”. The very reason I discontinue blogging previously was because I found it hard to be honest when people are reading what I write and judge me personally. It was also just too awkward having family members and close friends writing stuffs that are quite personal for not-so-close acquaintances and total strangers to read. I found myself in some sort of a dilemma and started posting things that are just so immature and silly. In the end, I closed those personal blogs and started a new one which nobody know of my identity. This blog, however, shall contain anything I do sans personal life.

Another writer, whose essays I usually find very amusing to read, reproduced a piece he wrote for local daily. Although it wasn’t something really interest me, he wisely reasoned why progress in the Malay language should not equated with development of the general Malay community, let alone Malaysians as a whole. Language truism is something I don’t really pay attention to or care about because I grow tired of listening to the debates. The government has never been consistent in national language policy and the debacles, in the end, just messed the young people up as education policy keeps on changing every other year.

This one better-known writer wrote in her first entry that she is “kicking and screaming into” the blogsphere because someone else have been compiling writings from her weekly newspaper column in a blog and because she afraid those who commented on that blog thought she was sombong (snobby). Very much a popular person with being-popular issues. I started this blog because I realize that I am growing up too fast right now and I want to document my life, thoughts and creations.

My former boss blogged in his first entry (of the present blog) about moving from Yahoo 360. In the first entry from that Yahoo blog, he introduced himself (something that I forgot to do). Hi, I am Khairil Zhafri, a student at a private college in Petaling Jaya. I plan to study accounting and finance/economics later at university. I am interested into, among other things, macroeconomics, politics, design arts, web technology, mass media and (seriously pop) pop music.

An affluent marketing guru, in his first blog post, told how bored he was when stranded at shopping mall. He recommended a book to read and said that Apple retail store - the only place he didn’t find boring at the mall - might soon be boring too as “our tastes evolve faster than retailers allow their stores to”. Shopping malls, to me, are boring when there is nothing to spend my money on or no money to spend. Most of the time it’s the latter.

Another well known human rights lawyer and activist introduced his ‘Get to know your MP’ campaign. He underlined four major issues that had became the basis of this people’s initiative: racial and religious polarization, deteriorating public confidence in judiciary, lack of transparency in the government, the government’s failure to deliver pre-election promises. The blog is a very interesting political experiment utilizing unconventional medium of information and interaction.

I had been thinking on what to write in the first entry to this blog. Then, the idea of writing about what other blog authors (whose blogs I read) wrote in their first entry came up. What these people had written give some ideas of topics that interest me. The blogs mentioned below are randomly selected from my Google reader subscription list.

One writer pledged to blog everyday, to share her thoughts, views and observations with the readers and to be nice, kind and honest. She doesn’t write much these days. I don’t have anything to promise but I do have some ideas on what I want to do with this blog. Basically I am going to write about my views on matters that concern me and share anything worth sharing with whoever reading.

A friend from the old school apparently had deleted all earlier posts prior to reorganizing his blog. So no first post from his blog other than that introducing some changes he made. I am currently developing a design for this website. The layout and base colour are almost ready but there are a few things I wish to add when I have the time to.

A writer and human rights lawyer wrote in a post dated back in late 2006 that Malaysians need to rethink our position in the whole Malay supremacy idea being put forward by UMNO politicians. He wisely said that Article 153 of the federal constitution is a “protection, not privillage”. The Agong’s responsibilities not only limited to safeguarding the position of Malays and Sabah and Sarawak natives, but also the take care the legitimate interests of other communities. In general, I see that Article 153 itself is flawed from the very beginning because it gives the early perception that, as the writer put it, “while all of us are equal, some of us are more equal than others”. However, he rightly pointed out that the provision is suitably for the purpose of “[an] affirmative action [only when] such action is needed”.

One of my (and everybody else’s) favourite topics is Google - the giant internet monopolist (or should it be monopolist internet giant?). In its first post, the author introduced to the whole idea of “Google OS” as “massive, general purpose computing platform for web-scale programming” which I really like, actually.

My favourite economist (for the time being) wrote a welcome note in his blog which, according to him, aimed at interacting with his Harvard students and other students and teachers using his textbooks. I am thinking of pursuing an economics postgraduate degree at that university. Yet, by then, he might probably have retired.

This one guy who founded a number of cool websites and some cool projects wrote about “puting his [feet] down for real“. He said that the blog would be an excuse for him not keeping in touch with “everyone who matters” through email. I am not even sure whether this blog will be good for keeping-in-touch activities. It had always failed with the previous blogs.

Another blogger who writes tech stuffs wrote how “it [was] a good experience” to set up his blog again with a new hosting after the old one suffered DDoS attack. I am certainly not gonna find it a “good experience”. He was absolutely right that one cannot rely on server-side backups. I am still contemplating on whether having an account with another host just for backups would really worth the money.

One of the best-designed blogs I’ve ever read is Jackson Fish Market. In the first entry, the author wrote about the story behind the name. Jackson Fish Market is actually a business ran by the earlier generations of his family. Pretty cool. As for this website, the name is just some random expression I had in mind when I started having an idea of having my own website a year ago. The name was thought to symbolise the appeals of pop culture, pop music and pop art. Cheesy, I know.

Part 2 coming up.