kudos to all casts and backstage(includes the whole giant crew) for making the show a hit and making everyone regret going for the other shows. without you, we wouldnt get to where we are right now.
i remembered it was only june when we started talking about muzikarama. it was really something because nizal had his ending idea, a girl blowing off a candle. and from there we started, with the ideas, with the committee. it was really the stepping stone for the big earth.
so we started with the committee, everyone was there, Marina Square's square bench outside john little. everyone was appointed a role, and i was appointed stage and arts director. shak was the other stage director and aizat was the other arts director. without anything started yet, i already felt the pressure. ama and aisyahbi were the make up artiste, asmida took care of the costume, namira took in lighting and nisya was the finance manager, while suhaila became the casts manager. aizat and sarah took care of publicity and of course jeffri took the role of music director. who were the directors? maisarah of course, and she had to get help, which were voluntarily accepted by nizal and nadiah. everything was voluntary. and each of us were given a trust to keep sake. it was really very exciting. the most memorable thing i could remember of that day was that i just took out my wisdom teeth(2 of them) and i couldn't talk at all. neither could i eat solid food. but heck, i went on with the eating and tried my best to write what i needed to talk out. it was funny. and we were all set, ready to go.
then, we got ready all administrating documents. proposals especially. timeline and publicity had to be ready like, asap and it was just the starting of everything. it was really quite stressing actually. after the proposals were in and accepted, we started calling in the cubs and the auditions. yes, the auditions. that was THE start. but first, there were scripts to be done. and mind you, it was really tough to come up with a superb one. i came down for a few script sessions and i myself, could feel the stress everyone were going through. maybe i can't exactly tell since i wasn't the one having to squeezee brainjuices out. but they managed to get the outline done. and it was about the malay community but presented in a hari raya kind of way. but this idea was scraped when asmida got the news that the place was available on the 16th due to deepavali on the 8th and stuff like that. we couldnt have it on october as it was too early.so 16th november it was. because of that, we decided to scrap the hari raya story as it was too mundane but the idea about the malay community was still on. not only that, nizal had this crazy idea to make them casts crazy. cool idea..
sooo, we wanted to start with how pathetic the malay community was. the starting was 3 siblings, insyirah, adam and natasha, having only rice and soy sauce to eat and that their dad came in and whacked them. and starts on how people like the mat reps and the makciks treated them so badly that insyirah had to work and leave her siblings in the hands of her kepo makcik. it was really typical and then they decided to scrap the idea of a story and put it to mini stories instead. mira was suppose to do about the mat reps and diah had to do about a person who daydreams and shak had to do about the kepo reporter and i cant remember what nizal had to do. but i must say they were having this really taxing job in getting something that had a real BANG. in the end, haddad and mai and seniors came in to help. but this wasn't the end of script changes.
the auditions were wow. i can still remember the first few people who came down ffor the auditions, ayu and junaidi, filzah and khairul. and the whole gang, wano safiah najib arif shafiq hafiz. it was so kecoh!!! and everyone felt shy and scared to go in alone. haha. and i mean, who wouldn't since there were more than THREE judges in the room! ayu and junaidi were cool. junaidi could really sing well and it was really heart melting! ayu had her own angelic voice but i didnt hear her sing because she kept it only for those in the room. heeheehhh.. i was quite shocked to see filzah because i kinda felt guilty for not telling her about ssp. aiseyy. khairul too! and he had that fierce lion in him which was a good tool. that was only for day 1, day 2 was just as good. nani, shakirah and some guys came down and it was really funny!!!! haha. i can remember nizal telling that macho guy to move the chair in 8 counts and dance at the same time. freakkinnngg funnehhh. after that audition day, we had to go to NYP's produuction. that was whhen we decided to change the script as it was totally similar to ours. dramatic act. but we were motivated to add in a choreographed dance with cool costumes. uhuhhhh. the 3rd day of audition was real funny too as aidil and wahidah came down with shahirah and fizza and wahidah's friend. and also some others ah. haha. wahidah really cracked me up mann. and aidil really looked so ignorant and proud, i swear i wanted to smack his face the moment i met him. sheeesh! and his most memorable word was "yezzz". but he really could sing lah. saluutessss! wahidah was cool toooooo. her keponess and bitchyness was top notch! haha!!!! gerekkkkk.
