Today our students went to SYF and they did a great job! I was incredibly proud of them and the work they had put in, watching them go through the show for the last time. It seemed like every small thing we've spent weeks coaching them on and correcting they did and used our feedback to deliver an amazing show. It was a great feeling to be able to honestly tell them afterwards how well they had done. Of course, they still wanted us to criticize and pick apart their performances and we had to remind them that it was over!
It was a harrowing day, starting with preparations and make up, costumes and warm up. Once the kids were all dressed and ready to go with their props and set downstairs in front of the school we waited for the truck and bus to come to pick up their respective loads. It was only when we were a few blocks away from the school that we realized that the bus driver was taking us to Plaza Singapura, and that we had accidentally taken the wrong bus! There are so many groups of students going out into Singapore every day on trips or for other performance competetitions that it is possible to get on the wrong coach bus. So back we went to school to wait for the correct bus for a harrowing 10 minutes while we desperately watched the clock tick and get closer to the time that we had to be at the school.
Saying goodbye to the kids as they went backstage and leaving to head for the audience was also really stressful, knowing that everything was out of our hands and that there was nothing more we could do to help them was a scary feeling. Ultimately, I felt very proud of the kids and this is one of the reasons that having a group that mostly runs itself pays off because the students have defined leadership roles and are accustomed to running things without us so it isn't a big shock when they enter a competetion and go it alone.
The next terrifying moment came as I timed the performance, as the students were allowed to have 20 minutes on stage and after that they would lose 15% of their mark. As the last moment ended on stage Abidah and I wached my iPhone stopwatch hot 20:00...20:01..until it hit 20:04. I've got my fingers crossed that I started it a little earlier than the judges did based on when the curtains opened but we don't find out our marks until tomorrow.
All in all it was a long day, but a very fulfilling one and I think that the students were proud of the work they had done. We stayed to watch one other school's performance and I was impressed with the cailber of work that the other schools were putting forth. Their show was called "No Friend You" which I guess is something that Singaporeans say when they don't like someone and don't want to hang out with them.
I took pictures at various stages in the production process and have put them on photobucket here for you to see. The photos of the kids on stage are from our tech rehearsal last week so only a few of the kids are in costume but you get a bit of a sense of what they looked like on stage today.
Tomorrow we find out the results and I will be sure to let you know, they will be posted on the website that I linked to in my previous post.
On a sidenote, on the bus ride home, Melody told Abidah that the club had a question for her. She asked her "Meess, we want to know if we can go on exchange. To Canada?" and the entire bus started chanting "Canada! Canada! Canada!" so we will see what the future holds. If we get a Silver medal tomorrow we might have the funding we need to at least start planning such an event...
No comments:
Post a Comment