This entry is for 6th August 2010 - National Day Celebration at Irsyad.
On hindsight, it was pure madness.
Pure madness to have agreed to stage two shows (one at the void-deck, the second at the Auditorium) with just one week left for practice.
Pure madness to think that I could control and direct 71 S2 pupils to stage a dramatization of the sacrifice made by the Malay Regiment in their defense of Bukit Chandu on 14.2.1945.
If I had been a thinking, logical and normal adult, I would have immediately seen the impossibility of such an undertaking.
But, hei, I have never always been a logical, thinking and normal adult. :P
Actual day and date of performance: Friday, 6th August 2010.
Monday : 2nd August 2010 (4 days to performing)
Fever since Sunday has not abetted.
Feeling hot and uncomfortable and faintish.
Felt rather foolish too, because on Saturday, during the girls' IMG finals, I was cheering and doing duty with the energy of a 17-year old schoolgirl.
Today felt like I was fifty going on seventy.
Reluctantly did not report to school, wondering whether the script was ready - or not.
Saw the doctor and given MC for the day.
Nina felt warm but I prayed she would not catch my fever.
Tuesday: 3rd August 2010 (3 days to performing)
Went to school feeling like a diver and being underwater - ears blocked due to the phlegm and fever.
My voice sounded far away.
Worst, Nina was having fever too.
Farhana soothed my feverish soul that the script was ready and that they actually took the initiative to have a practice the day before.
Fitriana, in her comforting voice, advised me that Adli would be perfect for the part. He gave a stirling performance during practice.
She explained about the villagers' part. Was awed because she and Farhanah actually had a good storyline. Well-done!
Decided to heed these lady directors' advice.
Now comes the rehearsal - when? how?
Answer : Be a beggar - I begged for periods from asatizahs teaching both classes.
The asatizahs did not want to part with their periods. It's the week before CA2 and all of us are frantically doing final revision.
Looks like I wasn't the only frantic and desperate teacher around!
Yes, Adli was just truly, well, Lt. Adnan. He had this Malayness aura about him - he somehow became The LEADER and The Malay Regiment as he went through his lines, if you know what I mean. Syafiq had this classic Malay looks and was a close second choice but he graciously volunteered to be Adli's assistant. Huzaifah was the undisputed choice to be Yamashita - he looked like one and became one.
Those not involved in the acting helped in the props - shoe boxes wrapped in brown paper, glued together became sandbags. Creative! Costume people discussed what the Japanese and Malay soldiers should wear.
"Stop playing with your props!" - I sounded like a broken down record -my constant reminders to the boys - what do you expect when boys are given toy guns and machine guns to hold???? Yup. They became six year olds again...
Void deck became a parade ground. The Japanese boys tried their best to march - alhamdulillah, Mr Ismam was a God-send, he passed us at the opportune moment and became our impromptu Parade Commander.
Still feverish and ears felt like blocked.
Too weak to go back to JB. Slept at mother's. Nina brought to the doctor. I asked for Child MC, just in case.
Wednesday, 4th August 2010 (2 days to performing)
Today is the 'full-dress' rehearsal for the primary performance!
Had only one day of practice at the void-deck the day before.
Felt ashamed to ask for more periods from the teachers, so S2A and S2B did separate practice when I met them.
The void-deck 'full-dress' rehearsal was a COMPLETE DISASTER!
Pandemonium everywhere, noise, shoutings - soldiers running and rampaging and villagers screaming!
Farhana was so stressed, she refused to look at the rehearsal.
Found her playing the congkak ALONE..she looked up at me then stated simply - "I know, chaotic right????"
Bulls-eye.
But managed to remain focus and very task oriented.
Adli was a much 'abused' actor - the Japs really manhandled him. At the end of the rehearsal, his watch fell apart - the screw fell off, perhaps from the scuffle and such.
Huzaifah was just so brilliant as Yamashita. He spoke his lines in Japanese, but I thought that did not have much impact so advised him to use English instead. HE IMMEDIATELY SWITCHED TO ENGLISH WITHOUT BATTING AN EYELID, doing his own translation! He was that brilliant!
