GRC Awards Night 2007

Since I promised a certain someone to write about this while she embarks on a quest for me... I shall proceed to write a bit of my take on GRC Awards Night 2007.

For the PJ bunch, we arrived at Klang around 10 something in the morning and proceeded to practice until noon to break for lunch. When we came back, we practised again and then took a break so that USJ could take the stage and do their thing. I proceeded to chase all of the PJ students to the shower rooms so that they could take their baths and then eat at the Fellowship Hall. According to sources, the place was hot and black water spouted out of the taps! Yeck... thank God I wasn't there to witness that! Yours truly was somewhere else with Naomi Foong enjoying a scrumptious meal of Marmite Chicken and rice.

Finally, it was evening and I hurried for a shower and changed and put some light make up. As 7.15pm approached, the anticipation of Awards Night grew. After a month of gruelling practices, shouting, scolding, threatening, coaching and repeating myself... the time had come! As we sat there patiently watching the other performances, such as... Yong Khin who is 9 years old playing a Grade 5 or 6 piece on the piano when he is only Grade 1 by theory, Andrew Sanjay and his famous speech recitation, Klang's musical mime of Jesus, finally it came to Sher Wyn's poetry recitation and we were all making our way to the opposite sides of the stage... my heart fluttered as we stood behind the curtains waiting for Naomi to set up the microphones.

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PJ... are you R-E-A-D-Y?!!!

I signalled the other side and after an OK and thumbs-up, we started! And the rest... is history... the cast did fantastically well... we managed to get a few laughs from the crowd at the right parts. A few scenes I liked a lot were (in random order) :

i. Shoon Fai and his "children"
Little Celine and Shr Hao played the children of a busy businessman (Shoon Fai) and as they vied for attention the father ignored the children and was too busy to walk them across the road. The children crossed themselves and *tires screech, children scream* And behold, ze children die and the father gasps in horror and goes "NO!!!"

Shoon Fai did an awesome job acting as the sad father. He even managed to sob without laughing! I actually feel like bashing him a bit because during practice, the fella did horrible in emotion and expression. Must be the magic of the stage or something, he didn't laugh while reciting his lines and he was seriously into his role! Go Fai Fai!

ii. Raquel as the angry Israelite slave
As the slave masters taunted and taunted the Israelite slaves and mocked them.. one brave one stood her ground and stood up to her enemies!

"Yes!!! We might be slaves for now! But one day, ONE DAY... the Saviour will be born! And He will come and take us out of your hands! When that day comes, you will BEG for mercy! For then you will know He is the Almighty God, the Lord of the Heavens!!!"

Like Mr. Fan said, she's a tough lady to handle! I like the fire and spirit she put in for her role. Well done!

iii. Jonathan Roberts as Jesus
I don't know about you, but Roberts rocked the stage! When he portrayed Jesus emptying the world's garbage on him, he did it to his best. You should see him cough, groan in pain and wheeze (a bit asthmatic). It was real. It was painful to watch him die.

iv. The Jesus and Lonely Woman scene
THIS is the one I like best. It has so much potential to become a plot for another story! Before Jesus died, everyone had surrendered their garbage except for the Lonely / Suicidal Woman (aka Sophira Chong Yu Fun) so in she came dragging her garbage and Jesus was crawling towards her...

Jesus: Pleeease... *coughs* Give me your bag....
Lonely Woman hesitates and turns to leave
Jesus: Please! (she turns) It's... It's the only way... You've spent your whole life looking for love in the wrong places... I need to take it away from you... Pleeease *coughs*
Lonely Woman drops the bag to the ground and gives it to Jesus, drops to the floor and covers her face with hands.

In the famous words of Lydia Chang, "It's so romantic!!! If Roberts were to hug her then and there! It'd be so romantic!!!"

Haha... I agree. Maybe next year if there's a drama I'll do a Romeo and Juliet.. *evil cackle*
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Well, the rest of the night went really fast... everyone rushed to dress up in their evening wear and rush on stage to get their awards. I must say, all the children and youth were more well dressed than myself! The dresses they wore! The makeup they had on! I guess they grow up faster nowadays too!

Of course one of the other highlights is the graduates coming up to make their speech - our very own Grace Goh graduated this year. I'm still a bit sad about it but definitely I'm glad she's moving on to study in HELP :) Shall dedicate a post to her another time.

Pictures and captions in next post, watch out!!!

I just want to thank my beloved drama team...

To Chanelle, Sophira, Grace and Jonathan Roberts, who were the main people to help keep the order in the drama team when I was away, thank you so much for staying committed to the drama and coaching the others in saying their lines. I know it was tough to be strict and manage a cast of almost 40 people, but you guys did great and it paid off because everyone was praising the drama that night!

To Jinn Yee, my makeup queen! Thank you so much for taking the time to help do the make up for all the cast. Of course to those who helped out as well thank you so much! I know that night Jinn Yee was the last to come into the whole because she was busy make-up-ing the rest. You're awesome! Not to mention she made some nice props as well... She made the apparel for the angels (Jared and Jeremy) to wear around their waist!

To Naomi Foong, the sound person. A million thanks for being patient with the cast for mixing up the microphones and forgetting to put them back. Without your planning and coaching, we would have been lost of stage. That night your efforts paid off as no one fumbled with their microphones. To put out about 10 microphones on stage and set up the mike stands at the end was an enormous effort and we wouldn't have been able to do it without your help.

To Sophira, Grace and Kelvin, the pianists. Thank you so much for playing the background music for the whole drama. The pieces were beautiful! Kelvin Wong... you did a great job!

To Mr. Fan and Uncle Kevin, our drivers and mentors. Thank you SO much for always ferrying us using the church vans. It's tiring to drive us up and down but you never complained. Moreoever you were there to give advice and calm things down when things were a bit out of hand. Mr. Fan, thank you for being so supportive of the drama and allowing us to practice at the Youth Hall, Main Sanctuary and Music Room.

LAST BUT NOT LEAST... God I give You all the glory and all the praise. We pulled this off not because of our own abilities, but God it was through Your divine enabling. Come to think of it, we pulled off a big production in less than a month! If it wasn't for You, Jesus... we wouldn't have done so well! Thanks, Jesus :)

OK, I'm done. Now lets see if my friend has returned from her quest yet...