after all the auditions were done, the scriptors went back to writing a top notch script while nadiah and maisarah started with directing. i can't remember what the first training was like but i know it was introductory. everyone was still new to everybody else and we didn't have everyone down yet since we were doing the trainings scene by scene. oh! i remembered the first time everyone met to be given their roles!!! haha. it was at t11a and almost everyone was there. they had to give their contact numbers to suhaila and suhaila was suppose to contact them when their scenes were going to be done. the look on everyone's faces was just tense and nervous. not many knew each other yet. some had to go off early for work and others were just there because they were called down. there was a brief intro on the scopes of each characters and then everyone could go off. training started the next day. committee had a meeting i think. i could remember on that day, the scripts were not printed yet and the casts came just to be told of their characters. some people were turned off. but no pin points, as we needed to get started.
trainings started a few weeks before fasting month and it was not bad at all. the dancers, to me, were great. they've got this spirit to start trainings early in the morn just to squeeze out ideas for the dance. for the drama scene on the other hand, they were doing pretty well too. they weren't shy and well, as my sec sch saying goes, they were rough diamonds ready to be polished. cheydebahhh. haha! the script team still had to go on with their work eventhough trainings had to start.
when trainings started during the ramadhan period and i must say, the spirits were still there. even when some people have to go off before 7 to get home in time for break fast, they still stayed as long as they could, leaving the place with a heavy heart. during fasting month, the dancers too had their fighting spirit. it was beautiful. the scene when everyone order their food, and when they break fast itself. kecoh nak mamps seh. those working had to take a break from working and those filial ones had to keep calling.
just imagine being in B11, with everyone sitting in a circle, listening for the evening azan, reading the food prayer and eating all at the same time. passing around kurma, courtesy of pakcik chicken rice stall at FC3. and after breaking fast, everyone will kecohkecoh back to work. usually, after breaking fast, the mood disappears. haha..
but as trainings carried on, problems started to pile. i contributed to the problem too by not coming down for trainings and not only that, i barely lifted a finger. in my mind, i thought, they can handle everything. i don't need to be there, i'm not needed. i'm just filling spaces. well, that was what i thought. until i actually started going back to trainings. i realised, they needed the help but i just don't know where to help. i've never acted so i can't show what that something is. and i was supposed to choreograph but i just couldnt choreograph. i am not a choreographer, i am only a dancer. but the only way i thought i could help was to call back the ancient(who was apparently still in school), shamil. haha..but, he knows best so why not have him to come down right? everything turned so tight that it was easy to hear someone burst with geramness. ade-ade aje orang yang kene cocok pasal keje tak buat betol. but the trainings were still fun, with cheeky people everywhere.
and then we had a meeting. after weeks of training, we had a meeting with the ancients. everything was laid. from musicians to dancers to costumes to casts to committee. it was a hell of a meeting till the ancients clearly told us that the fault was in us. it was depressing but we had to accept it. from then on we tried to clear and avoid all mistakes. well, nizal and the directors told the casts straight in the face that they weren't good enough and that their discipline was terrible and all effing things they could come up with. there was a change. the cubs got more punctual, more alert and tried their best to get to that point where nizal wanted them to be. it was tough, but everyone had to go through it. it was time nizal didn't do everything on his own and let everyone else in to help.
we had a break from training for a few days. it wasn't really a break. come to think of it, we didn't have a break at all. from wednesdays n fridays, we went to mondays wednesdays thursdays and fridays. we tried to slot in hari raya celebration as well of course. i went for the ancient's celebration and the cubs one too. it was fun. haha. it was those 2 days that we could forget about mzk3 for awhile and just have fun. the cubs were reallyreally spirited and united. on their celebration, they came to my house first and about all of them were there on time! talk about punctuality. and the funniest thing was, at aidil's, we watch suster ngesot and that carried on till mira's till the next week! and at mira's, jihad watched the stingray like soccer. on the ancient's celebration, we rocked the two vehicles bebeh. heck with the pcu. and due to that, i didn't have time to complete my elearning. thanks to filzah and khairul, i manage to smoke through it. air makin sikit..
trainings carried on even with MST. mine was terrible. dance i was completed by then and it was beautiful. to think of us as first timers, the choreography was better than expected. almost every day we headed home late. reached home at least at 12 was nothing new. heck with calls from mom and 2nd bro, i had work to do. because of mzk3, i failed 3 out of 4 papers. i passed the 1st paper so well that it proved me if i studied, i can pass. haaahaaaa. thanks.
we had a meeting on thursday and it was depressing. the ancients were really worried about us. nizal gave us a bang to get our attention. i guess we really have this very bad attention span. and there was one topic that they talked to us about that made us wake up real hard. it was about whether to postpone and start back to square one or carry on and fight till the end. i was one with postponing at first because, well, we had to compete with 4 other shows and well, the show was only halfway there. i opted for postponing also because well, the dancers needed more time to polish. jeff and haddad fought for not postponing because it would make us look bad and by postponing, it was bring the morale of everyone else down when it was already 6 feet under already. the result was that we dont postpone and we stand up to fight. fighter spirit was there. we decided to have a camp to polish more nearly sparkling diamonds and change whats needed to be changed.
