The Creator of The Swordfish, Then The Concubine

I cannot but to really desperately blog on this. Today, Kee Thuan Chye, a famous author cum actor cum playwright paid a visit to UPM. He was invited specially by Dr. Edwin to share his experiences and give a talk on some of the things about his writings and creative works. I was so flattered to finally get to meet a person who wrote one of the plays I study for this course this semester, The Swordfish, then the Concubine.
I know Kee Thuan Chye from a few drama series he acted in. The most memorable ones would be Kopitiam and Each Other as the editor of KLue magazine. Never had I imagined before that I would some days meet this fella in person. He is such a great person, very inspiring though. He writes quite number of plays and books already and indeed, he is multi-talented as well. He is not just an actor, a journalist and a playwright, but he is also a good speaker. Listening ot his speech for almost 2 hours has given me so many insights about his self and his writings. He talked on how he started writing and his view of the world scene today.
He is obviously a good observer of what’s going on these days around us. Kee Thuan Chye writes a lot of things which relate well to the political scene and allegory in Malaysia. Being an individual who lacks knowledge of politics and all these sorts of stuffs, I refrain myself from commenting and giving my own ideas and opinions about it. Kee Thuan Chye, instead, is very determined in writing about it that some of his writing works and books are very controversial.
Nevertheless, Kee Thuan Chye is indeed one great individual. Why? He has accomplished many things that it’s just TOO may for me to list it here. He inspires me in some ways. How? I don’t know but yes indeed, I was inspired when I listened to his speech about his successful career especially. All and all, I think hard work is the most important. Hard work will pay off people. Whether you want to believe it or not, that’s the way it is. I am sure I need not explain further on that. But, that is indeed one of the keys to success. So, if one wants to be one of those successful people, HARD WORK is the answer!!!!

Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical

On the 14th of February 2009, my course mates and I had the opportunity to catch the most anticipated theater in 2009, Puteri Gunung Ledang the Musical at the Istana Budaya. Never had I ever thought that I would get the one in a lifetime chance to watch the theater. There were like 21 of us if I am not mistaken and all of us were like so fringgin’ excited not to only watch the theater, but also to step for the very first time into the Istana Budaya. I mean come on people; Istana Budaya is like one of the ten most sophisticated theater houses in the world and on par with Albert Hall in London. Can’t believe it? You have to because it is true.
When I first stepped in to the building, I was not so impressed because there is nothing special about it though. But once I got my foot into the theater hall, I going like GAGA!! I mean is it for real? The place was like super uber cool. I have never been to any theater hall before, at least a proper one. But this one has got to be a jaw dropping one. It was awesome and incredible.
Enough about Istana Budaya. More important here is the theater I had watched. As I said, it was a musical theater and it was in Malay. I was struck by amazement watching the theater from the beginning until the last tiny bit of it. It was just unbelievable that I actually was watching the theater that almost everyone in Malaysia had been talking about. It was a dream come true kind of thing also. I heart almost everything about the theater. But the one thing that amazed me the most was how they actually used the props on the stage. They had these five huge props on the stage which they utilized to the max. They could turn the things into many other things like mountain and waterfalls and many others. Wasn’t that interesting enough? No? It is such a major loss who did not get to catch the theater. Apart from that, everything else was also great. From the casts, the costumes, and the singings as well, they were all great and awesome.
Couple of weeks ago, Dr. Edwin told us that we must blog on our experience watching theater or play. So, we informed him that we had watched Puteri Gunung Ledang the previous week, but to my disappointment, that theater did not count because it was in Malay language. I was like ‘OK’. That means we have to catch another play, I mean English play.
Due to a lot of things that went on, tons of assignments, micro teachings, simulated teaching and other stuffs, we didn’t get to catch any play. But we still put an effort to find one English play. So, last week my group leader got to buy tickets for the whole class to watch this one English play which will be on 9th of April. The play is entitled ‘The diary of a Madman’ and it will be staged at KLPac. Honestly, I am more than excited to go watch the play and I just can’t wait for it. But then, I realized that it will be a bit too late to watch this play because this blog will have to be submitted on the 6th, the day of our final exam. Obviously, my friends and I will not be able to blog on the play later because the blogs are already submitted by the time we watch it. So, I would like to apologize to Dr. Edwin for our own mistakes.
Anyway anyhow, I think I am now so into this whole thing about theater. I really adore this kind of art thing. I think my penchant and liking for theater and play won’t stop here, even after this course has ended. I think there is so much to explore in theater and therefore, every time I have the chance and time, I will definitely make my way to KLPac or maybe Istana Budaya again to catch any theater or plays available. Till then, adios amigos.