Decided that the play needed narration - Izzah and Huda became the narrators. They had ONE day to complete their script.
Could not stay back too long after school because the boys, including Adli had IMG athletics training - IMG training!! These kids sure are a talented lot...
Nina fever was way, way too high. Brought her to the JB doctor. Again, took Child MC from the doctor, just in case.
Thursday, 5th August 2010 (1 day before performing)
Another full dress rehearsal, this time at the void-deck, plus the Auditorium.
I made a script for two speaking parts - 'Daud' and 'Rahman' in a scene that would tie up the Japanese attack on Bukit Chandu with the Pasir Panjang villages.
Again, it was Fitriana who advised - she said Quddus and Darwis would be perfect for the part.
Again, she was right.
Izza were so zouked by the script I gave her as a narrator, she cried. I let her.
Huda was calmer, read the script, said it was alright with her.
I had to calmed Izza first, compromised with her, for she and Huda too had written their own script. So I let them merged mine and theirs.
Before the rehearsal, I went through with them VISUALLY, step by step, of the running of the play.
Rehearsal at void-deck was better, much better.
But the noise remained the same - I was very much strained and drained. Fever gone, but felt weak. Must go on for the show must go on too...
Rehearsal at the Auditorium:
-First time, everybody was on stage. Some boy remarked - "meriahnya - macam hari raya!". I agreed.
-Had to make the crucial decision - only the three leading ladiers and the two boys will be on stage. The villagers will have to be on the floor, below the stage. Should see the unhappy faces of the villagers, who were eager to be on stage too.
I apologised. My decision stayed.
It was a good decision. The stage was emptier, thus attention of audience more focused.
The rehearsal went very well after this.
(Darwis' father was pretty mad for he had been waiting for more than an hour to fetch his son back. Mother called and said Nina was not eating and still feverish - that made me down, for I was afraid I could not come on Friday).
At the end of the last rehearsal, it was soooo good, that I clapped for this dedicated lot who stayed quite late. We took photographs.
(I later found out that quite a number was scolded by their parents - Fyqa, Basheerah and Fatin, Muya too, Quraish as well and Darwis? Saw him looking forlornly at the mosque's gate - his father had left him...)
Me? I couldn't sleep the whole night - whenever I closed my eyes, a different scene from the play replayed...some scenes were even non-existent but still played in my mind...I know now how the late MJ must have felt, having sleepless nights before his performances)
Friday, 6th August 2010 - D-DAY.
We used the library as the girls' assembly area, and MPR 3 became the boys' changing room.
When we all met at the MPR3, the celebration had already started below.
I gave pep talks, separately for the Malay Regiment and the Japanese soldiers.
I said they are making history today. And they did.
I could hear Farid already leading the school in pledge taking and I didn't want these kids to miss that. I asked Adli whether he could lead the pledge. He said 'yes'. So there we were, all 71 kids plus teacher, taking our national pledge on National Day at that MPR. Adli said it perfectly. No mistakes.
While waiting for our turn at the void deck, I called Adli 'Adnan' and Huzaifah, 'Yamashita'. They responded well.
The rest, as they said it, was just history.
You may want to watch the video of the stage production on YouTube, at IrsyadChannel. Or just type Lt. Adnan or Battle for Bukit Chandu.
Aftermath:
Both S2 classes said that the experience has bonded both classes together, especially the girls. I didn't know that before this, there was a kind of unstated rivalry between them. Alhamdulillah, they now think as one entity. :)
I could have sworn that Adli is taller now and has somehow matured - there is a confidence in his stride and in the way his shoulders looked.
Huzaifah and me has become somewhat less of the 'repelling' poles of a magnet.
Amir looked to be more interested in English.
I saw a side of Quddus which I never noticed before.
Darwis and Syafiq, first known as the Aljunied boys, have developed their own personalities. They are very different from each other.
The quieter boys - especially the twins and Mus'ab also showed more confidence.
Me and the girls have become me and the girls - now it's much more difficult to scold them... :)
All said and done, it was a crazy adventure that ended well - Alhamdulillah!
(All I wanted then, was my pillow and some well-deserved sleep....)
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