during my mst week, we had a stayover at westcoast from friday onwards.the situation was already so critical that we had to have this camp/training. spirit was there.it was the best ever. westcoast's experience was really something. we could hear the echo, the breeze and rain was there. and the run to mcdonalds was funny!!! we seeked shelter at mcdonalds till morn. almost everyone had sleepy eyes with eyebags and the darkest eyerings(uh..). but the experience was seriously love. the pressure was there for us still to coomplete everything ASAP. why? BECAUSE the show was exectly the next week. AND YESSAHHH DANCE COMPLETED OREADY AND VERY PRETTYY!!!!
monday tuesday and wednesday we had the auditorium to ourselves. on thursday we had dance@mob and on friday we had the auditorium for the whole day.(duh! it was show day.) monday's training was reallly weak. everyone was still recovering from the camp and it was really dead. nizal eff-ed up so many times that right after the dance routine, he gave the musicians shit. it wasn't really needed but maybe he had too much bottled up so he had to let it out somewhere. i helped shak and jihad with the stage managing and alittle choreography. the ancients stayed till 6 that day to solve scenes 567. but on tuesday, it was mainly scene 5. on tuesday, i can say it was practically shit. us committee were given shit from 11pm onwards and it was not good. some of the ancients even cried because they were so angry at us. now it was left to them and not us. we listen, they work. i felt so freaking bad. but we had to change now or never. so on wednesday, we had a full dress rehersal. in the morn, the cubs met and they rehersed scene 5 and started with scene 6. on wednesday, after the dance's routine, adillah aizat and me talked to the dancers that it was time people talk their own initiative and not be reminded reeepppppeaaaaattteedddlllyyyy about the samee thinggss. streesssss!! i left adillah n aizat to finish up all costumes and other things while i help jihad and shak and epain with stuffs that's not done yet. stress woiiii. ended the day feeling better and with donuts! yummeh.
thursday, we had a training and rashidah and i did the prologue, leaving the dancers to whatever they needed to do. rashidah had to learn the song and perform eerie last min. she's actually good and she made everyone less stress somehow. the choreography was superb. nyaaahaaaa.kerakarrrr. and not only that, we stayed up till 1 at al-amin's to solve the prologue's dance routine. and then the scenes were done. we were left with a few hours to showtime beybeh!!
on friday, ON FRIDAY! came super early, did scene prologue and then we gave a full run. it wasnt that good but hey, at least we had one major full run! then it was matinee time. the crowd was paaatheticccc.the lightings were bad, some people forgot their lines and stuff. dance was ok. MORE NEEDED!!!! theeennn, it was time. IT WAS TIMEEEE!!!! EVERYTHING WAS SO HECTIC LIKE MADD!!!!! MAKE UP DONE!???!? COSTUMES OKAY?!?!?!?! CHANGE SCENE!!!! PROPS PEOPLE OUT!!! CURTAIINS CLOSEEE!! AV OUT!!! MICROPHONES ON!!!!! 5 4 3 2 1 SHOWTIME!!!! dance was GOOODD!!!!!! superbbbb. everytime i ended the dance with 'fuck', now i ended it with a YESSAH!!! but rashidah cried because she nearly tripped! omg. don't cry sayang. it wasn't your fault. but all other things were perfect. except that i lost balance lah. but. erhh. my fault. then the show started!!!!!!!!!!!!! and the crowds were the BEESSTTTT!! everyone felt great thaat the crowd laughed where they thought were never funny. fabuloso!!! hahahhahhahha. musicians were great tooooooooooooooooo. the casts were MAGNIFICENT!! MAMARAZZII REPORTER PEGUAM DOKTOR SARAH SECHAN, MKK KUCINGGGG M DAUD KALAUUU GEMOKKKK KUDISS NURSESSSS OPRAH CUKUUPHAJJAH AND ALL OTHERSSSSS!!! it was LOVE!!!!! the directors deserved more credit actually. throughout this whole post, just count how many times nizal's name came out. SALUTE! he's great lah kan people?!?! without him, maybe we wouldn't have gotten what we got. superb show everyone! and everyone else who went the other shows regretted not coming for ours. we've gotta give it a HIP HIP HURRAY!!!
thanks ancients for being there all the time. =)
Labels: muzikarama