My Set Induction

A couple of weeks ago, we started our simulate teaching and so far, I have only done my set induction. My course mates are the same as well. Mr. Harold was not around this week, so we could not manage to start our pre-reading and while-reading this week. It is so disappointing because I was all prepared and ready to do my pre-reading and while reading, but Mr. Harold could not turn up for the class. Perhaps, he could be up for something more important, so it was alright.
Coming back to my set induction, I would say that I am very satisfied on my performance. I, in fact, was given a complement for a very interesting set induction activity/ stimulus. I never expected that because I only used a power point presentation that contained pictures of wedding which was related to the play I chose, ‘The Ring Doesn’t Fit’ by Tan Kee Aun. Mr. Harold was impressed on how I put the pictures together and used animations to make it look interesting. He further commented that the animations used were effective to attract and grab students’ attention. Some of my friend tried to some the same method as well but they failed to impress Mr. Harold. May be, luck was not on their side. Hehehe.
As I mentioned earlier, I only use some power point presentation which was kind of lame compared to what my other friends were using. Some, or should I say most of them used video clip for their set induction. It was indeed interesting, But frankly for me, no matter how interesting your set induction, it is the duty of the teacher to make it alive. I mean, what is the point if the set induction is very eyes-capturing, breath-taking and attention-grabbing if teachers are not capable to manipulate and use them effectively and to the fullest. I believe that the teacher must have the skills to make their set induction or the whole lesson itself interesting enough for the students. The other teaching aids or whatever interactive media would be useless if the teacher himself does not know how to utilize them effectively and eventually make the lesson boring for students.
I believe that set induction is the important stage in the whole lesson. Why? It is as simple as set induction is the first stage in a lesson and therefore, it must and indeed has to be interesting. As what I had done for my simulated teaching, I am partly satisfied with my performance. There were only some slight weaknesses which need some quick attention and improvement. For example, I sometimes lose my words, in the sense that I sometimes cannot get the appropriate and right words that I am supposed to use. I sometimes go blank and blur, searching for the words. Therefore, I realize the need for me to familiarize myself with all the words or ‘jargons’ used in English class. Apart from that, it was all great. Really looking forward to pre-reading and while reading. Till then, see you guys in my next post. Adios.

Elizabeth the Golden Age

As we go along this course, Dr. Edwin has arranged for us some movie-watching sessions in which we are going to watch movies which are related or adapted from the texts we are reading in class. Some of you out there may find it very interesting to be in this class and have started thinking about taking up this course next semester right. My suggestion is, you better and you should. Hehehe.
So, for the first movie, we had the opportunity to watch a movie called Elizabeth the Golden Age. I have never had a thing for epic movie like this one. But Elizabeth the Golden Age is totally a must watch because it is wicked! I immediately fell in love with the movie as soon as the movie started. Although they were some incident which had caused Dr. Edwin to stop us from watching the movie (let’s not go further into why Dr. Edwin stopped us and which little cowards who had caused the problem), we were fortunate enough that Dr. Edwin lent us the DVD again to continue watching it.
Back to the movie, I was firstly impressed by the cinematography and the costumes used in the movie. They were so real. I was blown away by how beautiful and breath-taking the scenery and beautiful places where this movie was shot. Another thing is that I have always had a thing for British accent. Although Cate Blanchet is actually an Australian (if I am not mistaken), she carried the character as the Queen successfully and effectively with her imitated British accent.
Some of my friends do know a little bit of the history of King Henry VIII and even the history of England from different movies and series especially the Tudors which have been a hit lately. I never had the opportunity to watch the series Tudors but I definitely will. It was all because I was very impressed by the England history who once had a really really amazingly powerful ruler like Elizabeth. It was clearly seen from the movie on how powerful and influential Elizabeth was during her ruling. Being a woman herself makes it even difficult for me to believe on how she could actually handle and rule England. Her legendary has made her one of the most powerful and greatest ruler of England as I believe. Her determination and courage was greater than a man. As a man myself, I never ever think that I am capableto do what she did for England during her time. She led her army to go against the humungous Spanish armada and naval and eventually won. Wasn’t that impressive enough? No?
Apart from that, I was again kind of shocked knowing that Elizabeth was actually virgin during her entire life. Therefore, she was known as Virgin Queen of England. Wasn’t that amazing? Can you like be a virgin forever? How can you resist the temptation? That’s for everyone to figure out. Hahaha. Nevertheless, she could not deny the fact that being a human herself; she longed for affection and to have a man in her life (what else do men and women need the opposite sex for, hehehe) as what she had for Raleigh. But, she was a tough lady. She upheld to her principles and I salute her for that. But, I was wondering, why she must be a virgin. You guys may know the answer and pardon me for my zero knowledge of England history.
I have learned a lot from this movie. One thing is determination. Another one would be forgiveness. This one is interesting. As Elizabeth felt betrayed by Raleigh, whom she truly really had a feeling for and Bess, her maid, she finally forgave the both of them and released Raleigh from prison. I think what she did was right. She could not force love. And the forgiveness she gave to them was indeed a great thing. We must know how important it is to forgive people as we may also need forgiveness some days. But, as we may have forgiven people for their mistakes, is it really easy cheesy to forget what they did? That is something for you to figure out.

Oedipus FOOLISH Rex

Reading Oedipus Rex (Oedipus the King) was not an easy task to do. Seriously it was not. I struggled so hard to read the text. Maybe the fact that the text is a translated work from Latin makes it hard to understand it. In fact, the vocabularies used are sometimes out of my dictionary. Thanks to Dr. Edwin for helping us out in making it clear about almost everything about the text.
I was kind of struck by some surprise or I should call it drama-shock as Oedipus Rex was the first text that Dr. Edwin chose to discuss in class. You know that it was a work of Sophocles who was this great Greek playwright. It is definitely going to be difficult for these young beginners like me to read such a heavy plays like his. But never mind, there is always first for everything right?
When I first read the play, I didn’t actually focus on the stage directions. All I care about was what the story was about. But hell to the no. Play is more than just what the story has to tell us. Stage direction is one of the most important things in play because it tells it tells us about lots of things that you may not find in the dialogue and the story.
It is still clear to me what happened on the first of the class when the discussion of this play took place. Dr Edwin asked some of my classmates to imitate how Oedipus was supposed to walk as the king. Was it with some proud, arrogance and dignity or what? I know it wouldn’t be that easy. I knew Dr. Edwin was slick and tricky as how he has always been. So, my friends came out with different styles of walking and some of them were just hilarious. There was only one of them who successfully realized it in which it was with a little limp. Never had I thought about it although I actually knew that Oedipus actually had clubfoot. The funny part was that, Dr. Edwin asked me to imitate it as well just because I accidentally said yes to that. Funny, no?
The best thing I have learned from this play would be the idea of Wise and Foolish. Wise is when you use your knowledge for the good of others and your self. While foolish is when one acts and gives problems to himself. It is clear how this idea of wise and foolish worked in the play and shall I not elaborate on that. But what I want to focus on here is how some one who is looked up to as a respectable wise person with pride and arrogance can also be foolish in the end. I have seen some of people who are foolish because of their actions and the way they think. I myself was also foolish at one point of my life. I am not saying that I am wise or anything like that ok. But you can see how ironic life is. Dramatic irony as how it is known in play. Life is full of irony, isn’t it?
Somehow or rather, Oedipus Rex is a so much better text than King Lear by William Shakespeare. I have just started reading it but I immediately get lost as one would get lost in a thick preserved unknown jungle in Africa. It is a more complicated text with MORE difficult words and vocabularies that would confuse you. The words are sometimes just the normal typical words we use daily, but the underlying meanings only God knows what they are. I am so looking forward to Dr. Edwin’s explanation on King Lear because seriously, I AM LOST!